//------------------------------//
// Oh, if Only They Made Some Sound... 
// Story: N.E.C.C.B. 
// by BowtiesandFedoras 
//------------------------------//

	Twilight Sparkle wandered through an endless, gray desert of stone. The fog was thick, and covered everything in sight. The air was cold and smelled unfamiliar, and though the moon was out, very little light pushed through the veil of mist.
She came across a massive chasm in the ground that seemed to stretch on to the unseen horizon, and no matter how deeply she looked, the bottom was not visible. She feared that the longer she looked, the farther she would get pulled in towards its abysmal clutches.
She continued walking through the fog until it parted, revealing a massive mountain that reached the clouds. An enormous face was carven into the side of it of someone unknown to all of ponykind.
She would have been filled with awe and wonder, but she had seen this mountain almost a dozen times, and now the awe was gone, and the wonder left behind.
She stood there, staring at the stone face of the anonymous being, bored and dazed. She would have stared at it much longer, had something in the corner of her eye not caught her attention. A shadow moved through the fog swiftly, then disappeared behind it.
She curiously walked over to it after it had gone, but found nothing. A breeze hit her from behind and made her shiver. She swiveled around, but saw nothing but fog.
The ground around her began glowing brighter, causing her to look up at the moon. A few clouds had parted, revealing the moon and out-of-place stars dotting the pitch black sky.
She examined the peculiar stars and their unlisted constellations. To her surprise, several of the stars began blacking out and then relighting as something had passed over them. As she watched, more and more of the stars blacked out and then re-lit, until the sky seemed to strobe with hundreds of white dots. Then, for an instant, all was still. She stared up at the sky, scanning for movement, and she found it.
A dark silhouette flew by the moon, visible for less than a second. And soon after that, to her horror, what looked like dozens of large shadows followed the lone one, passing in front of the moon in an instant, then blending back into the black sky.
She could vaguely see an arc of descent in their flight pattern heading for the ground roughly a hundred yards from herself. They dove into the sea of fog and sent veins of shadows through the mist as they swooped and flew through it. She tried to run, but they had encompassed her, blocking all means of escape. They flew around and around and around her, moving closer and closer to her with each swoop. Terrified, she backed away from the spinning wall of silent shadows. Step by step, she walked towards the center of the ring, but froze when she touched something. It felt cold and rubbery against her skin.
No matter how much she told herself no, she couldn't help but turn her head to see her cold, dark assailant.
She looked upon a tall, bipedal figure, much taller than herself. Its limbs were long and thin, and its torso had so little meat that the ribs and spine could be seen through the smooth, black skin. But the part that frightened her more than anything was that it looked down on her with an empty countenance. The thing had no face, and it horrified her beyond reason. The alien moon created a mysterious sheen on its smooth, shell-like head and inward-pointing horns.
As she looked up at it with fearful eyes, it fanned out its large, membranous wings, and the swirling typhoon of shadows stopped, and soon after, dozens more of the faceless winged things emerged from the fog and approached her, tiptoeing on silent feet.
This is the part she always forgot about. The part where they all converge on her and grab her legs, the only sound to hear being her screaming and begging not to take her.
Twilight shot straight up in bed, trembling, panting, and in a cold sweat. She looked around; she was relieved to find that she was back in the safety of her room. She looked out her bedside window, and shuttered at the sight of the moon and stars. She looked over at Spike, who slept soundly despite Twilight's rude awakening.
She looked at the clock: two o' four. She buried her face in her hooves and cried a little; this was the tenth night in a row that she'd had the exact same nightmare. She was almost... afraid to go to sleep now, just in case she didn't wake up before those things finished what they attempted to do with her.
Her lack of sleep had kept her from her studies, and around her friends she was sluggish and despondent. Tonight, she decided something needed to be done about it. She had kept her nightmare a secret from everypony to keep them from worrying, but she couldn't take it anymore.
She quietly got out of bed ans went downstairs. She grabbed a parchment and set it on a table next to a quill and ink well.

Dear Princess Celestia,

As your faithful student, I know my duties to write you a letter telling you of what I've learned about friendship from the previous day. But, I have been having... nightmares that I fear are getting in the way of my studies. I have tried using spells to get rid of them--every one I could find, in fact--but they keep coming back.
I'm sorry to bother you with something as trivial as this, but I don't know what else to do.

Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle

She set the quill back in its inkwell and read over the letter, making sure it sounded all right. She rolled it up and tied it with the standard red ribbon, and placed it back on the table. A small noise from behind her made her jump.
"Whatcha doing down here, Twilight?" Spike asked, rubbing one eye like a child.
"Oh, Spike. It's just you..." Twilight said.
"Well, yeah. Who else would it be?"
She shuttered again at the thought of those silent, faceless, winged creatures.
"Uh, nopony. Go back to bed, Spike."
He grumbled and went back upstairs to his little bed. Twilight turned out the lights behind her and followed him. She lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, waiting for morning to come.

~N.E.C.C.B.~

The following morning, she asked Spike to send the letter to Celestia. He obeyed, and sent its ashes flying out the window and towards Canterlot.
Celestia was just having breakfast when the scroll landed in her coffee. After ringing it out, she read intently, curious about what Twilight would be sending her so early in the day. Her interest peaked near the end, and she, in reply, sent her student a letter stating that her well-being wasn't a trivial subject in the least, that she was concerned for her student, and that she might be able to assist with the nightmares if she was given an in-depth description of them.
Twilight was reluctant to describe what they were like, but trusted her teacher completely, and told her everything pertaining to the nightmares, from the chasm to the mountain and to those silent creatures.
Celestia's interest turned into worry; those creatures described were what tipped the scales. Luckily, she knew exactly who to call for the situation.

~N.E.C.C.B.~

An earth pony arrived at Twilight's door the next day. He carried a briefcase and greeted her with a calm voice and peaceful eyes.
"Hello there. Are you Twilight Sparkle?" he asked, straightening the glasses resting on the tip of his nose.
"Y-Yes," she said. He saw that she had dark marks and bags under her eyes.
"Lack of sleep, I see. But, then, that's why I'm here, isn't it?" He chuckled warmly. "May I come in?"
She allowed him entrance and closed the door behind him. As he passed her, she realized that he had a very muscular build, and caught herself staring at his firm glutes. She tore herself away from the sight and, blushing, locked the door.
He sat down in one of the smaller chairs, letting her have the long, red sofa. He produced from his briefcase several folders and papers, and clicked a pen as he made himself comfortable.
"Hello, my name is Rorschach, and the Princess sent me here to help you with your nightmares, correct?"
She nodded.
"Now, tell me about these... nightmares." He straightened his glasses again and prepared to take notes.
The two began the round of conversation about the dreadful thoughts assailing Twilight's dreams. He nodded with acknowledgement mostly, but stopped her to ask a question from time to time. She became more uneasy as she continued to speak. She had to stop after a bit and fix a cup of tea to calm her nerves. An hour passed as she explained her dreams and allowed Rorschach to pick her brain.
"All right," he said, closing his pen. "I've heard enough." He pressed a hoof to his ear and spoke. "Yes, it's as we thought. You may come in now."
Just then, a shout of surprise was heard from Spike upstairs. "Gah! How did you get in here?!"
Twilight jumped. "Spike?!"
"Ma'am, I assure you it's quite all right."
Spike dashed downstairs as quickly as his little legs would carry him and hid behind the sofa.
Silver Lining floated down after him and landed on the bottom. "Sorry, little guy. Didn't mean to scare you."
