To Sleep, Perchance to… Nightmare?
Wings of Mis/Fortune
Author: Draconis187
23:00
Fried-Zucchini-Day
Location: on a cloud in Omaha, Nebraska.
Well, this isn't the first time I've woken up at a strange time. I pressed a button on my phone to get the time. So I’ve only slept for two hours? I just sighed and put my head back down on the cloud. The cloud’s altitude gave me a beautiful view of Nebraska at night. There were so many lights of varying colours lining the buildings and the streets below. Above the Omaha skyline was a semi-clear sky, I could see so many stars in a variety of formations.
I was tired but as I looked around at the stars and the people going about their lives at night, it brought a tear to my eye.
Nightmare, are you making us cry?
No, of course not!
I gave a small chuckle and looked on at the night. I had barely slept and yet I didn’t feel any of the usual signs of exhaustion: drooping eyes; lack of focus; lack of energy to keep moving. I showed the complete opposite, I was energetic to say the least. Deciding to get a start on my journey to the Big Apple, I collected my things and took off.
As I flew I noticed the ponynappers were still in the throes of their everlasting nightmare. I chuckled again at the sight of the grown men and women writhing in agony. Pony-haters forced to watch every episode of MLP: FiM with the various characters from the show until Nightmare said otherwise.
Actually it will fade in a couple of hours after we leave. My influence will fade as the distance between us grows and thus the nightmare will end. The real question will be whether they learned their lesson or not.
I guess we may never truly know. Right next stop: New York.
Hold on, there is something I wish to discuss with you before we go any further.
Oookay. What is it? Is something wrong?
No. I want to make a detour.
Where to?
Las Vegas. I had been poking trough your memories and saw pictures of a city that was as bright as day during the night.
You just want to meet people who don’t hate the night, don’t you?
I got no response from that. I just sighed. I knew that was going to be her answer, if only she was more open to her feelings.
Fine, a detour to Las Vegas, Nevada.
“Right, let’s pull out this laptop.” I took out the laptop and at first, thought about looking for a Wi-Fi hotspot but then I had an idea: I could hook up my cellphone to my laptop and use it as a modem. Good thing my step-father has a large data cap as part of his contract. I hooked the two up and went online without any issues. Thank Faust for technology.
“Right, if we follow this route we will be going through two states: Colorado and Utah. The best route would be to take the I-80 but I suggest we make a few stops along the way. I am not sure how we will survive a 2068km flight since I don’t have a lot of flight experience and if you do it I just worry we’ll go off course. The first stop I think should be… Lincoln. We’ll see where to stop next after we land there.”
Fine. That was my only response for the next hour as I flew across the night sky. I made sure to fly from cloud to cloud so I wouldn’t draw too much attention to myself. Although, in hindsight if anyone looked up they would probably notice a black Alicorn cloud-jumping. The thought made me chuckle a little.
I found myself near above a small river that ran under the I-80 right next to Lincoln and landed on a cloud again. Deciding that it was probably best to get some sleep since fatigue actually decided to play catch up, I placed my bag next to me and laid myself down.
05:24
Smatterday
Location: on a cloud above the I-80 and Little Salt Creek near Lincoln, Nebraska.
As I got up I was a bit hungry so I went for… my bag. I couldn’t see my bag! I pulled the cloud apart – literally – trying to find it. I flew down under the – now destroyed – cloud and searched the surrounding ground for any traces of it.
Why are you so worried about a bag? Nightmare said, standing on top of a Sova’s bridge.
Because it had money, my phone, laptop as well as all our food!
Oh please, I believe I know where it is.
Really where?
At that moment I found myself thrown into the passenger’s seat as Nightmare took over. She was far more forceful than I thought. Could it be that she doesn’t take over me completely out of choice? What reason could she have to not block me out entirely and go on a campaign to bring eternal night?
I snapped out of it as we landed outside the Hampton Inn. The building was four storeys tall (including the ground floor).
Pardon my completely idiotic question but, why are we here?
For our things you foal! I saw a white stallion Pegasus with a silver mane entering this place last night. Your body doesn’t completely shut down when you sleep since I can take over whenever I please. I noticed the mane and coat when I felt the cloud being disturbed on the one side. I opened our eyes and saw the stallion flying in this direction.
That was… pretty disturbing. She could have taken control whenever she wanted?! Now I know I won't be able to sleep soundly. I walked into the Hampton and went to the reception desk. A tan brunette was standing with her back to me, lost in whatever activity she was doing. I cleared my throat and got her attention. Her nametag bore the name: ‘Chloe’. She was about to smile until she saw she was looking at a black Alicorn.
“Hi, I'm looking for a white Pegasus with a silver mane and tail. Has anypony checked in that matches the description?” I asked politely, smiling sincerely but I’m sure Nightmare was trying to make it look sinister.
