Chapter 2: A Snack to Die For
The soft crunches of fallen leaves were the only sounds in the forest as Luna walked through the middle of the clearing. The near-silence was a welcome respite from both the blaring music and the boisterous yelling from the dream just a few minutes prior. By the time she had finally dropped her spell, her head had been throbbing with a migraine from the ear-splitting ordeal. Now though, her mind's dull ache had receded, and organized thoughts were finally able to form once again.
Her eyes focused on nothing in particular, Luna thought about the dream she had just been in. She knew that zebras were talented rhymers—their native tongue revolving around a rhyming scheme—but how many in history had actually taken up the career of professional singing? Four? Five? Luna personally couldn't think of any, but she knew there had to have been a few out there at some point in history. On the flip side, she was absolutely certain that not a single diamond dog had ever gotten into the musical trade. There weren't many facts on why this was the case, but personally she felt it was because of how utterly savage the species was. This, plus the fact of how structured and organized the music in the dream was, were huge detriments to their species.
Of course, that was assuming that the sounds in that dream could actually be considered music.
Spreading her vast wings, the Night Princess gave a quick hop, and with a strong few flaps, ascended into the air. It was slow flying trying to make it to the sky—the thick foliage of the Everfree Forest's canopy preventing a straight shot to the air. Several times, Luna was forced to imitate some kind of tree-dwelling creature, using her wings to aid in her hops from branch to branch. Thankfully though, after nearly a full minute of careful navigation, she broke through the final layer of leaves and branches, and her eyes were met with the beautiful sight of her moon.
Luna beat her wings faster, forcing her back and chest muscles to work harder as she fought for altitude. When she finally made it above the scant cloud cover, she leveled off, and relaxed into a leisurely glide. However, even through the relaxing flight, thoughts of the dream continued to bother her. Did all ponies dream in the way that the zebra did? She had only invaded the minds of other ponies a few times in the past, and in all of those cases, she never actually went into their dreams. Not only was that step unnecessary for the procedure, but considering the ponies were awake the entire time, there was never a chance to try. Of course, most of those ponies had also had information ripped out of their brains, forever scarring their minds.
For a brief moment, images of the dozens of vegetative stallions and mares flashed in her mind, before she pushed the thoughts out.
Looking down at the ground, Luna suddenly found herself gliding over nearly endless fields of apples. It was these very fruit trees that told her that she had returned to Ponyville, or at least its outskirts. Hundreds upon hundreds of apple trees dotted the moonlit landscape, too many for the princess to count in a single flight over. Each tree had over a hundred apples. Each field had well over a hundred trees. All together this added up to... well... to a very large amount of fruit that could be harvested from the orchards.
Her stomach growled slightly at the thought.
Just visible over the tree-filled horizon, Luna saw what must have been the core of the property—several larger buildings jutting out of the ground. The fruit trees that had once dominated the landscape were now only on the sides, making way for the the collection of buildings. The vast majority were smaller structures like chicken coops and sheds, but there were two of particular significance. The first was a fairly large barn, and while she could see that it was mostly typical, the strange mural painting depicting a smiling sun and a smiling pink pony on one side was... unique. The second structure was some kind of residence, large enough for a fairly sizable family. Even in the moonlight, Luna could tell that the house was the same color and style as the barn before—minus the cartoonish mural.
An idea formed in the mare's head—this was the perfect time to test whether zebras and ponies dreamed the same way.
It was this reason alone that caused Princess Luna to bank left, and slowly begin her descent across the apple orchards. Like a vulture observing its next meal, she slowly circled the house below, gliding ever closer to her target. With every rotation, she found herself falling further and further, her form coming closer and closer to the house below. Finally, after three minutes of leisured gliding, she began to hover just a few meters above the backyard.
