//------------------------------//
// Into The Dark 
// Story: Sanctify 
// by AnnEldest 
//------------------------------//

Capper opened his eyes.
He found himself lying on the cold, hard ground. As his eyes came into focus, he saw that the sky was nothing but a rolling blanket of clouds, the exact grey of wet ash. When he sat up, Capper barely had time to register his surroundings when a wall of fog washed over him.
He squinted and analyzed his surroundings. Everything around him was covered in frost. Every blade of grass was frozen stiff upright, and the leaves over his head were tipped with frozen drops of water.
After he looked around at his surroundings, Capper examined himself. There were no marks on his body. No cuts or scrapes. No bruises or swelling. Not even a sore muscle.
“Well, that’s a small relief,” Capper thought to himself, as he stood up. “Now to find out where the heck I am.”
He shivered when the wind blew into his face. Flakes of ice pelted his cheeks, clinging to his paws and fur. His favorite red jacket did little to abate the cold. He needed to get someplace warm. And fast.
For what felt like hours, Capper wandered aimlessly. How much time had actually passed? Was it truly hours? Or had it only been minutes? For all Capper knew, he had been walking for half the day and didn’t know it. He had no way to orient himself. And it didn’t help that he was new to Equestria. That is, assuming he was still in Equestria.
Pulling his jacket more tightly around himself, he trucked on through the frigid fog, hoping to find any sign of life.
The wind picked up, forcing Capper to put up his hands to shield his eyes from the cold. Shards of frost blew from the leaves of the trees, sending them into Capper, who took cover behind a tree.
The frozen bark did nothing to help the cold against his back, but he was now safe from the freezing wind and the stinging flakes of ice.
“This must be the cold day in Tartarus that I keep hearing about,” Capper quipped to himself.
Not even his own good humor could help him feel better about his situation. The cold was closing in, and there was still no sign of life.
A bush swayed hard in the wind, revealing something in the distance that Capper had not seen before. A tiny light embedded in a darker shadow was somewhere ahead. Feeling as if his luck had changed, Capper quickly ran ahead, always with the wind to his back.
There was a steep bank ahead of him. Capper unsheathed his claws and dug them into the frosted bank, feeling the sting of cold against his digits as he climbed up.
He slipped and slid some feet back down the bank. Once he reclaimed his footing, Capper resumed his slow descent up the bank.
At the top, Capper scrambled up to the surface and found that he was closer to the light than he had thought. He could clearly see the shape of a small house. In its window, there was the unmistakable light of a fire flickering.
Capper pulled himself over the bank, ran to the house, and knocked loudly.
“Hello? Anyone home?” he shouted.
There was no reply.
Capper knocked again.
“Hey! Is anyone home?”
Still no answer.
Not about to take his chances with the elements, Capper grasped the doorknob and sharply turned it. It was unlocked. Against every good manner, he was taught as a kitten, he opened the door and let himself in.
From what he could tell, the house was very old. More than that, it was mostly empty. Whatever furniture was present was covered in dust, and pushed against the walls. And the floor was littered with odd pieces of trash. The ceilings and walls were covered with cracks, making Capper wonder how the place was still standing. Beneath his paws, the floorboards creaked loudly.
Capper looked down the hall. Any light that he had seen before had gone. Whoever was there, they may have gone.
He continued down the hall, looking for any sign of life. The next room that he passed by was a kitchen. Looking into the room, Capper saw nobody there. Nothing but a wood-burning stove and a table with a broken leg, but no chairs around it. Most of all, there was nothing in there that could have been making light.
The kitchen was a bust. Capper walked down the hall to the next room. The door was shut, and Capper quietly turned the knob. This door too was unlocked, and Capper peered into the room.
It was a foal’s bedroom. The only thing to make him think so was the foal-sized bed in the corner that he could see. Other than that, there was nothing in the room.
“Who are you?”
