"!dezilaer ew naht regnorts s'tI !saw ti thguoht ew tahw T'NSI sihT !ooooononoN"
Was that... Ruby's voice?
When things faded back in again, they were standing on a street corner, looking at rows upon rows upon rows of little cottages, all looking exactly the same - all drab and grey. Each one had a stallion outside, pushing a lawnmower and smoking a pipe, walking in step with ALL the other stallions.
At each residence's front stoop was a mailbox, and all those boxes had names on them; they were the only thing here that was different from everything else. The stallions even wore the same clothing...
Mica looked around, puzzled, while Cup began scanning the area and Clap took to the skies to get a better view.
There had to have been some sort of problem, but whatever Ruby was trying to tell them, Obsidian had no idea what it meant. She could recognize her voice, but the words themselves were merely a mumbled sort-of babbling.
And this place surely couldn't be Stalwart's nightmare. Obsidian would suspect her of... well, nightmares about her size, or maybe about lack of acceptance in royal guard, or anything connected to her militant dreams - not this Tartarus of uniformity.
"Please tell me that Stalwart is secretly terrified of society," Obsidian groaned, hoping it wasn't another trick. There had to be something here to point them in the right direction; maybe the mailboxes were arranged alphabetically? She trotted closer to check her theory.
Sure enough, they were arranged alphabetically... and they were already in the 's' section! Indeed, about three mailboxes down, there was one that said, very plainly:
{Dream Smasher & Stalwart Stance}
The stallion (supposedly Dream) who was working outside seemed no different than any of the others; all smiling soullessly, all mowing their lawns, all smoking their pipes, all waving to each other as they passed. The stallion didn't even flinch as they came close.
Obsidian looked to the left, then to the right. "So, guys... do any of you actually know this stallion?" she asked the rest of her group.
Cup shrugged. "No idea; never seen him before in my life."
Clap shook her head. "Nuh-uh - not a clue."
Mica looked at the stallion a moment, then at the mailbox. "Well, if the name is anything to go by, then I'd say he more represents what's wrong here, rather than actually existing. I mean, would you want anything to do with anypony by that name?"
"But," Clap asked, "how does a stallion like this smash anyone's dreams?"
A look of understanding fell across Mica's muzzle, and he looked toward the house. "I think... we should knock."
So here goes the hope that this guy represented somepony real. Too bad - it could give them something to work with instead of dealing with a mysterious representation of Stalwart's internal terrors. Was he supposed to be somepony from her family? Or maybe one of the leaders of the Equestrian Royal Guard?
They didn't have too many other options, so she followed Mica's advice - and made her way closer to the house.
When she knocked on the door, a harried and anxious Wart answered from inside. "Oh manure, something else to handle! Please come inside, I have my hooves full!"
Mica nodded, as if his suspicions were playing out like he'd imagined. Clap just looked at him, but he motioned to enter the house anyway.
"By Darkness, don't tell me that her greatest fear is being a slave!"
Mica mumbled, "Not exactly..."
Obsidian opened the doors to invade the house - whatever had happened to poor Stalwart, she had to rescue her!
Inside, the house was decorated sparsely yet tastefully... however, not a bit of it was anywhere near the realm of decorative, as much of it was in rather shoddy condition; there were little hoofprints everywhere, stains on the walls from who-knew-what, cracks on the floors, and a few utensils stuck into the ceiling.
And everywhere, there were foals, foals, foals!
Obsidian lost count after fifteen... because they wouldn't stay still long enough to be counted! Each and every foal, filly and colt were all running about, yelling and screaming, kicking and fighting, playing and crying - there was no escape!
And at the center of it all, with two young foals in twin bassinets across her flanks, was a very tired and worn-out looking Stalwart Stance. She looked as though she hadn't slept in weeks, had another colt riding her back, two fillies hanging from her rear legs, and was massively pregnant with what looked to be at least two more.
The tiny, belly-swollen and exhausted mare looked up at them with zero recognition. "Please, I do apologize for the state of the house, b-but if you give me just a few moments, I'll join you in the living room, okay?" On her flank, her cutie mark of the twin swords crossed behind a shield was gone; in its' place, a single word scribed across her back end: {BREEDER}
Clap and Cup just stared, blown away by it all... while Mica nodded sagely. "I was right," he said with grim satisfaction.