From her circling, she was able to discern by the way the windows were spaced that there were four main rooms on the second story. In a house like this, all of the bedrooms—except possibly the master bedroom—were placed upstairs, so the likelihood of finding a pony in blissful sleep was high. Of course, that was where all knowledge of the situation ended, and the mountains of uncertainties began. Which room should she pick? Assuming all four of the major rooms upstairs were bedrooms, how could she know if any even contained a pony? In fact, assuming there was a pony in the room, how could she know that the pony inside the one she would go into was asleep, and not merely relaxing? What if she went in, and found a pony who was completely awake? Having the pony freak out at her home invasion was not a situation she wanted to find herself in.
After careful and dedicated observation, she decided to go for the only window that was actually open. Smirking to herself over the stupidly obvious choice, her horn flashed with a dim blue glow before she became a mist in the night. Darting though the air, she slipped through the gap in the slightly ajar window, and after making sure that she had enough room to reform, began to coalesce back into her alicorn-self. It was a simple process, and when it was all said and done, only five seconds had passed between her turning into the mist to reforming inside the room. A smirk on her face, she faced the bed with her modified Memory Extractor spell.
She almost ruined any chance to inspect this pony's dream right there, for the sight before her sent a muffled snort of laughter through her nose. The pony on the bed—a bright red stallion—completely covered the poor piece of furniture with his massive body. The bed itself slightly bowed downward in the middle from the immense weight of the pony on top of it, though thankfully—at least for the stallion, not the bed—the weight was from muscle, not fat. The stallion had curled himself slightly, and in his forelegs, he held...
Another chuckle escaped her lips. “Is... is that a little filly's doll?”
Observing him a little longer, she realized that the stallion—his crimson coat complimenting his straw-yellow mane—was not somepony that she had ever met before. Seen? Maybe during the party after she was freed from the moon or during Nightmare Night, but they were never actually introduced. A pity, for making sure that all of his relatives knew of his doll-snuggling habits was an opportunity that would be sorely missed.
A shiver emanated from the stallion's body, and frowned slightly shortly after. This took Luna back lightly. Slowly, as to not disturb the stallion, she lit her horn, and bent down. “Just what are you dreaming about, my little subject...”
“They're here for vengeance, ain't they?”
Luna wasn't sure why he muttered that or whom he was muttering it to, but it was the only thing he said to himself before he grew quiet. She could hear the wind blowing outside, the sharp bite of the cold air sending painful daggers into anypony that felt it. Unfortunately for the stallion, the cracks of the old home were not sufficient enough to block the near hurricane-force winds—the red pony shivering constantly from the cold. He looked briefly at the window, and after following his gaze, the princess saw that the night sky was completely black, with not the moon nor a single star visible through the thick cloud bank. She swore she was able to see small tendrils of frost start to build up on the glass panes—sure signs that tonight was going to be one of the worst winter nights Ponyville could ever experience.
The stallion shook his head, and after clearing a thought from his mind, he began to take a few careful steps forward. Even though he walked slowly, the soft taps of hooves on the wood were still easily heard, no matter how hard he tried to muffle them. Luna heard the red pony curse to himself over the noise, and for a brief moment, Luna wished she could aid him by casting a noise canceling spell or by giving him paws like a cat, but like the dream before, she was merely an observer. The stallion slowly made his way to the slightly ajar door, and with a gentle hoof, he—
An unnatural moan echoed through the building, making Luna's nonexistent hair stand on end. It seemed to have the same effect on the stallion, for he quickly bolted to the side of the door and did his best to hide against the wall behind the thin wooden barrier. For a few seconds, the only sound in the room was the wind outside, for the red pony somehow was able to attain a phenomenal level of silence. Still, whatever was through that door was not a natural creature of Equestria, and there was no certainty that simple sound would be needed to identify the stallion's location.
Luna's eyes grew wide, for as soon as she ended those thoughts, a shadow passed across the far wall of the hallway just outside the door. She squinted her eyes, but still couldn't make out what it was. All she knew was that it was big and round—bigger and more bulbous than anypony should possibly be. However, whether that meant that the creature was fat, or if it meant that it was filled with... something... she wasn't sure. The creature slowly shuffled by, giving no clue to whether it was a biped or a quadruped, though Luna's experience of Equestrian creatures and their movements indicated the latter was a much more likely.
