//------------------------------// // Facing the Nightmare // Story: Sonic and Equestria Girls: Journey into Dreams // by SonicAKG //------------------------------// Facing the Nightmare NiGHTS floated in the center, surrounded by the Ideya and Sonic and the group. They then turned ahead of them and formed a look of determination. "Ok, now let's head to Nightmare!" They declared as they pointed ahead. The moment they said that, Sonic and the others began to glow again the color of their respective Ideya and they slowly began to rise up in the air towards NiGHTS. They each examined what was happening to them with curiosity. "This feels so natural" Tails observed. "Is this what it feels like whenever you guys pony up?" Manic asked Fluttershy "Sort of. But this is different...somehow. I just can't explain it." Fluttershy responded, trying to understand what was happening. "Of course, you can't silly! It's a dream! You can't explain dreams!"Pinkie yelled. "Ok, then let's go!" Sonic announced. Rarity thought about her time in Nightmare and she looked down with an uneasy expression. Silver noticed this and he floated closer to her. "Rarity? What's wrong?" He asked. Rarity sighed. "It's just that, I was in that awful place from before and I'm not too keen on going back. I know we have to, but..." She explained as she rubbed her arm. "Hey, this time, there's nothing to be afraid of. You're with us, remember? " He said reassuringly with a smile. Rarity managed to form a small smile and her worried expression began to fade. "You're right about that. Thank you, Silver." Rarity then looked forward with a serious look while Silver's expression changed to a focused one as he clenched his fist. NiGHTS took the lead and looked straight ahead towards Nightmare. NiGHTS dispersed the Ideya, making it surround Sonic and the rest instead of just them. After it did, the aura's they were enveloped in became larger and all of them suddenly burst forward as beams of light, leaving a trail throughout the road. The speed they were traveling even impressed Sonic. The immediately entered the dark void that was Nightmare in no time. In Nightmare, Wizeman sensed a disturbance as his body stopped glowing and he raised his head. Reala noticed this and he looked up to his master. "Master Wizman, what is the matter?" Reala asked. "Our visitors have entered Nightmare. And this power with them.....it's..Ideya!" Wizeman realized, shocking Reala. "Ideya?! But how?! Only dreamers possess Ideya!" Reala responded. "I do not know, but the fact that they have it troubles me." Wizeman said. "Master, there is no need. They may have Ideya, but you have these 7 emeralds! Ideya pales in comparison. You know it as well. I assure you, you won't have to deal with them. I shall finish them off myself!" Reala announced and he prepared to take his leave. "Wait, Reala. Do not underestimate them, especially NiGHTS." Wizeman warned. "Have no fear." Reala said with a bow. He then vanished in a white flash. Throughout Nightmare, NiGHTS and the team couldn't see anything. It was a completely dark fog. The only light there was the one they had given off. "We can't see a thing! Hey NiGHTS, you know the way to Wizeman, right?" Knuckles asked. "Oh well, uhh, not really..." NiGHTS responded nervously as they rubbed the back of their head. "What? But haven't you been here before?!" Knuckles yelled. "Attention to details isn't exactly my strong point." NiGHTS admitted, making Knuckles groan. "I'm tired of just wanderin' around. Let's hope we find Wizeman quickly." AppleJack said. "You won't get the chance!" Reala's voice echoed throughout the area, stopping everyone in their tracks. "That voice...Reala!" NiGHTS said. "Hahahahahahaha!" Suddenly, the area began to flash rapidly the colors of the seven different emeralds. Sonic and the others covered their eyes to avoid the blinding lights except for Pinkie who looked on as her eyes began to flash the colors as well. She was stuck in a trance with a silly smile on her face. Shadow then covered her eyes with his free hand. When the light died, the location had changed. The group was now in a place with a starry night sky and dark brown misty clouds. Above them was a glowing giant red symbol. It had two three-fingered hands with black highlights coming to grip a red crescent moon at the top. The center resembled a shadowed version of Reala, lacking his facial features and looking much more menacing. The bottom was a red ring decorated with black symbols. There were black floating goblets with red flames around. The bottom was a red and black floor, like a checker board. Coming out of it, were black and red curved hills, looking quite sharp. In the center, one hill looked like a throne with golden spikes coming out from behind it and it resembled Reala's jester hat. Sitting in it, was Reala, with his fingers locked and