“Ok, let me just take a look here.” She said, pressing some buttons on the keyboard in front of her, evidently searching for my mystery thief. “I believe I found the pony you are looking for. His name is Great Scott, his room is 23. It’s up the stairs and to the right. Are you a friend of his?”
She indicated with her hands and smiled back at me as she spoke. I guess she wasn’t as bad as her first impression indicated. Either that or the fact that I smiled first made her at ease. I was in the body of the harbinger of the eternal night after all.
“I guess you could say that.” I deadpanned.
I walked up the steps and to the indicated room: 23. The décor was ok but I wasn’t in the mood to pay attention to them. Whoever this ‘Great Scott’ was, he was about to have the worst day ever. I knocked on the door with my armoured hoof, making a small noise when the metal made contact with the wood. As the door opened I saw him: Great Scott. He wasn’t entirely remarkable other than his colouration but he did bear a tornado for a Cutie Mark. We looked at each other for a few seconds in silence.
Is this the stallion that stole our things? I though to Nightmare.
Yes, most definitely. He is the one.
“So Great Scott is it? Interesting name. May I come in?” I didn’t even wait for him to respond, I just pushed my way past him and into his room.
It was a quaint little room with all the amenities: towels, little bars of soap in the bathroom and the like. I looked around the room but I didn’t find much in terms of his luggage. As I opened the cupboards I saw it: my Ace Combat Zero: the Belkan War bag. It was a plain black sports bag with a picture of an ADFX-01 Morgan on the one side and an ADF-01 FALKEN on the other. This was my absolute favourite bag of all time. As I turned to where Scott was standing I noticed he had vacated the room.
Well, this morning has become a lot more interesting. Nightmare thought with a snigger.
Well, do you want the honours? I couldn’t be bothered trying to exact revenge since we got our stuff back without incident. Just please for the love of Tartarus do not kill or injure him or an innocent bystander. I replied. I was sure I heard Nightmare squee in my mind but I didn’t have time to mull it over since I got tossed into the back of my mind again like a garbage bag.
I decided to just waltz through my mind whilst Nightmare had fun. I heard the occasional shout and scream but I was sure it wasn’t something too horrible, I trusted Nightmare enough to not make too big of a scene since she would be in just as much trouble as me.
I decided to stage a space battle with some Kol Battleships, Sova Carriers, Two Marza Dreadnoughts and an assorted number of frigates. They were evenly matched in terms of size and number so it came down to whoever had best strategy. One of my Marza Dreadnoughts got destroyed but I managed to take one of their Sova Carriers in retaliation.
Both sides had finally lost all of their frigates and now it was time for a Capital battle to rock the ages… or at least in my head. Whoever was controlling the opposing side was good but then again it was in my mind so I gathered they had to be since I used to play a lot of strategy games and I wanted a challenge. In the end though, none of us won since we both blew up each other’s last Capital ship at the same time.
Nightmare then appeared below me on a Ragnarov Titan. She seemed to be smiling. Just as soon as we looked at each other for a second, I was thrust back into the driver’s seat and into reality once more.
Looking around I could see I was just outside the Hampton, carrying my bag. For a moment I thought Nightmare didn’t do anything… that was until I noticed my hoof was on top Great Scott’s throat. He was crying, tears running down his face… he looked really pathetic and that was nowhere near an understatement.
Listen to this little foal cry. Nightmare half laughed.
“Now why did you take my things?” I asked calmly but I managed to sound threatening with a bit of help from Nightmare.
“I'm sorry! I just needed the money! I saw you back in the Wal-Mart in Omaha and followed you to that cloud and saw the things you were carrying. I got turned into a pony a day ago and was making my way to New York so I could get changed back.” He began to sob whilst talking at a furious pace. “I-I just… I just needed some money so I could stay here since I used the last bit of cash I had on me. I didn’t bring anything else other than my purse!”
“Woah! Slow down and for the love of Celestia start at the beginning.” I asked… and got that small pain again, although it seemed less painful this time around. I shook my head and sat down next to Scott as he got up.
“Okay. Well my real name is Jacqueline Lawson. I lived in Topeka, Kansas. It’s over 150 miles to the south of here. I wasn’t even really interested in the show since my friends never liked it, so I one day when my friends caught me watching I made the excuse that my sister wanted me to watch it with her. The episode was the one with the tornado they wanted to make and they needed Fluttershy’s help.”
“Hurricane Fluttershy.” I said, remembering the name since Nightmare carved it into a planet with a couple of Ragnarov Titans.
“Yes, I-I think that was the one. Well when I was watching I saw a particular Pegasus… this one to be exact.” He said, pointing to himself. “So w-when I found myself looking like this… I ran. I grabbed my old purse and ran as fast as I could. I didn’t have a lot of money with me so… I stole. My wings made for a good distraction and when people weren’t looking, I would take from their parcels whenever I was at a grocery store. I didn’t think twice about it, I only saw my goal: getting rid of this body.”
