3 Moonlit Night

One seldom recognizes that there is a difference between terror and horror, two words so often synonyms yet facing a key difference.

Terror is the fear of possibility of something dreadful, an apprehension for what could possibly be a looming disaster, a threat not yet imminent but certainly close to it, just out of reach. This is what Luna felt the first time she had seen those eyes of malice, they had first simmered and hummed with that infernal red, almost melded with the shadow, she hadn't seen an imminent threat, she had seen something that might become a threat.

Now she felt horror, the fear of what was imminent, the shock and dread that came from not just staring at the signs of danger, but feeling it in your heart, understanding what was in front of you could be your very end, could tear you apart. That is what the Princess of the Night felt as she stared into eyes that no longer simmered, they burned. Staring into these orbs was nearly entirely different, before it felt like the air was thick and heavy, her breath caught in her throat; now it was entirely absent. It felt like those eyes were a flame and the very life in her was the oxygen, she couldn't think straight, she wasn't entirely sure she was conscious sitting there for what seemed like an eternity.

That voice didn't just sting to hear, a sting was something you could shake off, painful but ignorable, temporary, this was like a blade was being put clean through her head, she could feel it's direction towards her penetrate her essence without repose. She had to get up, her mind screamed at her to get up, to create distance, the flight or fight instincts in her welling up even as she was paralyzed for what seemed like a millennia, but had only been a few seconds.

Finally she snapped out of it, she felt her body once again respond to her own commands and the years of a warrior's instinct told her she was too vulnerable to do much of anything, she pushed off the ground with her rear hooves, wings sprawling to carry her momentum as she tilted them and pulled her body weight up and forward, swinging the momentum downward with an elegant curve as she created perceived safe distance, landing on all fours horn alight with the cerulean blue intensity so many feared.

Only when she looked for a perceived target, looked for her tormentor, she found nothing but the inky blackness that encompassed her, until she heard that voice again, before it came from all directions, now it came from behind her, right behind her.

"Leaving so soon, little one?"

She spun again, letting loose the condensed energy in a heartbeat towards the source of the sound, she knew it was there!

Only her blast hit nothing, her energy soared into the abyss and the darkness was all that met her gaze, how could she perceive wrong!? She was an Alicorn for Faust's sake, she knew what she heard and where she heard it, Luna's frustration was only matched by the jolts of fear that came with the fact she couldn't even see what was tormenting her, but she knew from those eyes alone it was the same thing she had seen before.

"Are you truly royalty? I was under the impression you royal types had some-"

Red filled her vision briefly as she jumped back, nearly letting out a yelp as the eyes of this... demon filled her vision.

"-manners"

Luna choked on her own fear for just a second before she readied a blast again, she felt the energy beginning to channel again, the power she knew she had being drawn up from her seemingly infinite well of power, here in the dream world was where she was strongest.

She was at her strongest here, but certainly not THE strongest here.

Just as the sensation built up and her own gleaming blue filled the edges of her vision she felt it snuffed out in almost an instant, all the energy she had prepared died like a fire doused with a veritable ocean of water, or perhaps suffocated by the worlds biggest blanket would better describe the feeling. Luna cast her shock aside and tried again, only this time she couldn't even build it up, the energy that came so natural to her, that was so fluently easy to command for her many years, was forced back by a sensation she couldn't understand, a force incomprehensible.

Then she heard it again, and now she shuddered when she heard it.

"Come now Princess, is that any way to treat your host?"

As much as the fear overwhelmed her, frustration was still there, perhaps out of both the mistress of dreams grit her teeth as she backed away from the eyes of that demonic complexion, both of which had rapidly shifted to be even larger than her whole body. They no longer hummed or terrified as before, they outright rang with energy and overwhelmed her senses, if she stared too long she feared a migraine would be her reward. Never the less she had to reply some how even as she backed up more and more trying to create space.

