//------------------------------// // Nightmare Soldiers // Story: Equestria Digital // by DeltaChevron //------------------------------// After I read the letter everypony seemed to find something to do. Pinkie Pie went to the kitchen to cook something. Rarity went home to start work on my dresses. Rainbow Dash went home to do something. Fluttershy left to check on all the animals and get them ready for bed. Applejack made herself busy doing something with quill and paper. Twilight and Spike started checking through the books they had for any information on the Key. I took a similar root and started reading up on Equestrian history. I started with a book on pre-Equestria history titled Ancient Unicornia: An Approved History, the author’s name sounded like a unicorn's and the title of the book sounded like propaganda. It was, luckily it was poorly written and seemed to spout nonsense at the seams. I put it down after the third chapter and picked up another book on the subject, this time written by an earth pony. It was far more informative and written like a college thesis paper that had been published. It was informative, but dry and boring. The sun set and I was about halfway through it. Pinkie Pie had finished baking cupcakes and I munched on a few as I kept reading. Even with the added sugar I felt myself dozing off. A stressful time the night before coupled with the longest run I had ever done created a lot of fatigue. I must have dozed off because before I knew it I was having another nightmare. It quickly became obvious to me that this was not a normal nightmare. Nightmares usually involve fire and turtle stepping stones and make absolutely no sense what so ever. This was far too ordered mostly because I found myself in the middle of a shining city facing the virus version of Antylamon. The differences were subtle, lighter brown fur, no scarf, diamond symbol instead of a language character. It was what I didn’t want to become, a destructive creature. It attacked me lashing out with its arms and sending a wave of energy at me, I ran to hide behind an empty bus. By the gods I hate cities. I sprinted for the next piece of cover trying to put distance between us. It attacked again and I was sent sprawling as the wave smashed into the ground where I had been half a second before. I felt my back get peppered by bits of asphalt as I hit the ground and it hurt. That was clue number two that this was not a normal nightmare. The only things that made any sense at this point was that I was being attacked and someone had somehow hijacked my dreams. I felt my back; if there had been wounds there they had already healed. I scrambled to my feet and moved just quickly enough to dodge another blast wave. I felt the stinging bite as it kicked up more shrapnel. I heard the whistling of air and a thump as it jumped and landed on the ground in front of me. This was getting me nowhere. Dreams, what did I know about the formation of dreams? They’re controlled and created, or at least tied to, the unconscious mind unless it’s a lucid dream. This could qualify as a lucid dream. I ducked as it swung one of its massive hands. This was getting ridiculous. It was half the size of the real Antylamon but every bit as fast and strong. If I was ever going to get any breathing room I’d need something to keep it busy. As it brought its hand down to try to crush me a large blue thing rammed into it and they both smashed through the front of a nearby building. Another dropped out of the sky right in front of me turning the ground into a crater. Fifteen feet and five and quarter tons of bluish armor, green tubes, and giant orange worms, spikes flared up and out in a show of aggression. Hunters, I had somehow generated a pair of Hunters, yeah that should buy me about twenty minutes. The one that had rammed the virus type flew out of the hole and landed on its back with a grunt. I turned and ran, with that little display I cut my time estimate in half. Hunters were strong but Antylamon was stronger sooner rather than later it would win and I’d have to think of something else to distract it. I zigzagged through the streets turning right then left to eliminate any possible straight line of sight and put the most distance between us. As I ran I noticed that something felt off about the way my weight was distributed. Before I had time to think about it I was grabbed by the wrist. Before I knew what I was doing my hand snapped down to grab the offending limb, I pivoted and threw the creature into the building on the opposite side of the street. I was shocked for two reasons. One that shouldn’t have possible; until I became Antylamon I’d NEVER been anywhere near that strong. I could run fourteen miles and be good to go again in a few hours but I was lucky if I could manage ten pull-ups. Two, I had just hurled Princess Luna into a building with enough force to create a shockwave that destroyed half the windows on the front side of the building. I rushed over making the glass disappear with a thought as I helped her back to her hooves. “Dear God, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to, my body just reacted. I shouldn’t even be strong enough to lift you let