//------------------------------// // Trials of the Night - Pt. 3 // Story: How I became an Equestrian // by Raybony //------------------------------// The Nightmare watched as the ponies left the area where the fight with the manticore had happen, not liking one bit the resulting outcome. "This is just annoying, how can a bunch of stupid ponies get to beat a whole pack of wolves and an overly size lion?" It wasn't please at its fail attempts to getting rid of them, and they were starting to come really close to its hiding place. "Confound this ponies and their luck, they drive me to madness." It took a sigh before regaining its posture. "No matter, with my next trick I shall finally have them at my mercy." Like last time, a small orb appeared out of one of its claws before going into the orb showing the ponies, going away from the trail and having to go by a cliff side, making them have to go around for them to reach the castle. "Like the old saying goes, the bigger the better." The image in the orb changed to show a deep dark cave on one of the sides from the cliff, where something big and reptilian like could be seen moving. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "So let me get this straight?" I have been listening to Rarity’s explanation to her using that electrical spell, and supposedly an explosion spell for when I confronted the Timberwolf. “You use the electricity to charge your dresses?" "You’re misunderstanding darling, I use it to charge the gems that I use on the dresses, and it always makes them shine even more than when standing under the spotlight." "I guess that makes sense, and your explosion spell?" "Well, I needed to get gems from time to time, and I not always had my Spikey Whikey to help me out. So I had to use other means to get the gems." "Really, just blow the ground to find gems?" It sounded a bit odd that Rarity would do something like that in a regularly basis. "I know it’s not the most subtle of ways, but it got the job done." She frowned a bit when she remembered something. "The only downside of it was that I would get my coat filthy. Oh the horror, my perfectly refined coat ruined by the harshness of work." I just rolled my eyes at her, 'typical Rarity'. "Oh please Rarity, you get yourself cover in mud when you go to the Spa, and you complain from a bit of dust." "Now Rainbow, the difference between getting filthy and having a mud bath, is that one makes my whole being more radiant and glamorous, while the other ruins it." Rarity said lifting her head high in the air. "Whatever." Rainbow said rolling her eyes at her friend’s response. "Tell us again Twilight, why are we going around the path instead of going with it? It’s going to take us twice as long to get there." Twilight turn her head around to look at Rainbow, who was looking rather impatient at the moment. "You know why Rainbow, Zecora told us of this new patch of Poison Joke that is near the path, which right now is releasing spores that have the same effect as the flowers when we touch them. I we can’t all fly like you and go over it." "Fine, but we better get there fast, I want to get my hooves on that Nightmare’s head and teach him a lesson." "We know Dash, we know." We all said together, which earned a few giggles and a frown from Rainbow. We had to move out of the path like Twilight said, and instead we had to go by a cliff side of a mountain, which overlooked the everfree and the castle from where we were. "Anyone have a way to pass time? Cause I really bored here." Rainbow said, her expression expressed what she said, boredom. "Oh I know, let’s play 'I spy'. I spy with my little eye, something beginning with...H." "A hat?" Rainbow said, taking Applejack’s hat off of her, just to receive a punch from her making her drop the hat, back to its owner’s head. "Nope." "A hawk?" Twilight said, pointing with a hoof to a bird that was flying in the distance. "Nah-ah" "A helicopter?" I said which made everyone turn to me with a really confused look. "Not even close, come on it’s not hard." "Is it a-" Fluttershy didn't get to finish, as a loud roar that came from on top of us filled our ears. When we looked up our eyes shrunk with terror, and we all said in unison with total fear in our voices. "HYDRAAAAA" "Correct, don’t you love this games?" Pinkie said with a big grin plastered on her face. We all shoot a glare at her, telling her to shut up and take this serious. The Hydra, which shared the same black eyes as the other creatures before, roared again, shaking the whole ground and making a few rocks to fall off the side or to slide down. The Hydra looked a bit smaller to the one I had seen on the show, this one being about three meters smaller, but still really big for a pony, and also having only three heads which all shared the same hating glare towards us. "Everypony, RUN." Twilight screamed, running ahead into the path, everyone else following behind, the hydra started to slide down the side of the hill, coming down to the path that we were one. The vibration from these making bigger rocks to start sliding down towards the path ahead of us. "This is a very weird DeJa Vu." Pinkie said, going to one side as a rock fell just a moment ago. "Come on guys, it can’t follow us in this path, its way too narrow for it run." "Don’t Jinx it Twilight." Too late, as a large boulder started to fall ahead of us, the large size of it would be enough to block our path. "Double time everypony." Rainbow said, getting ahead of us and getting to the other side of where the boulder would land. Unfortunately, my injured hoof started to pain me again, Twilight warned me of not overworking myself, as the healing spell would only mildly head any problems, but would need to go to a hospital if I wanted to have it heal fully. I stumble to the ground, picking up dirt