"W-What dost thou want de-"

"You can drop this silly dialect, I am not one of your meager subjects, Luna"

Luna could feel the shock welling up inside her, spreading through her brain, since when did this creature know her name? Luna wasn't deterred by this however, she was never one to back down, especially to disrespect.

"How dareth thou-"

However, her 'host' had other plans, and no sooner had Luna tried to rebuke the Dark One than she was nearly floored by what seemed like a planetary sized load of bricks weighing down on her as gravity intensified and she nearly slipped and crashed into whatever could be called the floor, it was indistinguishable from the air after all. Luna struggling and tried desperately to regain her stance to little avail, while the princess had dabbled in dream magic she had no idea of how to truly use it, clearly it was more natural for one of them than the other.

"What did I say, little princess? Has your sister not taught you to be polite when in the company of another?"

Now the voice was no longer penetrating, it didn't sheer her soul or wrack her brain with a headache induced by fear, now it was like those words were a laugh in and of themselves. There was a tonal difference, but not quite one she understood as being Equish, or even vocal, Luna realized as she struggled against this binding gravity that the feelings she was getting weren't the voice itself, rather a side effect, mind magic. Luna was beyond frustrated, she was angry, however she had to give up on plans of fight for now, clearly an alternative was needed.

Luna gathered her knowledge of dream magic, her kind melding with the space around her, projecting and weaving, influencing as much as she could, eyes closed in focus as her body steadied until they shot open, the thread she wrought tightening like a knot in the fabric of dreams as the royal Canterlot voice that she was so fond of boomed throughout the emptiness.

"ENOUGH!"

With that a burst of energy sprang from her like a furious storm, blowing away the gravity that weighed her down as the Lunar princess gasped for air, she hadn't known it would take so much out of her simply to undo the power of the Dark one, she clenched her teeth and with an indignant frown she gazed upon those orbs once more. Luna was stubborn, she was often headstrong and reckless and she was never one to back down from a challenge, but one thing she was not, despite what she was sure some might think, was an idiot. She closed her eyes, brought a hoof to her head and sighed, breathing in deeply and letting them open up, head clear, her gaze transfixed back onto the being in front of her.

"Alright, Demon, we shall play it your way, what do you want with me?"

This time she knew it wasn't just a feeling, she knew she heard a laugh, a low chuckle building to a crescendo of amusement , something that echoed with no space to reflect it, the eyes seemed to burn with amusement until it crisply dried up and the sound that was once tormenting suddenly became smooth, the voice bearable, comprehensible, she supposed it could be compared to hearing the Royal Canterlot Voice compared to her normal speech.

"Good, little one, very good. Now let us talk, shall we, mistress of dreams?"

Nightmare had expected, he had anticipated every move, initially he thought maybe she was concealing her dream magic in every fight with his Reapers, playing mind games. He was still new to all of this, Luna had been at the game of war and politics since she was but a youthful filly, yet he, an ancient and primordial being, had so little time to learn. Yet he seemed to have bested her, her attacks were feeble, had he really let her get the best of him before?

It didn't matter now, what mattered is that any kind of adversity that came from the Princess was long since gone, he held all the power over her, his dream magic drastically overpowered hers, at least he assumed that's what his powers were according to scrolls his puppets had collected.

He was honestly disappointed, life had been so boring and now that he knew of the outside world he hungered for something more than he had in a long time, he craved to know this universe. His other siblings were destroyers, poisoners, the darkest ones who wanted to sow death over the fields and salt the earth. This is what set him apart, as he stared down at the princess he had just made his toy, Nightmare felt glee, he chuckled, and then that became a laugh as his dominance prevailed.

Where the others craved destruction, he yearned for manipulation.

"Good, little one, very good. Now, let us talk, shall we, so called 'mistress of dreams'?"

The little one seemed to have shaken the emotions off, not to mention she finally caught on to the unintentional side effects caused by his voice. While he could disable the mind altering effects his presence and his tone had on another, he saw little to no reason to, it only granted him an edge. He supposed that was the downside to being an ancient one of nothing like he; nothing being perceived by something wasn't exactly the most pleasant affair, so conversation was difficult for anything less than a demigod without having your mind obliterated, not like he cared anyway, the thoughts of the lower life forms were inconsequential.

