Mandatory Motherhood: Short Stories

Nightmare

Chris had once found herself in the crystal tunnels in her dreams, a rare safety from the usual nightmare that haunted her sleep. She made her way down the winding paths passing the mirror and catching a glimpse of the blue alicorn that Colgate had informed her was Princess Luna. Chris knocked on the glass to get her attention, and the mirror violently wobbled from the impact likely a sign that whatever connection the princess had was becoming more unstable.

Luna turned in shock and tried speaking, she sounded like a dial-up modem while the mirror cracked slightly from a single spoken word. They stared at each other for a while before Chris had an idea, if it was a dream she could manipulate it. She thought about it and a large piece of poster board and a marker popped into existence, shocking Luna.

Chris levitated the two objects she summoned and messily wrote a message. ‘Thank you for sending Colgate, she saved Starla and me. The 3 of us are safe and healthy.’

Princess Luna’s eyes teared up and she nodded, she used her magic to create glowing words in the air. ‘You are welcome, and thank you for letting me know.’ They waved to each other and Luna stepped through a gateway that appeared likely heading off to another dream.

Chris continued her way to the central chamber, her dream man cave as she liked to call it. She eyed the group of characters playing some unknown game and was tempted to ask them to join but the spinning crystal star-like crystal with mist flowing from it in the room’s center always caught her eye each visit and she knew it would eventually start screaming but she wasn’t sure where it would send her if she touched it again.

She hesitated for a moment before throwing caution to the wind and made her way to the crystal and pressed her hoof to it. The world was washed away in mist and she soon found herself in the city with the weird Greek and Roman fusion architecture. Just as the last time none of the creatures, pony or otherwise paid attention to her, so she decided to study the city as much as she could this time.

Chris spent some time memorizing the weird writing on signs and posters. She tried listening in on conversations to no avail, the language made no sense to her. She tried eating some of the food but found it had no taste when she tried and the food being eaten in the air caused a commotion in the crowd since everything around her couldn’t see her but could see the food being eaten.

Chris was surrounded by the crowd of beings around her and was unsure what to do. A pony of guard armor approached and reluctantly reached a hoof out toward the space Chris occupied. they had almost touched her when a nearby shop was suddenly leveled by a ball of fire, followed by another building collapsing from a giant ball of ice. Chris looked towards the sky only to find it darkening as waves of spheres of all types rained down on the city.

Chris shot around to look at the building the fireball had crashed into only to see the ball unravel into a grotesque creature of fire and darkness. The monster resembled a mass of oozing tar with fire dancing across its body as tentacle-like appendages that reached out for nearby creatures, and those unfortunate enough to be caught immediately began screaming as they burst into flames.

A similar creature of ice began doing the same but the ponies and other creatures it caught found themselves encased in ice. These monsters didn’t seem to have the ability to perceive her as well so she tried to avoid watching the victims as more of these elemental shadow creatures rained down and began assaulting the citizen. I did notice that some of them merely caught them and dragged them away as others killed without a second thought.

Chris found hiding in buildings was meaningless as some of the creatures could slip right through barricades despite their bulk, and others would just smash their way in. Chris did everything she could to ignore the screaming and crying of those around her and looked for a way to get out of the city. She thought she might make it till she saw a pair of creatures one appeared to be made from crystals while the other was a mixture of water and tentacles from an octopus or similar sea life, surrounding a group of children. Chris chose the brave but stupid decision in this situation and body-slammed herself into the octo monster causing it to stumble into its jem-like partner.

She told the kids to run, which they did but did not indicate if they did so because they could hear her or if they saw their opening. No matter the creatures would just be confused once they recovered and she would just slip away. Or so she thought until the crystalline monster grabbed her and held her in the air. She glanced around and could tell they could see her plain as day. Why are these two able to see her when the other types could not?

The creatures examined her and seemed to talk between themselves as Chris struggled to get free. The crystal creature seemed to grow tired of her futile attempts to break free and punctured her stomach with one sharp blade. Chri’s eyes bulged in shock from the pain, she looked at her wound and was bewildered she was hurt and wasn’t waking up.

The sea monster seemed upset with the action of the crystal one. After a bit of bickering the crystalline monster seemed to give in and a new feeling of pain began for Chris, as she saw crystals begin to encase her body starting from the wound. She let out a scream just as the crystal encased her head sealing her away.

Chris shot up in bed breathing heavily she began to feel around her especially when the finger had pieced her. She sighed in relief to find no injuries. She was now having second thoughts about touching the crystal in the center of that chamber ever again. She examined the room and settled down onto the bed upon realizing she was in her room with Starla, Colgate, and Amore.

She cuddled into her bedmates willing to enjoy their presence untill they woke up.