“Jeez!” Capper yelped. He jumped and shot his gaze to the corner nearest to the door. There, huddled before a single candle was a colt. Collecting his nerves, he answered the foal’s question. “I’m nobody, really. Just a cat who got lost out here. Got any room around that candle? I’m freezing my tail off.”
The foal didn’t answer but scooted to the far side of the candle.
Capper quickly walked to the candle but stumbled when one of the floorboards rolled loose beneath him. After kicking the loose floorboard back into place, he rubbed his paws feverishly and sat down, taking in the pittance of warmth from the tiny flame.
In the light of the candle, Capper could see the foal more clearly. The colt couldn’t have been more than twelve years old. Bangs of green mane fell over his puffy eyes, and tears streamed down his reddish brown cheeks. When the colt shifted, Capper caught a glimpse of his cutie mark--a hammer on a steel plate.
“Is everything okay? You look a little distressed,” Capper said.
The colt was silent.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to step on your tail. I just thought it might help to talk about it. But, if you don’t want to, I won’t press,” Capper said, huddling closer to the candle.
“You shouldn’t have come in…” the colt mumbled.
“I know it was rude to do without permission. But, I wasn’t about to stay another second out in that cold,” Capper said. “We’ll have a heck of a time explaining this to your parents.”
“My parents aren’t here...”
“You mean they’re outside somewhere?”
“No. Nopony’s here,” the colt said.
He didn’t know why, but Capper felt a sudden chill from what the colt had told him. If it truly was only him and the colt, how did either of them get there?
The wind howled loudly, and the colt looked out the window at the far end of the room.
“It’s still out there,” the colt said.
“What is?” Capper asked.
The colt whimpered and shuffled closer to the wall.
“The light monster…” he whispered.
“I’m sorry. I’m not following you. What light monster?” Capper asked.
“It only comes when it’s dark. When all the other lights are gone.”
Capper looked at the tiny candle and pulled his paws away from it as if he feared they would snuff out the flame.
“Did it put you here too?” the colt asked.
“I...don’t know how I got here. I just woke up in a grove somewhere,” Capper replied.
The colt sniffed and shuffled further into the corner.
“I did something bad,” the colt whispered.
“What do you mean?” Capper asked.
“I think I started this…”
Before Capper even opened his mouth to ask how the candle snuffed itself out.
All was quiet. The only thing that could have been seen as the last of the light reflected in Capper’s feline eyes.
“What’s happening?” Capper whispered.
“It’s here…” the colt replied.
All at once, every door in the house swung open as wide as they could go, shaking the walls of the house which rattled small pieces of the ceiling lose.
One piece of the ceiling landed between Capper and the foal, causing them both to shield themselves from the debris.
Footsteps were heard down the hall. From the front room, it sounded like. And they were slowly getting closer.
“There has to be a way out of here,” Capper quietly said. He rose to his paws and quickly walked to the window, ever careful to not make the floorboards squeak. He tried to jimmy the window open, only to find that it was stuck fast. “Come on, kid. Lend a hoof.”
“We can’t get out,” the colt said. “I let it in, and now I’m trapped here. I can’t leave this place.”
A light shone dimly from the hallway. And it was gradually getting brighter.
“Wait!” Capper whispered.
He frantically searched the floorboards, nudging each one, until he found the one that rolled loose.
“Come on! This way,” Capper said, as he pulled more floorboards loose.
The foal hesitated but was forcefully grabbed by his hoof and pulled into the open floor.
The light in the hall was brighter now than it ever was before, and the steps that came with it sounded as if they were right outside the door.
Capper hastily replaced the floorboards and waited in silence. Through the cracks in the boards above them, all he could see was light. And whenever the light moved, he could hear a heavy step.
“This way,” Capper mouthed, pointing to the side.
They were in the foundation of the house, climbing over every pipe and lose rock that was down there.
The wind guided them. Capper moved to where it was coldest, and soon saw a broken grate that led to the wilderness beyond. He hustled the colt along, but the colt resisted.
“What are you doing? We’re almost out of here,” Capper whispered.
The colt shook his head and pulled his hoof from Capper’s paw.