Then the little princess spoke again, she was on edge, but clearly composed. But Nightmare could tell she was afraid, he could feel it, smell it in her aura, the energy she gave off subtle and faint, but it was there.

"I don't suppose I could glean your name, Dark One? As you already seem to know I am Luna, Diarch of Equestria, Princess of the Moon, Sealer of Discord and Sovereign of the Night."

Nightmare was impressed, to recover so quickly from a stressful situation and rebound with such strength and elegance? Perhaps he had underestimated the little princess, but that didn't stop him from looking down on her both figuratively and very, VERY literally.

"Very well, Princess Luna, I shall grant your request. I am called Nightmare, Primordial of the Void, Reject of the First Flame and Overlord of the Dream Realm."

Luna didn't seemed fazed, but she paused, and she thought, eyes darting back and forth across the red eyes that were the only thing she could see of his form.

"Quite an interesting name, Nightmare? Pray tell, who said you were the Overlord of the Dream Realm?"

Nightmare had a deep chuckle once more, he could feel the twitch of anger behind that, he understood all too well what she was implying, what a foolish child.

"What, to say you are the mistress of this plane? I was here long before you, young one, I was here long before the one who you inherited that power from, and I guarantee you I will be here far longer than you will be."

The void around them, formerly pure black, slowly filled with stars, distant or close, it didn't matter, the emptiness of the universe was being filled with the light of energy. In a way, the two being standing across from one another served as a microcosm for the conflict that persisted in the fabric of the very concept of existence since the beginning. Luna was not one to take something for no response, however.

"if you are truly of that age, you would know that age does not foment superiority, Nightmare. If you are indeed ruler of this realm, then I must call you a tyrant, draining and tormenting your subjects for your own pleasure? Is this how you believe a ruler should act?"

Luna stomped her hoof, dream magic imbued sent a small platform of pour light outwards in a perfect circle, the light trying to jettison outwards but being beaten back by the dark. Nightmare was angry now, it welled up inside him like fuel to a coming flame, the impudence of this one!

"You are naïve, Princess Luna. I do not drain the energies of your subjects for my own pleasure, but to satiate myself, it is the only way of gathering energy from this realm ever since YOU broke the natural order of it and reshaped it to your bidding."

"You... then you devour the energy of their dreams? Is such a thing even possible?"

Luna seemed to be stunned briefly, did she really have so little knowledge of the very magic she claimed to lord over? She really was nothing but a filly.

"What changed between now and then, why must you harm our subjects to survive if you didn't have to before? We did nothing wrong by allowing our subjects to dream for themselves."

"Do you know so little of the realm you claim as your own? To create the phenomena known as individual dreams you had to destroy the collective subconscious, a massive expanse of energy made up of all the energy created by the unconscious, my main food source. Before eating a little from everyone, something so abstract, wouldn't harm any, but you and your precious harmony came along and ruined the food chain."

Luna seemed confused, but she also definitely did not trust the Dark One whatsoever.

"So what, I am supposed to believe this without any shred of evidence, demon? I could feel it when I first came here, my subjects were confused and in pain, your fault or not. Even if I believe your words, what I have done has brought them happiness. What kind of order is it that makes others suffer so you can thrive?"

This time, a loud growl... hiss? Growl-Hiss? Echoed from all sides of the darkness as the stars that were burning bright are all snuffed out in an instant by the dark fury brought forth in another burst of rage. Luna herself feels the energy all around her like the very tips of needles on every pore of her skin.

"Who are you to say what is wrong and what is right, Alicorn? All you have done is shape something against what was natural to this realm because your precious morals would not allow it."

"All you have done is take advantage of the helpless for your own benefit, have you ever thought to try something else to satiate yourself?"

