Nightmare

by Salty Alty


Chapter 7: Waking Nightmare

I sat there for a moment, staring at the door. Something was out there. I may not have been able to see anything, but I knew deep down that there was something waiting for me on the other side of that door. Even pressing my ears to the thin walls, I couldn't hear anypony. There were none of the tell-tale shuffles of clothing, none of the restrained breathing from somepony trying to stay hidden... nothing. 

But then I remembered the words from the Nightmare Moon lookalike. Even operating under the assumption that this was all some weird hallucination — and if I was being entirely honest with myself, I trusted the judgement of the weird floating head over my own at this point — I'd bucked up far too much, and far too quickly, to trust myself at that moment.

So I sat there patiently, listening for any signs that somepony was still sitting on the other side of the door.

I waited to see if anything would happen, and after about a minute I was satisfied that my door had not, in fact, been kicked in. Taking a deep breath and slumping against the wall, I allowed myself to relax. "Ooookay, Evening. One step at a time. You'll be fine girl... just gotta get through th—!" 

Of course, that was the perfect time for the door to slam open, shattering any illusions of safety I may have had, and wedging my small body firmly between the door and the wall, causing me to hiss quietly in pain. 

Three gray furred unicorns barged into the room. The biggest pony of the bunch was brandishing a stun baton, the weapon crackling with bright green electricity. His companions, likewise, carried similar weapons. The trio, who were dressed in loose, saggy black clothing, were all either identical triplets, or they were using the same enchantments that the Guard used, and heavy duty enchantments like that meant powerful ponies with some pull had hooked these guys up. I struggled to keep myself from hyperventilating as I tried to think of who these ponies were, or who their benefactors may have been. "Think, Evening, Think! You didn't piss off the Mafia recently, right?! King Pin is still in jail, so these aren't his crew! Who the hay hates you this much?!"

I found my question answered for me when the tallest one called out to his underlings. "Alright. Both of you, fan out and search the premises. We have intel that the compound is still in the building, so let's get to it. With luck, we'll be back at HQ before the sun comes up." The others mumbled an agreement before they split up and went further into my apartment. 

I held back a sigh of relief. Maybe I could get out of this one after all. That hope was swiftly shattered, however, when the big one decided he was going to stay put, taking his sweet bucking time in searching my cabinets, as slowly and deliberately as he possibly could. The way he moved was otherworldly, as if he was a puppet being dragged along against its will. I felt my heart skip a beat whenever he cast a glance my way, hoping that he wouldn’t see me in my dark little corner.

Suddenly, every hair on my body stood on end as he shot up abruptly, as if alerted by something. He began slinking towards my living room, heading straight for my bags... the same bags which had all of my flash drives in it.

The same bags which held the vial I had nicked from Bright. 

I felt a feeling of mounting dread as he inched closer and closer to my saddlebags, turning his back to me. The other two, from what I could hear, had just finished rummaging around in my bedroom, so this would likely be the only chance I had to get the buck out of dodge. I grit my teeth, courage welling up in my chest as I rushed out of my hiding spot and out of the door, leaping for the stairway.

I was free! 

"All I've gotta do now is call the guards and I'll be fi— AAAAGHH!" My victory was short lived, the bravery and bravado I had felt before had now replaced with the mind-searing sensation of tens of thousands of volts being pumped directly into my spine. Lightning spreading out across my body like a spiderweb.

I slumped to the ground, twitching wildly as my assailant pressed the hard metal stick into my neck harder than before. Through the pain, I could faintly make out the crackle of a radio. "Command, this is Vespa-One. Target is secure. Permission to apply Procedure One-Seven-Five, over?"

He collapsed the baton, giving me a momentary reprieve from the impromptu shock therapy. He then levitated me into the air and gave me a visual inspection, my head rolling around lazily as he shifted my body around. His radio crackled and I heard a chittering sound. He nodded. "10-4, will proceed immediately, over." 

He brought out a black tube from his pockets, displaying it tauntingly. "Couldn't have just left Miss Heart's property alone, could you?" It swirled with a pinkish liquid, with faint hints of oily blackness swimming in the mixture like leeches. I didn't know how, but I knew if those things entered my body, it was game over. I struggled against his constricting aura as he brought the injector closer and closer to my neck, trying everything I could to get out of his grip. As the needle finally touched my skin, I resigned myself to my fate.