“Okay, that’s a touching story. There is one point that bothers me slightly: you were a girl?!” I near shouted. “I mean – no offense – it has been mostly bronies that had been gender-swapping. I haven’t heard or seen many cases of the opposite. Although in retrospect I guess I should have expected a few cases of this occurring.”
“Yes I used to be a girl and now I'm a stallion. What about you, who are you?” She asked with a nervous yet curious smile.
“I used to be a guy and now I'm a mare. On top of that I'm in the body of the harbinger of eternal darkness: Nightmare Moon, who is actually on the way to Las Vegas.”
I thought for a few moments and saw Nightmare waving her hooves in protest to said thoughts. Although she could have just taken over and book it. She may have been partly agreeing with me. “Okay then! Would you like to come with?”
“Come with you to Las Vegas? Why would you want to have a pony that you know had stolen your things with you on a journey?” She asked as I pulled out my laptop and hooked up my cellphone. I looked on various websites for casinos in Vegas and noticed something interesting.
“Well I hate travelling alone, despite having Nightmare in my head. Besides you don’t have any money and if you kept stealing I know for a fact that somepony will notice. You can't get changed back while you're stuck in jail can you? Not only that but I haven’t heard that Celestia or Luna have reappeared so I suggest we waste some time and make some money in the process. Take a look here.” I said, levitating the laptop to Scott’s face. “There is a live My Little Pony show that they are having in Vegas in the next few days. I think a special guest appearance by the True Princess of the Night and a real Pegasus would make quite the commotion, don’t you think?”
Scott looked around, kind of looking lost until he shook his head and raised his hoof at me. “You have a deal…?”
“Oh, call me Chris or Nightmare. I don’t care which you use.” I said, hoofbumping him to seal our deal.
I then went onto my new Facebook profile and found I had at least five separate friend requests… and about over fifty people going on about how I'm evil and should never be trusted.
“Haters gonna hate.” I said with a smirk. I saw my mother sent me an email back.
Hi Sweetie
I hope you are ok. Being hijacked can't have been too good of an experience. What happened? I‘ve told your uncle and he says he will wait for you on the outskirts of New York. Just give him a call just to give him a warning that you're coming and he’ll tell you where to wait (phone number here). We are all hoping to hear from you again soon and your grandmother says you must keep an eye on your diet while you're there.
Regards,
Your Mother
She really cares, doesn’t she? Nightmare thought.
Yeah, yeah she does. That was my only response. I had shed a small tear as I thought about how they just jumped up and went out of their way to help me. I sent a back response.
Hi Mom
Don’t worry too much about it. I got away safely and freed a bunch of other ponies and humans. A filly got shot in the leg and was rushed to the hospital. I just got my things back from a Pegasus who had stolen them but he actually seems like a nice pony so I’m having him tag along. Oh and since there hasn’t been any word about Celestia or Luna I’m detouring to Las Vegas. I don’t know what exactly I'm going to do there but I did always want to see Vegas.
Kind Regards
Chris/ Nightmare Moon
P.S. Nightmare says hi.
“So, which state are you from?” Scott asked. I just chuckled. I had only just realised that he sounded a bit like Nicholas Cage. I was glad he didn’t seem to notice my tear, or he was trying to change the object of my focus.
“I'm from the Republic of South Africa a.k.a. SA. Yeah, I'm from quite a distance away from the US. I woke up like this on… Wagnesday if my memory serves me correctly. So are we ready to head out?”
“Let me just go check out of the hotel. Be back now.” With that, Scott was gone.
Nightmare?
Hmm?
What did you do to him while I was ‘out’?
I just had a little fun with him. He tried to fly off but I kept showing up in front of him wherever he turned. He eventually landed back on the ground. I made my eyes glow pure white which scared him and he tripped over his own hooves as he stepped backwards. As I put my hoof on his throat he was crying, begging me to let him explain his actions and that was when I got you.
Ah, okay then. So no over the top theatrics?
Who, me? Don’t make me laugh… foal. She stressed the ‘foal’ part, as if she was trying to make a point.
At that moment Scott had returned, carrying a small purple purse around his neck. I was sure the Great Scott inside was slowly dying from embarrassment.
I don’t think you're that far off. Nightmare commented.
“Right, so where is our first stop?” He said cheerfully. He seemed to have washed his face as he didn’t have any more tear marks running down his muzzle.
“Well, let’s see.” I will always say that the Internet is a powerful thing that should never be underestimated. “I’m currently following the I-80 to Las Vegas. The next logical stop seems to be Kearney which is two hours away.”
“Well then I guess we should get started.” Scott said, spreading his wings. I responded by putting the laptop away and spreading my own.
Well at least it will be an interesting trip. Nightmare thought.