Nightmare had tried led her on to little success, omitted some details, he could choose another food source, but what fun would that be? Despite that what he was doing technically was better for the universe, as this energy was infinitely produced.

"What you treat with disgust I know is nature, the predator does not ask for the consent of his prey, otherwise he shall starve. Your perfect harmony and foreign morals have no place in this world of dreams, Princess Luna. They are flawed and worthless to me!"

A vile wind swept against the Princess, lashing at her with the gusts seeming likes razor blades against her skin despite no cuts ever forming. Luna, for her part, stood her ground adamantly, the fear of before receding more and more as the light beneath her hooves grew and grew in diameter as she pushed back.

"You will not continue tormenting our subjects, Nightmare! There has to be a solution to your hunger, there isn't always just one way!"

"Says the one chastising me for not following their rules, is this really all you have for me, princess? Words of disgust backed with disbelief and some mantra that would see me starving and DEAD?"

The winds grew stronger, a deep and menacing howling ringing out as Nightmare's laughter filled the void once more.

"I did not call you here to have an idle chat, princess, I called you here to tell you to either dispel your hold over this world and let it return to it's natural state, or if you do not to stay out of my way."

Luna pushed with her dream magic, her Alicorn strength and her normal magic as hard as she could, carving a path through the winds slashing against her barrier of light slowly but surely, step by step towards the eyes.

"And leave our subjects at your mercy? You ask me to trust your words yet you do not trust me? You have shown me nothing but why not to trust you!"

Now the wind stopped and Luna could see the full figure in the glow of her light for the first time, metal, black, hard skin or fur, she couldn't tell which, shrunken to about the height of discord, those razor teeth and jagged claws, a stomach of much the same fangs, everything she could take in at once before the Darkness recloaked the figure, again the eyes the only thing visible. Luna gasped for air as she continued to hold her position, panting and shaking, had she really used up that much of her strength?

"Are you in a position to bargain? I have you brought to hoof with a simple gust of wind, I could obliterate you with the slightest effort, you say you cannot trust me? I have let you live, I could have destroyed you and taken this realm for my own at any time, yet I spare you. But you, who upended the natural order of MY home, have the delusion to speak of me being untrustworthy?"

Flanking the eyes of red came pinpricks of white on either side, two sets of eyes hummed electrically alongside the now distant sound of a chuckle, Luna jumped back, her barrier of light strengthening as she recognized the eyes to either side, she had seen them many times before.

"If you will not remove yourself willingly, there is always the option to force you to relinquish your claim, princess Luna. Do you wish to make an enemy of the void itself?"

Luna, knew what was being matched against her, she understood she couldn't fight this and win, she knew she had to get stronger, much stronger, she needed to escape. She had to find a way out.

"Surely we do not have to fight, Nightmare, we could reach an agreeme-"

"No agreements, princess. As I told you before, there is no conditions to my offer, you surrender unconditionally, or you shall be destroyed, here and now. Make your choice."

Luna weighed her options here, surrender was out of the question, their conversation had been all over the place, far from conclusive, she had no trust for this entity, she knew what she felt when she had first arrived to this realm, she knew it wasn't happy for anyone involved in this collective dream, the only one who would benefit was Nightmare.

Luna could fight, and she would lose, the creatures flanking either side of this Nightmare could give her enough trouble one on one on her best nights, even then taking all night to defeat, and she was already drained, she wouldn't last 20 minutes with all her effort against two in her current state, not to mention that wasn't even accounting the Dark One himself. To fight was to die, or at least to lose, which she couldn't allow.

Finally and the one she had almost already selected was to retreat, dishonorable it may have been, but it was the best option for her and her ponies, no, for all species that dreamed, to escape and devise a plan of action with the assistance of her sister. She would need to create an opening to conjure the spell to breach the worlds, if she could hold them off for just long enough she would be able to create a portal and escape to reality, where she was sure they could not follow, she had known they couldn't interact with the portals from past fights.