Obsidian didn't know the word 'octane', but if she knew, she would call this dream high-octane nightmare fuel, pure enough to make practically anypony wake up in a middle of the night, screaming endlessly! It seemed as if Onyx had focused on poor Stalwart... which was why Cup, Clap and Mica got off so easy.
"I never thought I'd be so terrified by a group of foals," she muttered.
Mica, meanwhile, began to explain. "It's fairly simple, really; as Wart is obsessed with becoming a Royal Guardpony, she possibly believes that if she should fail, then a life such as this one will be the only future she has to look forward to - giving birth and keeping house. Both of which are about as far from her personality as I can think."
"Er, pregnant with foals?" Considering that Obsidian's current knowledge about making foals was limited to 'when daddy really wants a child, he crafts a crystal and infuses it with his own soul', and at best she was aware that a mare normally needs a stallion to have children; she didn't get as much from the horror around her as the rest of the group was seeing, apparently.
Which didn't change the fact that it was still the most traumatic of all the nightmares she had seen up to this point.
"Please, just another minute and I'll be there!" Came the exasperated call from the kitchen, followed by, "Sid! Get off the countertop! Cups, stop antagonizing her!" The crying from the kitchen doubled in volume, and another call came back, "Just another few minutes, please wait! I do so miss company!"
Clap shook her head. "Poor Warty."
"But she could do so much with her skills!" Obsidian stated, "Like... become a mercenary! Or found a fighting school and train others! Maybe even gather a group of supporters, conquer some place, declare herself to be its' queen, enslave the citizens and study Dark Magic!"
She paused, then looked at her friends. "Well... it worked for my most honourable father; it would work for her too, I'm sure." She shook her head... of course, Stalwart in a royal cape might look rather strange, but as long as she would be able to carry two swords at the same time, she would be able to do whatever she wanted.
"Okay, let's disregard that last option, but GAH, why she couldn't have nightmares about, I don't know, planting carrots or something? I'm really creeped out by this... and why she is so fat?"
Mica lifted an eyebrow. "She's pregnant with even more foals, of course. What better way to top off the nightmare than to be constantly making more work for yourself? Of course, I'm sure that the Dream Smasher outside has done his part as well. Appropriate name; it's what gave away what the circumstances might be, to me."
Wart waddled into the living room, now with three foals riding her back, and trying to gently kick away the one filly still gripping her right rear leg. She was looking straight at Obsidian, but recognition seemed to be nowhere in her features.
"Now, hello! Oh, I do hope you're here to give me a presentation or such; I would love to have a sit down!"
At that moment, the doorway opened wide, and Dream Smasher came strolling into the living room. "Ah, there you are, darling wife! I've finished up the lawn, so if you'd be so kind as to go upstairs, it's time to make more foals!"
Tears begin to pour down her cheeks. "Oh, Dream, please... I h-h-have comp-"
"Now, now, wife - no stalling your stallion, isn't that right, dearie?"
She shuddered... then sighed and looked down at the cracked, cheap floor. "Yes, dear."
"Alrighty then! I shall be awaiting you upstairs, ready to go! Let your company out, and I will meet you at the top of the stairs, honey! Those foals won't make themselves, ha ha!" With that, he jauntily pranced his way up the stairwell, while Wart gave Obsidian a heart-breaking look.
"I'm... so sorry, miss... but I'm afraid I have my..." she winced, "... duties to perform. Please excuse me..."
She turned and began to waddle towards the stairs, still being a ride for her bratty children, who were now all chanting how 'mommy was gonna take another pony ride with daddy'.
"She can't see us, Siddy - don't let her go up those stairs!" Cup cried out.
Her horn flashed as she grabbed Stalwart with her magic. "Okay, guys, you can explain this 'pregnant' thing later. Cupcake, considering your mysterious magical powers inherited from your mother, could you perhaps give me a sword?"
Cupcake reached back behind him and pulled out... a bicycle.
Then a hat rack.
Followed by a bag of turnips.
Next came a hammock.