as I rolled to a stop, the girls didn't notice me until they had gotten to the other side, by which it was too late to even try to get to them, as the boulder reached the path and to make it worse, broke the whole section that it hit, dragging it with it to the bottom of the cliff to the everfree. The roars from the hydra were now closer than before; the path was still large enough for it to walk on it. "Hang on Luis; we are coming to get you." They said as they still tried to avoid the rocks that were still falling down. "You can’t, you’ll get crush by the rocks if you stay there, just get out of here." "We are not leaving ya behind; we can still get out of here together." Applejack said as she sidestepped from the path of a large boulder. "No you can’t." I turn around and started to limp away from the edge of the hole in the path. "I'll meet you up ahead, wait for me there." "Luis comeback." Fluttershy said, starting to fly after me, just for her path to be cut as more rocks started to slide in a larger number. "We have to go Fluttershy; he'll be fine I promise." Rainbow said as she pulled Shy by the tail. It took a moment for her before coming with the girls. In the mean time I was trying to find a section of the path that was overlooking a small lake early. The pain in my hoof was getting worse as I put more pressure to the offended limb, but I still manage to find the lake that I saw before, only luck wasn't in my side. The hydra was standing directly on top of the section of the path that overlooked the lake. ‘Why do you hate me so much universe?’ It stood there, all three of its heads looking at me, waiting to see what my next move would be; I guess that they all share the memory of the other creatures that we have defeated, as it was not going to make a mistake so easily. I didn't know what to do, there was no way I could beat this thing with the magic I know, and my only escape option was directly underneath of it. I didn't have much time to think as it started to advance slowly towards me, and hoof wasn’t gonna let me outrun it any time soon. With no much choice left, I came up with a small plan in my head, if I could use a very powerful stunt spell, maybe I could make it lose focus, just long enough to slip underneath him and jump to the lake, where luck would play the rest. I started charging the spell to my horn, pouring as much magic as I could so I had the best chance. I waited until he came at about three meters away from me before I released it, immediately I started running, not paying attention as one of the heads slapped the spell away, before bringing one of its large feet to pin me down to the ground. I screamed as my whole body was the victim to the Hydra’s strength and weight. I opened my eyes to see as the three heads eyed me, a mocking smirk plastered in their faces, their heads reared back as at the same time it opened its mouths wide open, revealing set after set of razor sharp teeth. I closed my eyes, getting ready once again for what would be my death. Until a deep rumbling filled my ears, the Hydra had turn its heads towards the face of the cliff, and a clear shock face was displayed on each of the heads. If there is one thing I have to say about myself in that moment is that I must have the biggest luck that one could hope for. Unknown to me or the Hydra, the stunt spell that had been slapped away had found its way to a large rock that was lodged to the side of the cliff, the strength of the spell was all it needed to loosen it and make it roll down the cliff’s face, which managed to hit the hydra and me off the path that we were on. I was sent flying in the air, my head hitting rock after rock as I fell towards the lake that was at the bottom of the cliff, unfortunately the hydra didn't have the same luck, as for when it hit the ground it was buried by the rocks that had fall off the cliff, ending its rampage and turning it back into that black mist, which rocketed towards the castle, where it’s master awaited. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The girls were waiting in a small clearing that let a bit of the moonlight to seep through the canopy; they had been worry about their friend’s safety after hearing the second rock slide which soon was followed by the black mist that always seemed to come out of the creatures that were sent by the Nightmare. Twenty minutes, for twenty minutes they waited in silence, the only sounds were of their breathing and the sound of the few creatures of the forest walked around. "I can’t take this anymore. I need to see Luis again." Fluttershy yelled as she unfurled her wings ready to take off in search for the mentioned pony. "Whoa there sugarcube, ya can’t just go fer him like tha’, ya’all just gotta wait fer him here." "But I can’t Applejack, he could be hurt and isn’t able to comeback by himself, we need to find him quickly." "Fluttershy, we can’t just go in there like that, what if more of those Nightmare minions show up and we are separated?" Twilight said, trying to make her feel better. "And what if one of them finds him? I already lost him once, and I don’t want that to happen again ever." "You won’t have Shy." The girls turn around to the source of the voice, and upon looking at it, they had shock looks. I stood there, my whole body full of bruises and scratches, my bad hoof was even worse than before, as it now was bent a bit in a weird angle, but despite that I could just smile at them, glad to see them they were ok. "Luis darling, what in Tartarus happened to you?" "Oh nothing really." I tried to walk normally towards them, but my hurt arm made it nearly impossible. "Nrghh, just fell down a cliff to a small lake." "You WHAT?" Everyone shouted, surprised that I manage to survive that, I am myself still surprise I did too. "Please guys, stop taking