//------------------------------//
// Chapter 8: ...There's Still Time To Play 
// Story: The Colt of Fire and Lightning 
// by ShagPony 
//------------------------------//

I wanna make some sort of reference here but I can’t think of one.



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(Mason’s Pov)


I was running.

I was running from something that wanted me dead. It wanted to take me and eat my guts out. 

So I ran.

I ran as fast as my feet could carry me through the never ending hallway of grey. It was dark, barely even lit, and nothing painted the walls that surrounded me. It was like the entire hallway were made of metal and it only went straight.

And it also turns out I can still dream of myself as a human, of course I was a human for 10 years of my life so why not. But even so, this thing still haunts me and it's drawing closer.

I can still hear the music coming from behind me.

I turned the only corner of the hallway at full speed, breathing heavily, only to run into a dead end with only two doors on either side. I turned my head to listen for the monstrosity that was chasing me.

I heard the faint tune it was singing.

I panicked and went into the first room on my right and shut the door behind me. I backed up into the darkness of the room or whatever I was in, hoping to be hidden for what was outside.

I heard the tune it was humming, coming closer until it was outside the door. And then it stopped.

I held my breath in fear, thinking the moment I took it, the thing would come and grab me and drag me off to nothingness.

It was quiet.

I took a breath thinking I had finally lost it. Man that was close, it had almost-

“I love you~….”

I froze and slowly lifted my head to where I think the door was with fear.

“You love me~….”

It found me. I started quietly saying ‘no’ as I backed against the wall, praying that it hadn't found me.

“We’re a happy family~!”

Just then, the door bursts open sending splinters of wood at me as the creepiest and most fearing monster came into the room.

Barney.

The monstrosity known as Barney laughed his evil and diabolical chuckle as he flailed his hands here and there. I shouted in fear as my body shook.

“Haha, you're my bestest frieeend.” Barney said stepping forward.

“No,” I shouted at the purple monster, “I'm not your best friend Barney!”

Barney stopped flailing his hands and looked to me. Then shrugged. “But why pal?”

“Because, ever since my friend told me that horrific story, you have never been the same to me!” I shouted while trying to press myself into the wall as far as it would let me.

“Awww,” Barney said in disappointment, “guess you won't like the friend that I brought with me today.”

I then confusingly raised an eyebrow to this being in front of me. “Who did you bring?”

My question at the sound of grinding metal and clanking footsteps coming from outside the door. Then a metal hook came out from behind the door frame. My eyes widen in realization and fear as I knew who it was.

“No.”

A snout with sharp teeth then appeared after.

“No god, please no!”

Then a foxes head with an eye patch appeared and looked at me with an open maw. Foxy the Pirate.

“You are a pirate….”

“Noooooo!” I shouted to the heavens with my eyes closed as he started dancing.

“YAR-HAR-FIDDLE-DEE-DEE!”

I started screaming as the loud and annoying song started playing. I mean I used to like the song but after have heard it over thirty times, it gets annoying.

Then all of us went silent with wide eyes as a loud boom echoed through the room and everything became lit by a bright light.

“FOUL NIGHTMARE, LEAVE THIS CHILD IMMEDIATELY!”

Then a blast of blue energy came out from the heavens and blasted Barney and the dancing Foxy away to oblivion. Went it was all done, Luna came out from the sky gracefully and gently landed next to me.

“A-art thou a-alright Mason.” Luna asked while for some reason trying to keep a straight face and biting her lip.

“Yeah, thanks for doing that Luna.” I said with a smile.

“Oh it truly was nothing Mason,” Luna then gave a soft snort and took a deep breath to collect herself, “it is my job to make sure all colts and fillies have good dreams.”

I eyed Luna when she made that snort sound. It's almost as if she were laughing at something but what?

….

I deadpanned at Luna. “You watched the whole thing before coming in now didn't you.”

Luna’s snout scrunched up and looked off to the side. “Nooo, I have no idea what thou are talking about.”

Oh yeah she's definitely guilty.