After that, an emu, who darted off out the door as soon as it could.
Then a hockey stick.
Then, a spare tire.
No matter what he tried, a sword was something he couldn't produce. He looked to Obsidian and shrugged. "It's never done that before," he said with surprise.
Well, if things went sour, Obsidian was fairly certain she would be able to attack using the hockey stick - not that she knew anything about hockey, of course.
She focused herself and tried to cast... well, essentially a Sword Spell - a beautiful and razor-sharp crystal sword with a black blade... she'd never tried anything like it before, but right now she had plenty of horror around to fuel her Dark Magic, so she hoped the concept would work.
Slowly, to her surprise (and with a touch of a burn between her eyes), the sword began to form in front of her.
Held fast, Wart began to sob hysterically as she fought Obsidian's pulling, trying to pull herself up the stairwell! "P-please! I must serve my husband! If I miss a breeding, he will not allow me to have my ten minutes of sitting tonight! PLEASE! It's the only rest I ever get - I beg of you!"
The crystal hilt formed first, with swirls of Light and sharp tines of Darkness. The blade itself grew from the hilt, smoothly and with wicked barbs that formed across the ends. It was as dark as her namesake, and smooth enough to look like still water. In the pommel, a small shard of a milky, cloudy, colorless gem with sharply-cut facets.
"PLEASE!!!" Wart begged.
Obsidian would have ZERO mercy - or rather, in this particular case, her act of holding Stalwart in place was merciful - letting her go upstairs would be a cruelty. Obsidian started to pull little mare closer to her.
"Stalwart, this is not your destiny; it's not the only life you will be able to have! You are a warrior who stood against hordes of Umbrals and forced my foolish brother to escape."
She trotted forward, displaying the sword to her. "You. Are. A. WARRIOR. You don't beg for anything... you TAKE it! You crush every creature that threatens you, your friends or your liege. Wake up from this foul nightmare, Stalwart... because your princess, your country, and your friends need you! And we need you NOW, more than ever before!"
Wart looked at her through tired, harrowed eyes. "B-but... my country doesn't want me," she whimpered. She had stopped trying to pull herself upstairs... yet she was still holding onto the guardrail.
"We need you, the one who does the protecting!" Mica shouted at her.
"You're worth SOOOO much more than this!" Clap followed suit.
"The yelly-ones are RIGHT, Stalwart!" Cup screamed.
There was a flicker of doubt behind those green eyes; she was trying to get free!
"You said you wanted to protect me... you swore that victory was assured, Stalwart! Are you going to follow your own words?" Obsidian didn't stop in her mental assault; she levitated the beautiful sword closer to her.
"Here, take this sword - we need you, our dear friend and protector; we cannot save the world without you."
Wart's eyes darted back and forth between the sword and Obsidian's determined gaze. "I... I'm... I'm..."
"Yer our RIDE, horsey!" came in unison from two of the foals riding on her back, "now, giddyup!!!"
"...I'm..."
"Oh, wiiiiiiiife! I'm expecting yooooouuuuu!"
"... I'M..."
"You're a TAX-i! You're a TAX-i!"
"... I AM A WARRIOR!!!!!"
She threw her hooves forward and grabbed up the sword, and there was a flash of light around her entire body; when the glow faded, there stood Stalwart Stance - the one Obsidian knew and, yes, loved - with a confident expression and without foals or a pregnant belly.
"... and I have some friends that need me, even if my country does not."
"YA-HOOOOO!!!" Clap grabbed up the tiny mare up in a hug and swung her around in a circle. "THERE she is!"
Cupcake just threw his forelegs around Obsidian and bounced up and down in place. "That was awesome! Where did that sword come from? Did YOU do that!? WOWWEE!"
Mica smiled. "Now that is a rescue."
When Thunderclap finally put her down, she smiled to the others, then turned and locked eyes with Obsidian.
"Your Majesty..." Wart slowly took a knee in front of her. "I apologize that I was fooled by such trickery; I shall NOT fall to such folly again, I swear it. And my gratitude... I shall never be able to repay my debt to you - I am unworthy of such a friend."
She stood and gave Obsidian a Royal Canterlot Guard Salute. "You make my honor greater with your own, milady."
