//------------------------------// // Chapter 11 (Look Before You Sleep) // Story: My Little Pony: Friendships are Magic // by professor space n time //------------------------------// Spike and Amara walked in silence through the corridors of the palace, it was a really comfortable silence, there where memories impregnated in every millimeter of the marble, every strand of the rugs and tapestries, every piece of the colorful stained glass that told stories of ancient feats. The two were navigating a placid sea of ​​memories, they could see before their eyes hundreds of younger copies of themselves, all had ghostly and intangible aspects and each one was immersed in a recreation of the memory from which they originated. "It feels good to be back in the palace," Spike said looking at the bas-reliefs on the ceiling as he basked in the warmth of the sun's rays in a way that only the reptiles in Fluttershy's sanctuary could understand. "Yup, it's like they say, there's no place like home." Amara said nodding slowly. A smile crossed her face, there had always been something calming and warm in that millennial miasma that was permeated in the air that roamed the corridors, no matter what blizzard hit the palace that smell was always there as a sign that whoever resided in it would be practically immovable and would be safe forever, and that was how Amara felt within the confines of that marble fortress, safe, like a filly protected from the sound of thunder by her mother's embrace. "Well this is my hall, see you later Amara. And don't forget to bring me the copies of that document! " Spike turned down the hall to his left and disappeared down it. Amara kept walking accompanied only by the sound of her hoofsteps and the echo of those of a guard who was surely changing shifts. "Princess. . ." Said a voice that seemed to come from all the recesses of the palace at the same time and that left behind a cold and shuddering echo. But Amara didn't flinch, she wasn't afraid, not this time "Come out, come out from wherever you are Nightmare." "Aww. . . You take the fun out of this. " Amara turned around and saw to her right that tall dark figure where her reflection should be in the window. "Really? A reflection with shadow? Is that the best you got? A little more eldritch horror would help you sell a better atmosphere." Amara resumed her walk. "Start at once because I really don't have time for this right now, I have a lot of work to do." "Don't act all brave around me girl, I can smell your fear." Nightmare said angrily. "Good, that just further proves what a bitch you are." Suddenly Amara was pulled by force towards the window, her body being pressed against the glass. Nightmare, pressing herself againts to Amara's face had an incredibly cold touch that like little needles stabbed her face. “Listen well your miserable cockroach, you are not in the place to speak like that to me, I who was born within the darkness that lies out of time and space itself, I have seen empires rise and gods burn. You don't know what you're getting into." Amara used her front hooves to push herself away from the window "Well this 'miserable cockroach' is who you want as a host, and I've seen things too Nightmare, lots of things." "Yes, it's true, I forgot that you are a big box of surprises." "Yes, yes I am." Amara said smiling. "Oh, you're being rude. If you're so brave, why haven't you told your mother I'm here?" Nightmare asked. "Because it's no use, if I did it would only complicate my efforts to get rid of you, I still can't find the correct incantations, besides, I can't let mom find out that I'm in this game." "Yeah right. We both know very well that the reason you haven't told her is that you are afraid, because as soon as she finds out she will throw you into the deepest and most ardent pit of Tartarus." "My mother is not a monster, Nightmare." Amara replied "and if we're going to start over with this, let me make myself comfortable." Amara prepared her magic and teleported to her room. The room was spacious, the walls formed a circumference divided by eight columns, to the left of the door a large bed with a base and headboard of dark oak, white pillows and blue-purple sheets, to the right of the bed a large night table and a closet, on the left a desk surrounded by shelves full of books right in front of a huge window, and directly in front of the bed a marble fireplace surrounded by a red rug and two red velvet armchairs with details in gold. Amara walked straight to the desk, grabbed the oldest books on the shelves, and sat down to decipher once again those paragraphs written in dead, unpronounceable languages. "Yes, your