I crossed my arms in a pouted while glaring at Luna. “I can’t believe you watched all that!”

Luna, not being able to keep it in any longer, bursted in laughter as I blushed in embarrassment. After Luna collected herself, she looked to me with a smile. “Oh I'm sorry Mason but I couldn't really tell if it was a nightmare even though my magic said otherwise.”

I pouted more at Luna. “I can't help it if my nightmares are weird.”

Luna smiled as she came to nuzzle me. “I'm sorry Mason, I'll be sure to get rid of any nightmares you might have, no matter how weird they are.”

I uncrossed my arms and put on a smile of my own and nodded. I took a good look at Luna and frowned a little. Even as a human Luna is still bigger than me, I barely even reached her shoulders.

Luna then looked around the now lit room we were in and looked back to me.

“So….this is what thou looked like in your world.”

I nodded as I looked at my hands. “Yeah, this is the real me under all that mane and fur.”

Luna then laid herself down next to me. “Well I must say, thou are cuter in this form then thou was as a colt.”

I blushed and scrunched up my face. “I'm not cute! I'm devilishly handsome! And why do you keep saying thou?!”

Luna chuckled at my antics. “To me I think it's more of devilishly cute, and to answer your question, it is because I tend to talk like that in the dream realm, but I can stop doing as such.”

I nodded then looked around feeling quite bored and looked back to Luna. “So….what now?”

Luna then smirked and leaned in closer to me. “Now….we have some fun. This is your dream after all Mason, and now that I'm here, you can do more than what you could before.”

I pondered this. What do I want to do? My face brightened up when an idea came to mind. “Well, there is one thing I've always wanted to try.”

Luna smiled and lit up her horn. “And pray tell what did you have in mind?”



**********


I scaled the massive cliff with all the strength I had in my muscles. Taking a breather of climbing so much, I looked around to find any faster routes to the top. Spotting a few holes and cracks in the earth, I took in a few breaths and jumped to the holes grabbing them with ease.

After what felt like hours of climbing, I finally reached the top and what laid ahead of me took my breath away. It was a vast paradise that spread on for miles as far as I could see. The scene of trees, waterfalls, and the sounds of wildlife made it look stunning. It was absolutely beautiful.

But I wasn't after this paradise, I was after something in the middle of it. An abandoned temple with treasure waiting to be found.

Wasting no time I ventured through the foliage of the jungle to reach it. After some time and no trouble delaying my travel, I made it to the large door of the temple. It was big, completely made out of dirty stone and vines, almost all of it was taken over by nature do to it being abandoned for so long. Of course that's expected of an old temple.

The temple was almost like a pyramid, except on the top was like a small building but partial of it was crumbled to nothing along with what looked like old pillars on the four corners of it. Pretty sure this temple had a specific name but I couldn't remember what it was called.

Shrugging my shoulders I ventured into the temple. Before I did I remembered I had brought something with me. Reaching into a leather pouch near my back pocket, I took out a notebook and wrote down some notes and a picture of the temple. When I was done, I put it back in the pouch and walked to the door of the temple. Like any other abandoned temple or building, it was dark, very dark. I took out my flashlight and clicked the button. Immediately the darkness was gone, replaced by the light of my flashlight.

After some time of walking and taking notes of the old writings and drawings on the wall, I continued my way through the passageways of the temple, looking for anything that might lead me to the treasure. After a while, I frowned for not finding anything, that is until I passed a hallway with light coming from it.

Curiously I made my way into it. When I came to the end of it, I found myself in a room with what looked like a puzzle in front of me. I put my hands on my hips and bit my lower lip, studying the puzzle carefully. The puzzle consisted of many symbols that could be turned into a paticular area, probably to unlock the door. After taking a good look at it again I rubbed my hands together.

“Let's get to it.”



**********


After some hard work and more than five tries I finally got the puzzle complete. Turning the last piece, I heard some satisfying clicks and turns and then the sound of a large old lock being unlocked.

I pressed against the stone doors and pushed them open with all my might. Eventually after some more effort the doors cracked open and then fully, leading me into a room that made my jaw drop to the floor.