Capper tried to go after the colt, but the sound of rapidly approaching steps stopped him cold. Overhead, he could see the light through the cracks getting closer. And it was glowing brighter.
“Don’t ever let it get you! No matter what you see, you can’t listen to it!” the foal said.
Capper reached for the foal again, only to lose it in the blinding light. Without any other reason to stay, he scrambled toward the broken grate and leaped out through the opening.
A pile of snow broke his fall. Capper ran into the woods, only glancing over his shoulder to see that all of the lights in the house were gone. He turned his eyes ahead, and the house was swallowed by the fog. Through it all, Capper swore he could hear the colt’s voice calling for help.
He was back to where he started. Lost. Disoriented. Alone. And without a clue of what to do next.
“I’d kill for that candle right now,” Capper thought, pulling his jacket more tightly against the cold.
The air was so chill that it hurt to breathe. Capper had to squint to keep his eyes from frosting over. Still, he carried on, hoping to find something safer than the house he had just been in. Eventually, he came across something that he never expected.
A set of hoofprints appeared in the frosted grass. After taking a moment to discern the direction that they had gone, and hoping that they didn’t belong to the light monster, Capper followed them onward through the fog.
He kept walking, following the phantom hoofprints. The more he walked, the warmer he felt. Slowly, the hoofprints became harder to make out as the frost on the grass melted away.
Capper pushed a wet branch out of his way, shaking the dewdrops loose and soaking his fur as he walked past it. And when he did, he gasped at what he found.
An orb of light floated in front of him. It didn’t move, and it didn’t change shape. And it certainly looked nothing like the light he had seen back in the house.
He walked up to it and stared at it for a moment. Just looking at it made him feel safe. All the worries that he ever had and the troubles of his past seemed to no longer exist. He reached out with his paw and grabbed it.





Capper opened his eyes.
He was lying on his back, looking at a familiar ceiling. After sitting up, he realized that he was back in his bedroom.
“All a dream. Thank goodness for that,” Capper sighed.
The sounds of humming reached his ears. A soft, sweet melody that drifted from somewhere in his house.
“Who’s there?” he called.
The only answer was more humming.
Capper didn’t like anything that was happening. Apprehension hastened his paw, as he reached out and grabbed a heavy candelabra from his bedside table.
He creaked his bedroom door open and peered into the hallway.
“Who’s out there?” he suspiciously called.
More humming was his answer.
Capper followed the source of the humming, feeling as if it were coming from all around him, but sensing that it was coming from somewhere nearby.
He treaded softly across the carpeted floors, holding his weapon at the ready, following the humming to its source. Down the stairs.
Each step was made carefully as if the stairs would break beneath his weight. Capper gripped his candelabra, anticipating an attack at any moment.
He reached the landing, hearing the humming from its indiscernible direction. But, it was in the parlor, he knew.
Capper opened the parlor door just a crack, and the humming stopped. He opened the door slightly wider and swiveled his gaze around, his feline eyes catching only trace reflections of light. Still, there was no sight of the intruder.
The door opened wider, and Capper stepped in. Carefully, he scanned the room, knowing the culprit was in there. Every shadow looked like a threat, waiting to jump out and attack.
There was a sudden sense of apprehension coming from one side. The culprit was there.
Slowly, Capper turned his head. Then there he was in the corner of his eye.
Capper lashed out and threw the culprit to the floor, bludgeoning him with the candelabra. After a moment, he regained his senses and saw that all was not as it seemed. There on the floor was Capper’s red jacket. Next to it, the rack that it hung from before.
Capper collected both items, stood up the rack, and examined his jacket. No harm had been done, but he put it on in case he would have to escape outside. And it seemed that time had come.
From all around him, the humming started again. As Capper looked for the source of the sound, he became aware of light from the corner of his eye. When he looked in its direction, he saw the cracks of the front door flooded with light. And there were heavy steps slowly approaching it from the outside.