The creature stopped, shifting its weight slightly. She couldn't identify where the head was supposed to be, or by extension its sensory organs, but she was confident that it had either heard, seen, or smelled something. Luna was sure that that something was the stallion, but she had no way to warn him of the impending danger. It turned towards the door, and with a slight movement, it advanced half a meter forward, and inspected the room.
Luna was never happier to be both invisible and incorporeal.
Another second passed, and with a final look around the room, the monster stepped back into the hall, turned to its right, and shambled away. A cold chill once again took over the room—the wind outside putting even more pressure on the already strained window. At any moment, that glass could shatter, bathing the entire room in the blistering cold of the outside tundra. Thankfully, it held for now.
The stallion waited almost a full minute after the monster left the doorway before he finally stepped out from behind the cracked wooden door. He must have known that there would be more of the grotesque things out there, but whether from bravery or stupidity—or maybe a combination of both—he continued moving out from his hiding spot. He took a single last look around the bedroom, the room surprisingly pristine compared to the mood that the place held, before he sighed, and turned towards the door.
Without a second thought, albeit with a slight amount of shakiness in his hooves, he made his way through the door. Suddenly finding herself on the wrong side of the doorway, Luna willed her being to move. It was something she had never imagined doing in a dream, and the feeling was the strangest thing she had ever felt. It was similar to when her stomach lurched from a steep dive, but instead of just her stomach, it was her entire body that felt the nausea. It didn't help that when she passed through the wall, the feeling intensified by at least a magnitude of ten.
The urge to vomit was that much greater as well.
Suppressing her gag reflex—assuming she even was capable of things like that in this form—she looked around once more, the mare searching for the stallion. While she was thankful that the creature was nowhere to be found, she began to slightly panic from losing the pony in question. Luna turned in every direction, looking towards both ends of the almost endless hallway. Thankfully, after she turned to look down the other direction of the hall, she finally saw him slowly moving through the long passage as he looked through every doorway, his steps still muffled by his slow movements. Braving that awful feeling once again, she moved behind him, and joined him in looking into all of the rooms they both passed.
Every single room they looked into was the same—a twin bed, a bedside table, a simple lamp on top of the table, a dresser on the right wall, and a window at the far wall. Every single room had the same earthy color scheme, and each was chilled by the same blistering cold as the ones before it. The most unnerving part was the condition that each was in, for each room looked as though it was completely uninhabited, with nary a single flaw in any of them. It was becoming more than a little eerie to look into each as she passed by the dozens upon dozens of identical bedrooms, but she continued on with the stallion. Even if she was aware that it was simply a harmless dream, at least for her, she couldn't help but feel a growing sense of panic.
This is not a normal delve after all, and this something much more... sinister than a simple dream. Can I... can I possibly be harmed here?
She shivered at the thought, and willed it away the best she could. Such an outcome was impossible, for her body was still in the normal world. Still.... it wouldn't hurt anypony to be safe, just in case... right?
Moving along as close to the ceiling as she possibly could, she hovered over the stallion. Door after door passed by, and still everything inside each of the rooms was the same. She took a quick glance in front of them, and saw that the hall only had four rooms left to look through—two on each side. The revelation brought a relieved sigh from the mare. All they had to do was look through the last few doors, and then they could turn around.
…
…
…
…
…Why are there still rooms here?
Looking ahead of the two of them, Luna was shocked to see that there was still four doors in front of her. She was certain before that the hall didn't go any farther! She could see the end of it! It didn't make sense! They were moving forward... weren't they? Trying to figure out what was going on, Princess Luna turned her vision behind her, and gasped.
There were only four doors behind her.
That... that is impossible! We've searched through at least a hundred rooms! What is going on!?
