The Mare Behind Our Nightmares

The Mare Behind Our Nightmares

Chapter 1

Daring Doo and the Golden Demon

“Thanks, Twi!” I told one of my best friends while opening her library’s… house’s… ah, whatever. I just opened her giant tree’s door. I had a bag that carried some of Daring Doo’s stories… I really can’t bring myself to read anything else!

“I’m still happy that you could finally find some entertainment in reading!” she said, levitating some weird science… or math… book in front of my face “but I really think you should expand your selection... just a little bit...”

“Um… no thanks…” I would have accepted if I didn’t have a problem with headaches “well, I really gotta go!” That wasn’t actually true. I just wanted to avoid being trapped, again, in one of Twilight’s 'Book Forts of Knowledge'…

“Fine…” she sighted with a slightly disappointed expression. I was starting to feel a little bad for her… stupid guilt… “goodbye! I hope you enjoy your reading!”

“See ya!” and with that, I grabbed the bag with books with my mouth and flew off.

I spent a few seconds looking for a nice, comfortable cloud where I could read my book without anyone disturbing me… I didn’t waste any time as soon as I found one; I was lying on my back observing the cover of the book I randomly choose from the pile. Daring Doo was in top of a strange pyramid that was surrounded by a bunch of trees. The title read “Daring Doo: Mystery of the Maya Civilization”

…Maya?... that must not be in Equestria… I’ll just ask Twilight later…

Before I opened the book, I heard the sound of a bell ringing. I sat up and looked around. I noticed a bunch of kids coming out of the school… for a moment, I thought it would be best to look for another cloud in a calm place… but the kids were about to go home, so waiting for a little wouldn’t hurt too much. I accommodated myself in the cloud again and opened the book. Before I could get lost in the sea of words, another distraction came.

“Hey, Rainbow Dash!” I looked below the cloud to spot Scootaloo. I descended to chat with the little filly.

“Hey Scoots! How are you doing? Why aren’t Sweetie and Applebloom with ya?”

“Ah, they told me they were gonna be busy the whole afternoon helping their sisters… so, what were you doing?”

“Oh, I was just in my way to read a Daring Doo book” I could literally see a huge question mark on Scootaloo’s face. Seriously, what’s wrong about me reading?

“…Am I talking to Rainbow Dash?”

“Hey! What’s the matter with it?! You should try!”

“…No thanks… I’d accept if I didn’t have a problem with headaches…”

“You ARE starting to sound too much like me…” I sighted “well anyways, we’ll discuss about this later…”

“…Ok? Bye Rainbow Dash!”

“Later!” I flew up back to my cloud again. I opened the book and finally started reading.

I had already read 20 to 30 pages when I began to feel drowsy… no, the book was pretty cool, but for some reason… I felt very sleepy… I tried to stay awake, but the softness of the cloud and the fresh winds were right against me…

Darn it…

I was inside of a room made of very clear crystals. I looked at my reflection on one of them… and saw Daring Doo. At first I thought it was one of the most awesome things that could have happened to me, but then, I remembered the many sticky situations she would get into just for treasure and fun… though… I couldn’t understand how it can be fun to be near death every five minutes…

I knew that to be surrounded by crystals, being Daring Doo, didn’t mean anything good. I prepared myself for any creepy creature that could jump out of nowhere… I’m not talking about Pinkie Pie…

I looked around the place very cautiously… I found a long hallway that seemed to be endless… A very loud crash makes me jump in fear. I look behind me to find a giant monster with a golden armor on. It had red, shinning eyes and incredibly big claws. Well, this is what you get for being Daring Doo… I tried to fly away, but my wing was still injured.

WHAT?! DIDN’T THIS THING HEAL WEEKS AGO?!

I had no options but to run away. I ran through that endless hallway, without caring where my hooves would take me. I could hear the stomps of that beast as it tried to get me. I was sweating, my heart was racing, my lungs were about to explode and my hooves were burning! My mind told my body to give up; the pain was killing me, but my heart told it to continue and save my flank.

I noticed that the crystal floor gradually turned into grass. I lifted my gaze to see the Carrousel Boutique in front of me! I also noticed that the loud stomps had disappeared! I stopped for a while to catch my breath and rest my legs, but I couldn’t take long; I was sure that beast hadn’t given up on me.

I quickly ran into the Boutique’s door, still not fully recovered, and knocked on the door as hard as I could. Without response, I tried to open it, but it was locked.

Horseapples!

