Void is all I saw, this place I found myself in felt ethereal, almost....dream-like? The walls of the hospital bathroom are gone replaced with only an empty expanding dark. looking around there was....well...still nothing.

Turning my thoughts inwards I felt the weight of everything crash down around me. The image in the mirror was burned into my mind, and everything just felt so real. “I was awake….it….it was real. Ok so where am I?”

I saw something strange yet familiar? It was a wax candle; the wick had a bright green flame, and then it all started coming back to me. The night I went to bed, the flashes of light as a voice taunted me, and waking up in a new body. I had one thing going through my mind; “WHY WAS THIS HAPPENING TO ME? of all people to get, for lack of a better word, fucking isekai'd to another world. And of all places Equestria? WHY?”

I was nearly shouting to nothing and no one but was interrupted when that strange-familiarity made its presence known.

”Why why why, wha wha wha, gonna keep crying and whining or do you want to do something about it? Are you so pathetic you can’t put it together when you’ve been chosen? Man I’m already starting to regret this.”

"You’re that thing I keep hearing, W-What do you want! W-why am I here! I want to go home!" I was shouting, I was so angry, yet I was scared to no end.

“You did this to me!?”

”Pf-HA! yes….welllll I'm surrrre you want to go home immediately but that's no longer…. on the table-“

"Wait what? WHAT?!?! WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN!?!” I was livid, the hell does it even mean ‘no longer on the table!?!’

”DO. NOT. INTERRUPT ME.”

The realm I was in quickly grew dark and filled me with an overwhelming sense of dread.
The other voice turned downright evil when angered. I was at this voices mercy, it could do anything to me.

"what do you want from me? What even are you?"

”The golden question! Right now I only need to teach you some things and after that you'll be on your own for a little while.”

The room got brighter as and the other dropped all the anger as suddenly as I seemed to have triggered it.

"Wait wait wait wait wait. Wait! What is the point of doing this? you took me from my home! My family and Friends! How do I know if your not just lying and I'll never get to see them again!"

”Well do you want to see them?”

……..

This was the last thing I expected to hear but it felt like a cold knife finding perfect purchase in my heart.

"What? What kind of question is tha-" this time it interrupts me.

”Its actually a very fair one, at least for you in particular. Fuckin idunno jus take sum time to think about it ye’self….*ahem* Now lets get to brass tacks; take your left hand and extend your index finger, then flick it up with your wrist.”

I'm silent. Mostly because what he said essentially stunlocked me in place. Is this a game to him? Two questions were burning at the edges of mind. If I didn’t ask them now things wouldn’t get any clearer. I need something. ANYTHING to help make it make sense.

“Why was it SPECIFICALLY me you did this too? Was this some stupid fucking cosmic lottery?! Did you pull a damn name out of a hat?!?!”

”Hmmmmm. Ok I’ll tell you why I need you; In return I want you to do what I said with your hand. Does that sound like a deal?”

A deal with a, more than likely literal, devil. He would tell me what I want, at least if he wasn’t totally lying and all I had to do was flick my wrist and finger.

‘If I do this….maybe.’

Fuck it why not. “Deal.” I extend my finger, then I flick it upward. As soon as I did something filled my Vision; it was a gray embroidered box that was eerily similar to a character sheet in a table top rpg.

Level 2
{Name: None}
{Race: Batari}
{Title: None}
{Class: Warlock}
{Subclass: Corrupted}

Ability
Strength 7 [-2]
Dexterity 18 [+4]
Constitution 10 [0]
Intelligence 12 [+1]
Wisdom 8 [-2]
Charisma 15 [+2]

Features
{Aberrant Invocations: Uncanny Sight, Eldritch Spear, Mind of the Rune Keeper}
{Among the Dead}
{Awakened Mind}
.......

“I’m sorry, but what the hell, warlock? And why is there no name? Shouldn’t it just say……say???” It was then I realized something truly mortifying. I couldn’t say my name, and it wasn’t because I forgot it. I physically just couldn’t move my mouth to say the name when I thought of it. Nothing is making sense. I was going to plummet into insanity and it’s all that thing’s fault. If I wasn’t panicking when i was awake, I’m certain I would look incredibly distressed now. I was hyperventilating a storm as i felt a burning in my eye socket as it started to glow. It glowed a sickly Jade.

”A little bonus magic thanks to a pact from moi~ Well kid a deals a deal. Now, you and I have a VERY special bond. One that---that---shit! Damn it! I WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF SOMETHING YOU WHORE! I need to cut this short…..Hate me if you want but the blue bitch cant know of this. This is going to be much more unpleasant than when you were awake by the by.”

“What THE FUCK are you talking about now?! I’m still not even sure I believe you or ANYTHING after what's been happening….hahahHA…AHAHA! WHAT THE SHIT!…..and now you're on about-on about some nonsense. NONSENSE YOU HEAR ME! I want absolutely NOTHING to do with you or ANYTHING you wan-“

The ‘status’ screen disappeared in a fizzle before I’m suddenly knocked over prone on my back. Something hit me extremely hard and sent my vision spinning before I realized I was being pinned under the weight of, what i think is *maybe* a pony, In alleyway; the maybe-pony was wearing black and green robes with a strange mask that looks like a crying face. I said it was only *maybe* a pony because it had an aura of wrongness to it. Its shoulders bulged way towards the left creating an off-center hunch. Its eyes glowed a deep amber orange, its circumference had a balefire green outline around each. Its grip around my wrist felt cold and icey, while its weight on my lower torso felt sharp and jagged.