alone throw you.” My voice was higher pitched then I remembered. She had some cuts and bruises but that was it “Worry not strange female we shall be fine. What about thee, sorry I mean you?” I blinked and looked down at myself. Breasts, I had breasts. I growled “If I ever get my hands on that stupid bird I’m gonna rip out every last one of his STUPID! FUCKING! FEATHERS! BEFORE I smash his stupid face in!” she looked at me and I smiled sheepishly “Sorry I guess I have some issues to work through.” I felt a twinge as the Hunters died “Shit, gotta think of something else. Um…Oh! That will work quite nicely, at least for a little bit.” There was a blast of heat and a bellowing roar. “What was that?” “Balrog of Morgoth. Big flaming shadow-y thing, very hard to kill. Should give us about an hour.” I winced as a building collapsed “Maybe half.” The world shifted and we were now in front of a library. I could see the city off in the distance. I looked behind me and saw Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Twilight standing there slack jawed. There was a massive blast of heat and I turned to see the city engulfed in flames. Okay maybe the Balrog could buy us an hour. “How did ya’ll get into my dream?” I asked “That was our doing.” Princess Luna said “When you would not wake thy, I mean, your friends began to worry. So I used a spell to bring our minds into your dream.” “That’s how we got in but how the hay did we get way out here when we were way over yonder?” Applejack asked That was a good question “I didn’t bring us here, which means one of two things. Either the person doing this sent us here or my sub-conscious dragged us here for some reason.” “Both are correct.” The voice belonged to a little girl. She wore a blue dress, white pinafore, black shoes, and striped stockings. Atop her blonde hair was a simple golden crown and in her right hand she held a plain looking wooden scepter. Her blue green eyes seemed to shine with laughter. “Hail Queen Alice.” I bowed “Please rise, this is no time for formalities.” I stood “Whoever has done this is looking for information as well as trying to retrieve a physical item in the real world.” “You are violating the rules by being here.” Luna said Alice smiled “My world is different from all others in existence. Even the rules and physics of the realm of the draconequus are simple by comparison.” Luna got right up into her face “As a Game Master you are forbidden to intervene this way. You should leave before your piece is” SMACK! Alice’s smile had become a scowl “Do not presume to speak to me about rules. I am bound by laws far older and more powerful than even you can possibly imagine.” “Enough!” Twilight snapped “We need to stop whoever is doing this so we can all leave.” “They’re probably after the Key.” Pinkie said I nodded “Yeah, and anything and everything I know about it. The question is how do we stop him?” “What makes you so sure it’s a stallion?” Twilight asked “Because the last time it was stolen it was stolen by a stallion and history has a nasty habit of repeating itself.” The city was suddenly extinguished “We have even less time than I thought.” Alice said “The intruder is using the virus type’s form to manifest their will. They cannot be destroyed as they are in control of the spell. Your mind brought us here because this is where your memories are. Something in there will help us wrest control of the spell from its caster.” “Why does it look like that?” Twilight asked “Because it’s what I don’t want to become.” She looked at me “Antylamon comes in two types; a data type, which is the real one and a member of The Devas, and a virus type doppelganger which shares its physical strength and a similar appearance but has different attacks. The virus type digivolved from a form that was created from hatred and anger, something it shares but is much better at hiding.” “Oh. That’s…sorry I shouldn’t have asked.” “It’s alright,” I stood in front of the doorway “ We have work to do though so Luna, Alice you stay here and guard the entrance. Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Applejack ya’ll are coming inside with me. I’m going to give you all the help I can before we start looking.” The ground shook and we were suddenly up in the air “Oh and I’m leaving this thing here to give you combat support.” From behind the library stepped a fifty foot creature. It was grayish silver, with a blue four ended scarf. Its feet were like giant pointy triangles. Its massive shoulders were the same and reach out farther. A giant zipper ran up the center of its body and its face was adorned with an inverted heart tipped by a spike cross. “In theory Nobodies can only be destroyed by a keyblade or a similar weapon. The Twilight Thorn is strong enough to put up a decent fight without being too much of a hindrance. I would have used a Darkside but I doubt a Heartless would listen very well.” I looked up at its face “Protect this building and the two of them.” It nodded and we went inside the doors closing behind us. With a thought a mass of complicated locks appeared on the door. It wouldn’t do much but it would hopefully provide some added protection. The inside was filled with