A wounded cry echoing through the hall shook her out of her thoughts, and forced Luna to look down. Eyes widening, she realized that the stallion that she had been following this entire time had disappeared. Desperate, she began to look in all directions and every nearby room to see if she could find the pony in question. Luna's emotions growing frantic, she desperately searched room after room, trying to find the other pony in her group.
Where did he go!? Where is he!?
Thankfully, she found the red pony shortly after that—the stallion sitting in the middle of the eleventh bedroom she looked in. This room was much different than the rest, for unlike the pristine nature of the rest of the sleeping quarters, the entire room looked as though a ungodly amount of fighting had occurred within. The bed was completely mangled, the dresser was broken in at least six places, the lamp was more fitting to be in a scrapyard, and the bedside table was now seventeen different pieces of splintered wood. The floor below had two kinds of liquid: one clear, and one disturbingly red. Luna could only hope that she was wrong at guessing the second liquid's identity.
Moving around the stallion, she realized her identification was sadly correct.
Just in front of the heavily shaking stallion, lay the bodies of two ponies. The first was a young mare, no older than twenty winters, cut down in the prime of her life. A distinct memory of this mare at both Nightmare Night and as one of the Elements of Harmony flashed through Luna's mind, and even if she knew it was all a dream, she couldn't help but to feel a deep sorrow over the mare's demise. The orange mare looked anything but peaceful, a large gash across her neck being the source of the disturbingly large pool of blood on the ground. Add in the shredded hat strewn across the floor, and it was a grisly sight.
Applejack.
Of course, that only made it worse when Luna looked at the second victim. She was just a filly—not even old enough to have received her cutie mark yet. The small yellow filly thankfully didn't appear to have died in as much agony as the other one had. If there was any mercy in this hellish place, then at least this child did not have to die a slow, painful death. It was strange looking at her, the child's small body curled up in a little ball so that it looked as though she was merely asleep, trying to use her own dream to escape the terrifying world around her.
Sadly, the carnage in the room around all of them told the truth of the young child's fate.
For the first time in what felt like an hour, the stallion spoke—the words coming out surprisingly well considering his previous sobbing fit. “Ah'm... Ah'm so sorry. Ah'm so sorry Ah couldn' save ya two... Ah'm... Ah'm jus' so sorry...”
For as much as the stallion deserved a moment of peace, it would not be granted to him this night. Instead, a sudden scraping followed by a ghastly moan echoed from the corner of the room. Both the stallion's and her own gazes turned to the corner, and they saw the terrifying round shape of the murderous creature. The monster began to slowly make its way towards where the stallion stood, its lurching motions making Luna's hair stand on end once again. For a moment, she swore that he was going to take the monster on, and fight to his last breath for what he saw happened to the ponies on the ground—surely dying in the process. Thankfully, he did quite the opposite, and after a last forlorn look at what must have been his siblings, he turned towards the door, and—
He yelped as another creature—one that had somehow quietly made its way inside—lunged at him.
The stallion was barely able to move his forelegs in front of him before the bloated monster fell on top of him. The maw of the creature—the orifice hidden from Luna's view—must have been mere inches from the pony's red neck. Left and right the stallion moved his head in his attempts to shift out from under the huge weight, to no avail. Red forelegs attempted to grip onto the creature's equally red skin, but the stallion's hooves could not find a good grip. Instead, he continued to slip along the slick surface of the monster's flesh. To aid the stallion, Luna ignited her horn, and moved to shoot a powerful ray at the monster.
Nothing happened.
Right. I cannot influence dreams. Very smart, Luna.
She could only watch as the stallion fought desperately for survival, the grotesque being on top of him being having strength that was more than a match for the pony's own. The fact that the second monster in the corner was approaching did nothing to quell the Night Princess' worries for the stallion. Inch by precious inch, the attacker lowered himself closer to the dreamer's neck, hungrily attempting to taste the first bite of pony meat. Just another precious inch, and—
Suddenly, a burst of strength rippled through the stallion's muscles, and with a last ditch attempt to roll, got out from under the demon. With another roll to his left, he got to his hooves. A predator's roar erupted from the stallion's throat as he delivered a swift buck to the monster's side, driving the evil beast to the ground. There was no time for celebration though, for the sounds of more of them in the hall entered the room.
