//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: A Spider's Fever Dream // Story: Only through conflict, do we evolve. // by GamerDroid23 //------------------------------// Upon arriving at the castle, Cadance immediately showed Crystal to her room, which Crystal was happy to have. "I can't thank you enough for this, Princess Cadance." Crystal said for probably the tenth time today. "It's fine. I understand that you're going through a lot right now, so the least I can do is offer you a place to sleep." Cadance replied with a yawn, her body telling her it was ready for bed. Crystal merely nodded her head in understanding. Seeing this, Cadance left the room, and headed to the dining room. As Cadance entered the dining room, she was greeted by her husband, Shining Armor, who looked extremely tuckered out. "Have a rough day at work today, honey?" she asked, genuinely curious. "Yeah. It was mostly just the new recruits not knowing what to do, but it was still frustrating to deal with." Shining replied, before turning toward his wife. "How was the wedding?" he asked, unaware of the events that had transpired. Upon hearing those words, Cadance instantly began to cry. "What's wrong? Was it something I said?" he asked. "Their dead!" Cadance wailed, pulling Shining Armor into an embrace, almost crushing him in the process. "It c-came into the church, and m-m-massacred them a-all!" "Who did? Who would do such a thing?" Shining asked, genuinely interested in who had caused his wife such grief. "It c-called itself R-Reaper. The only emotion I could feel coming from it was pure h-hatred. I blasted it with as much magic as I could, and it shrugged it off like it was nothing. O-only one pony survived the attack, because she hid underneath the benchs." Cadance replied, tears still running down her face. Upon hearing those words from Cadance, Shining Armor instantly felt sorry for his wife. Putting his hooves around her, he pulled her in close to him, gently hugging her. "I promise, no matter what it takes, I will find and bring this fiend to justice." Shining whispered into his wifes ear, in an attempt to console her. "Thank you, h-honey." Cadance answered, still somewhat shaken everything that had happened, as she got up from the table, along with Shining Armor, as they both headed to their bedroom. Meanwhile, a dark, slender figure watched them from outside the window, unbeknownst to them, watching with seven red soul-piercing eyes. As Cadance lay in bed that night, she began to toss and turn in her sleep, as her breathing became more and more rapid. Finally she awoke with a start, still breathing heavily as she sat up in bed. "Have a nightmare?" Shining asked, sounding extremely groggy. "Yes...unfortunately." Cadance replied, rubbing the back of her neck with her hoof. "Well, since I'm awake, tell me about it." Shining said as he sat up, proping himself up against the headboard. "Okay. I was in the throne room. Everyone around me is dead, and I'm crying on the floor, kneeling over you and Flurry, and that Reaper thing is standing in front of me, laughing and taunting me. Behind it stand five other beings, all cloaked in darkness. I can't see their faces or tell who they are, but I can feel their emotions." Cadance explained, shivering as she recollected what happened in her nightmare. "What emotions did you sense?" Shining Armor asked, a yawn escaping him as he did. "From the Reaper, I sensed a very twisted version of joy." Cadance said with a shudder. "As for the others, I couldn't really tell. Most of them were hard to decipher and the rest were drowned out to the point of being unintelligible. The only other emotion I sensed was sadness, but it was very muffled, almost like it was... unnaturally silenced." Shining nodded his head, closing his eyes in concentration. "Perhaps you could use your magic to unsilence them." he said with a yawn before getting ready to go back to sleep. "How will I know who it is?" Cadance asked, only to be greeted with a light snore from Shining. Sighing, she decided to head back to sleep, and think about the silenced silouhette of sadness tomorrow, as she rested head on her pillow, her eyelids slowly closing, allowing her to drift off into a peaceful slumber. The next morning, Cadance practically struggled to get out of bed, due the lack of sleep she received. Groaning as she rolled out of bed, Cadance slowly meandered her way to Flurry Heart's nursery, her joints popping along the way. As she walked down the crystalline corridor of her castle, she noticed that Flurry wasn't crying like usual, but paid no attention to it, thinking