bookshelves. But only half of it was filled with books, dioramas, toys, and other nick-knacks. But most of the stuff was all over the floor in cluttered little piles. “Shit fuck, this could take awhile. Okay, let’s be methodical about this. Twilight you start with that stack, Applejack you take that one and I’ll take this one.” We started searching and organizing everything. We made it through about half the things on the floor before I started to get impatient. This was taking too long. If this kept going on for much longer we would have a problem. I didn’t know if the Balrog was still alive when the fire went out if that meant it was dead. Either way we couldn’t do this forever, eventually the intruder would overcome it and move on. On the plus side if we survived this I would have about thirty new projects to start when I got back to Trottingham. “What’s this thing?” Twilight asked I looked over and saw her levitating a miniature robot. Blue with flames painted on the legs and chest and a flaming eye and eight ball on its arms. There was a little red convertible sports car where its head should have been. I smiled. “That’s Megas. It’s a giant robot that Coop, a fat gamer from Jersey, supped up after he bought it for two bucks. He then proceeded to destroy his home town on an almost weekly basis with his friends Jamie and Kiva, a red haired chick from the future, as they also saved the world at the same time.” “Well holding it makes me feel strange and I keep hearing this song.” “So put it down. Fer Celestia’s sake Twilight I thought you had more sense.” “Okay okay but why was it next to this thing?” she pointed to something on the floor “That’s…” it was a beat up red shoe with white laces and an iconic white swoosh “that’s one Pre’s shoes. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most important runners who helped start the 1970s running boom. He ran for the University of Oregan and ran under Coach Bill Bowerman who would later found Blue Ribbon Sports which became,” I pointed at the swoosh “Nike, named for the Greek goddess of victory.” “So what? Is this shoe like everything you know about the company and this Pre person?” “No, I found those over here.” Applejack said I picked up the shoe and the room was filled with sound “Is that a heartbeat?” Twilight asked “Yes, and I think I know why this was with Megas.” A screen appeared on the far wall “watch and listen.” “Wow, I feel” Twilight said “I feel inspired. Like I could gallop out and do something amazing.” I smiled “That’s how I felt the first time I saw it. ‘Passion, has a funny way of trumping logic’ Coop had no idea what the hell he was doing but he always came out on top because he had enthusiasm. But he always did it by being himself, not by trying to be a hero.” “What do you mean?” “In the first episode Kiva’s enemies follow her into the past and she tells Coop he’s the only one who can save the Earth he says ‘Look, red, I’m no hero. I’m just a guy from Jersey, alright?’ and he solves most problems the way any normal person would. He doesn’t try and protect everything he just goes out there and wings it. Shit gets smashed and at the end of the day collateral aside the world’s safe from the threat of the week. Life goes on and Coop does it all again the next week.” “I don’t get it.” “I’ve been trying to be a hero, even if I didn’t realize it at first. THAT’S why I’m so shook up about killing that bird monster, not because I’m a kind and caring person…well no that’s still a part of it. I’m not gonna try and play the hero anymore. I think I know how to make the caster lose control over the spell.” “Oo! Tell me! Tell Me!” Pinkie said “By being me.” The walls, windows and door all vanished just in time for me to watch Alice block an energy wave with a massive two handed sword. I caught a glimpse of the sparkles that signaled the destruction of a Nobody. With a thought the rest of the library vanished and all of us, intruder included, where in the middle of a giant flat field. “This is where I’ve decided to manifest certain…things.” I reached over and grabbed a black and orange ray gun “Like this.” ZAP the intruder had been turned into a cartoony white sheep. After a few seconds he changed back and went to move towards me. A mass of stick figures with strange heads fell from the sky and buried it in a heap. They were all grumbling and saying things, some even had captions stuck to their chests. They started running around making noise and generally being funny. He stood slowly unbalanced from being buried under the rage faces. Owls, lots of owls with funny hats and mustaches and all manner of decorations and captions swooped down into his face and started peppering him with statements and questions. Then came the swarm of awesome faces. I threw every meme and bizarre thing I could think of at him. “Pinkie?” Twilight asked worriedly “What? Even I can’t make sense out of half this stuff.” He was disoriented I jumped at him. Did a hand stand on his head and as I started to lean and fall off, grabbed him by the ears. I landed smoothly on both feet and yanked forward hard slamming him face first into the ground. He flickered; time to finish this, Seth McFarlane style. “What was