Just then, a knocking was heard of the door. Rorschach, after removing his glasses, stood up and opened it. A dragon walked into the room. "Hey there, Twilight."
"W-Who are these people?!" Twilight said, panicking a bit and hiding behind the sofa with Spike.
"No need to fret, miss. We're here to help," Rorschach--or Zen--said. "This here's Grey; that over there is Silver Lining, and I'm Zen. We're here to help you out with your nightmares."
"B-But the Princess-"
"The Princess wanted us to assist you with your dreams, and that's precisely what we'll do."
"But she told me she was sending a psychiatrist!"
"Well, I guess she thought we were the next best thing," Grey said humorously.
"Hey, Zen," said Silver. "Where's Headcase? I thought he was coming along with us."
"There are more of you?" asked Spike.
"Oh yes, there are more," came a voice from directly behind him. He turned around to see Headcase crawling out from under the floorboards.
He and Twilight both shouted with surprise and hopped back over the sofa.
"Stop all that shouting, will you?" he said as he dusted himself off and put the boards back into place. He blew a lock of his messy hair out of his face and looked back at their shocked expressions. "What?"
"Why are all you ponies here?" Twilight asked.
"The Princess sent us. Those things, the ones in your dreams, that's what we're here for."
"W-What does-"
"We, in short, are a group of underground 'monster hunters,' and those creatures that keep attacking you are why the Princess called us."
"But they're only dreams; how can they be actual monsters?"
Headcase leaned in close and stared her dead in the eye. "Dreams can be more real than you know," he whispered ominously.
His dark comment stunned her into silence. The others began arranging chairs in a circular shape, with Grey's facing backwards as he straddled it. After a brief time, everypony had settled down, and Headcase decided that it was time to get down to business.
"All right; in order for us to successfully do our business, all you have to do to cooperate is go to sleep."
Twilight looked at them all, puzzled. "How am I supposed to go to sleep with you all hovering over me?"
Grey and Headcase exchanged a glance. Headcase then turned back to Twi, and shot a puff of blue smoke out of his horn at her face, making her cough.
"Hack! Wheeze! What--cough--What was that fo-" She wasn't allowed to finish her sentence before her eyelids fell like a guillotine and she hit the floor, snoring loudly.
Spike just stared at her unconscious body for a second with a blank face, then he looked at Headcase.
"What did you do to her?" he asked.
"Don't worry; she'll be fine. Now, we have to act fast if this is going to work."
"Guys, make yourselves comfortable," said Grey, grabbing a couch cushion and placing it under his head as he lay down on the floor. The others followed his image and found a comfortable position wherever they could while Spike looked at them confusedly.
"What in Equestria are you doing?!" he asked them.
"What does it look like?" answered Grey. "We're going to sleep. We can only deal with her nightmares if we're actually in them."
"But how are you going to get in to them?"
"Trust us: We are all very experienced dreamers," clarified Headcase. Spike tilted his head as he pondered this thought for a moment. His thought was interrupted by Headcase calling to the others. "All right, get ready; I'm casting the sleep spell now." A light purple glow came from his horn, and then a burst of purplish-pink smoke filled the room, surprising Spike, and enveloping everything in a thick haze.
There was light coughing that ensued, but then each of them passed out cold in their various spots in the room. Spike hadn't gotten out of the way nor prepared, and as a result he landed face-down on the wood flooring.