Run!
As if following her command, he tore through the doorway and sprinted down the unnaturally small hallway. Luna followed the best she could, barely able to keep up with the running stallion. Heavy panting emanated from his mouth, the fatigue of his previous rumble already showing. The hallway pressed down on them—the smothering floorboards cracking with each heavy hoofstep he took. The hall extended for miles—an impossible distance for the stallion to traverse in time to get to safety. Still, he ran, attempting to escape from the legions of creatures that were beginning to pour their way out of the doorways around the pair.
Around them, the room itself began to fight against the desperate ponies. To either side, the once pristine bedrooms were now perverted with destruction and decay. The ceiling began to press down on the hall, forcing Luna even closer to the ground. Walls that once were clean and cold to the touch were now warped with a building inferno around them. The stench of rotting flesh filled the already stale air, forcing Luna to swallow another bout of vomit. How the stallion sustained himself without gagging was a mystery.
The room flared with a red glow, the light dimming the already dark hall. The hordes of attackers finally began to press upon the lone pony, their sickly red skin brushing up against his red hair as they closed in. It was only by the grace of luck that he was never pinned by the monsters on either side of him. The sounds of the room filled with groans of the terrible beasts, shuffling noises enveloping the air as they moved in on their meal. Once or twice the stallion nearly tripped, but every time, he regained his footing and galloped even further.
Literally out of nowhere, the hall ended with a cliff-like staircase. The stallion attempted to stop his forward movement, but there was no chance he could stop in time at the speed he was running at. With a frightened cry, the stallion found himself tumbling down the endless stairs, Luna powerless to aid him in the slightest. Sounds of hardened muscle slamming against oak wood reverberated through the chamber, the fall never slowing until he hit the very bottom. Indeed, it was only after he reached the end of the staircase that he landed with a hard crack against the wall, his body growing still.
Come on! Get up! Get up get up get up get up get up—
With a wounded groan, he shakily stood on his hooves, raising his left foreleg from obvious pain. Thankfully, he didn't have much farther to go, for in front of him the doorway to the outside—and potential safety—stood in all its glory. He began to hobble across the foyer, the sounds of the creatures still all around him. Luna looked, and saw that other than right in front of him, the stallion was completely surrounded by the creatures. Limping feebly, he somehow made it to the door in front of him—the peeling paint and cracked wood the only thing between him and his salvation. The stallion put his injured foreleg against the door, and with whatever strength he could gather, pressed it open.
He fell into the creature on the other side.
The stallion had no chance of escape. As soon as he realized what had happened, he was already thrown on his back. Struggling with the first in a useless attempt at escaping, several more of them moved in, and aided in pinning the stallion. For as terrible as it was, Luna was grateful that they hid his body, the sounds of ripping flesh and snapping bone filling the air.
There was nothing that she could do, and sadly, she found herself listening to the dozens upon dozens of bright red apples feast on the pony below.
“AAAAHHHHHH!!!!!” the stallion yelled, sitting up in his bed suddenly. The sudden motion threw Luna off balance, the mare stumbling slightly backwards into the deepest shadows of the room. The only light in the entire room was the dim light of her horn, the light casting a terrifying blue shade across her features. The crimson pony turned towards her, and with his scream raising an octave higher, continued his overpowering panic-attack.
She herself was panicking at his reaction. The urge to run overpowering every other instinct, she quickly turned back into a mist in the night, and darted into the sky. All the while, that blood-curdling scream continued, the lights of the house behind her flickering on being the last things she heard and saw of the residence.
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Rap joke
I don't get the chapter title.
HELP ME
i50.tinypic.com/9k87ly.gif
Aww, I thought this would be a chapter about Luna gobbling up ponies in their sleep!