that she was still asleep. As she entered the nursery, Cadance walked over to Flurry's crib to wake her. "Come on, Flurry. It's time to wake up." Cadance said in a motherly tone, pulling away the blanket that enveloped her sleeping daughter. However, as she lifted up the blanket, Cadance's face turned from one of tranquility, to one of extreme panic, for what she saw in place of her daughter was a pillow. Panic now coursing through her, Cadance began to hyperventilate, out of fear and worry that the Reaper had taken her sweet little foal away in the night. Cadance, now in full 'Mother Panic Attack' mode, came rushing out of the nursery, with a pink trail following close behind her as she ran into every single room, searching for her missing daughter. After searching every room, and coming up empty hoofed, Cadance made a mad dash to the dining room, to alert Shining that their foal had been stolen. "Shining. Flurry's been...huh?", was all she managed to get out before seeing Flurry sitting in her highchair, being fed her breakfast by Shining Armor. Feeling a wave of tranquility wash over her, Cadance let out a sigh of relief at the fact that her daughter had not been taken away by the Reaper. Grabbing a chair with her magic, Cadance pulled it out from the dining room table, scooting it over towards her husband, sitting down right next to him. "Okay. What's got you worked up?" Shining asked as he gave Flurry her bottle. "I was worried about Flurry. I didn't see her in her crib when I got up and I panicked and thought she got foalnapped." Cadance responded, biting her lip a little as she did. "You thought that the Reaper had taken her, didn't you?" Shining asked, to which Cadance merely nodded. "Well, I'll be damned to Tartarus if it lays a hoof on my daughter." Shining said with a tone of voice full of valor and honor. "I'll be having most of the Royal guard search every inch of the empire over the next few days for the Reaper." Cadance sighed with relief upon hearing those words, as she knew that with Shining spearheading the search, it would only be a matter of time before the Reaper being was apprehended, but soon remembered how it escaped the first time. "Shining , there's something I need to tell you about the Reaper." Cadance said with a small amount of hesitation in her voice. "What do you need to tell me?" Shining asked with gusto in his voice. "Three things actually. First, the Reaper has two weapons, but I don't know what they do exactly." Cadance said, to which Shining nooded his head in understanding. "Secondly, it has the power turn into a thick black smoke to escape." "So your saying that it has powers similar to King Sombra?" Shining asked, receiving a nod from Cadance. "Okay, what's the third?" "You know how I told you that only one pony managed to survive?" Cadance said, reminding her husband of the events that happened yesterday. As if on cue, Crystal Whistles came into the dining room, yawning as she entered. "Good morning, Princess Cadance. Good morning, Prince Shining Armor. How are you both doing?" Crystal asked in a happy tone, having improved slightly from sobbing mess she had been yesterday. "Shining, this is Crystal Whistles. She's going to be staying with us untill the train returns." Cadance said with about as much enthusiasm as she could muster. Shining Armor just looked at Cadance for a moment with an awkward look, slowly processing what his wife had just said to him. He looked at Crystal, then back at Cadance. "I take it she's the survivor you mentioned?" he asked Cadance, to which she merely nodded. Seeing this, Shining turned to look at Crystal. "I'm sorry for what you had go through. I hope you enjoy your stay here." "Thank you, Prince Shining Armor. I promise to not overstay my welcome." Crystal responded, bowing her head slightly. "That's very thoughtful of you, Crystal. There's some pancakes on the stove in the kitchen, if you want any." Shining replied, before going back to feeding Flurry. Hearing this, Crystal went to go get herself some breakfast. Cadance looked at Shining with an expression of gratitude, to which he just nodded. "Sorry. I would have told you last night, but I still recovering from the wedding." Cadance answered in a hushed tone. "It's fine. Just tell me first next time." Shining replied, not even bothering to look up at Cadance. Just then, Crystal came trotting back into the dinning room, carrying two plates of pancakes within her magic's grasp. Upon reaching the table, she set both stacks of pancakes on the table , before sitting down next to Cadance. "Alright, Time to dig into these