//------------------------------// // A Friend Of Nightmares // Story: Spike And Nightmare Moon, A Trip Around Equestria // by RubberEyes //------------------------------// The Everfree Forest, a dark and terrifying place. Inhabited by terrible monsters and plants, full of mysteries and secrets. One of said secrets being the very ruins of the old castle of the two princesses. A place devastated by the fight that took place more than a thousand years ago. To this day, the very magic from such battle still haunted the place. No creature nor plant would dare to stay inside for long, in fear of what long ago happened in there. Or at least that would be the case, were it not for a little dragon with a growing headache standing inside of the castle's entrance. "Let me see if I understand correctly," mocked the voice inside Spike's head, "You decided to seek your destiny in the forsaken Badlands. And you decided that the only way to do this course of action was to go through the dangerous forest, which might I add, is filled with dangerous monsters?" "Yes," Spike sighed, "Now if you're done, I want to get going before Twilight finds me!”  Inside his head he started to make a checklist of everything that could go wrong. ”Knowing her, she'll have a breakdown and send a whole platoon of Royal Guards to find me! And when she finds out about you she is going to take me to the lab in the basement and open my head with…” While Spike had his own mental breakdown, Nightmare Moon could only observe with amusement the rapidly increasing checklist that was being formed inside his mind. Literally being formed. The piece of parchment continued to expand before her. Before she could examine it properly, though, another thing caught her attention. His mind felt hotter than before. She did not know the how or why, what she could feel, was everything getting dangerously hot. Trying to look through Spike’s eyes, she only saw deformed images. Through his others senses she felt that he was at the verge of a panic attack— Drop that, he was in the middle of a panic attack. When the checklist got bigger than one of the castle’s pillars she decided to put an end to it. “Calm down!” She said in what would have been the Royal Voice had she been able to use that kind of magic, “Breathe!” The sudden headache that filled Spike’s head derailed his current train of thought making him flinch. Nightmare Moon on the other hoof, only felt relief as everything went back to normal. “W-what just happened?” Spike shook his head, trying to recover from the sudden headache, ”Ugh, was that really necessary?” “Are you done complaining?” She said nonchalantly. Spike only shrugged the commentary, before continuing his path towards the forest.sr “Where do you think you going?” Although her voice was calm, her tone would chilled Spike’s spine had he not been to tired for this. “I’m going away so that Twilight won’t find us.” He simply answered. “I doubt any of us would want that.” "Of course not!" she shouted inside his head. "But we cannot just go yet! Do you not know the dangers that lurks in this forest? I would much rather be captured than become some manticore’s snack. Heavens, it is a miracle that you were not eaten alive by beasts in the way here!" Nightmare Moon said, her metaphorical eyes wide with disbelief. "Well..." Spike rubbed the back of his head trying to think of an excuse, but nothing came up. He really had been terribly irresponsible by walking into middle of the Everfree at night. "It’s not like we can just stay here all night! As soon as she finds my letter she'll panic and start searching for me, this is probably the third place she'll be looking." "But we also cannot throw ourselves into danger just so you can avoid her!" Both of them were quiet for a moment, trying to think of what do next. Nightmare Moon was the first to break the silence. "Tell me, when does Twilight Sparkle wake up?" She said trying to think of some sort of plan. "Hmm? Well, today is Friday, she would normally wake up around 7 AM to organize the library.” He tapped his chin for a second before continuing. “Since Rarity had to cancel their weekly tea party, she already organized it yesterday. So, she will have some free time to sleep in until 9 AM and would have expected me to make her breakfast." "Ponies and their silly tea parties," Nightmare Moon grumbled a little, "But this is perfect! I hate to say this, but we need to wait until the sun raises since the forest is safer at day rather than night. Then we shall have enough time to find another place to hide before she wakes up and notices that you're not there."    "But if we just leave now, we would be hours ahead of her. With any luck we'd be halfway to the Badlands by the end of the day." He threw his arms in the direction he wanted to go and tried to look at the source of the voice out of habit before remembering that he was, technically, alone. "Tell me again, why would you want to go to such a horrid place? Isn't the name enough of what you shall find there?" "Well," Spike sat at the floor, looking down at it, "Everypony is always going on adventures and saving the world. Twilight even has her own student now, Rarity has her boutiques. Even Rainbow became a Wonderbolt." he sighed "But I'm still the same assistant I was when you appeared, never going on adventures. So I-" "Decided to go and find your own destiny?" She said in a surprisingly sympathetic tone. "Well, uhm, yes." He picked himself up off the floor, a little startled by her sudden change in tone. "Then why are you going to the Badlands of all places?" "It is where most dragons live an—" "Exactly!" She shouted, her usual snark voice back "Most dragons live there, but do tell me, are you like most dragons?" "What, of course I am a dragon!" He posed, trying to show his "muscles" while breathing a little of fire. "Yes, but are you like most dragons?" If she could she would have been staring directly into his eyes. "What do you mean?" Even without seeing her, Spike could feel the metaphorical pressure. "I may lack a thousand years of knowledge, but I do believe that dragons haven't changed that much since them, and you are completely unlike any dragon I've ever met. Tell me, where were you born?" "Why do you want to know?" He said with something between offense and caution in his voice. "I want to know, because if you were born in a pony city, and raised by ponies, then there is no reason for your destiny to be with other dragons." She said very slowly, punctuating each word for emphasys. "I..." The more he thought about it, the more her reasoning made sense, but there was a thing that still bothered him, "Even if you're right, why should I belive you? For all I know you are trying to gather enough magic to get out and cause mayhem again!" "Don't you talk to me like that, little dragon," she said in the Royal Voice, "You know who you're talking to!" "I'm talking with the voice inside my head." He retorted with an huff, trying to overcome the headache with his determination. "Now if you excuse me, I need to get going." Spike said picking his bag off the ground. He barely took a step before getting interrupted. "No. Wait!" Nightmare Moon shouted, loud enough to give Spike a headache. "Ouch! That hurt, don't do it again! And unless you have a good reason for staying, we're off to the Badlands." He said, rubbing his temples. Nightmare Moon fell quiet for a moment, and Spike took it as a mute agreement and started walking again. "I miss them," he stopped on his tracks as she spoke, "I... I miss my little ponies, their cities and civilization in general. After a thousand years in the moon and some more here, I don't want to go even further from them." She said in a much quieter voice. Spike stood there for some seconds, on how tiny she suddenly felt to him, like she was trying to hide in some corner of his own head. "Fine we're staying," Spike said finally, barely restraining a sigh. "But you owe me one for this alright?" Although she didn't respond, Spike could feel her happiness in hearing that and he smiled a little because of it. He waited for her silent cheering to die out a little before saying anything. "But I still don't want to stay in Ponyville, because we don't want Twilight finding out about you." "Oh, believe me, neither do I." She said with a roll of eyes. "But still, we should wait for the sun before finding ourselves some road to take. Tell me, where is the nearest major city?" She asked. "Well, I'm not sure, but if we take the train we should be able to go to almost any place, I think the first train to Canterlot should arrive at 8 AM." "Sounds like a plan, but what is a 'train'?" She asked confused. “I have never heard of such thing before.” "You never heard of it? Oh, right, they didn't have those a thousand years ago." He said, rubbing his chin with a claw. "A train is... like a giant... metal snake? Ponies go into it and it has tracks tha-" "What? Why would anypony want to be devoured by a snake?" She all but screamed inside his head, bringing the headache back. "Ouch, I told you to not do that again! And it's not a real snake, it just looks like it and... You'll see. First we need to decide what to do now." "We should get some sleep of course. I can tell that you had little sleep today." As if to confirm her a yawn escaped Spike. "I guess you're right," he said as he put his bag on the floor before laying on it. "What are you doing?" "Getting some sleep, like you said." "No no no, I'm not sleeping here in a room full of holes just to become a snack to some creature nearby. No, we are going to find a proper bedroom first." "For what? The castle is one big ruin, I've seen the old bedroom of the princess and it is in shreds, sleeping here or there wouldn't make a difference." "Not the whole castle, the eastern section is still mostly intact." "If you say so." Spike rolled his eyes, but still got up and slowly dragged his bag with him as he once again made his way into the inwards of the castle. Spike walked inside the castle and with directions given by Nightmare Moon, shortly arrived on the eastern section. As she said, it was still in good condition, the surface of some walls still broke with the slightest of touch but that was to be expected of such an old building. But other than that, and some broken windows, it was in much better shape than the rest, although to Spike the place seemed a little less majestic than the rest of the castle. "What is this place?" He said looking around after having reached a long corridor with doorless door-frames that lead to a multitude of bedrooms. "This section was used as the staff living quarters, when they were not working or spending time somewhere else, they rested here." "Oh, so that is why you did not destroy it?" His eyes light up as he came up with