As the Lunar princess weighed her options nightmare awaited her response, she knew she would have to give one soon, she couldn't stall and think forever, but her heart was pounding and her mind racing at every possible way to instigate, to escape, to do anything and everything she could to make it out alive. She didn't intend on dying anytime soon, capture wouldn't be a good situation either. She didn't even want to know what uses the Dark one could find for a dreamwalker, perhaps he has encountered one before? It could explain the deaths of Dreamwalkers she had read about in the past, that was for later thoughts however.

"I-I will surrender, just please don't hurt me."

Luna could see Nightmare's eyes narrow, and she knew immediately he hadn't been fooled by her attempted falsified answer. Fuck. Not one spec of emotion remained in those fiery orbs but pure, unadulterated malice that seared into her soul with a gaze of striking hate. In what almost sounded like a sigh, she could here a brief pause, like the words were caught in the demon's throat as he seemed... regretful?

"So you have made your choice? Unfortunate, you have given me the grace of conversing with another, and for that I thank you. Now, however, it is time to say goodbye. Farwell, Princess Luna, your attempt was admirable, even if ultimately feeble."

Luna had already started the spellwork when he began speaking, but that timeframe was little of a condolence for her as she was forced to jump back, still channeling the combination of dream and alicorn magic needed to create a breach to transport her energy, her consciousness, back to her body. As his brief string of word's ended, Nightmare's minions lurched forward, the familial horrors that had made her nights so painful.

The Nightmare Reapers.

Luna continued to caste even as the tall and slender creatures lunged at her, scythes poised to slice her in two as she closed her eyes for a second, opening them equipped with her full set of midnight blue, cobalt armor embroidered with symbols of stars, constellations and the moon itself. Luna's helmet armor could be described much like the royal guards of Equestria, except it lacked the flamboyant mane and was much thinner with spikes on either side from the ears back, the enchanted cobalt being many times stronger than the gold used for the guardsmen. Her back piece was interlocked with a rib and stomach fitting piece that formed a full wrap cover around her midsection with another section that curved around her front, much like the helmet more thin and form fitting than a simple guardsmen. Along her legs and neck were platemale of cobalt, it was however kept to a minimum as Luna valued flexibility and movement over bulkiness and defense. Her hooves covered in a somewhat thick shoe of cobalt much like her Sister's casual gold wear, only these were fined down to sharp points and edges to slice and with force to crush. Then her wings came, covered in cobalt as well, wingblades, flexible and sharp, fined down to the thinnest edge and used for both midair combat and sideswiping ground strikes. Finally, instead of the usual star in the front of the armor Luna's was crested with a moon made entirely of Crystal, a gem cut finely and imbued with as many enchantments as Luna could research and stuff with to enhance all of her capabilities and focus her magic. This fully suited princess Luna, even in the state she was in now with her exhaustion, could trounce most creatures in the current world one on one.

But Nightmare was not most creatures, and neither were those reapers.

Luna was immediately on the defensive as she summoned up double shortswords using her dream magic, the cobalt swords hummed with magic as she brought them to either side of her body just in time to stop the first two scythe swings, which hit sequentially and pushed her back, she counted in her head as she continued her spell work.

8.

She leapt over one scythe, driving the momentum of her flip into her blades, smashing against the other scythe driven clean at her in her somersault, preventing her from being cut in half but sending her flying.

7.

Luna continued leaping back, narrowly avoiding another slash that barely grazed across her front facing platemale, she twisted herself to hear the ear grating sounds of metal on metal just narrowly as the second scythe clipped her left side's armor, sending sparks and small shavings of cobalt and whatever metal those scythes were made of go flying.

6.

Luna swung hard, landing her hooves on the handle of one scythe, narrowly avoiding a claw strike from it's owner, and she pivoted around the handle, swinging her rear hooves into the other reaper, which blocked the attack with the scythe blade as she got a backhand from the one she grabbed, sending her flying again and disarming her as she used her wings to narrowly avoid another incoming slice from the one she struck.

