Darkness.
Nothing but the cold, unwelcoming, hostile feeling of black nothingness. There was just emptiness, a void deeper than any ocean. There was no light shining through a little hole.
But then, miraculously, there was light.
Twilight weakly opened her eyes, groaning in dismay as she covered her face with a hoof. The sunlight shined with a immense degree of brightness that threatened to blind the alicorn. After a few moments, her eyes adjusted to the sun and she finally found the comfort to remove her hoof. Once she adapted to her surroundings, Twilight immediately noticed she was sitting in a meadow covered in bright green dew-covered grass and countless numbers of flowers sporting almost every known color in existance. She whipped herself around, spotting Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie sitting under a tree with their backs facing the alicorn.
“What the?” Twilight said, rubbing her eyes in a attempt to clear her vision. After the blurriness clouding her sight dissipated, Twilight realized this wasn’t a hallucination.
“Hey! Hey, guys!” Twilight hollered. Despite her yelling, the three equines remained still. Twilight raised an eyebrow in confusion.
“Hello? Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie! Can you hear me?” Twilight hollered again. But her friends made no effort to move. Twilight furrowed her brow in frustration. Now this was getting agitating. Twilight sighed loudly as she trotted towards her friends in a huff.
“Why are you ignori-“
Suddenly, the three “ponies” twisted their heads backwards to stare at a now horrified Twilight, their faces contorting rapidly until they appeared to be horribly deformed and their eyes beginning to glow blood-red.
“G-Guys...? W-What’s g-going on....?” Twilight stammered, slowly backing up. The three equines suddenly began to grow in size while interwining their bodies together, morphing into a giant, hideous three-headed beast. Twilight’s pupils shrank to the size of apple seeds as she gazed upon the towering monstrosity before her.
“SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRKKKKKKKK!!!!” The beast roared. Twilight yelped as the beast charged after her, forcing the alicorn to run down a hill. The monster began firing streams of red electricity at Twilight, earning terrified shrieks as the purple alicorn began dodging the blasts. Twilight whipped around, returning fire with her own bursts of energy. The energy blasts hit the creature square in the chest, but it did not react to her attacks. The monster swung its terrible spiked tail at Twilight, sending the alicorn flying into a tree. Twilight spreaded her wings and took off into the air just as another electric energy ball flew towards her.
“AAAAAHHHHH!!” Twilight screamed as she flew off into the sky. She turned her head, gasping in horror as the beast was chasing after her. She flapped her wings as hard as possible, but the beast kept gaining on her. Twilight turned around and kept firing magic blasts at the monster, watching one of her more powerful blasts burn through the monster’s chest. The creature screeched as it seemingly disintegrated into dust. Twilight released a breath of relief, placing a hoof on her chest.
“Phew...” Twilight sighed. Suddenly, streams of black, smoke-like steam began appearing out of thin air. In moments, the substance morphed into two more of the triple-headed beasts.
“SWEET CELESTIA!” Twilight yelled, dodging the wicked talons of one of the beasts. She bolted higher into the sky to escape the monsters. Unfortunately for Twilight, the once clear blue color of the sky morphed into a hellish red. Black clouds angrily hovered over Twilight, purple lightning crackling with burning hate. Twilight screamed as she dodged the lightning bolts, diving back down towards the ground. Instead of a lively meadow, the ground was transformed into a burning wasteland. Twilight landed on the crusty, soot-filled ground, her eyes widening with shock. She didn’t have time to react as the two three-headed monsters lunged at the alicorn. Twilight dodged the attacks and ran towards a opening in panic. Three more monsters suddenly blocked her path, firing another set of red electric beams at the purple alicorn. Twilight yelped, one of the blasts managing to singe the tips of her wings. She fluttered out of the beasts’ path to avoid another set of burning electricity. The writhing mass of inferno and soil spat out several more monsters, throwing them towards Twilight.
“What ARE these creatures?!” Twilight exclaimed in terror. She fled as the monstrosities began chasing after her with fire in their eyes and saliva dripping down their wicked jaws. Twilight found her wings beginning to tire with every flap. She could only hold out for so long. But with the fear of death enveloping the alicorn, Twilight couldn’t let her life be stripped away by these monsters. Igniting her horn, Twilight began firing vollies of magic blasts at the creatures with rapid-fire speed, managing to off only a dozen of the creatures. One of the monsters managed to finally land a blow on Twilight’s mid-section with it’s claws, sending the princess careening towards the floor. Twilight landed on her left side, a pained scream escaping her lips. She recovered from the fall and stood up, watching three more monsters land in front of her. Twilight felt her exhaustion catching up to her. Twilight realized she was too spent from flying and shooting at the wicked beasts. But that didn’t stop her. Twilight began firing another set of magic projectiles at the beasts in a attempt to destroy them. No matter how many monsters she brought down, more kept appearing. Twilight found herself surrounded by a swarming horde of monsters threatening to reduce her to bones. Twilight pushed herself to take off into the sky and fight the monsters head on. She opened fire on the beasts and offed several of the monsters, digging holes in the beasts’ bodies and obliterating them. Her efforts were in vain as more monsters spawned from the remains of their fallen allies. A flurry of electric fire rained down on Twilight, forcing her to weave and dodge out of the projectiles’ path. Completely exhausted, Twilight fell back towards the burning earth. She yelped in pain upon impacting the ground, weakly lifting her head to gaze upon the swarm of beasts hovering over her. In a flash of lightning, the monsters merged together to form a towering triple-headed beast. Unlike the smaller monsters whom resembled demonic versions of Twilight’s friends, the new creature seemed to take the form of a golden winged three-headed dragon. The dragon loomed over Twilight, three pairs of crimson eyes glaring daggers at her.
“A dragon? What dragon has three heads?” Twilight asked herself. But she didn’t get an answer when the dragon roared and lunged at Twilight, swallowing the alicorn whole.
***
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!” Twilight screamed, nearly jumping out of her bed. Her whole body was drenched in sweat, her eyes welling with tears. Spike jumped in alert upon hearing his sister scream.
“AHH! WHAT’S HAPPENING? ARE WE BEING ATTACKED?!” Spike yelled in alarm. Twilight blindly grabbed her little brother in her hooves, holding the young dragon close to her chest.
“I’M HOME... I’M HOME AND SAFE... I THOUGHT I WAS GONNA DIE!!” Twilight yelled.
“Twilightf... you arf.... squishinghf... meeee...!” Spike muffled, his face pressed into Twilight’s bosom. Twilight realized she had not taken the little blueish-white pillow lying next to her in her hooves and had grabbed Spike instead.
“Whoops... Sorry, Spike.” Twilight apologized, letting go of the little dragon.
“What are you doing screaming in the middle of the night?” Spike asked in a annoyed tone while tiredly rubbing his eyes.
“I, uh, had a really bad nightmare. It’s nothing to worry about, Spike.” Twilight replied.
“Okay, whatever. I’m going back to bed.” Spike said, slumping back into his little basket. Twilight sighed as she stared at her window, watching the countless number of stars sparkle in the night sky. Her stomach wrenched with a unpleasant feeling, like it had twisted itself in a tight knot. Twilight got the feeling her nightmare wasn’t any ordinary dream. She finally dismissed the feeling and laid her head back down on her pillow, returning to the hopefully peaceful realm of sleep.