delicious-looking pancakes." Crystal said while licking her lips. Picking up a knife and fork with her lime green magic, Crystal began to chop up her pancakes into little pieces, in an almost animalistic fashion. Lifting a small chunk towards her mouth, Crystal bit into the pancake's golden-brown flesh, chewing it up a good bit before swallowing. "Mmm! These are really good, Prince Shining Armor. Did you make these?" Crystal commented, taking anoter bite of her pancakes as she did. "Why thank you, Crystal, and yes I did." Shining replied, his pride being inflated a little by Crystal's compliment. "They're just like..." Crystal started to say, before tears began to form in her eyes. "I'll be right back...I just...need to use the little fillies room."Crystal said as she got up from the table and left. "I'll see if I can get her to calm down." Cadance said, getting up to follow Crystal, leavinng Shining alone with Flurry. "Well, looks like it's just you and me, Flurry." Shining said with a small sigh. Unbeknownst to Shining, he and Flurry were not alone. For a top the crystal chandelier that dangled above them, lurked Widowmaker, peering at them from above. "Ah....such a thing of beauty, this family is." said Widowmaker in a rather hushed voice, not wanting to give away her position. "Just being here makes me feel things I haven't felt in years." Just then, Cadance came back into the dining room. "Crystal won't come out of the bathroom, despite me talking to her." she said with a sigh. Sitting down at table, she began to slowly chip away at the stack of pancakes in front of her. "She honestly didn't deserve any of this." "What do you mean?" Shining asked, unaware of what Cadance was referring to. "Her cousin was killed by a psychotic masked murderer and she's traumatized by it. Nopony deserves that, not even an enemy." Cadance said inbetween a bite of pancakes. "Besides everypony deserves a second chance." Hearing this, Widowmaker began to feel a twinge of guilt, seeing that she was helping Talon in destroying yet another family. Before she could do anything, however, her earpiece began to vibrate. "This is Widowmaker, au rapport." she said as quietly as possible. "How are you feeling this morning, Lacroix?" asked Moira in a somewhat monotone voice. "Never felt more alive." Widowmaker responded, with a major lack of emotion in her voice. "Good to know. How's your little excursion coming along?" Moira asked. "I assume Reaper told you last night?" Widowmaker questioned, sounding somewhat curious. "Of course he did. Why would he not? And before you ask, Doomfist did not care in slightest, although he does want some quality information from you upon your return." Moira said as though she was reading from a script. "Is that all you called for?" Widowmaker asked, knowing that there must be another reason Moira was calling her. "I have something for you. I'll tell you more when you return to base." Moira responded, before ending the call. Widowmaker sighed a little, before looking below her to see that Cadance and the rest of the family had already left the dining room. "Adieu, for now." she said as she shot her grappling wire through the hole she cut in the ceiling before being yanked out the building by it. Upon returning to the old dilapidated hovel Talon had commandeered as a temporary base, Widowmaker slowly made her way to the upstairs bedroom that Moira turned into a makeshift laboratory. "How did your little trip go?" Reaper asked with a slight moan. "It isn't over yet." Widowmaker said with almost no emotion. As she turned to continue up the stairs, a thought crossed her mind. "Before I forget, you'd better watch out, faucheuse. I overheard from Prince Shining Armor himself that he is having the entire Royal Guard go on a hunt to bring you in." "Ha! I invite them to try." Reaper responded, cackling under his breath as he went to the kitchen. As Widowmaker approached the bedroom door, her thoughts of doubt returned once more. She stood still in front of the door, so emersed in these deep thoughts, she didn't notice that Moira had already opened the bedroom door. "Well? Are you just going to stand there?" Moira asked, bringing Widowmaker back to reality. "Sorry. I was just thinking about something and got lost in thought." Widowmaker responded as she went into the bedroom. "Let's try not to make a habit of this, Lacroix." Moira stated as she followed Widowmaker. Upon re-entering the room, Moira then gestured the bed, wanting Widowmaker to take a seat as she moved towards the desk that was now filled to the brim with test tubes and beakers. As Widowmaker sat down, she