the realization.. "You didn't want to hurt the people who lived here." Nightmare Moon didn't respond for a moment, but before he could question her again, she spoke. "There, that room should do it." Although Spike couldn't see where she was "pointing" at, he knew exactly which door she was talking about for some reason. He thought of pointing out that she ignored his question, but decided to let it go with a shrug. Walking inside the room he saw a surprisingly well conserved nightstand and a bed attached to the wall. The bed was the typical color of aged white but other than that it didn’t seem to be a thousand years ago. Above of the nightstand was a window that still had glass in it and at the other side of the room was a wardrobe embedded to the wall. Spike cleaned a little of the dust on the nightstand before putting his bag on top. A shame he didn't thought of doing the same with the bed before throwing himself into it and immediately regretting doing so as a cloud of dust filled the room. After opening the window, some well deserved coughs and some snarky comments from his new friend, Spike cleaned the room a little and gently laid in the bed. He was about to close his eyes when the little voice he had forgotten about spoke. "Good night." "Good night, I guess... Wait, if I sleep, what will happen to you? You better not try to control my body and make me into a sleep-walker!" "Even if I could do that, where would I go? The night is still dangerous." "I guess you're right," he said still with a little suspicion in his voice, "well, if you can, try to wake me when the sun rises, good night" he said as he slowly closed his eyes for dramatic effect. Sleep came to him faster than Nightmare Moon expected and soon she was alone in the darkness. She wasn't really bothered by how dark it was or how quiet, what bothered her was that it wasn't as empty as she expected it to be. Even though she could feel through Spike senses, now a little "blurred" since he was asleep, she also could somewhat feel herself inside his head. As she suspected, when he fell asleep she stayed awake, and without nothing to do she focused on figuring out her limitations. First she tried opening his eyelids, she knew she wouldn't be able to control his body but maybe she could do something tiny like this. After what felt like hours focusing on the dragon's eyes and no results she finally gave up, it seemed that she had even less control than she hoped for. Then, instead of focusing on him, she decided to focus on herself. After a little time of mental gymnastics she could feel her body again, it was a lot like a illusion, a dream perhaps, but it still was a little comforting. Next she pictured a floor, a lot like the one in the castle, and soon she was standing on it. After that were the walls, the ceiling and some furniture, very much similar to her old room. It was all fake, but she liked it nonetheless. She sat at her newly created couch, relaxing and waiting, when she noticed something strange in the room, a object that she hadn't made. A door? she thought. Its frame was green while the door itself was made of purplish wood, it stood in the middle of the wall opposite to her couch. Without thinking she rose and walked to the door. After analysing it without noticing anything peculiar other than the fact that she hadn't made it, she opened it. At the other side of the door was an enormous and dark forest. Before she could even gasp properly a scream coming directly ahead of her cut through the air. Instinctively she run ahead to see what was happening. Coming to the source of the sound, she saw Spike running scared from a blurry dark mass that chased him. She tried to focus on the mass, but no matter what it would stay blurry, like it wasn't really formed. That was when she realized that she was, in fact, inside Spike's dream. That door was like the bubbles that Luna used when traveling through the Dream Realm. For some seconds she just stood there, watching as Spike ran from the mass that never seemed to approach nor go away, but then she decided that it was enough. Channeling the rest of the little magic she still held, she shot the darkness, destroying it completely. She took advantage of the momentum of her magic and directed the rest of it into reforming the dream. In front of Spike, she created a cave, one huge and so full of the most precious and colorful gems that it shined in the dark forest. Spike didn't wait a second before jumping inside of it and tasting the most delicious crystals he had ever seen, having forgotten about what had just happened. "Dragons and their gems." Nightmare Moon thought to herself, enjoying the vision a little before realizing what she was doing. Suddenly she turned back to the door, her smile replaced with a frown. She passed through the door and slammed it closed. Of course she enjoyed what she did, she started thinking to herself, she had just made use of the power that only the princess of the night like herself could. It was to banish a nightmare, but who cared? She certainly didn't! She locked the door behind her with a key that she had just made with a little magic out of instinct and gone back to the couch. Making sure that her host was having a good night of sleep would only help her after all; least he have a panic attack while asleep. She thought as she sat on the couch like before and waited for the sun to rise.