~N.E.C.C.B.~

They all used their unorthodox experience and mental training to escape their own minds and seek out the mind of Twilight Sparkle. Their consciousness floated in the ether for several moments, and then they found their target. They converged on the troubled dreams of their client, and found themselves in her desert of stone and her ocean of fog.
Headcase, the one who had trained them all in the surreal art of dreaming, and who had had the most experience out of all of them, was caught off guard at this scenery. He had seen many a strange dreamscape in his day, but this one disturbed him, somehow.
They gathered their surroundings as quickly as they could, and heard Twilight's hooves clopping off in the distance. They followed the sound through the moist, cold air. She shrieked at their sudden appearance, but then recognized their faces and settled down.
"How did you... get here?" she asked. The feeling of dream was fading away as she looked at them, and she became more conscious of her surroundings as she came to realize that she was in fact dreaming. Although, since she was aware that it was a dream, it would feel that much more real to her now.
"It would take too long to explain right now, but later. Tell us about the monsters you see," said Headcase, glancing around uneasily at the emptiness around them.
"Huh? Oh; yes: the creatures..." she looked up at the sky as though searching for them. "They... I always see them in the sky. They fly over the stars and blot them out, and I can never make out their shape until the fly past the moon..." She grew fearful quickly, and it was visible to the others.
"What's wrong?" asked Grey, looking up at the stars with her. "Do you see them?"
"No... No, I don't see them at all. I usually see them right about now. This is the part where they fly down and... and..." Her breathing grew quicker and quicker, and she shuffled in place with anticipation.
Something behind her whizzed past and hit her with a cold breeze which was enough to make her scream and dive to hide behind Grey.
"What was that?!" he asked, extending his claws and puffing out his scales to appear more menacing.
A shadow darted to his side and slashed at him with an unseen claw, scratching his upper arm. He winced in pain, and recovered quickly.
Headcase summoned his cutlass in a flash of light, and held it defensively. The others made a wide, outward-facing ring in the fog, prepared for anything these beasts could throw at them.
There was silence.
Twilight made herself small behind their barrier, and scooted carefully into the center of the circle. She closed her eyes and covered them with her hooves in fear. She felt a breeze on her back, and felt two soft things touch the ground on either side of her. She looked up and saw the blank countenance glaring down at her, unnoticed by the others. It swiftly grabbed her front legs and rocketed up into the air at incredible speed. She screamed at the top of her lungs, and startled the others, causing them all to look behind them and up at Twilight being suspended by the monster that had now hidden itself in the blackness of the sky. Silver immediately darted after it and left a gap in the group's defenses. As if on cue, another creature flew into the ring and knocked them on their fronts before disappearing into the fog once again.
Silver had difficulty catching up with the beast, and it would have been practically invisible if it hadn't been carrying Twilight with it; her light purple standing out against the blackness. She glanced behind her to see Grey, Zen and Headcase battling endless waves of imperceptible attacks by hordes of the things. She soared with the resolve to let them take care of themselves while she saved Twilight.
She trailed behind the terrifying thing, pushing her limits to keep up, and repeatedly called to Twilight to remain calm (Twilight subconsciously snickered at this absurd request).
The onslaught showed no signs of stopping down below. Grey's claws missed their mark over and over again, Zen couldn't focus on a single target, and Headcase was struggling to overcome the strange feeling flowing through him. He was attacked over and over again by black blurs with tails and wings and horns. His body was riddled with cuts and bruises as he swung his cutlass, held by his telepathy, almost blindly through the mist at the wicked and ruthless enemy.
"What are they?!" asked Zen.
"I... I don't-" Headcase's sentence was cut short as one got behind him and tackled him, grabbing him as it did so and holding tightly.
It sent him through the mist and onto a clear, rocky ledge near a chasm that stretched on for ever. It was about to fly over the edge and drop him to his death into the dark emptiness below. He anticipated this move and reared his head back, whacking it in its "face," and freeing himself.
He rolled to a stop and regained his footing and assumed a ready stance with his sword as the thing tumbled and rolled on the rough ground before sliding off the tip of the ledge and out of sight.
Silver Lining could almost touch the beast's tail, but it took a sharp dive and circled around to appear behind her. It floated there, motionless for a time, letting Twilight scream and scream while Silver tried to turn around to save her. It closed its wings and dropped straight down, letting Silver give chase once more as it let Twilight suffer the g-forces and watch through teared-up eyes its trajectory towards a field of jagged, sharp, blood-stained pikes of stone stabbing through the ground.
Headcase neared the edge of the chasm and stared into the emptiness warily. Suddenly, the thing shot up right in front of his face and hovered in the air at the end of its ascent. It spread out its thin, membranous wings and assumed a threatening pose. He stared at it in awe; at it and its coincidental background: the massive carven face in the side of the mountain, and the dozens of caves in the base that held countless more of the ferocious things.
This frightful image was enough to shock him into dropping his sword and staring dumbly at it.
"N...Night... Gaunts..." was all he could utter.