legs crossed. "Welcome, visitors. And my dear sibling." Reala said as he rose from the throne. His eyes then landed on Rarity, who glared at him. "Such a shame you had to defect, my dear. If you had stayed with us, it would have been much better for you." Reala said. "Oh please. You couldn't stand me when I was with you." Rarity responded, making Reala chuckle. "True. But now, you all will pay for defying Master Wizeman." Reala said as he began to tap his mask. "Take a look at my mask, NiGHTS. Notice anything different?" All of them noticed the flashing colors on Reala's mask. Shadow's eyes widened when he realized why. "Those colors..I'm sensing...Chaos energy coming from him!" Shadow pointed out. "Very good!"Reala said as he began to mockingly clap. "Master Wizeman as we now speak is preparing to use the emeralds to take over Nightopia. He has now bestowed me with a fraction of his power. With this, I'll crush you all in an instant." "What?!" NiGHTS exclaimed with a horrified expression. "We have to stop him!" "You won't get the chance! As long as you have me to deal with!" Reala said. "We can't stay here and fight him. By the time we're done, Wizeman could have already moved on to our world." Sunset explained. "Then leave this to me." Shadow suddenly said, making everyone turn to him. They looked at him as if he had said the stupidest thing in his life. "What?! You can't stay here alone." Rainbow Dash said. "Yeah ,Shady! He has all his freaky powers and the emeralds as well!" Pinkie yelled. "Hmph. I am the Ultimate Lifeform! Besides, I have this Ideya power now as well. Anyway, I owe him one." Shadow insisted. "What are you waiting for? Go on!" Everyone, especially Pinkie, looked at him with uncertainty. Sonic simply shrugged. "Ok then faker, We'll leave it to you. You better not lose or you'll never hear the end of it." Sonic jokingly warned with the thumbs up. Shadow folded his arms and gave Sonic a small smirk. "Are you sure, Sonic?" NiGHTS asked. "Yeah, they don't call him the Ultimate Lifeform for nothing. Let's go!" Sonic said. Pinkie Pie stared intensely at Shadow and then she spoke before she left. "Ok....but once this over...we're going to have the biggest party in this place ever!" Pinkie shouted. "Yeah sure, whatever." Shadow said dismissively. "Just go!" Shadow slightly floated away from the others, allowing them and NiGHTS to rise up slightly. NiGHTS began to do a paraloop, followed by everyone else. Reala saw this and he rose up from his throne. "I don't think so!" Reala said before Shadow teleported in a blue flash in front of him, allowing NiGHTS to paraloop them and the others out as they flashed the five colors of the Ideya and vanished in a light. Reala then turned to Shadow and growled. "You....you're insane." Reala said. "You must remember our last encounter. I now have the power of the emeralds! What do you have?" "Aside from being the Ultimate Lifeform, this Ideya!" Shadow shot back. "(I hope it's useful.)" "Not this Ultimate Lifeform nonsense again. I thought I had disproved that claim earlier. Anyway, Ideya is nothing! Observe!"Reala said as he raised his hands to the symbol above and from it, many large giant spheres called mare balloons each flashing the color of the emeralds and twice Reala's size appeared and surrounded him. Shadow stood his ground and observed them as Reala smiled victoriously. "Try this!" Reala said as he launched a volley of balloons to Shadow. Shadow evaded them as he left behind a blue trail due to his superior speed. When the balloons missed him, they formed large flashing explosions. Shadow was too quick to hit and as he dodged the spheres, he closed in on Reala. "I'm still not so used to this flying." Shadow muttered as he moved left and right to avoid the balloons. Reala clenched hist fist and teleported in a red flash, making all the spheres around them do the same. Shadow came to a halt and he looked around for anyplace Reala could show up. Suddenly, Reala appeared on the left and launched two spheres. Immediately after doing this, he vanished again and appeared on the right and did the same. He did the same maneuver as he teleported around Shadow and kept shooting mare balloons at him, leaving him surrounded. "Dodge this!" Reala yelled. Shadow knew he was in trouble. The balloons were coming in to quickly for him to dodge. He looked down at his hand and clenched his fist. "Ok, let's put this Ideya to use!" Shadow decided. Shadow's hand became enveloped in a blue sphere and he launched it towards an incoming sphere. The blue orb collided with the mare balloon, trapping it in place, frozen. The orb then expanded and absorbed the balloon next to it, freezing it as well. Reala looked astonished as Shadow looked down at his hand and grinned. He formed two more blue orbs and released them towards Reala's attacks, stopping them. Reala looked