it so bad, I’m alive, and thou not really intact, I’m still standing." Although the feat was really hard at the moment. "That’s it, just why are you so calm about this? You have been put against the face of death three times, and you take it like it’s no big deal." Fluttershy was now raging at my actions and the girls were a bit scared of her at the moment. "I told you before; I just want to protect all of you, no matter what I’m not going to let anything happen to you guys." "We can take care of ourselves too you know, we don’t need you to jump at every danger that comes our way. We have face dragons, diamond dogs, manticores, changelings, even Nightmare Moon. What makes it so different about these ones that you need to risk your life?" "They are made from my Nightmare; you have no idea what he’s like and what he has done to me." "Then tell us, that way we know what we are facing and you don’t need to face this alone." "No. What he has done stays with me; there are things that are best left in the dark for others." I was starting to shed a few tears, having to remember the horrors I have seen. "I won’t take a ‘no’ for an answer; tell me what is so bad about it, why do you need to keep it a secret, just why do you need to put your life on the line?" "I told you, it’s best if I keep it to myself, I don’t want you to know of what he has caused." "You either tell me or I tell Twilight to use her memory spell to show us instead." She looked at Twilight which made her shrink down at Fluttershy’s gaze. "No, you can’t. Please, the last thing I want is for you to live them like I did." I was now scare of what would happen if they actually saw them rather than imagining it. "Then tell us, why do you risk your life for us every time we face one of the creatures from the Nightmare?" "B-because..." I took a deep breath, trying to find the courage to say it, to tell them what I know. "Because I don’t want to relive my nightmares." "That’s all?" Fluttershy was about to say something else, but I stopped her by starting to talk again. "Every time I had that dream, it was always the same. I would wake up in this forest, where not a sound could be heard, the trees were dead, the ground showed no signs of ever growing anything, and a deep mist would always stop me from seeing where to go. "I would start walking, never knowing what to expect, the trees always seemed to try at trap me with their branches. And out of the mist would see at some point I would see a friend of mine in the mist, fighting a large wolf, a dark wolf with red eyes. "They would always see me and scream for my help, screaming as the wolf tried to kill them. I would try to help them, but my body wouldn't move, no matter what I tried to do I couldn't move, and then the mist would go around them, hiding them from my view just for me to hear horrible cry of pain and then...silence. "Then my body would start to move on its own, making me go to where they were before, only for me to find a slaughtered body of my friend, it’s body filled with gashes from claws, dripping blood freely from all of the wounds that were made. "But the worst part would always be their eye. No matter from where I looked them from, they would always look at me, asking me why? Why didn't I try to do anything? Why did I leave them to die like that? "I would just then start moving again, to another direction, the eyes still burning as I walked. Just for the same thing to happen again, only to someone in my family, and uncle, a cousin, my grandparents. And they would have the same eyes, blaming me, accusing me, making my whole being feel horrible. "Just to make it worst, as my family would be next, only this time I would see it. I would see as that wolf would tear through their flesh, cracking their bones with its mouth, and when it was all over their bodies would talk to me, saying the same thing every time, 'you’re worthless'" By the end I had broken down putting my head between my hooves, just thinking about it was horrible and I would do anything to forget about it. "It was horrible, seeing all of that every time, waking up day after day with the horror that you saw last night. I couldn't take it anymore, it was haunting me and I wanted out. "So I tried to kill myself." I looked up to see the girls with horror on their faces, but I just continued, "I didn't know what to do, for months I would have those dreams and I didn't know what to do. I’m just glad that my parents caught me on the act, after that they took to a special psychiatrist, he helped me to forget about the dreams, to forget the pains, and made me have a normal life again." I looked down again, feeling bad that all of this was happening again. "But after I got here and found out it was still alive and now real, I just couldn't let it try and do what he did to me to anyone. I wouldn't stay still when I could do something, I will do anything to stop it from doing any harm if I can. "That’s why I've been risking my life all this time, if anything happened to you guys because of my nightmare, I... I would..." I didn't know what to say, just the idea made feel horrible. I felt a hoof rest on both of my shoulders. I looked up to see a crying Fluttershy. "Don’t keep things like that from us please, we care for you and we don’t want anything like that eating you from the inside." She tried to smile at me, trying to make me feel better. "Fluttershy I-I-I..." I couldn't hold it back anymore, so I let it all out, all the pain, all my worries, everything. I just cried on Fluttershy's shoulder, with her stroking my mane softly. "There, there now; let it out, just let it all out." Her voice soothing me as all of the girls joined in on the embrace. I don’t know for how long I cried but I didn't care, I just needed to let it go for me, for the girls... for Fluttershy.