His awe disappeared as more of the winged black night gaunts flooded out of the caves and converged on him. He howled a loud, deep sound into the air, a howl mixed with some indecipherable glibbering.
Silver filled with dread as the creature neared the field of spikes and death, but was stunned as it ceased its descent, and hovered in the air. Twilight still screamed, but quieted down by degrees as she noticed her current situation. The thing slowly glided back over to solid ground and roughly let Twilight slip through its rubbery hands and onto the rocky earth. Silver dashed to her aid to make sure that everything was all right.
Just as Grey and Zen had nearly given up hope and submitted to the monsters, they noticed the lack of movement among them in the fog. They all stood still, Grey and Zen included, and became lax and less threatening and battle-ready. The night gaunts all turned in the same direction, and walked on silent feet over to the source of the strange call.
Headcase was soon surrounded by the innumerable winged nightmares as they crowded around him. The others became worried for his safety and rushed over as well.
"Headcase! Are you okay?" called Grey.
"I'm fine; don't worry. Is Twilight safe?"
"She's fine. What's going on? What are they doing?"
Headcase muttered something strange to the faceless night gaunts. They parted the large crowd, creating a path from him to his companions. Headcase strutted down this path to the surprise of his partners. Silver glided over to them carrying the shaking Twilight on her back and saw this strange sight.
"What in the buck is going on?" she asked bluntly.
"These things, these night gaunts, were the things in Twilight's nightmares," Headcase began to elaborate. Twilight looked at the large horde of them and screamed one more time before falling backwards. The instant she touched the ground, she burst into a puff of dust. The others stared at the spot where she disappeared for a few seconds. The ground around it began peeling away and floating into the sky. The stars slowly faded out one by one, and the blackness behind them crumbled away to reveal total whiteness. The night gaunts shuffled warily and started soaring back to their various caves below the massive face in the mountain.
"She's waking up; we have to get out of here," Headcase ordered.
They each closed their eyes and focused their thoughts until they, too, began to fade away into whiteness and disappear like the world around them.
They all awoke with a start in Twilight's living room, but she was the only one in a cold sweat.
"What... What happened?" she asked.
Headcase's eyes snapped open and he quickly got to his hooves. He moved around the room, opening drawers and cabinets and checking every square inch of the room frantically.
"Head, what're you doing?" Silver asked.
He moved over to Twilight and looked her in the eyes, and she noticed the burns around the edges of his. "Where is it?" he asked her vaguely.
"W-Where's what?"
"The key?! The Silver Key--Where is it? You have to have it; there's no way you would be dreaming about the night gaunts if you didn't have it. Where is it?"
She looked dumbly at him, searching her memories for anything involving a silver key.
"Um... I don't..."
He grunted with frustration and continued his raid of her home. Spike awoke at this point and rubbed his eyes. "What's going on? Twilight, why's this guy trashing your house?"
He proceeded up to her bedroom, to her dismay. He saw a small box on her nightstand and went over to it. He flipped the lid open and froze when he saw its contents. There were some pictures, nick nacks, and lint, but what he was after was sitting on top of these useless items. A small, silver key with an extravagant design on it lay on top of a picture of Twilight and her friends. He picked it up, and stared at it in awe and surprise.
Twilight came up to see him fawning over the key. "Is that the key you were looking for?"
He shut the box without looking up at her and asked, "Where did you find this," in a low, flat voice.
"Oh, that key. I found it stuck on a rock in the river a little over a week ago. I don't know what it was doing there."
He merely kept staring at the strange key that he held in his hoof. Memories hit him the longer he stared; memories of the night gaunts, of the mountain face, and of the innumerable strange dreams and nightmares it granted him while it was in his possession, and the memory of its dreams pushing him over the edge as he tossed it into the rushing waters of the river that was home to the water serpent in the Everfree Forest.
The other three joined him and Twilight upstairs. Grey looked at the key and went wide-eyed.
"Is that... the key?" he asked. "The one that unlocks the..."
Headcase's gaze snapped back to Twilight, and his wonderment was replaced by eyes that shot daggers at her.
"We'll be going now," and then in a flash they were all gone, and Twilight, along with Spike, were left in confused silence and curiosity.

~N.E.C.C.B.~

Headcase strolled through the stony corridors of their Hub, past the cages and holding pens for the hundreds of vile and horrific creatures captured over the years. They hissed and barked and howled at him as he went down the multiple levels, though he never paid them so much as a sideways glance. He arrived at the gargantuan steel door protected by an advanced security system.  Headcase opened it and walked into the circular stone room with a lone pedestal in the center. He approached it, and looked upon the leather tome resting on it.
It lay open on the shiny white pedestal, the spine having a very visible tear down the spine, and all the pages torn out. It could hardly be called a "book" now. He stroked the leather binding slowly, nostalgically. He held the key in his hoof again and looked down on it longingly. He slowly set the key next to the binding, and let the sound of metal against stone echo through the room.
But then he changed his mind.
He snatched up the key and turned to head out the door. He furrowed his brow as he passed the multi-ton door and heard it close behind him. Before it was fully sealed, he turned his head and looked at the book one last time, remembering the day that lead to all this madness.