And that's when all Tartarus broke loose.

I heard a shattering and a crack, opening my eyes to find that his magical grasp over me had been broken, and he was laying on the floor, his neck bent at an unnatural angle. Green fire rolled across his body, burning away the skin and revealing some insectoid monstrosity of a pony, its body filled with holes and covered with black chitin. Two beady blue eyes stared directly into his former companion's eyes, causing them to gape at me. "Oh buck... I'm gonna be sick..." I said, looking towards the dead pony's comrades.

Before I could even comprehend that I had just somehow killed a pony, a bright blue glow surrounded one of the thugs I was looking at and rocketed them towards me, my hoof being yanked up impossibly quick to meet his head. There was a sickening CRUNCH as his muzzle caved into the rest of his face, his unconscious body landing a few hooves away. "What the hay just happened?!" I didn't expect a response. 

"Not what... who."

The remaining pony shot a burst of energy towards me, and I struggled to rationalize what happened next. My body... split apart, my vision going black for a moment as I reappeared in front of the terrified unicorn. Tendrils of magic erupted out of my body and wrapped themselves around his throat, coiling around it like a hungry snake. I saw bulbs of energy being sucked through the tentacles, and each one entering my body filled me with more magic than I'd ever felt before! I reveled in it, basking in the glow of all the energy I had just absorbed, before that glorious feeling was cut short by the tendrils flinging the now empty husk of a pony into the wall, which now looked exactly like his dead friend.

"Oh buck. I just killed a pony." I stared at the corpse, processing exactly what I had just done. "Oh buck I just killed a pony!"

I was in full panic mode now, with each and every breath I took being incredibly shallow as I began shaking. 

I had just killed a pony!

As I went to heave the contents of my stomach onto the floor my wings gave a mighty flap, pushing me into the air until I was practically hugging the ceiling. The pony whose face I had just caved in shot under me, having missed his tackle. I felt my body slam onto him, a CRACK! sounding out from what I assumed was my hoof snapping his spinal cord like a twig. He, too, now looked like a gross perversion of what a pony should look like, green ichor spilling out of his wounds like molasses.

The voice from before purred in satisfaction. "Hmph, revolting creatures. Let us siphon the rest of their energy and absorb the corpses before more of these roaches arrive."

"Now why the hay would we do that? Why would we do any of that at all?!" I huffed out in both shock and exhaustion, eyeing the devastation I.... We had just caused. My apartment was a wreck. The floor was cracked and caved in, my door was partially off of its hinges, and I was fairly sure that that hole in the wall had come from the horn of one of the creatures. 

"Sustenance, of course. Their kind aren't too terribly appetizing, but they will suffice."

I heard a stomp and a twang behind me and a tendril shot out of my shoulder, sucking me towards the wall as a previously unseen pony shot a crossbow bolt towards my previous position. The second I laid eyes on him, his crossbow was snapped in half by Andromeda's magic, before the butt end of the stock was rammed into his face repeatedly, knocking him out in a swift and orderly fashion. 

Taking the time to strap on my saddlebags, I ran straight for my balcony, hurling myself off of it and into the night sky. Below me, there were probably a dozen unmarked, black carriages, and a large crowd of ponies gathered outside of the building. I recognised a few as my neighbors. As I sped away, I heard furious flapping behind me, and I yelped as another bolt whizzed past my face, nicking my cheek. "Buckbuckbuckbuck! I'm gonna die!"

"Nonsense. These are paltry blows at best."

I flew around the corner of a building, my pursuers hot on my tail as I did so. Glancing back, I could see that there were two pegasi wearing flight suits and goggles speeding towards me, their crossbows clutched tightly in their hooves. One of them was readying another bolt. 

I turned my head back, only to be greeted with a large group of pegasi rising to intercept me, a large, electrified net clutched in their hooves. There were buildings surrounding me on all sides, blocking any alternate route I may have been able to take. As I made to dive, my body seized up and resumed its previous course, and my wingbeats only increased in intensity. "What the hay are you doing?!" 

"Saving us, now be quiet!" 