5.

Luna could feel the adrenaline burning hard in her veins, energy crackling from her horn as she continued to prepare her spell, not a moment of respite for her however as another scythe blade tried to sweep her legs, she put one hoof on the flat of the blade and leapt off it gracefully swing overhead of the reaper and avoiding two consecutive swipes from it, one with claw and another with blade as she tilted erratically mid air.

4.

Luna narrowly dodged a downward swing of the scythe blade by the second reaper by rolling out of the way and pushing off the ground, trying again and colliding her back hooves with the top of the scythe handle, the reaper precisely blocking her blow as she slashed with her wing blades trying to create more space, all blocked.

3.

Luna dodged an upward strike, the scythe cleaving through the air as she noticed a red light begin to build silently out of her peripheral vision, her focus returning just in time to dodge the first reaper's long side swinging slash, ducking under, narrowly and pushing off again, only this time she was met with the claws of the first reaper in a punch to the muzzle, predicting her movement and sending her back to the ground, yet she continued to cast, despite the pain she knew she would die if she messed up now.

2.

The light in the edge of Luna's vision grew, she didn't care, she rolled again, blocking the first reaper's incoming downward strike by catching it between her wingblades and diverting it to the ground next to her head, leaping up just in time for the second reaper to swing high at her, and so she dove downwards, trying to get under and around the second reaper, but was met with the base of the scythe staff as she swooped in to the side.

1.

She tumbled again, putting everything into maintaining her focus, the pain didn't matter, the spell mattered, the reapers mattered. She dodged the first reaper sending a careening flame projected from the firs reaper's blade that singed her feathers as it passed by her left wing, she leapt and tried to fly again only to be met with a slashing blast of ice magic to her underside as she leapt, courtesy of the first reaper, that sent her crashing down, yet even as she struggled to get up, the reapers closing in fast, the light in the edge of her vision that burned maliciously growing brighter and the blood pooling in her mouth, her lungs hit by the sheer concussive force of the blast as she had no magical shielding, she smiled.

0.

She smiled because she knew she had won, as the portal open up below her, she felt herself begin to black out, catching what the light had been, a devastating blood red blast of magical lightning that scream overhead as she sunk into the portal, annihilating the air where she had just been.

She smiled as she felt her body, bruised but not broken, in her own bed.

She did it, she survived.

Nightmare watched as his blast that could have annihilated Luna even if she were at full strength drift off into the void, dissipating in the cold darkness. His reapers no longer having a target, freezing up and staring at where the Lunar Princess had last been. She escaped, Nightmare knew the second she left the dream realm.

One might assume he would be appalled, enraged, absolutely berserk at the fact his prey had escaped. But Nightmare, Nightmare laughed, he laughed because while yes, he was annoyed that she had escaped in his overconfidence, he knew she wouldn't be coming back anytime soon. She stood no chance against him in her current state, she wasn't even a threat together with her sister.

As his mental commands were sent to his minions once more, his reapers rapidly flew to his side as loyal sentries, completely unphased by their battle with the princess. Nightmare shifted his gaze, with a wave of his hand the visuals around them changed from the emptiness that he was born from so long ago to the swarm of bubbles laid our across the dream realm, dreams unprotected, his for the taking.

As his mental commands reverberated and hoards of his children flew out to harvest like never before, he could only think of new Nightmares he could create, something with more strings attached.

He laughed again, some words came from the deepest recesses of his memory as his spawn tore away at the innocent without opposition.

"Nightmares will come pouring out of Hell when the Devil gets desperate."

Author's Note

Ahhhhhhh Sorry Guys, I am Back!
This is probably the chapter I am most insecure about so far, I wrote this early in the morning and I think the dialogue is probably pretty stale, but I tried my best.
If anyone wonders "Why the long hiatus?"
Well that was because of lots of personal issues that involved therapy taking up a good amount of my time, you should be able to expect regular updates from now on though!
Have a wonderful day, whoever you are!