//------------------------------// // The Nightmare // Story: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic -- Off The Record // by The King of Hearts //------------------------------// //// The Nightmare //// A portal opened into the final dream, and within a second, the first foot came through, and stepped on to the grass. Dash almost lost her balance as she walked through the doorway, as her body had been transformed into it’s human version. “Geez!” Dash said, wobbling forward on her shaky legs, as she rapidly gained her balance once again, “I guess it makes sense that we’d be like this in here.” “Woah!” Two voices came from behind her, as both Trixie and Aurora tumbled to the grassy ground, both butt naked, just as Dash had been her first time in the human world. “What the heck is going on?!” The once-blue mare asked, looking at her hands, as she wiggled her fingers, “I-I don’t—“ Aurora only blinked rapidly, as she tried to work out the same information. “We’re in Alex’s dream!” Dash said, kneeling and patting Trixie on the head, “He dreams this way sometimes.” “What are we supposed to do?” Trixie asked, “Just because you can do it, doesn’t mean I’m going to be able to walk around on two legs any time soon!” “I hate to say it… but I don’t think I can either.” Aurora said, patting her face with her new fingers. “Just change back,” Dash shrugged, “Here, I’ll do it for you.” A quick zap through her hand, changed the two back in to their pony versions, “Okay, now lets get to work. We need to find Alex.” Trixie and Aurora took no time in righting themselves, as they both looked around the human world. “Why does everything look this way?” Trixie asked, looking around the forested area with a squint, “It’s so… detailed. Like one of those weird art pieces you’d see in Canterlot.” Aurora nodded, as she leaned down to examine the grass at her feet, “It smells the same though.” Dash looked around the area, and saw that they were in a small clearing completely surrounded by trees. Something she had seen more than once upon entering this world. “I’m going to do a lap, and see just where the heck we are.” Dash said, picking a picking a direction and taking off, showing off her expertise with both of her legs. “It’s a good thing she came along,” Aurora said, looking up as she walked over toward the direction Dash had just run off in, “I don’t think we would have had much luck wobbling around on two legs. “No kidding,” Trixie said, joining her at the edge of the clearing they stood in, “Although, I wonder why everypony had their nightmare in Ponyville, but Alex is having his in the human world.” “It’s all made by Twilight.” Aurora said, “Everything was made to manipulate everypony… she just chose what setting would work best to have them reach her end.” “I hope he’s okay,” She muttered. //// Alex sat on the side of the road, his body frozen in place as he watched the four way stop in front of him. Because Alex wasn’t associated with any one job in Ponyville, Twilight had little luck in her manipulation of him. He always found a way to not be completely miserable wherever he was stuck. So, after several failures, she used the nuclear option, and placed him back in the human world. Now, he was forced to sit on the side of the road, and watch as a drunk driver in semi-truck blindsided his parents as they drove his truck through the intersection, which led to their instant deaths. However, a lingering voice existed each time he watched the accident happen. “You can end all of this.” It was right of course. He could end this. In front of him, on a tree stump, sat a Smith and Wesson Model 500. His fathers ridiculously sized magnum. He had purchased it years ago, despite owning nothing more than a double barrel shotgun, just so he could show it off to Chet, and shoot cans in their backyard. But now, Alex was offered the weapon. And every time he reached for it, the semi-truck would slow down, and stop right in front of him, giving him a perfect shot to kill the driver. His mind was clouded, just as his friends had been in their own dreams, but the mental stress he was experiencing was one hundred fold. He wanted to leave, but was convinced that he had to stay where he was. He couldn’t recall why, however. All he knew, was that he could escape this hell by doing one thing. The gun that had sat in front of him had gradually gotten more and more tempting to lift as time passed, and he found himself holding it for longer and longer periods. “One shot…” He muttered, spinning the chamber before snapping it back into position, and pulling the hammer back, “And I’m free…” He lined up the sight, at the driver who sat just feet away from him. “It’d be so easy…” he muttered, “But… “I can’t…” Opening the chamber once again, he pulled the trigger, resetting the hammer. “I just can’t.” He then watched as the truck regained its speed, drove for another thirty seconds, ran through a stop sign, and then crashed into the truck occupied by his parents. Luckily for him, no matter how foggy his head was, he was still able to close his eyes. Unluckily for him, however, all of this took place weeks before Dash, Trixie and Aurora came looking for him. //// “There isn’t very