It was a large room, made entirely out of stone, obviously, with an occasion of dirt peeking out the walls and roof that collapsed from age. It was also held up by three supports with one being nothing but a stump of stone.

But at the very end was a pile of gold and lots of it. I took my time walking to the large pile at the end of the room. Before I picked one of the coins I stopped myself from stepping on a suspicious slab.

“Looks like a trap no doubt.” I said aloud.

Stepping around the slab I then picked up a coin and inspected it. My inspection was short lived when I felt a presence behind me. Whirling around and drawing my hand in the form of a gun, I aimed at the one person that I did not want to see. Standing in a camouflage uniform with tan skin and black hair with hands on her hips was my number one enemy.

General Luna, along with her goons who were all pointing their own hands at me.

Luna put on a smug grin. “Well, well, if it isn't the number one pain in my side, Mason the archeologist.”

Still holding my hand out, I made a smirk of my own. “And if it isn't General Luna and her goons, whom I should say make great target practice.”

Luna’s smirk became more smug as she gestured a hand to her goons. “Well as you can see Mason, it is you who has become the target, that is if you surrender.”

Tightening the grip of my fingers in my palm, I looked at the eight goons behind Luna who all had their sights on me. After some tense waiting I sighed and dropped my gun to the side, but carefully placed the coin down on the ground as well and put my hands up in surrender.

Luna gave a toothy smile and gestured a hand to herself. “Now come down from my treasure, slowly.”

With nothing else to do, I took slow steps down to Luna whose smile kept getting bigger. When I came face to face with her, she told two of her goons to grab my arms and pulled me off to the side while three more went to the treasure.

Luna looked to the treasure with a grin. “I must say Mason, you did a fine job of leaving the door wide open for us to the treasure, if it weren't for you we would have not found this.”

“What can I say,” I said with the goons still holding my arms, “I like a little action.”

Luna looked back to me. “Well, while I do like action myself, you should know by now that this action always results in you being captured and me getting what I want.”

“Yes.” I started while looking at the empty holster to the goon on my right. I smirked. “But sometimes when you come into an old temple for treasure this size, you always have to watch where you step.”

Luna looked back at me with a raised eyebrow. She then narrowed her eyes at my smirk and looked to one of her goons who walked to pick up the coin I set down. Unknown to him, he was walking right over to the slab that would start a trap.

Luna then became shocked and quickly tried to stop him.

“Stop.”

She was too late. The goon stepped on the pressure plate and activated the trap. For a few seconds nothing happened. Then the entire temple shook and rumbled making Luna and her goons stop and look around.

Taking this to my advantage, I stomped on the left goons foot making him loosen his grip which I quickly took my arm out of. With my free arm I used my elbow to knock the air out of him. With him out of the way I formed my hand into a fist and punch the other goon in the face making him stumble back and letting go of my arm.

With both my arms free I quickly went to the goon still dazed from my punch and grabbed his empty holster which I quickly formed my hand into a gun. Most of the goons now recovering from the temples rumbles and shakes took aim at me. Before they took the first shot I fired my hand near them, forcing them to drop aim and take cover which allowed me to take cover.

At this point part of the room was falling to rubble which indicated my most hated trap. I hate the ones that take you, but I despise the ones that take you and the temple and treasure with it.

I looked from my cover and saw Luna herself look from her cover. She glared at me and growled to her goons.

“Stop him! Do not let him get away with this!”

The goons taking her order, got out from their cover and opened fire. Waiting for most of them to stop and reload, got out from my cover and opened fire on two of the goons that didn't get to cover.

"PEW-PEW-PEW!" I shouted as I did a pretend kick back with my hand. I made several more gun sounds until I downed the two goons.

This gun fight went on for far longer than I liked with all the 'pew-pews' and the 'kraaaa-ka-ka'. The temple rumbled and shook even more making more of its stone fall and collapse. Not wanting to stay any longer I ran from my cover while yelling 'too-too-pew-pew' at the cover of the enemies so they would stay there. As soon as my weapon ran out of ammo I had already reached the door and wasted no time running through it.

