//------------------------------// // The Nightmare // Story: The Moon and the Caterpiller // by Dreyaz Laartii //------------------------------// NOTE: I am trying to figure out how to add a mature filter to this particular chapter. I had something similar set up on DA, but I'm far too unfamiliar with this site to organize it. If you are at all uncomfortable with blood or gore, apocalyptic visions, etc., TURN BACK NOW. THIS IS NOT FOR YOU. Luna coughed. This wasn’t one of her normal dreams. She blinked, and with a start she realized she was standing on a hilltop, overlooking…what was left of Canterlot. Everything was on fire. Smoke covered the sky as she walked down from the hill, and she kept reminding herself that this was not a preordained prophecy, but a possible future. Her mind stopped entirely as she reached the gates. The pungent stench of death and gore hit her like a train, and she fell over as she felt the memories of that one, terrible day come rushing back to her. As she stood, unmoving in the panic that had gripped her, she saw a pair of changelings exit the destroyed gates of the castle. With utter horror she saw that it was the head of her son-in-law, Shining Armor, being kicked around like a football. The vile creatures laughed as the one closest to her punted it through the barren wooden beams of what had once been part of a ballista’s hardpoint, now broken off. Shuddering and their cheers, and realizing they couldn’t see her, she cautiously walked into the courtyard, awaiting whatever horrid sights awaited her. The Canterlot gardens, once consisting of a beautiful maze and sculpture garden among many other marvels, was little more than a burnt out husk covered in rubble. Many of the parapets and roofs to the castle had been obliterated or broken off, and the broken stone lay about feet of the castle. She shivered as she walked over the crushed corpse of a guardspony, and felt herself being compelled to go to the theater room. Grudgingly, she walked up the steps, and watched, impassively, as a guard that had somehow managed to flee the chaos was ripped apart in mid-air by changelings in a shower of blood. Her eyes immediately set forward as she passed into the theater. Before her were…hundreds, if not thousands of changelings, all packed tightly into the theater room where the Hearth’s Warming Eve play had taken place. Curious, she walked forward through the throng of spectators, and…realized she had just walked into an execution. Before her lay five of the six bearers of the Elements of Harmony. The one called Rainbow Dash was not present. “Oh dear, Celestia, it looks like your favorite student has failed you once again. What do you think her punishment should be?” Chrysalis sat lazily in a makeshift throne of dozens of bodies, and for a moment, Luna could not process what she was seeing. Chrysalis was looking at…a head that was placed on her hoof. The hair…NO IT CAN’T BE!!! Celestia’s eyes had rolled back into her head, and her mouth was open with her tongue hanging out. Her head had been messily decapitated from its body, and was being used as some kind of…grotesque puppet. “Well, it’s off with her head! She failed to save me, she failed to save her country, and she failed to save her friends! But just to make sure the little egghead gets it, she’ll be first before everypony else, being held as an example. Doesn’t that sound fair, auntie?” The evil queen cackled maniacally, sanity completely gone as foam dribbled out of her mouth, and her fangs covered in gore from gorging herself. Celestia’s mouth flapped as her aunt bobbed the head up and down, and mocked her sister’s voice at the little unicorn. Luna could only stare at her sister, with sick horror at what this monster had done. A strange, eerie laughter from behind her broke her trance. The pink earth pony, Pinkie, was laughing on the ground, and was holding her hooves together, rolling from side to side. “Hey Twilight, you always wanted to be a-HEAD of everpony else! Now you really can be! Of course the princess-” “PINKIE! WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU???” Luna looked over to the dirty, beaten mare that had once been the beautiful Rarity. Her head had been shaved, and her horn was broken in half down the middle, but it was still Rarity. “Silly Rarity! Nothing matters except laughter any more! Chryssy’s laughing, why aren’t you?” If Luna had a physical form, she would have thrown up her insides at the intense wave of nausea that blasted through her at hearing the pink pony and Chrysalis laughing together. “Ah Pinkie Pie; element of Laughter until the end. I’m still not sure if I should have your head mounted with the rest of them, or keep you as a court jester. I think we should ask somepony who shares your pink character. What do you think, Cadance?” Luna collapsed as she saw what followed next. Her daughter…had not been killed. This was far worse. Cadance had her wings and horn brutally ripped off, and the once beautiful alicorn was barely able to stand. She was staring at the ground, completely gone. A piece of blue flesh and blood hung from her mouth. “Nothing then? You’ve been pretty quiet after your mother decided to go down in an idiot blaze of glory. Leaves a bad taste in your mouth, doesn’t it?” Her eye twitched, and she spat out…Luna’s Cutie mark. “Ohh defiant little girlie. It’s not nice to leave your mother on the dirt is it?” Luna backed up. She didn’t want any more of this. She had had enough. “GET ME OUT OF HERE!! CELESTIA, CADANCE, ANYPONY HELP!!! PLEASE OH GODS PLEASE SOMEPONY HELP ME!!!!” Not a single creature in the macabre display paid attention to her, and she could not find away around the crowd. Sobbing, she fell to the floor, and watched the disgusting scene play out at an all-too familiar angle. “Silly-filly! Cadance can’t talk any more, she’s just a dumb donkey like twilight over here, and Applejack! How ya doin’, Applejack.?” The orange farmpony still had her hat, but her back hooves and one of her eyes were missing. She was staring ahead, slack-jawed and comatose. She fell over like a sack of…apples…after Pinkie gave her a hearty slap on the back. “See? They’ve already checked out. Lights are on, nopony’s home. Howabout you there, Rarity?” Strangely, the