much area to this dream,” Dash said to the girls as she ran back to them, panting slightly “I couldn’t even reach Alex’s house before the world just… stopped. It looks like the only way we can go, is down the main road just over there.” The two nodded, and instantly began walking along with her. “He’s got to be somewhere close,” Trixie said, “It seemed like you covered a lot of area already running over toward his house.” “I don’t think any dream we’ve entered has been any bigger than Ponyville,” Aurora agreed, curiously observing Dash as she walked on her two legs. “Still,” Dash shook her head, “From where you said you picked up Fluttershy, all the way back to her cottage is a pretty big area. She lives a small distance outside of Ponyville, after all.” “Maybe we would split up?” Aurora offered, looking between them, “Then make a bunch of noise when one of us finds him?” “I’d rather we stuck together,” Trixie admitted, “There’s something off about this place. I’d really rather not be alone.” “Yeah,” the other two agreed at once. “Oh, duh!” The blue unicorn laughed, looking to Rainbow Dash, “It might be easier if you turned back in to a pegasus, don’t you think?” “Oh!” Dash’s face lit up, “Yeah!” The other two laughed at the obvious suggestion that had been missed. “I could find him in ten seconds fla—“ Before she could finish the sentence, a loud bang sounded out through the trees, snapping their attention to the right. “What was that?” Aurora asked, having never heard a sound quite like that before. “I’m not sure,” Trixie shook her head, looking to Dash for an answer, “It kinda sounded like a cannon being fired.” “I think that was a gun,” She muttered, her expression showing that she had some knowledge of whatever they were, “Alex talked about them a bit, and I remember seeing them in movies.” “What’s a gun do?” Aurora asked, as they began running in the direction of the shot. “It like, shoots out little pieces of metal really fast, that will pierce right through your body. They work at pretty long distances.” She explained, grimacing at the horrible premise of such an instrument, “It was made for humans to kill animals… or each other.” “Equestria has magic, Earth has guns…” Trixie muttered. “Oh!” Dash said, rushing toward the edge of the trees in front of them, “I can see a truck! It’s that big metal car up there!” The three wasted no time breaking out of the forest, and were all greeted with a sight they hadn’t expected. Alex was standing, holding the magnum in his hand, while laughing out loud to himself. “What?!” He shouted at the sky, tears streaming down his face, having not seen his friends yet, “You weren’t expecting me to try and put a bullet in my own head?! Ha! Well you can bet that I’m surprised to still be alive! I guess I’m just no good to you dead!” His laughter continued, as his body shook violently from the experience, “I don’t know what world you live in, to think that I’m going to shoot some guy, just because he accidentally kills my parents, drunk or fucking not!” The girls were all too shocked to say anything. Not only had Alex just tried to commit suicide, but he did so to protect the man who killed his parents. “What the hell is wrong with you!?” He continued, firing off another deafening shot from his hand cannon into the sky, “Forcing me to watch my parents die hundreds of times? Thousands? Just so you could see me do something selfish? Well I have great news for you, you fucking chaotic cunt! When I get out of this hell, I’m going to rip you out of Twilight, and I’m going to burn you alive! Now that’s something selfish!” As he shouted, the black outline of a necklace appeared around his neck, and when he looked down and realized it was there, he reached up with his left hand, gripped it, and ripped it off himself. “Guess your plan didn’t work out, did it?” He yelled, throwing the gun down the road as hard as he could, “Well, bring on whatever you’ve got for me next!” Nothing followed. No voice on the wind. Just silence. “That’s what I thought. Fuck you.” He growled, spitting on the ground, as the gun on the road, along with the truck, and his parents vehicle vanished, leaving him, and the three mares standing on opposite sides of the road. Alex instantly noticed the them as he looked down from the sky, and felt his heart drop into his chest. “D-Dash!” He asked, his eyes wide with excitement, and his voice shaking from the rush of adrenaline still pumping through his body. “I- What- How did you get here?” “Trixie and Aurora… we just got here…” She said slowly, looking around the area, “Did she make you—“ Immediately, Alex was filled with regret. “Listen,” Alex said instantly, his tone lowered infinitely from where it had just been, as he staggered toward them, “I know that looked… bad…” He stumbled, trying to piece together what he had just exposed them to, “I know I don’t usually get mad! But- this needed to be said! And-and I… oh god… you don’t know what she made me sit through…” “Alex.” Dash said, “Did she make you watch your mom and dad die over and over?” “Yes!” He shouted, his knees giving away as he broke down on the grass, “Jesus fucking Christ… she- she’s spent the last month forcing me to watch it! Over and