“RARITY!” I yelled so loud I thought my vocal chords would explode “RARITY!!” I yelled again, even louder than before. My heart was racing; I could hear the stomps approaching, but they were still faint. I cursed Rarity’s fashion obsession with every bit of my being; she preferred her bucking dresses than to help a friend that was about to be murdered or eaten by a gigantic monster! I gave up on it and simply kicked the door down, entering the Boutique and putting it back in place, thinking that it would hold the monster at least for some minutes...or seconds.

I ran around the Boutique, looking for a place to hide. I ran upstairs and opened a door that lead to a room full of cloth, mannequins and other materials in which I saw… Rarity…

“RARITY! DARN IT!” I yelled with rage “I was calling, no, I was SCREAMING your name and you just couldn’t go bucking downstairs and open the DOOR?!”

“Oh, Daring Doo! I’m sorry I didn’t attend you right away… I was really focused..."

“THAT doesn’t matter right now, for Celestia’s SAKE! NUMBER ONE: it’s ME! RAINBOW DASH! NUMBER TWO: there’s a bucking giant monster with red eyes and claws chasing me around because I randomly appeared inside of his crystal fortress! NUMBER THREE: tell me a place where I can hide, NOW!”

“Hm…” she scratched her chin “try the closet!”

“…Are you SERIOUS?!” I facehoofed, she seemed to only read a bunch of romance novels with ponies kissing, cheating on each other and doing… ‘stuff’. The closet had become nearly the first place somepony would look inside for a pony. But in that moment, that was better than nothing “argh… fine…” I dashed into the closet, and it didn’t take me long to realize that “Rarity, this is NOT gonna work…”

“Then try the bathroom”

“WHAT?!” It was just like she had decided to go stupid right on this day. But time was growing short. I just ran into the bathroom, went inside the bath tub and closed the curtains… but… what about Rarity? I wasn’t gonna leave her there so that monster could eat her! I opened back the curtains and called her.

“RARITY!” for my luck, this time she heard me. She came inside the bathroom.

“Yes, Rainbow Dash?”

“I think you should come with me… you know, that monster could catch you too!”

“But I have a BIG order to finish!”

“HONESTLY! I think your life is more important than a bunch of dresses!”

“But..."

“YOU COME OR YOU COME!” I just pulled her inside the bath tub, we definitely didn’t have time for arguing.

“But, what about Sweetie Belle?”

“Rarity? Where are you?” I heard Sweetie’s voice outside of the bathroom… it was a little creepy… since it almost seemed that Rarity had invoked her…

“Sweetie! I’m in the bathroom! Come here!”

“OH NO! we are NOT gonna have that speech of what stallions and mares do when they are…” she was in front of the entrance staring at us with a blank expression “…what were you doing?” I remembered... two mares in a bath tub WAS an awkward scene...

Note to self: kids also have dirty minds.

“What the…” my cheeks turned red, but Rarity seemed to be just fine… she got out of the bath tub and carried Sweetie inside of it.

Once we were sure everyone was there, I closed back the curtains and curled into a ball… just like I did in the Best Young Flier competition, before I did my performance… because I was scared… just like I was in that moment… I waited and waited for the beast… but he never arrived…

I decided we should use this chance to escape from the Boutique, and go to Twilight’s house; she could help us with her magic. I started to look for a way out through a small space I made that was pointing at the opposite side of the door. I found a window, but it had glass covering it.

“Rarity, Sweetie Belle, try to remove the window’s glass so we can try to get the buck out of here!” I whispered. They nodded and went into action. Surprisingly their work seemed to be ending in success!

…But I heard another crash… the monster arrived to the Boutique. Fortunately, the girls had already finished. I jumped outside, Sweetie Belle coming after me. Rarity seemed to have difficulties, but she came through eventually.

I ran as fast as I could again. I ended up back at the Boutique’s entrance, which was now completely destroyed… I wanted to get as far as I could from it. I looked in front of me and saw Spitfire… what the hay was she doing here?

“SPITFIRE!” I called for her so she could also run away “COME WITH ME!” she turned to look at me with a blank expression “Spitfire?” she started to approach me… I knew she didn’t have any good intentions…

So I ran… but I didn’t seem to go anywhere… it was like running over a sand pit… I looked behind me… she was getting closer without any effort…

Maybe I should give up…

I stopped running for a brief moment.

No… I can make it!

I tried to run away again… but a strong kick in the back of my head…

…managed to wake me up…

“AH!” I sat up, breathing heavily… the book that was on my chest before, fell closed into my hind legs. I saw the cover again, staring deeply into Daring’s eyes…

…Now I know why you aren’t real…

Chapter 1

Closed