mother may not be a monster, not to scale with the rest, but we cannot say that she's a saint." Nightmare said. "Of course not, nobody is, much less me." Amara replied somewhat distracted as she went over some Latin verses and compared them with their original version. “Do you really think that anything written there will be useful against me? It's like researching the eating habits of a lion by reading a book of fables." Amara tried to ignore her as she read the last page of the oldest volume on the table, when she finished Amara carefully closed the book and took a deep breath "Damn it!" Amara slammed the table causing the objects on it to bounce to the floor. "I told you." Nightmare whispered in her ear with a teasing tone. "Shut up!" Amara quickly charged her horn with magic and launched a direct attack at Nightmare's face, hair and flesh peeling off like black paint dripping down a canvas. "That's rude" said Nightmare. "Shut up! Shut up! SHUT UP!" Amara kept shooting magic that was dodged over and over again. "Why don't you just die?!" she screamed enraged. “That's it little princess, let it all out. . .” Amara's legs suddenly began to sink into a puddle of pure black emanating from Nightmare "No!" Amara desperately tried to crawl out of that cold pool of darkness dead for countless eons. “No! Let me go!" "Oh, you're not going anywhere, it's the end of the road, Amara." Strange black appendages black like the abyss rose from the dead puddle, these appendages crawled and stretched grotesquely, their indescribable appearance had a vague tentacle-like shape and that little resemblance to nature gave a macabre contrast to those gelatinous black wires. "NO! NOOO!" Amara screamed desperately and clumsily trying to get up with every ounce of strength in her body, but it was useless, only her head protruded from the puddle, one of the appendages stretched and wrapped tightly around her neck trying to submerge her completely once and for all. And then, out of nowhere the room was filled with green glow and although Amara couldn't move her neck she could hear the sound of flames even if only for a few seconds "what the-? Who and what are you creature?" Nightmare asked to someone or something out of Amara's view, the being, whatever it was, didn't make a sound and a beam of blue magic went straight to Nightmare's face throwing her to the ground with outstanding strenght "You miserable mortal! insignificant termite! you'll pay for-" another beam of magic hit Nightmare who fell to the ground emanating a scream of pain. At that moment, taking advantage of Amara's lack of concentration, the tentacle clinging to her neck pulled her hard, submerging her head completely in that black tar. Amara wasted no time and stood up once more, letting her head out of the puddle. The room was now dark. Confused, unnatural, and grotesque screams emanated from Nightmare, and between the occasional bolts of magic could be seen fleeting glimpses of Nightmare herself and something else leaping out of the shadows that the light of the spells failed to illuminate. The tentacle once again pulled her down and once again Amara swam out of the puddle, Amara saw Nightmare lying on the ground with holes and scratches on her abyss-black body that radiated dim light and emanated bluish aether spilling like dry ice vapor and then vanishing into nothing, Nightmare gasped with an expression of anger and the slightest hint of fear drawn in permanent ink on her face. Amara craned her neck the few inches she could and saw what Nightmare was staring at in the middle of the room, a faint gleam of two green eyes could be seen, the creature hissed and released a stream of pink magic straight at Nightmare, who screamed in agony. Amara, now seeing herself free from the tentacles, stood up on her hooves and illuminated her horn only to see another green flare and then nothing, in the room there was only her and Nightmare who was lying on the floor "Damn you Amara, chances are over! Did you hear me?! Next time you'll be mine, and I'll make sure to get rid of your stupid mother and your stupid friends in the most agonizing and torturous way possible, and I'll make you watch it, I'll make you watch how I do it without you being able to do. . . any. .thing. . ." Nightmare started to become transparent "dammit. . ." Nightmare then vanished into thin air. Amara, now terrified, confused, with broken nerves and out of her mind, ran out of the room, leaving behind overturned, smashed furniture and her belongings scattered on the floor. Luna was sitting in the throne room, the light of some candles was the only thing that illuminated the gallery, it was certainly