The air grew cold as Capper faced the door, holding his weapon in his shaking paws. From somewhere unknown, a chill wind blew all through the house, knocking over anything loose. Capper even had to dig his claws into the carpet to keep from being blown over.
The light at the door was getting brighter. Whatever was out there was going to come in soon.
Fear consumed every fiber of Capper’s being as he stood his ground. Whether the whole house was shaking, or if it was just himself, he didn’t know. But his will began to weaken and the candelabra fell from his paw.
The door was hit hard and cracked down the middle.
Capper’s breath stopped in his chest, seizing his body with a painful tightness. Try as he did to breathe, no air came to him.
“This is it…” he thought.

I'm going to die

The door burst into splinters, and the world went silent as Capper blocked his eyes from the terrible light.
"It’s okay now. There is nothing to be scared about," a voice said.
Capper looked up and saw none other than the Princess of the Night herself smiling down at him.
"P-Princess Luna?" he asked.
"Hello, young one. It was brought to my attention that you were having a nightmare," Princess Luna said.
Capper noticed that everything was normal again. It was as if nothing had happened. It was just his ordinary, slightly messy bedroom.
"None of this is real," he said, only partly asking.
"A nightmare is only as real as you make it," Luna answered.
"Well, next time you could snap me out of it before the world feels like it’s ending," Capper chuckled, then sighed. “Seriously. That felt so real.”
“Dreams tend to,” Princess Luna said.
“I mean, I can tell when I am dreaming. I kind of usually play along with it or just watch it play out,” Capper explained.
“I can tell when I'm dreaming as well. Of course, it’s my duty to walk the world of dreams,” Princess Luna said.
Capper took one last look around his room and lost another relieved sigh.
“I’m just glad that it was a dream,” he said.
As Capper sat with his hands in his paws, Princess Luna noticed something different about the cat. Something, unlike his usual self.
“Something is bothering you, is it not?” Princess Luna asked.
“If you want to ask about something in my real life that’s bothering me, everything’s going fine. It’s just my dreams that are messed up these days,” Capper replied.
“I see. But, all nightmares have a reason to be. You’re sure there’s not something on your mind?”
“I’m sure.”
Princess Luna could hear the irritation rising in Capper’s voice, and felt it unnecessary to pursue the matter. Before she could ask anything else, she saw the way Capper smirked with one eyebrow raised.
“What about you?” Capper asked.
“What do you mean?” Princess Luna asked.
“It’s not often a lowly goon like me gets a visit from royalty. Especially not at this awful hour. And don’t think I haven’t noticed how flustered you look. Or did the royal mane stylist take the night off?”
Princess Luna touched her hoof to her mane. It was true. Her mane was frizzled out of its normal regal appearance. And she only then noticed the sweat that had soaked her hairline.
“What’s going on?” Capper asked knowingly.
“I...was investigating other dreams before I found yours,” Princess Luna said.
“So, you didn’t see mine from the beginning?”
“I only saw what I needed to see.”
“Then, you saw the foal? And the light monster?” Capper asked.
Princess Luna went dead silent.
“What do you know about that?” Capper asked.
“...Nothing. I’ve never heard of anything like that,” Princess Luna replied.
Over the minutes, Capper explained his dream in detail. Princess Luna listened intently, only asking an occasional question. When he finished, both were in mild disbelief of the recollection.
“Truly perplexing…” Princess Luna said, partly to herself.
“Tell me about it. I don’t know what could have caused a dream like that. Especially since my life has become better than it ever was since I came to Equestria,” Capper said.
Princess Luna sighed, and slowly paced back and forth.
“I suppose it could be nothing. But, then again, I should not let this matter slide,” she said, as she tapped her horn to the wall, opening up a portal for herself.
“Leaving so soon?” Capper asked.
“I have work I must attend to. You just try to live your life. If everything is truly fine, I won’t need to return to your dreams,” Princess Luna said, before disappearing into the portal, which closed behind her.
Nothing happened for the rest of the night. But, Capper did not sleep for the rest of the night.