asked Moira what had been on her mind the entire time. "What is it that you need of me?" She asked in rather calm voice. "I just need you to test something for me." Moira responded, as she grabbed a vial of dark green liquid. "This is something that I have been working on for quite a while. This chemical causes those who ingest it to have a few...unpleasant dreams." she said as she handed the vial to Widowmaker. Widowmaker looked at the vial for a moment, easily understanding what Moira was asking of her. "Who and when?" "Who else but Princess Cadance." Moira answered with almost no emotion in her voice, nearly rivaling Widowmaker's own. "All you have to do is insert the vial into your Venom Mine Deployer." Widowmaker nodded, before heading out with the vial in her hand. The rest of the day was rather uneventful for Cadance, despite her constant worry and fear of the Reaper. It seemed as though fate was giving her a break from him for now. "Shining. Can you have some of the guards patrol the castle tonight?" Cadance asked her husband, clearly still worried about the Reaper. "Is this because of the Reaper, sweetie?" Shining asked, to which he received a meek nod from Cadance. "I figured that you might ask me that. Don't worry, I'll be having some of the guards patrol the castle tonight, just incase something does come in the night." Cadance sighed with relief upon hearing those words. Knowing that the guards would be on duty gave Cadance a small, but reassuring amount of hope that both she and her family would be safe from the Reaper, at least for tonight. "Thank you, Honey." Cadance said as she nuzzled into Shining. As the day slowly shifted to night, with Princess Celestia's sun leaving it's afternoon position in the sky to make way for Princess Luna's beloved moon, being a signal to all that it was time to go to sleep. As Cadance finished tucking Flurry in for the night, her mind began to wander, thinking about the shadowy silouhette from her dream. "I wonder what happened to cause it's emotions to be silenced?" Cadance pondered to herself aloud as she walked to her bedroom. As she opened the door, she noticed that Shining had already fallen asleep, possibly from waiting on her to return. Cadance giggled a bit as she slowly got into bed, being very careful to not wake her husband as she pulled the covers onto her body. As she got comfortable, Cadance noticed the lamp sitting on the bedroom dresser was still on. Using her magic, Cadance grabbed the lamp chain, and gave it a rather swift pull, causing lamp to stop its production of light with a click, finally allowing her to drift off to sleep. Widowmaker watched from outside as the light from the bedroom finally ceased, signalling that Cadance had finally decided to hit the hay, causing Widowmaker to chuckle a little. "It appears that the performance is about to begin." she said as she fired her grappling hook into the roof, pulling her up to where she needed to be. Upon getting on top of the very crystaline roof, Widowmaker did one final check before entering through the hole she carved in the roof earlier. As Widowmaker rested herself a top crystal chandelier, she quickly discovered that Cadance decided to have a few of her guards patrol the castle for the night. "Génial, and here I thought this would be easy." Widowmaker said to herself as she quietly rappeled down from the chandelier, careful as to not alert the guard she was sneaking up on. When she got close enough to him, Widow quickly wrapped her grapple hook cable around the pegasus' throat, choking him slowly as his face turned from light orange to blue. "Shh." Widowmaker whispered softly into his ear as he struggled against her. With one final gasp for air, the stallion's body finally collapsed, falling to floor with a heavy thud, with Widowmaker merely heading to the next closest guard, and began to repeat the process again, as she slowly made her to Cadance's bedroom. A few more dead guards later, Widowmaker finally made to the bedroom. Lightly turning the knob, Widowmaker began to open the door as quietly as she could, not wanting to wake up Cadance or her husband. Upon getting the door open just enough, Widowmaker squeezed through the gap into the bedroom. Making her way over towards Cadance, Widowmaker inserted the vial into the Venom Mine Deployer on her wrist, replacing the normally purple liquid with a dark green concoction. Clicking a button the deployer, it ejected the spider-shaped mine onto the nightstand next to Cadance. Upon sensing Cadance via it's built in motion sensor, the mine began to whirr a tiny bit before it expelled