Clap, who was wiping her eyes on her sleeve, suddenly gave a silent start, then began to look around rapidly, as if trying to locate something that could run away at any moment.
Uh oh, what was it now? Obsidian stepped closer to Clap and started to look around as well - it was a shame, as she would prefer to properly enjoy the return of Stalwart to normalcy, but if their pegasus friend sensed something awry... well, Obsidian knew that she didn't want to get ambushed again.
"Guys," Clap said as she searched, "where's the thing?"
Cup jumped like he'd been bitten. "The THING! I'm gonna find it first, this time!"
Wart looked around in confusion, then to Obsidian. "The... thing? What thing?"
The thing? OH... The Thing; the item that would take them to their final destination!
"... you scared me, Clap! For a moment, I was sure you thought we were going to be attacked," Obsidian huffed, both relieved and annoyed. "Stalwart, to get into the last nightmare - Gypsy's - we need to think about him. Something that reminds us of him will appear, allowing us to reach him."
To be fair, she hadn't even thought about getting to their diamond dog friend yet - she was concerned why they never came across Ruby. Her sister did try to say something before, after all. She got the gut feeling that she may have been right to be worried... but there was, as of yet, no hard evidence of anything amiss. Save, of course, for the subtle absence of Dark Ruby, that was. Which gnawed at her, terribly.
"I'll bet it's an ice cream,'cause he LOOOOVES ice cream!" Cup shouted as he searched, the game being afoot. "Something related to that, right?"
"Maybe something about his markers? OH! Look for colors, remember?" Clap was into the hunt as well, looking in the higher places while hovering.
Mica and Wart, however, were looking at Obsidian. "What's up?" Mica inquired.
"I met Ruby in my cell... and I've also met her in Cup's and Clap's nightmares, but... she's gone quiet now; I'm worried."
Maybe she was somewhere on the first floor... she really wished she knew more about the Nightmare Spell; there would be a better chance of her figuring out what could be wrong here...
Cup stopped looking, and his attention went straight to Obsidian. "Ruby with the what now? She's missing? That... can't be good."
"Ruby?" Mica lifted an eyebrow. "Your, uhm... 'good' sister?" Darkness bless him, he didn't want to say her dead sister; how thoughtful.
Cupcake nodded vigorously as he made his way back over. "Uh-huh, Siddy told me she saw her at first, and was talking to her at some points... but y'know, I haven't seen you do that for a bit. That's... kinda ominous and stuff."
Clap's voice interrupted. "Found i- wait, no, no... just a foal's toy. Never mind."
Mica glanced over towards Clap, then looked back at the rest of the group. "Well, what do we know for certain so far? Siddy," he gestured to her, "would you kindly run down the basics as you understand them, seeing as how you were the one to reach all of us?"
They all watched her expectantly; it was not a sensation she was used to... but not a bad one, either.
Ruby's disappearance couldn't be good; an entity that had intitially led them through these wretched nightmares had stopped speaking to them. Considering that Onyx eventually turned out to be less brain-dead than Obsidian had originally thought (though, let's be honest, she had never heard about mixing Light and Dark magic before), it was a very bad sign. Maybe Ruby was busy putting up additional safety measures?
"Alright - we are trapped in our nightmares, put here by my older sister. She got the Light amulet, and wants to mix its' power with its' Dark counterpart to bring back our dear father. Ruby helped me escape from the place I was kept, and instructed me on how to save you all - the power of friendship and so on - so we could feasibly return to the real world. Normally, she appeared as something related to the dream to save her strength, as first a stick, then a feather... however, Ruby has not spoken up since Mica's nightmare, the one before we came here."
Mica pondered. "So you had a guide, but now you don't. Worrisome."
"Ya think?" Clap snorted. "I mean, maybe she just left early to go get stuff set up..?"
But Mica was already shaking his head. "If she was going to do that, she'd have said something to Siddy; I say it's safe to assume that she's otherwise occupied... but is it absolutely necessary for us to leave just yet? If not, then we should try to find her - if so, we should go on, but keep our eyes open for any signs of her."
"Won't do any good," Cup chimed in, "I haven't seen or heard her yet - I think only Siddy can."