The figure punches me in the nose and hard, so hard I begin loosing consciousness. ‘wasn’t this a dream? Whoever they are, they got me good. I haven’t had to take a punch In….wait have I ever? Shits getting hazey now and I can’t think clearly.…oh well can’t do anything about this now.’ This was more of a condensed version of my stream of consciousness getting spliced with simmering anger; most of what was omitted was strings-upon-strings of swears, screams, and pleas to anyone or thing out there that could help.

Next thing I know I’m in a dank cellar cuffed to the wall. The only door swings open and the figure wearing the mask is back, with friends. They have rusty and blood coated dental tools…..’No nonononono.’ “STAY AWAY!” Struggling did nothing with the cuffs hold me against the wall. They approach slowly and one pulls out a syringe with a smokey green liquid that sloshes around like something foul and acrid. All I could do was writhe in defiance and wait for whatever sick and twisted plans they had for me. “I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU! ALL OF YOU! GET OFF OF ME!!!”

The figure with the syringe whispers into my ear, “Incomplete. Added [] will catalyze the transformation.” They then grab my eye by the lids to hold them open for the syringe needle. I wanted this person to die horribly. My mind pulls all the repressed and depressive traits, as well as the unsafe for life thoughts to bubble and roil under the surface when enough stress is applied. The needle goes in my eye. The room starts to feel cold. I started to realize one thing in a moment of lucidity and calm. It was only a calm before the storm of a hurricane. And just like Catrina, I Raged.

All I can do is scream. I do so as one last ditch of defiance; producing a scream containing the utter frustration of more than half a decade of utter dissolution, disassociation, desperation, and despair; they are first set to prime in my throat and lungs. Next utter rage both properly guided and misplaced at the individuals, the concepts, the instances, and the FUCKING INTRUSIVE THOUGHTS! ALL of it compounding upon itself tenfold before releasing into something that can only be described as heartbreaking and horrifying. All I can feel is hate. Hate towards the devil that did this to me. The fiendish fucker that took everything from me and left me here like THIS!

“ENOUGH!”

In a flash of radiance the abductors disappear and where they and the cellar stand now resides Princess Luna. Luna quickly approaches the young colt curled into a fetal position; she didn’t see much but as soon as she entered the dream realm for the night, the colt, she and her group rescued, was having a terrible nightmare.

Figures were corralled around the colt, he was in dirty rags against the walls of a cellar, awful tools of torture laid strewn across the floor while something foul stirred in a strange syringe one of the figures was pressing towards- Enough was enough. Luna will not stand to see one of her subjects suffer in such a horrid manner.

And then they were gone. For Luna commands the dreams and banishes nightmares like she has for millennia. Dream magic she learned for the oldest Batari clans used to save an unknown Batari. Would almost be considered ironic. Not the point, she needed to know if he was safe. This was also a perfect way to figure out what about him is seemingly eluding her, like shadows in the corner of the eye.

Reaching out to put her hand on his. Luna tries to comfort him. “Please young one, you are safe now. The nightmare is gone…”

The Colt fearfully tries to move away as he curled inward into a fetal position on his side. Before Tucking his head low to his chest luna could hear his quiet muffled cries. She saw his mane was unkempt and wild, his eye was bloodshot and wide with abject terror. She doesn’t blame him given the prior events not but a moment ago, but who were those figures?

Luna saw he was beyond traumatized by…..whatever in tartarus was happening in his dreams. A subject for another time maybe.

“Now now, No more tears. You can rest soundly now that Ive cleansed your dream.” Luna went to bring him in closer, taking his whole body and picking it up gently. He wasn’t responding verbally to anything she said, Just shivered uncontrollably.

Lifting him was incredibly easy due to how small and light he was even in dreams; barely older than a adolescent foal now that she got close to properly inspect him. Luna wrapped the growing foal in a hug with her arms then her wings after. His resistance to the touch being weak flailing and squirming. Luna taking note of how his wings barely move but to twitch and ‘flop’ like a fish pulled onto land.

The batari shivers uncomfortably at first before settling into the warmth of the sudden and unexpected embrace. He looks up with the side his head unknowingly pressing against her chest and asks “why me?”

Luna was unsure what he meant when he asked but was most likely referring to the graphic nightmare he was having. Its not unusual for young fillies and colts to wonder why they would have such awful nightmares happen; those that do ask are usually victims of recurring nightmares and not one offs.

“You don’t have to worry about that anymore, you’re safe now under the light of the moon. You know I’m mean well so, what is your name young colt? Your Princess of night is here to protect you”

He stammers, “G-g-g—rey—ghaaaa!!” For a second he sounds like he was going to say something but it turned into nothing but a pained juvenile croak, one of someone experiencing loss. “It’s all g-g-gone….all of them....” He started to sob even harder.

Luna didn’t know what to say. If the words he spoke were true then whatever happened to this colt was incredibly traumatic before he was found in the Jade Forest. It’s entirely possible he lost his entire herd. She decided to bring him in closer.

For Luna now, most her forms of gathering information would be ill advised. Luna decided in this moment it would be better to try and question him sometime when he wakes up; but it would have to be another day. This would require a more delicate approach than norm.

She casts a spell to grant him a calm, dreamless sleep and appears in dreamspace and sighs. “Its going to be a long couple of nights…”

Author's Note

[] is something that was spoken but not properly heard due to the nature of the word. JJK fans know whats up.