We grew closer to the net with each passing second, and as I prepared to receive the shock of a lifetime, every fiber of my being was suddenly split apart. It felt like I had been stretched out and then thinned with a rolling pin. I couldn't really see, more so I was aware of my surroundings through means I didn't entirely understand at the time. I could sense everywhere around me, and the net grew further and further away. 

Immediately after I had ducked into an alleyway, I was whole again, and promptly lobbed onto the concrete from the momentum, causing me to roll comically before I came to a stop. Scratching my head, I looked up to find a faint mist rising from my body, the same kind that the tendrils and the head were made of. Quickly examining my surroundings, I found that I was in the worst place possible; a dead end. I saw the silhouettes of ponies grouping up at the entrance to the alley. The figures paused to get into formation, and then they started charging directly towards me like a herd of angry buffalo. 

"Run to the darkness!" Andromeda shouted at me, and I immediately carried out her order, turning tail and rushing as quickly as I could towards the shadow-filled dead end. As soon as my face should have hit the brick and mortar of the wall, I felt the sensation of cold water rushing over me, as if I had just been dunked in a pool of icey water. I didn't know how long I had stayed like that, but soon afterwards I emerged behind a building, where the street lights couldn't illuminate the area. 

"Woah... thanks for getting me out of there." I got back on my hooves, trotting into the streets. 

"Much obliged."

I could see figures flitting about in the distant sky, combing the area around the apartment building. "Not gonna lie, that was pretty cool." 

"I am certainly glad that you think s— WATCH OUT!" 

The warning came far too late, and by the time I had turned my head to face the oncoming noise, the carriage that had been thrown at me had impacted me squarely in the side, throwing me through the air and into a nearby wall. I couldn't feel either of my wings, and I was fairly sure that at least one of my legs were broken... and I may have had a concussion.

Not the best situation to be in.

I unceremoniously fell to the ground, the taste of my own blood pooling in my mouth giving a salty tang to the lovely taste of the concrete I had just eaten. I slowly opened my eyes, not quite able to make out the figure that was approaching me. I was forced to squint my eyes shut as green fire rolled across its form, burning away the facade it had been wearing prior. The abominations had all looked the same to me, but there was something different about this one. A large scar ran across its right eye, the chitin that should have been there seeming softer and more vulnerable than the surrounding exoskeleton.

It walked up to me, staring down at my prone form with visible contempt. "You've been a real pain my flank. You know that, right?"

I chuckled weakly, giving the bug a cocksure smile. "Good. Go agh b-buck yourself and the cavalry you rode in on!"

It raised a gnarled hoof to stomp on my windpipe.

I closed my eyes, ready to accept my fate.

The hoof fell.

And as that hoof came down, my own met it, cracking bone and causing the creature to cry out in pain. Coiling mist surged out of every pore on my body and clung to me like a thick slime, covering me from head to hoof, healing my wounds. I rose off of the ground, now taller than before. I looked up to find a spectral horn upon my head... no, our head, and a thick, billowing mane behind us. 

We looked to the insect that had dared to harm us, cowering and attempting to crawl away. We hoisted it up by its neck, forcing it to stare us directly in the eye. It stank of fear and cowardice. "Such a deep mana well... and so little time. You smell delicious. You will take quite some time to digest." We opened our maw, eager to replenish our energy and take revenge on such an insignificant and pitiful creature for striking us, when we felt an impact to the back of our head. Tossing the creature away, we turned to find another of its kind glaring at us, its horn aglow with magical energy.

"Ripe for the picking."

It gasped as we teleported to it, opening our maw once more and drinking deeply from the well of magic it had so graciously left on display, until it was naught but a shell of what it used to be.

Shells were useless to us.

"Canterlot Royal Guard, put your hooves in the air!" We turned and saw a platoon of guards leveling both spear and horn towards us, and we prepared to strike. "No! Bad! We do not attack the bucking guards!" 

"Why not? They have shown hostility towards us. Should I not cleanse their filth from our sight?" 

"No! They're only trying to protect ponies!" 

"Fine. I shall leave them be... for now."

We flared out our wings, before shooting straight towards the wall, disappearing into the shadows in a puff of mist.

I could not help but feel like the creature we had let live would become an issue later on, however...

"That’s an issue for another time."