over and over and over and fucking over!” Dash wasted no time rushing over to him, as she wrapped her arms around him. “She wanted me to shoot the guy that killed my parents... if I had known it was a dream, I would have just done it!” He said, his right hand covering his face in a vein attempt to hide the emotion he was displaying, “But she messed with my head… I thought… time wasn’t going to stop giving me chances, until I took one.” “It’s okay,” Dash said, shaking her head as she placed her hands on his cheeks, “You beat her! You didn’t break! You’re strong—” Alex exhaled and shook his head loud enough to silence her, “I wanted to though. I really wanted to. I was dying to just shoot the bastard in the head five times so I could go home! So I could get back to you!” “But you didn’t!“ “I wanted to!” He shouted again. “And after being forced to watch for so long… I realized that shooting him wasn’t the only escape from this hell…” He continued, removing his hand from his face, and looking up to Dash with his red eyes and runny nose, “I could kill myself! And escape the world without any guilt!” Dash suddenly breathed in, and held her breath. “It took me weeks to get up the guts… and up until five minutes ago, I was convinced that I was about to die!” He said, biting his finger for a moment, laughing to himself in a horrified way, “And now, here I am, being held in your arms, free from that fucking whore… how could so much happen so quickly?” "This is all in your head, Alex." She said softly, "Everything that's happened to you has only taken place over the past five minutes in the real world." Alex didn't answer, it clearly wasn't information that mattered to him at this point. Still, any doubt she had in his use of language was gone at this point. After all, he wasn’t being booed in Ponyville, or forced to work on the Apple farm. This was something else entirely. And while she didn’t know why he was treated so horribly compared to the others, it clearly had a profound effect. One that none of them could have anticipated. “Listen, Alex…” Dash said softly, leaning in and kissing his cheek softly, “Trixie and Aurora have a plan to stop Twilight. And now that you’re free from her spell, they can finally take the final step.” “Final… step?” He asked, still overloaded by the situation. “I know this is short notice, but we don’t have time to waste right now,” Dash said as comfortingly as she could, “You’re going to wake up in a couple of minutes. And when you do, you need to attack Twilight with everything you have to weaken her.” “Shouldn’t we… or he… be careful?” Trixie spoke up, her heart still pounding in her chest, “Twilight is pregnant, after all.” “Her weakened state is caused by that baby,” Aurora said, coughing quietly before she continued, “Her body is dedicating tons of magic to keep it safe without Twilight’s say. We could stab her through the heart, and the baby would be just fine.” “That’s… a little dark.” Dash said to her. “It’s dark, but it’s true.” She said, “It doesn’t matter what we do to Twilight right now, because once her dark side is… neutralized, that body will vanish, damage and all, and be replaced by her normal form, in perfect health. Again, that’s because of the magic dedicated to her baby.” “So…” Alex said, blinking a couple of times, “I’ll just wake up, and attack her? What… what about the anti magic field?” “It’s gone,” Aurora answered, “I did that before I came into your dreams.” “Okay.” He muttered. “So?” Dash asked, reluctantly releasing Alex from her embrace, “What should we do?” “Go back to your body and wait,” Aurora answered, “We’ll—“ “No!” Alex said suddenly, reaching out to grab Dash’s arm, “Please don’t…” “Alex,” The yellow unicorn said, leaving Trixie’s side to approach him, “We’ll be here with you until you wake up.” “But… I don’t know what I’m going to do, after I wake up.” He said, blinking rapidly, “When I finally see Twilight, I might lose control of myself.” “That won’t happen.” Aurora said comfortingly, her horn beginning to glow faintly. “I don’t agree.” He said, almost laughing at how sure she was, “I might just kill her… long before she changes back to her normal—“ Then, a spark of magic arced from Aurora’s head, into Alex’s, causing him to pass out. Trixie and Dash both gasped. “What did you do?!” Dash shouted, rushing over to him once again. She sighed softly. “He can’t remember this, Dash. He can’t.” Aurora said, shaking her head firmly, “I’ve wiped every memory his brain has accumulated over the last couple months… or minutes, depending on how you look at it. If he could remember what he just went through, he wouldn’t be the same ever again.” Dash sighed and fought back tears of her own. She knew the mare was right… but that didn’t make it right. “O-Okay…” Dash said, wasting no time in creating a portal back to her own mind, “Let’s just get this over with, okay? I want to spend some time holding Alex when this is all over with.” Aurora only nodded to her as Dash stepped through the portal, and vanished from the area. Trixie stepped forward and looked down at Alex, sighing softly as she knelt down to dry his exposed human cheek. “I’d hate to see what would happen to you if you lost Dash.” ////