a misty, green vapor onto the still sleeping Cadance. Seeing that her work was done, Widowmaker began to head to the door. "Sweet dreams, Princess Cadance." Widowmaker said as she walked away. Meanwhile, inside of Cadance's dreams, things slowly began to take a dark turn. Unbeknownest to her, her subconscience was beginning to become affected, as the spray slowly changed her pleasant dream into a nightmare. "I'm gonna get you, Flurry!" Cadance yelled at the top of her lungs as she chased her rambunctious daughter around the castle, Flurry giggling all the while her mother got closer and closer to her with each passing moment, until Cadance finally caught Flurry in her forehooves. "Gotcha!" Cadance exclaimed, followed by a tired sigh. "Oh did you now?" asked a rather raspy voice, causing Cadance to look around for the source of the creepy voice. Not seeing where it came from, Cadance decided go back to playing with Flurry. However, as she looked down, she saw that she held the ball of pink fluff that was her daughter Flurry Heart, had been replaced with a foal-sized Reaper. Revolted by this, Cadance dropped the tiny Reaper. As Reaper hit the floor, his body morphed into a dark haze upon impact, with the black smoke allowing him to reform mere feet away from Princess Cadance. "What's the matter? You look like you've seen a ghost." Reaper said with a groan as he inched closer to Cadance. "Stay back, I'm warning you!" Cadance screamed, quickly scooting away from Reaper, before bumping into a wall. "Oh, now don't tell me you're afraid of Ol' Reaper!" Reaper said with a cackle as he loomed over the crumpled and cowering Cadance. "But I'm not the only thing you fear, now am I?" he asked as he morphed into near-perfect clone of Nightmare Moon. "What's wrong, Princess Cadance? Are you afraid I'll make the nightmares last eternal?" Nightmare Moon shouted, as his form changed once again, this time into King Sombra. "Or perhaps you're afraid of the darkness that'll swallow you and your kingdom if you fail?" King Sombra taunted, before turning back into Reaper once more. "But now, let's see what happens when those fears...combine." Reaper said with a groan as he transformed into a mass of black smoke, and slowly, a new body began to metamorphose within the veil of black smoke, before the dark haze began to clear, revealing something that left Cadance horrified. The cryptid that now stood before her was a disturbing bipedal amalgamation, the sheer height of it easily towered over her, adorned with a black cloak and white skeletal mask, dark blue wings tipped with black crystals, a blood-red horn that curved upward similar to King Sombra's, body armor that looked like an even mixture of the combined trio's attires, and metallic busts of Nightmare Moon and King Sombra's heads that rested upon Reaper's shoulders. The abomination groaned a bit before pulling two Hellfire Shotguns out from under its cloak. "Now...your reckoning draws near!" Reaper bellowed as he charged at Cadance. Seeing the monstrosity heading towards her, Cadance quickly dove to the left, with Reaper slamming into the wall, just barely missing her. While the monster regained it's bearings, Cadance used this valuable moment to try and escape to the castle's doors. Seeing this, Reaper extended his new wings, and flew over Cadance, landing directly in front of her. "You won't escape me that easily." Reaper said as he aimed a shotgun at Cadance. Cadance, not wanting to die, did what any normal pony would do in a situation like this...and shot a large bolt of magic into Reaper's face, blinding him just long enough to run a short distance away from the titanic-sized terrorist. Snarling, Reaper aimed a shotgun at the chandelier that hung in the middle of the room, and severed the cable connecting it to the ceiling with a single shot, causing the dainty decoration to come crashing down on top of Cadance, pinning her to the ground. As Cadance struggled against the chandelier that now trapped her, Reaper slowly walked over to her, and kneeled next to her. "I said I'd deal with you later, and this time, I'll finish the job!" he whispered in her ear, as he pointed a shotgun at her head. However, before he could begin to carry out the dark deed, a loud *Shink* was heard, followed by the sound of Reaper gasping for air. As Cadance opened her eyes, she saw Reaper... with a giant cobalt broadsword going through his chest. As he now struggled to breathe, Reaper toppled over, hitting the floor with an audible *thud*,as a puddle of blood began to form around him. Wanting to see who had saved her from Reaper ravenous