//------------------------------// // Chapter 6: The Battle of the Nightmare // Story: Nightmare Night Town // by Foal Star //------------------------------// Spike was grumbling as he had to cross the insane Nightmare Night town with a crow wouldn’t stop cawing scoots, Apple Bloom was still jabbering about how corn is great, and the hobbling hunchback Sweetie Belle mumbling about how she was going to be punished by her mistress. as they tried to find their friends. The cat looked behind him and grumbled, “how did my life end up here?” They continued on for some time before they ended up at the crooked clock tower. Here it seemed that the place was still deserted except there was a giant yellow spider with pink butterflies printed on her abdomen. She was talking to the clock tower, “you had to have seen my friends? You sure they hadn’t come in this way?” The clock tower shook its head slowly making creaking sounds as he explained. “I am not sure my dear, the last time I saw them was when they went to the corn maze and that was a few hours ago.” Spike bounded over to the big yellow spider and exclaimed, “Hey Fluttershy! over here!” The spider turned around and squeaked, “Spike! is that you!?” The cat gave nod as she showed a paw to the rest of his troupe. “Yeah, we're all looking for our friends. They were at Rarity's castle not too long ago.” Fluttershy gave a sigh of relief. “So they found Rarity that’s good, I’m also betting they found Luna by now.” Dr hooves as the clock tower nodded and replied back making a metallic noise. “That’s very good news, they need to hurry though if it strikes twelve this nightmare will never end and Ponyville will be trapped in this nightmare for all of eternity.” The Spider squeaked in horror. “Oh dear, then we need to get with them as soon as we can! But where would they be!?” The cat tapped a paw on the ground and exclaimed, “Oh I know, they could be at Pinkie pie’s place. They’re probably trying to get the whole gang together.” Fluttershy gave a nod and exclaimed. “Right all of you hop on my back we can get there faster if you all rode with me. The cutie mark crusaders were a bit concerned and stepped back even the cat was unsure of seeing how terrifying Fluttershy was but she wasn’t having any of it. The mare took out her abdomen and snapped all of the webs and strapped them all to her back as she shouted, “stop messing around! now come on we have a nightmare to end!” She then scuttled off into the foggy streets with her companions all but under to be relieved that they'll see their friends or scared of the giant spider known as Fluttershy. As Fluttershy scuttled all the way to the Gingerbread house only to find a fat angry witch covered in orange goo clamoring out as she turned to the yellow spider with a menacing glare and shouted, “where did your friends go Fluttershy!  I need them for a cake!” The giant spider narrowed all of her eyes to slits as she rose over the witch on two of her legs. The witch trembled with fear as the spider began to tie her up with web slowly wounding her up in thick pasty goo. Once she was done and Mrs. Cake was now once again trapped. Fluttershy came down and politely asked, “now you're going to tell me where my friends went okay?” The witch squealed,  “they left to Twilight’s library! I swear that’s all I know!” Fluttershy satisfied dropped the witch down “thanks, I apologize for scaring you but I really needed to find them.” She then scuttled off back into the night with the cat and the Cutie mark crusaders all looking at each other now more worried then they were before. They eventually came upon the library where it seems all of Fluttershy's friends were getting ready for a battle. Twilight was brewing up some potions in her massive cauldron muttering spells and dropping her hoof clippings into the brew, Rainbow Dash was sharpening her scythe with a wing near the back of the library. Pinkie Pie was in a chair going over a book called, “death traps for dummies”, the scarecrow Applejack was practicing lighting her head on fire in a mirror and Rarity and Luna were both fighting each other flying through the air and tackling each other. Rarity who was losing got up and fluttered into the middle of the room as she caught her breath and wheezed, “your good at the Luna, I have to admit being a vampire is quite thrilling.” Luna gave a nod of agreement as she added, “yes it seems that your getting a hang on flying and fighting... too bad this will