To say that the collapsing hallway wasn't good was an understatement. It was worse running through it than it was in the room but I didn't not stop nor falter. With a few more minutes of turning and running I finally reached the stairs that lead outside.

I sprinted faster after a bigger rumble shook the temple and the sound of falling rock hit the ground behind me. When I reached the top of the stairs I dove out of the entrance just as it collapsed.

Coughing up the dust, I shook my head to clear my thoughts. I was brought back to earth when I heard a groan to the left of me. Turning to my left my eyes widen when I saw Luna still alive and not buried in the temple.

My attention was then drawn to people making a gun cocking sound. Turning I saw more of her goons aiming their hands in my direction. I'm pretty sure one was doing something with his hands that made it look like a RPG. How the heck is that fair. Not wanting to get shot, I got up and dived towards a nearby jeep and pressed my back against it. I peeked out just enough to see the others help Luna up.

Not wanting to stay long I looked around to find something to help my escape and I found it. Luna had made some very specific jeeps ranging from regular ones, to cargo, to explosive caring jeeps. The jeep I was taking cover with was one for explosives.

Opening the door I looked at arsenal of explosives to find something of use and then found an empty belt filled with grenades. Taking the belt I peeked from the jeep to see the goons advancing. What really caught my attention was a few explosive barrels near the other jeeps.

I rolled my eyes. ‘Idiots.’

Making a 'tink' sound which indicates me pulling the pin, I tossed them near the barrels and took cover. I cupped my hands around my mouth and made an loud explosion sound which caused all the goons to dive to the ground and scream. One even exaggerated his acting by saying 'I'm burning'. Nonetheless it gave me the time to run towards the trees. By the time I entered the jungle some of the men started shooting again but I was already gone. I then scaled a steep rock hill and took a glance at the temple where some of the other men were comically acting dead and heard a shout of anger.

“CURSE YOU MASOOON!” shouted an angry Luna.

Smirking to my job well done, I turned to leave until a crossed arm and smiling Luna appeared in front of me making me jump in fright.

“I must say Mason, that was really fun,” Luna's smile then faltered a bit, “but it's going to have to stop here.”

Sensing her seriousness, I looked at her with a frown. “Aww really, I was having so much fun.”

Luna smiled and in a fume of smoke turned back to her pony self while the scenery changed and I shrunk from 40 year old man to a ten year old boy.

“As much as I had fun in this...uncharted business, it's time for you to wake up Mason.”

When I was done shrinking and the scene turned to a white room, I stared at Luna confusingly. “You can detect when it's time for me to wake up?”

Luna nodded with a smile. “Yes Mason, sometimes I will be so busy in the realm of dreams that I stay in them until morning. So I use some magic to detect when it's morning so I can come out of the realm, get something to eat, and then head to bed.”

I nodded and then smiled. “Will you come into my dreams for another night?”

Luna smiled warmly at me. “If I'm not to busy with other nightmares I just might. But be sure to have more fun for me okay.”

I nodded. “I will.”

I then got up and hugged Luna catching her by surprise. “Thanks for doing this with me Luna, you're a fun friend to have.”

I felt Luna falter a moment and then tightly wrapped her wings around me in a hug. “You as well Mason, now.”

Luna ended the embrace and lit up her horn. “It's time to wake up.” and touched my head.



**********


I slowly opened my eyes to find myself in the warmest and softest bed ever. The sound of a cheery voice opulent me from my thoughts of this bed.

“Wakey, wakey Masey.”

I lifted my head to see Pinkie standing off to my side of the bed with a soft smile.

“Pinkie,” I said with a yawn and rubbing the sleep from my eyes, “what time is it?”

“It's 7:40 at the moment.” Pinkie softly said.

I looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “Why did you wake me so early.”

Pinkie giggled and walked to the door. “Because today Mason, you are going to school.”

It took me a while to ponder her words and when they did I groaned loudly and let my head fall on the pillow, which was followed by another giggle from Pinkie.