wrath, Cadance instinctively tried to stand up... only to painfully remember that she was still stuck under the chandelier. Soon after, a cobalt blue aura enveloped the chandelier that trapped Cadance, and lifted it off of her. With the chandelier no longer constricting her, Cadance could finally see her savior "Aunt Luna! Thank you for saving me from this awful nightmare." Cadance gushed. "Save thy thanks for later, dear niece. This was no ordinary nightmare." Princess Luna said a worried look on her face. "What do you mean, Aunt Luna?" Cadance asked, slightly afraid of what Luna was implying. "We have seen enough dreams to be able to tell the difference between normal nightmares and potion-induced nightmares." Princess Luna stated about as blunt as a rock to the head. "Aunt Luna. You have to wake me up." Cadance said, her voice full of fear and urgency. "We understand why thou would asketh that of us, but the risks are too great." Luna stated. "Aunt Luna. There is a murderous beast in my castle, and I'm scared it's going to hurt Flurry, or worse, kill her. I would never forgive myself if I let that happen to her. That's why I'm asking you to wake me from within my dreams. I'm more than willing to do anything to protect my sweet little foal. " Cadance pleaded. Weighing her options, and seeing her niece's point, Luna finally gave in. "We understandeth." Luna said, as her horn's cobalt glow enveloped Cadance. It took a few moments, but Cadance's eyes finally shot open upon being released from the thralls of sleep, thanks to Luna. Looking over at Shining, whose slow-but-steady breathing signfied that he still asleep. Trying not to wake her husband, Cadance slowly got out of bed, and tippy-hoofed across the room towards the bedroom door, opening it with care. As she ventured into the dark hallway, her hooves touched something heavy. Glancing down at what her hooves had touched, she was shocked to see a dead guard. Not wanting to alert the intruder, Cadance bit her tongue and swallowed the scream that was welling up in her throat as she made her way to the nursery. As she neared the door, Cadance heard a soft and oddly feminine voice coming from inside the room. Slowly opening the door, Cadance came face to face with... a rather slender biped, looming over Flurry's crib, staring at the sleeping tyke. "Oh, Gerard." Widowmaker mumbled to herself, unaware that Cadance was behind her. " Why'd you have to leave me so soon, Gerard? We always talked about having children. You were always so enthusiastic about it. We tried really hard, too. It was truly a shame that Talon had to interfere." Widowmaker lamented, her voice dripping with grief. Widowmaker's words hit Cadance like a hammer, causing her to gasp with shock upon hearing them. "It's you!" she whispered a little bit too loud, causing Widowmaker to spin around, aiming her rifle at Cadance. "How are you awake?!" Widowmaker angrily whispered, before lightly chuckling." No matter. You'll be asleep again soon enough." "Wait." Cadance said, causing Widowmaker to raise an eyebrow. "Before that happens, I want to give you back something you lost first." "Oh yeah... and what's that,princesse?" asked Widowmaker. As soon as she said that, Cadance's magic wrapped itself around Widowmaker, trapping her in a field of energy. Widowmaker tried to scream, but upon opening her mouth, a tendril of blueish magic made it's way down her throat. A few moments later, the magic aura that held Widowmaker vanished, causing her to fall onto the floor. Coughing a little bit, Widowmaker tried to get up. However, upon standing up, she felt something...peculiar. Putting a hand to her chest, she found that her heartbeat had sped up a tiny bit. "What... did you... do?" Widowmaker asked, unsure of what Princess Cadance had done to her. "I gave you back your emotions." Cadance stated ever so politely. Widowmaker looked at Cadance for a bit, before feeling a huge wave of emotions she hadn't felt in years wash over her, followed by a surge of dark thoughts. " You don't know what you just did." Widowmaker whispered as tears ran down her face. "I don't understand. I just helped you." Cadance said with a look of confusion on her face. "How kind of you, but in doing so you just signed my death warrant!" Widowmaker snapped back. Just then, Flurry whined a tiny bit, causing both Cadance and Widowmaker to look at the sleeping foal, before looking back at each other. "Let's talk about this in the dinning room." Cadance quietly suggested, not wanting to wake Flurry. "...Fine." Widowmaker replied, as she reluctantly followed Cadance to the dinning room.