on in frustration. "Impossible!" Reala cried out. Reala teleported in a red flash and Shadow followed in a blue one. They each appeared and vanished, firing their energy spheres at each other, which collided. The two of them were at a stalemate. In the inverted hyperspace, Reala began to think to himself. "(This is absurd. How can his puny Ideya match the power of Master Wizeman? I need to take him out now!)" When he and Shadow reappeared, Reala launched an orb at Shadow, who countered it easily. When the sphere was put in place, Reala flew ahead towards it and placed his hands on it. With a mighty shove, Reala launched it towards Shadow suddenly, who was caught off guard by Reala's change in strategy. The orb hit Shadow and made a white explosion as blue shards flew everywhere and Shadow was blown down towards the ground and crashed there. Shadow struggled to get up before Reala lifted him up by his neck. "This was a mistake. What else were you expecting to happen?" Reala asked in a condescending tone. He then palm struck Shadow against a hill. Shadow's back collided with it and Shadow began to slump against the floor. Shadow managed to lift his head up to see Reala triumphantly standing over him. "Well, I suppose I should at least give you credit for trying. What a waste of talent. With you out of the picture, the title of Ultimate Lifeform shall belong to me!" Reala informed him. "Ha....don't .....flatter yourself!" Shadow yelled as his hands glowed blue suddenly and he used his speed to dash towards Reala unexpectedly. Shadow placed his fist on Reala's chest and released two orbs at the same time, launching the Nightmaren directly up in the air as if he was a rocket. As he was heading up, Shadow began to teleport towards the frozen spheres he had trapped. Shadow kicked each of them towards Reala as he headed up. The spheres then crashed into him, making a giant white explosion that covered the area and sending Shadow towards the ground again. "GUAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" Reala screamed as he was engulfed in the white flash. "I told you...I am the Ultimate Lifeform!" Shadow weakly said as he laid down on the ground and the flash overcame him as well. Sonic, NiGHTS and everyone else reappeared back in the void of Nightmare. "I hope Shadow'll be ok." Fluttershy said softly as she looked down on the ground. "He can take care of himself, don't worry about it." Manic said. "We need to stop Wizeman!" NiGHTS said. "Come out, Wizeman!" A loud, ominous laughter was heard throughout Nightmare, causing the team to come closer together, and they began to search for their source as their heads turned. On the side, two pillars, each with a red curtain, appeared. In the center, a large dark mountain formed suddenly. Lastly, in the dark ocean, a mysterious bubbling sound was heard a figure began to emerge from the ground slowly. It was Wizeman himself, not simply a projection like the time before. NiGHTS grew focused as they faced them and Sonic and the others looked up in awe at his presence. He gave off such an intimidating force. With him, they could feel that the tension had skyrocketed. He wasn't to be taken lightly like the Nightmarens before. He was on a totally different level. 6 emeralds were in his palms and one floated in his chest. "Wizeman! Finally, you show yourself!" NiGHTS yelled. "So you're the boss huh? We've been wanting to settle things with you for a while!" Sonic called out. "You're going to pay for taking our friend and the emeralds!" Sunset angrily told him. "Such foolish beings. You honestly believe you can defeat me? I pity you. I am beyond you and with these emeralds, I am even more powerful than before. What hope do you have?" Wiseman questioned. "Enough! You have no idea how tired I am of people telling me to give up or that I'm destined to fail! I've worked too hard to call it quits! It's true, failing is a nightmare for everyone. But, you just have power over nightmares. That's too easy. A nightmare is a simple thing to manipulate and even come true. But you can't take over dreams! You have the power of a weaker aspect, Wizeman!" Silver boldly announced as he pointed to him and stepped forward. "Silver's right! You may have been able to control me because of my nightmare, but it's gone now! You can't control me through my dreams!" Rarity agreed as she joined Silver, losing the fear she was feeling before. "You dare mock my power? Insolent beings, it appears that I must show you the error of your ways! Prepare to face my judgement!" Wizeman declared as his body began to shine brightly again. As it did, NiGHTS turned back to Sonic and the others. "Ready?" They asked them. NiGHTS was met with confident nods from them, even from Fluttershy. NiGHTS grinned and turned back to face Wizeman. The Ideya surrounded the group and they began to glow once more.