once-white unicorn was staring at her friend with hatred and confusion she had only once seen reflected in a mirror. “Pinkie…why are you doing this? Why aren’t you-” “Why aren’t I what, silly-filly? Crying my eyes out like you? Being a dummy with nopony clopping around upstairs? It’s not a party if you can’t be there to begin with! And this is a big party! Look at everyone here!” The changelings cheered and whistled, some more lewdly than would have been appropriate in any situation, let alone this quagmire. “See? It’s still a party!” Luna was hyperventilating. The pink pony was laughing again. Chrysalis smiled. “Alright, Pinkie. I’ll let you live for…a bit longer. At least as long as you can keep everyone in as good spirits as yourself.” The pink pony smiled and nodded vigorously, hopping up and down. “Ohh and I think I have just the right idea for this. Hold on.” Chrysalis grimaced slightly, and two bolts of green light connected from her gnarled horn to Cadance and Twilights’ horns. “There, that’s better. Now they can say their goodbyes to each other.” Cadance was slowly backing away from the bit of skin that was on the ground before her, bearing her mother’s emblem. “No…” Luna could do nothing as she watched her daughter lose her mind again. “It’s a lie…it’s a nightmare…it can’t be…NO THIS ISN’T RIGHT! THIS CAN’T BE HAPPENING! SHE-I just got her back. Oh mother-” “Oh mommy dearest got all gobbled up. Mommy dearest died well and stupid, and she didn’t think to see if her poor, idiot daughter was watching her die after trying to avenge her sister.” Cadance slowly turned her gaze upwards, and screamed what was left of her sanity away as she saw her aunt’s head being used as a puppet, mocking her voice. She then looked down from her throne of the dead, a massive face sneering at a whimpering pound of feathery pink flesh. “You got down on your whore knees to spare your stupid husband’s life. You did dirty, dirty things for us, and when your whore body was used up like the trash it is, what did your idiot husband do? He runs at us like a foal, tears and snot streaming like a river from his face, saying that he’d make us pay for hurting you. No appreciation for the work you had to go through, the stupid colt. So I cut off his head, and you blanked out like a stupid mule as it rolled into your lap. You didn’t so much as twitch after I ate his flesh and broke the marrow open from his bones; so I decided that wasn’t enough entertainment for us all here.” A loud chorus of laughter and jeers erupted, and many of the changelings had assumed the guise of Shining Armor, mocking her. “You made us bored, so we made you…full.” Cadance’s eyes widened in awful clarity, and Luna stared helplessly, tears streaming down her face as she saw the last vestige of sanity her daughter was holding onto snap like a piano wire. “I stuffed her lunar flank, cutlets, and heart into your whore mouth, child. I made you chew and swallow like an invalid and laughed as you gulped down your mother’s flesh and bones, blood and bile. I stuffed her heart down your throat and made you swallow. It was so much fun to watch, I almost pissed myself from sheer joy.” Luna could not move. She was fixed on the image of some shredded piece of meat hanging from Chrysalis’ teeth as she threw back her head and laughed. Cadance had gone back to being catatonic after violently vomiting whatever was left inside of her stomach. She was twitching softly on the floor. “Ahh, now let’s check in on our favorite Element of Magic. I think-oh my…” Twilight was staring up, slack-jawed as before at Celestia’s head, balanced on Chrysalis’s hoof. “Hmm…that hasn’t happened before. I guess there’s just no hope for that one; she’s completely broken. Idiot girl actually thought she could save everypony. Too much stress is bad for the brain, egghead.” She snickered. “Oh, I almost forgot! My most lovely archer, my noble son. Where art thou?” Luna got up as one of the changelings pushed into her. “Here, mother.” After everything she had witnessed…here was Sagittarius, calmly walking down the aisle, unharmed. She saw an all-too familiar greenish glow of Chrysalis’ mind-altering spell in his eyes. She also noticed…he had a horn. “Dear, would you mind continuing the execution for your mother and our new friends?” Chrysalis waved to the crowd, who cheered happily. More than a few female changelings tried to grab his feet in whatever celebrity infatuation had possessed them. “Certainly. Anything for you, mother. Would you like the purple one, the white one, or the orange one?” Chrysalis rested her (own) head on her left hoof, contemplating. “Oh, I know! Why not do two at a time! The unicorns first; I can’t wait to get rid of that insufferable fashion bitch. Who needs clothes any more, anyway?” She cackled as Rarity was brought, wailing her head off to the chopping block that had been set up in front of the throne. “TWILIGHT! DO SOMETHING! PLEASE OH CELESTIA PLEASE SOMEPONY SAVE ME! TWILIGHT! YOU HAVE TO WAKE UP! TWILIIGHT!!!” Rarity was pleading, tears streaming out of her sapphire blue eyes. Chrysalis snickered, and bounced Celestia's head on her hoof, mocking her voice. “Of all the people to pray to or ask for help, you ask for me? I couldn’t save your sister or any of her stupid little friends. Your rainbow friend was quite tasty, though, even though she kept calling out the name of your orange friend over mine. Silly Pegasus thought she could-” “Rarity.” The entire hall went silent as the little pony spoke. Luna stopped sobbing, and stared at Twilight, who was now facing Rarity with an expression of utter serenity and clarity. “Thank you for everything. I’m sorry for everything you had to go through, but I know what I have to do now.” She smiled weakly, and closed her eyes. A cone of purple magic spread down from her horn, and the wind picked up, blowing towards her. “Goodbye. And BUCK you, Pinkie.” Pinkie looked on, and a moment’s understanding sparked off a lightbulb in the pink pony’s head. “SHE’S GONNA TIME JUMP!!!” Chrysalis reared up out of her throne, her frame filling the entire front of the theater. “YOU WILL NOT DENY ME MY VICTORY, WORM!! NOOOO!!!!!” Twilight closed her eyes, and in a flash she was gone, and the nightmare, thankfully, blissfully, ended.