In hindsight I should have waited to steal more apples. I only had five in the makeshift backpack I made. I look down and see my right hoof is covered in blood. I don't even want to know how it happened. I think the journey to Canterlot will only take two days on hoof even if I didn't follow the main road. I couldn't risk leading the monster to more ponies. I look up at the sky and see that the sun and moon have never left their spots. It looked like a dull crimson solar eclipse with neither the warm and friendly rays of light nor the comfort of relaxing darkness. A permanent dead eclipse.

Suddenly I heard a growl. I quickly turned and saw it was a Timberwolf. I know they aren't supposed to leave the Everfree forest and I am a good hour away from there. It circles around me. I don't run. I can't. I am out in the open and I am smaller and thus slower than it. It doesn't seem to attack which is rather odd. I feel like it is waiting for me as if expecting me to do something. I lay down. I can't run and I'm supposed to be dead anyway... But it just sits there staring at me. After a few minutes, I decided I would try to move past it.

It follows me with its head but doesn't make a move. It won't hurt me. I don't know why. But everything stopped making sense a long time ago. It then followed me and kept getting close but always stopping within hoof's reach. It bowed. It bowed? I don't understand. Then it faded into mist as if it never was there in the first place. I look around and there was no paw prints or any trace of its prior existence. It never was real. It... Feels like an omen. My head throbs. It is getting difficult to distinguish the past, present, and future as it all blurs together. I feel that the gem I swallowed is the cause, but there is no way I can get it out now.

I take a bite of an apple and resume my travel. I would see no other creatures or monsters along the way. I keep walking and walking. The castle very slowly gets bigger. Suddenly I collapse. I'm too tired. No short break would be enough. I had walked what would be maybe seven hours, but with the sun and moon never moving it was impossible to tell the time if it wasn't for my circadian rhythm telling me I should be sleeping. Oh well... I'm tired... And the fear of death slowly becoming numbed I closed my eyes. I was scared of something else. Then I remembered. Luna is gone. There is nopony regulating the dream realm. Nopony to come to anypony's aid should they have nightmares. I can feel it. There is no way I won't get a Nightmare tonight. I only pray... That they pass quickly... And I close my eyes.

All around is an oppressive cloak of darkness that oozes and comes from a darker darkness, Med Kit stood alone in Canterlot. The once-familiar streets were now distorted and warped into a mockery of the original, the buildings leaning ready to collapse under the weight of all the evil pressure. The air is stale and heavy. There is a fog that enshrouds the city thickening into a viscous miasma, clinging to his every step like the tendrils of what comes from the darkness unseen.

Looming shadows stretched and twisted and grabbing, taking on grotesque forms that writhed and convulsed in a sinister dance. From the darkest shadows of the darkness emerged monstrous entities of all shapes and sizes, their eyes gleaming with an insatiable hunger. Med Kit could feel the air pulsating like an evil beating heart with their ominous presence, a cacophony of gnashing and grinding as the creatures circled, their forms ever-shifting amalgamations.

Med Kit tries to leave to no avail, the fog transforms into tendrils that reach out hungrily, wrapping around his hooves like ethereal chains. The gem from the Alicorn Amulet within him resonated with the twisted energy of this nightmarish place, its monstrous power seeping into the very fabric of his being. He could feel his own form warping, his very self was a blanket that was being unwoven and rewoven one thread at a time. Med Kit never knew that such horrors existed terrifying him to no end.

The monstrous heart within him manifested outwardly, causing his coat to darken to an abyssal shade, veins of sickly green coursing beneath the surface. His eyes grow gnawing jaws. Med Kit's limbs felt as if he was being pulled in multiple directions, each movement accompanied by the unsettling sensation of bones shifting beneath his skin. New unfamiliar appendages would burst out from within him choking him.

I wake up in tears and could only make the motions of screaming and make gasping attempts to breathe though my internal screams were more deafening than any I could ever make even if I could scream. NEVER. I can't sleep again. I had plenty of Nightmares before and all of those were nothing. This is what a true nightmare was like. Ponies could not even imagine such horrors on their own. I no longer fear anything anypony would call a monster because now I know what they look like.

I trot on eating an apple. I didn't feel hungry and gagged each time I tried to eat, but I managed to force half of it down. I trot and trot only taking breaks but never sleeping. I know I'll get there eventually. Just need to... Trot... Trot some more... Keep trotting... And.... I would... Arrive.

Here I am. I did it. I am at the gates. The pristine marble gates is shattered from King Sombra's initial invasion. I trot through. I look around and... I am confused. I see that apart from where King Sombra fought... There aren't really any other signs of destruction. Wasn't there supposed to be a monster that supposedly leveled buildings? Something is wrong. I... There was a monster. After that nightmare, I am certain the only thing that would scare ponies even after the promise of protection by the powerful Starlight Glimmer would be a real monster. It is so quiet... I... am tired... The only thing keeping me going is the fear of sleeping and so I must stay focused...

There is only one more thing for me to check out. I am isolated. Whatever ponies haven't already fleed or died have been enslaved already. I won't be dooming more innocent ponies. I walked over to my previous home. I saw that pretty much all the pieces of the shattered remains of Luna and Celestia were gone, probably scavaged or disposed of. If there was a time to mourn it was now. And so... I cried and cried... I was alone. There is nopony going to save the day. I cried so much that my vision blurred and I realized I was passing out. I reach out a hoof. I didn't want to return to that Nightmare. I don't know if I'll be able to make it out again. I feel something in my hoof. Through my failing sight, I see that it was... A petrified horn. I clutch it tightly to my chest. I pray that somehow Luna would come to save me. I know somehow that... If I were to go back to that Nightmare again alone... I would not be waking up.

Author's Note

Chapter 2 has been rewritten. Sorry for the delays.