Pinkie: NIGHTMARE MOON'S GOBBLING PIP!! AGAIN!! FOR REAL THIS TIME!!!
1835684 I swear, I'm not insulting rap in the slightest... maybe. Though you do have to admit, imagine someone living in 1000AD hearing rap music
1835732 Hmm... I guess it was too subtle. Here's the crappy punchline to the entire chapter:
1835920 Never!!!
1835980 Nope! Luna would never do that. Never...
I thought this was supposed to be a comedy!!! That chapter was waaaaay grimdark!
1836225 Yeah. I promise this is the only one like this. The rest of the story is a bunch of poop jokes and fart puns.
Just thinking of all those apples you've eaten over the years eating you. And you owning an apple orchard.
Now that is a nightmare.
Dark in dreams is one thing, but that implies a whole world of unpleasantness! That said, I'm enjoying the story, keep up the good work.
1837166 Pretty much. My nightmares are just blackness, with the endless cackle of my general manager laughing in the background being the only sound. Damn... I hate that bitch.
1838642 Yeah... Luna has a fairly dark past. Especially when it comes to when she was Nightmare Moon.
I know this is supposed to take place prior to season 3, but shouldn't Luna still be able to interact with dreams? She did so with Scootaloo.
1838782 I can't say exactly why, but no more than she can do right now. Remember, she's going into the dreams by using a spell in a way that it was never intended to be used in.
We can assume that this story takes place sometime after a friend in deed and ponyville confidential because of the painting on the barn, right?
I hope Luna goes into a CMC member's dream soon, that is sure to be funny, and not dark like Big Mac's dream.
Heh. Reminds me of an old Spongebob episode.
1847987 It would be most accurate to say that it takes place in between season 2 and 3.
1850293 The one where they go off the continental shelf?
1850539
The one where he gets eaten by giant krabby patties in his dreams.
1851893 Don't think I've ever seen that one...
Okay. So Zecora was dreaming of victory over a challenge -- in fact, a false challenge. Big Mac seems to have been having burnout dreams, the stress of his job literally killing his family. What's next?
1869531 You're looking too much into this story. If there is something important in the story, I'll make sure it is pointed out
I'm not that subtle
It's an odd feeling allright? You're reading this story right? Your heart is beating like crazy and you imagine these wretched creatures of flesh hunting Big Mac in the endless hallway.
Then the dead bodies of Applejack and Apple Bloom, both of whom are my top favorite characters (Applejack is the best pony!
) send chills down your spine and some intense heart pounding action with Big Mac desperately fighting the horrifying creatures glue your eyes on the text...
AND THEN IT TURNS OUT THE MONSTERS WERE GIANT APPLES ALL ALONG!
But I had already read it in terror and then it was too late for it to be ruined!
Well, it's like Stephen King said: it's the unknown that makes us scared.
And leaving the readers with vague descriptions of the monsters just lets our imaginations make them the most horrifying things possible!
I'm not sure but you might have unintentionally written some really great horror there!
How about writing a good horror fic sometime?
1835980 What was Pinkie doing in Pip's nightmare anyway?
Ug! Ugga ugga ug ug! Ugga ugga ug ug ug! UGUGUGUG! UGGA! Hehehe. Zug zug.
hehe... the CORE of the property. I see what you did there
I THOUGHT THIS HAD THE COMEDY TAG, NOT THE SUPER SCARY STUFF TAG
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH
But seriously that was actually pretty scary
aw sheeeeeeeeep
'tis reminded me of playing Amnesia
There's a lot of tragedy and dark in this one! Loved it! And when the gore was about to start, and the monsters were apples... GENIUS! Keep up the good work!
Expecting More!
... And the next morning, Big Mac promptly bashed all the apples into apple sauce, uprooted the entire orchard, chopped it into kindling, and replaced everything with banana trees. The nightmares did not return and all was right with the world.
Until Celestia found out.
Do you like, mmmmm, bananas?