"She was saying something in the last dream, right before we arrived here... but it sounded like pure babble, and I didn't get anything from it," Obsidian admitted. "maybe we could all quickly check around this location for a moment - sticking together, no going solo - to see if there is a sign of either of them; if we come across The Thing, then we shall simply go and retrieve Gypsy, as Mica suggested."
"Yeah - staying together at this point sounds like a reeeeeeally good idea," Cup said, "especially if we DO find The Thing; I wouldn't want anyone left behind!"
Wart shuddered at that thought, glancing around at her surroundings. "I would much rather be out of here, as soon as we possibly can."
Cupcake, Thunderclap, Stalwart and Mica all began looking around for any single trace of anything that reminded them of Gypsy... but the four were having zero luck at such. What would represent Gypsy Rover?
Origami, of course, Obsidian thought - a folded piece of origami. That was one of the more original parts of their canine friend, after all. Perhaps a history book, to represent his love for the subject... but more likely, it would be origami; after all, he had even made an origami of her most honourable father.
... and just like that - there it was.
The little folded unicorn with cloak and crown, colored appropriately, was simply sitting there out in the open with all four of the others just completely overlooking it. No... they really didn't see it; they were walking around, over and past it, but not once did their eyes lock onto the little conqueror horse. Maybe that was why no one else could find the items - it had to be her, for some reason? Regardless, the little paper horse simply sat there, waiting for her to step forward and claim it.
Was it because Ruby had boosted her senses somehow? Or maybe because Obsidian was Onyx's sibling? Perhaps because she was the only Dark Magic practicioner here?
"Guys... it's here; I found it." They all turned to look at her.
"Where!? Dangit, I wanted to be the one who found it!"
"Awww, don't be a spoilsport, Clap! Siddy's just reeeeeally good at this game!"
"Or, possibly, she's the only one capable of finding it."
"Lame."
"Yeah, that's no fun!"
"Lady Siddy, I... cannot see it."
Lady Siddy? Now that was an interesting way of putting it; quite original. After all, up to this point Stalwart had only used her full name or title.
"How about rest of you; can anyone aside from myself see it?" She pointed directly at the little origami horse.
Cup got down on his belly on the floor, his muzzle almost right in the origami horse's mane... but his eyes didn't focus on it at all. "Right here? You're sure? I mean, I don't see a thing..."
That's when it occurred to her that she was the link; the only thing all five of her friends here had as a connection was HER; they connected to each other in different ways, but all of them together didn't really make connections all around - until Obsidian came into the picture. Maybe that was it? Maybe she was the lynchpin that held it all together? That... sounded right. But, why did it still feel like something was wrong?
"Cup, you saw each linking item before, right?"
Cup nodded. "Yeah. I mean, I certainly remember that photo..."
"Tartarus NO you don't," Clap glared.
"And the saddlebags, the recruitment poster... but I can't see THIS one. Why?"
Obsidian got an ominous feeling of worry and doubt.
"If something has changed," Mica stated, "we have no way of knowing from this side of the nightmare; we have to get out of here."
"Well, Siddy," Clap shrugged, "since you're the only one who can see it, I guess it's up to you to grab it."
It felt wrong. Really wrong. It also didn't help that Obsidian had proved before that she was paranoid when she should be trusting, and naive when she should be very cautious. "Cup... what did I call you during our very first meeting?"
By Darkness, she wasn't going crazy, right?
Cupcake looked at her for a moment, then intoned slowly. "You... asked me and Churn if we were your liaisons. In fact, you chose me... though I recall you seeming to regret it within minutes." He gave a slight grin. "And I thought your horn was cute."
"And I called you something. You reacted rather poorly to it..." Right now, she was having none of this little love-talk; she was seriously worried.
With that mention, his ears drooped a bit. "Oh. That. You... you called me a meanie, because I was being a butthead."
"Okay," she sighed with relief, "you are real; I started to worry for a moment there..."
She looked at the origami; it didn't seem that there was anything else they could do, right? She simply hoped that Ruby was alright, in whatever situation she'd gotten herself into. She carefully reached out a hoof to touch the little paper Sombra.
The world around them faded away once more...