all that?” Twilight asked me “What was that? No-one’s asked me that since the time I survived being crushed by a tank 37 times in Halo.” We were in Sandbox. A tank fell from the sky and landed on top of the intruder sending him flying out into the death field. Before the towers could fire we were back in the field. The intruder was lying in a heap in front of me. Alice was giggling but everyone else seemed confused. “How did you do that? Can you teach me? Can ya?! Can ya?! Can ya?!” Pinkie asked “Can I teach you? No-one’s asked me that since I tried to teach New Guy how to solo Crawmerax the Invincible.” We were at the bottom of a cave in front of an elevator shaft. The elevator stopped moving up and there was an all mighty roar. We were lifted a foot in the air as something massive slammed into the ground. There was a flash of light at the end of the tunnel and the intruder appeared. Then we were back in the field and Alice was laughing outright. The intruder flickered and turned into a gold unicorn stallion. “Please, no more!” he clutched his head. His cutie mark was a hypnotic spiral “Since I can see what you really look like I’m gonna guess that you’ve lost control of the spell now.” “I think he lost control when you dropped the tank on him.” Alice was trying very hard to get her laughing under control. “I haven’t been that entertained in quite some time.” I lifted him by his mane “Now then, I have some questions and you are going to answer them. Now that I’m in complete control you won’t be able to lie. First question, who are you?” “L, Lord Clear Psyche. I am a member of The Barn of Lords.” I scowled “Do you support the reform of Unicornia?” “Indeed I do, the problems that led to Hearth’s Warming were caused by pegasi and earth ponies not knowing there proper place in the world.” I held up a hand to silence any comments “How far are ya’ll willing to go to bring back Unicornia?” “As far as we must.” “I see,” a book appeared in my left hand, a thin dusty and battered journal “I have something VERY important for you to read here.” I opened it and pushed him into it before closing it. “I’ll leave him there for a few minutes.” “I don’t like this one bit.” Applejack said “the deep freeze from before Hearth's Warming was caused by everypony being neglectful and selfish.” The book started to squirm “For fuck’s sake.” I opened it and shook it making the world change. We now stood in front of a metal gate. It was a simple gate and there was a sign above it. It read Arbeit Macht Frei. Behind the gate stood a horrified Lord Clear Psyche. “What is this place?” he whispered sounding hollow “What does that sign mean?” Twilight asked All trace of anger had left me and Alice looked extremely somber “The sign is German; the literal translation is ‘labor sets you free’. As for this place, we are standing at the front gate of a place called Auschwitz. I will ask you this only once. You said you’re group would go are far as they must. Would they be willing to do things like this?” He gave a shuddering gulp “I…I think there are some among our number who would.” “What about you?” “Never, I would never condone anything like this. I would destroy my own horn first. How could the people of this nation have let this happen?” “The majority of them didn’t even know what these places really were.” He shuddered. With a wave of my hand we were in the field again and the battered journal was closed. I let it disappear and sighed. So many terrible things had happened in those places. But without knowing no-one could ever learn from the horrors of it. “That little journal contains all of my knowledge on an event known as The Holocaust. It was started by a man named Adolf Hitler, who believed that people with blonde hair and blues were superior to everyone else, especially people of Jewish descent. Approximately six million Jews were murdered in The Holocaust. That was roughly two thirds of Europe’s Jewish population at the time. All because he wanted to bring Germany back to its former glory. Even with the things he was willing to do, he failed and committed suicide when the Allied Powers had him surround in the capital city of Berlin.” That was a very abridged version but it would be enough. “That’s terrible,” I looked at Luna “It is. Also, before I forget, I have reason to believe your transformation into Nightmare Moon, was not entirely voluntary on your part.” Clear Psyche sighed “I think I will withdraw my support from the Eden Initiative. That’s what they call themselves. Princess Luna I will tell you everything I know, under an honesty spell, when we return to Canterlot.” “Very well, we shall depart in the morning as I have important things to discuss with Ms. Inaba tonight.” Alice raised an eyebrow “Interesting name choice.” She said to me “I needed a name quickly and it just popped into my head. I trust I’ll see you later?” “You shall.” “Alright everyone I think it’s time for us all to wake up.” One by one the ponies began to vanish. Last to disappear was Alice. She was smiling like the cat that ate the canary. Everything slowly disappeared until there was nothing. Freedom is the right of all sentient beings. Just made a minor edit to some wording-9/29