all end.” Rarity blushed as she asked “darling, do you like me better as a vampire?” Luna was now the one blushing as she looked away. “To be honest, yeah I mean I know hundreds of bat ponies. I even hire them as guards. But you're the first to just the first pony recognize me as just another pony and not a princess or a monster.” Rarity fluttered over with tears in her eyes and she hugged Luna close. “Oh, darling! I'm so sorry about how the ponies were treating you this night! I swear next Nightmare Night I'll make sure you're the prettiest and fanciest mare in Equestria then nopony will be afraid of you darling.” Luna blushed hard knowing the embarrassing pink dress Rarity had in mind and stepped back as she explained, “that's not necessary. But I wouldn't mind if next year you escorted me around and get me to use to the festivities. Twilight did a good job but I think I wpuld rather do it with you." Rarity face grew a deeper red. “You mean like a da-” Before the white-coated mare could finish Fluttershy burst through the front door with the cutie mark crusaders and Spike. The crow immediately went to her master’s side and started to cow “Scoot! Scoot!” Just as the grim reaper groaned, “ugh why can’t you just leave me alone! You're so annoying!” Apple Bloom trotted across the room  and bowed before her sister. “the children of the corn has returned.” Applejack just rolled her eyes, “great good to know.” The hunchback hobbled up the stairs and bowed to Rarity. “I have returned master.” Rarity  got up and waved a hoof, “well done now go fetch me and Luna a drink please.” The hunchback a nod as she took out some strawberries and rained them into the wine glasses. Twilight gave a small sigh of relief and whispered, ”Oh thank Celestia I thought that was blood.” Then she turned to the spider and sighed, “Fluttershy I’m so glad to see to see your okay. You came at the perfect time were about to go out to the Everfree Forest to battle Nightmare Moon and get rid of the nightmare. Are you ready?” Fluttershy shrugged as she gave a sheepish smile with venom dripping down her teeth, “ I’m not sure if I am or not but I'll try.” Rainbow Dash just scoffed, ”oh please, shed the most terrifying thing here. Now let's get going. I rather not take souls to the underworld for the rest of my life.” Twilight gave a nod as she turned towards her friends and she stood before them and started her speech in her cackling tone, “Okay, look I know that this may not be something your all ready to deal with. But we need to break through and end this nightmare! The fate of-Ponyville turning back to normal or it staying as Nightmare Night Town is in our hooves. Are you with me!” They all cheered and clapped their hooves, paws and spider legs together. Then they began to file out of the library and out into the foggy depths of Nightmare Night Town. After an hour of trekking through the dark twisted wood that seemed to haven’t been changed much other then there was more fog on the ground. The troupe of freaks eventually came upon the kid dead cemetery that Luna came to earlier that night with a pool of nightmares swirling in the middle of the place churning out the evil fog. However, Nightmare Moon stood with a few other servants of her own. Big Mac was there he was a Frankenstein monster with stitch work all over and two giant screws in his head. The mayor was there with her bloody clown costume wielding a chainsaw. Trixie was there and she was wearing a silky red sorceress costume with a sparkling wand in her teeth. A giant Xenomorph was there as well squealing and gnashing its two mouths.  Soarin stood over as a shadowbolt with a creepy grin under his black mask. and Bulk Biceps was now a giant buff gargoyle roaring ready to fight. Nightmare Moon slowly came forward her eyes full of fury, “now you will all submit to being apart of my Nightmare or you will die here tonight!” Twilight and her friends all braced themselves after a few moments they all charged at once. Big Mac just stumbled over mindlessly as Applejack blushed as she squeaked, ”uh hey bro why is ya doing this?” Big Mac just had a blank expression as he groaned, “I don’t know…Night friend you bad.” He tried to crush her with a giant hoof. But she dodged it and then she growled, “hey you may be my big brother but that doesn’t mean I’m gonna go easy on ya!” She reared up with her pumpkin head full of flame and Big Mac screamed in horror. “fire! fire bad! no fire!” Applejack menacingly