difficult for her to see the interior of the room, but that was not what Luna was interested in, it was the stars, she was somewhat rusty but she had made an effort to make this night as beautiful as possible, a pity that it was a new moon night, but in fact it was something poetic, since it was the first time that she brought the night since she got rid of Nightmare. Her thoughts were interrupted when Amara came running into the room "get out!" she yelled at the two guards. These two looked at each other, then at Luna and then back at Amara "Princess... are you sure you want us to leave you alone with-?" "OUT!" Amara yelled loudly exposing her fangs with her reverberating voice. The two guards ran full speed ahead and kicked the door shut. "Amara, what is the meaning of all this? What could lead you to cause such a sudden and scandalous intrusion?" Luna stopped and looked at Amara carefully, she was agitated, disturbed nervous, looking over her shoulder and surroundings apparently looking for someone "are you okay?" Amara turned around and looked into her eyes with horror being on the verge of tears "No. . .not at all" she said shaking her head. Amara runned towards Luna and hugged her tightly. Luna was paralyzed and confused, she didn't know how to react and she couldn't deny that she hadn't gotten used to having physical contact yet, despite the fact that she really wanted to have it, she couldn't help but feel uncomfortable, paradoxically. Even so, Amara was not okay, she needed her, she was her family, slowly and delicately Luna returned the hug, in front of which Amara hugged her harder, Luna began to caress her hair trying to calm her "there, there, you're safe, what's wrong?" "She's hunting me, she-she almost got me, don't let her take me! Please!" "Wha-Who?" Right then she saw it, a tall alicorn silhouette on the window "Oh no. no. . . no, no, no, no, no!" "Good night Luna." said Nightmare behind her. Luna turned around and fired a strong beam of magic that opened a hole in the marble wall "Aw, come on, that's not the way to treat your old friend." Said Nightmare now meters away to the left. "Why are you here you eldritch aberration? why are you torturing Ama-MY NIECE?" "Did your brain atrophy while we were on the moon and I didn't notice? You know what I want, a friend, just a friend." Nightmare slowly started to walk towards them with a decrepit smile on her lips and her pupils stabbing like daggers into Amara, who tried to cast a spell with the little control she had over herself, but only could make some green sparks that died in seconds. "Amara, get behind me and if I say run, you'll run." Amara did as she was told. Luna closed her eyes and quickly but carefully began channeling and bending the arcane field of her magic into the correct pattern, she then channeled it into her horn unfolding a complex intrinsic pattern of magic, a spell so complex that despite its power it had never been used in battle before, many times the situation did not require it or there just wasn't time to concentrate enought to cast it. "Don't move." Nightmare stopped unimpressed. She shrugged, sighed, and rolled her eyes "Luna, Luna, Luna, right now you're becoming a nuisance, I'll give you one more chance, for old times' sake, move out of my way." Luna didn't move an inch. Nightmare sighed again "you asked for it" Nightmare lit up her horn and the spell dissipated. "Wha-?What?!" Luna shouted confused. "You see Luna, as my old puppet you still have one or two strings I still can pull, which allowed me to disarm that spell and also allows me to do this." Nightmare fired a beam straight to the tip of Luna's horn. Luna's eyes rolled back on her skull and her jaw dropped, a sphere of blue magic came out of her horn and floated towards Nightmare who with a twitch of her hoof destroyed it. "L-Luna? What did you do to her?!" Asked Amara while she shooked her aunt trying to get her out of that trance. "Nothing bad, I just destroyed her memory of the last minutes, she wont remember you came here, will do the same to the guards in a while, but first I'll take care of you." Nightmare lit up her horn and for Amara all turned black. She was paralyzed, couldn't move a muscle, couldn't make a sound, she wasn't even sure if she was breathing but she was sure that her eyes were open, she was on her bed, or so she thought, she could recognize the texture of the sheets and some silhouettes of the furniture that was still on its place. For hours she desperately tried to free herself, but one cannot scape from its own body, and once Amara got tired enough to comprehend this she started to cry in the inside of her head, the whole night.