stomped forward as she growled, “now Big Mac you go get your big butt back to Sweet Apple Acre until this over ya got it!” He slowly nodded his head but he tapped a hoof to one of his giant screws. “What is Sweet Apple...uh…” Apple Bloom just walked over and took her brother by the hoof. “No need to worry about that. Now come on let's get ya home we need to take care of the corn.” Big Mac shrugged and stumbled along after his sister. Meanwhile, The mayor was chasing Pinkie Pie through the woods wielding her chainsaw like a crazy pony shouting, “you can’t escape from me!” That was until she stumbled straight into a trap where all four of her hooves were caught by wire.and her chainsaw dropped to the ground. Pinkie Pie casually bounced over and kicked the chainsaw away as she took out a feather and smirked, ”now, we're going to play a little game. You're going to have to make a joke as a good clown should or I’ll keep on tickling you.” They mayor gulped, “uh…why did the chicken cross the road?” Pinkie rolled her eyes, “stupid joke! She began tickling the mayor who burst into laughter. “make it stop! make it stop!” But Pinkie pie didn't let up laughing. “Nope, not until I get a good joke from ya!” While Pinkie tortured the mayor. Rainbow Dash fought the Shadowbolt who flew around her in circles shouting. “You can't catch me!” Rainbow Dash tried to keep up but she was slower with her skeletal wings unable to get the speed she desired. The pegasus growled and took out the scythe and cut down one of the trees making it lean into another. Just as Soarin was going to try to fly up a crow slammed into his face as she shouted, “hey I can't see!” He slew jaggedly and Scootaloo the crow made the shadowbolt slam into the trunk. He fell back to the ground unconscious as Rainbow Dash just scoffed, ”your still clumsy as ever Soarin even as a Shadowbolt.” As Rainbow Dash took Soarin away from the forest, the alien creature was about to attack Fluttershy who was a bit giddy seeing a new creature she cooed, “oh wow what a big scary creature, but I bet your all soft inside huh?” The creature screeched and attacked Fluttershy throwing her into to the ground. She quickly got up and scuttled backward the creature tried to jab her with its tail. But Fluttershy dodged the attacks and then was able to start wrapping the alien up with webbing. The creature lashed and tried using its acid spit to break free dribbling it on the web.  But Fluttershy just slapped it’s head “no bad, alien you stay there in timeout until you behave.” It screeched back but just got another slap as Fluttershy cooed, “we can do this all night mister that's up to you.” The Xenomorph was stunned and was going to screech but..he knew that if he did he would get another slap. The creature went silent growling as Fluttershy petted his long skull. “What a good alien yes you are, yes you are.” If at that moment a Xenomorph could blush the alien's face would be a deep red. As Fluttershy tried to tame an alien Rarity was dealing with the giant Gargoyle shouting and trying to attack her. The vampire couldn’t seem to find a way to defeat the giant buff gargoyle who was much too strong for her. Not until she saw it was made of stone as she tried to sink her teeth into it a few moments ago chipping a tooth. The vampire growled, “Ugh that’s it! I had enough of your rude behavior.” The mare reared up and kicked the gargoyle in the face making it screech as it fell into the river below. It tried to get out but it sank underneath unable to break from the water. As Rarity squealed with delight at her triumph. “Well…I didn’t expect that!” As most of Nightmare Moon's minions were dealt with. Twilight was staring down Trixie who smirked, “Trixie will defeat you once and for all for humiliating me!” Twilight shouted back, “go ahead and try you cheap magician. Even in a Nightmare, you're going down!” The two unicorns both glared at each other just as Trixie shot Twilight with a beam of magic. While Twilight threw a potion at Trixie. they both poofed into clouds of smoke and as it cleared Twilight was now a purple pig while Trixie was turned into a light blue frog. This gave Luna a chance to fly to the pool but Nightmare Moon stood before it as she exclaimed, “you won’t be able to stop this! I won’t let you!” Luna eyed down her evil self and shouted back. “No! you're going to be the one who's going down!” She reared up and tackled Nightmare moon as they both fell into grass bucking at each other Nightmare Moon kicked Luna away but was shot with magic as a Pink dress with yellow frills poofed onto her body. Nightmare Moon's face went pale with horror and embarrassment “What monster would make such a thing!” Luna laughed “my friend Rarity that's who!” Nightmare moon made the tendrils of shadow raise above her as she proclaimed, “now you will see the true power of Nightmare Moon!” She shoved the shadows over Luna as they took the brooch and crushed it into pieces as she laughed maniacally and shouted. “I won!” Luna looked up and growled, “no, you didn’t this is my nightmare and I say you’re the one who’s been defeated!” She slammed herself into Nightmare Moon and threw the monster to the ground and took back the red energy. She concentrated with all her night forming the jewel of nightmares and held it over the pool. Twilight as a pig snorted and oinked as she tried to shout, “throw it in the pool now!” Luna gulped as she held it over unsure of the decision. But she looked around at her friends and the other creatures she saw how miserable they all looked and sighed, “it’s not about me.” She dropped the jewel into the pool and it exploded with a bright light. Luna instantly woke up in Twilight’s library with a gasp. She looked over the place seeing it was now back to form with birds chirping outside instead if bats, it was daytime and they seem to be no creepy decoration anywhere in sight. She then turned to see all of Twilight friends just staring at her with concern looks. The princess squeaked stumbling out of bed and asked, “what happened? Why am I sleeping here?” Twilight came forward an explained, “I'm not sure. We found you in f Ponyville and I took you inside to make sure you were okay.” Luna rubbed her head and mumbled, “Yeah..I..just had a terrible dream where Ponyville was some Nightmare town and you were a witch.” She saw the rest of Twilight’s friends. ”You were their rainbow dash as a Grim Reaper, you were their pinkie as a weird serial killer and you were there Fluttershy as a huge spider.” The rest of the Ponies were confused and just shrugged at each other.  Pinkie Pie bounced over chirped,” oh you had one of those dreams! so who did you miss most of all!?” Luna shrugged and turned to see Rarity blushing as she had some odd feelings about her. The princess blushed too and just nervously whispered, “well um…I better get going, thanks for getting me here.” She slowly trotted downstairs and rubbed her head wondering about the entire. “was that nightmare real, or was it all  just a dream?” Twilight gave a sigh of relief. “Well, she looked okay but I wonder what she was talking about some sort of Nightmare…” she then suddenly snorted and blushed as her friend turned around and the unicorn waved a hoof. “Sorry, I've been doing that all morning I'm not sure why though?” Applejack nodded, “yeah, come to mention it Apple Bloom somehow has a chestful of corn in her room. I wonder where all that came from. Fluttershy shrugged as she whispered, “yeah...I noticed she mentioned I was a spider...what's odd is that there were giant cobwebs all over my cottage this morning.” All of the ponies began discussing more other odd things they noticed that morning. Rarity looked over to see an odd pink dress with yellow frills lining the bottom just sitting on the bed. The mare picked it up with magic and whispered “I was planning to design this dress for Luna last night. But I never got around in making it...so how did this get here?” Rainbow Dash scoffed, “I guess, it was a good thing you did I wouldn't be caught dead wearing that thing.” Twilight bonked her friend on the head before snorting. “huh, well why don't you give it to her now before she leaves.” Rarity blushed seeing all her friends giving her smirks as she shouted “what!? come on Twilight is friends with Celestia why can't I be with Luna sheesh!” She ran down the steps and came up to find Luna slowly walking down the road as she exclaimed “Princess Luna! you forgot something!” Rarity took out the dress and held it up. Luna gave a blush as she drifted it over with her magic. “Uh thanks, Rarity, this is a beautiful dress.” The white-coated mare gave a slight nod. “Well...I guess this is goodbye darling.” Luna turned around and before Rarity could say something the princess gave Rarity a peck on the cheek before taking off and flying towards Canterlot. Rarity just gave a slight blush as she rubbed her cheek unsure of what the gesture meant.