//------------------------------// // One More Night // Story: To Sleep, Perchance to... Nightmare? // by Draconis187 //------------------------------// To Sleep, Perchance to… Nightmare? One More Night Author: Draconis187 Time: 08:23 Date: Threepday Location: A hotel in Beaver, Utah I was awake from the moment the sun decided to gleam in my eyes by refracting off my armour. Even before becoming the embodiment of Darkness I was not a fan of the sun. You get too hot and your options of cooling off were usually limited beyond swimming or wearing shorts and a t-shirt. As I lazily got up from the bed, I went into the bathroom to try and freshen up. Deciding that the bathtub was not the most efficient way to clean my coat, I opted for the shower instead. As I was using a brush and some – more like a lot to be perfectly frank – shampoo for my coat, I felt that my wings were rather sensitive to the brush so I avoided brushing them. My mane and tail on the other hoof only needed to get brushed. The reason for that was to get rid of the dead stars that floated inside and the fact that the shampoo just fell through my mane. It pays to have an ethereal mane. It was half past nine by the time I was fully washed, dried and clothed - I just donned the armour, same thing really - myself, I went out the room to find my travelling circus of strange individuals. Sure I could be considered strange, especially my outburst about liking not being human but we had a perverted Pegasus, a geologist Unicorn and a veterinarian Earth Pony. The last of our little group was the chronicler, more like the ‘takes videos at the most importune and embarrassing moments’ guy. The dining hall looked just as lovely during the day as it did when we were here the previous night but there were some things I noticed that drew my attention. A few spots on the walls and light fixtures had some small, rather discernable cracks. I gathered I didn’t notice them last night due to it being so late and the fact that it was slightly darker, as the lights don’t reach everywhere in the room equally. “Nightmare!” I turned and saw the rest of my group sat at the table we used the previous night. Tenderheart was waving at me, indirectly turning the entire room’s attention in my general direction. The entire room just stared with mixed expressions at me as I joined them at the table. A different waiter – by the name of Joanne – served us this time. She seemed rather… curvaceous to put it rather blunt. Scott ogled her as she walked away after she had taken their orders. I made sure to swat the back of his head with an unarmoured hoof in an attempt to turn his focus away from those thoughts. Couldn’t wait for us, could they? Nightmare scoffed as we sat down next to Sugarberry who gave us a smile. They were hungry, we can’t fault them for that. Besides, we would have gotten out earlier if you didn’t insist on preening. I replied, smiling back at the mare as the waitress returned. Keeping your feathers clean and properly arranged is a normal part of life if you're a Pegasus. Or an Alicorn. Nightmare retorted. I get that but we didn’t need to take half an hour to do it. I snapped back. In my mind, Nightmare was giving me one hell of an evil look. If looks could kill, she could lay waste to the Spanish Armada five times over with that look and still be able to freeze Tartarus over for an encore. It didn’t last as she began to chuckle. This seemed to become somewhat of a recurring theme with us. We’d get into an argument, only to laugh it off and act as if we have been friends for an eternity. Although in hindsight, I guess I was the first true friend she had. “Nightmare are you ok?” Sugarberry’s voice pulled me back to reality and the table of ponies and the one human. “Don’t worry about me. I was talking to Nightmare again. She was rather ticked off by the fact that you didn’t wait for us but she’s fine now. We had a good laugh about it.” I replied as I saw the waitress returning. “Sorry, we didn’t know how lon-” I stopped Tenderheart from apologising by raising my hoof to silence her. “You don’t have to apologise, really.” I said as the waitress reached the table to take my order. “I’ll have the farmhouse breakfast but hold the pork sausages and some orange juice.” Joanne wrote down my order and went off to add it to the rest. I quickly realised Joanne had brought the others their drinks. Oddly enough everypony was having fruit juice with the exception to Scott who had lemonade. Sugarberry had apple juice, Tenderheart had mango and Charles had strawberry. While we waited for our meals and my drink, the topic of discussion was rather obvious: Las Vegas. We were roughly three hours away if the traffic was lenient and merciful, I had my reservations to that but a little tardiness never hurt. My drink arrived as we were about to figure out our plans once arriving there. “As we know, I’m going to crash a pony show with a ‘special guest appearance’.” I reminded everypony. “What are your plans?” “Well, there is Caesar’s Palace that I’ve been itching to go to.” Sugarberry said with a gleeful expression. “Tenderheart?” “Oh, um… I actually don’t know really. I guess I’ll follow you into Caesar’s Palace to keep an eye on you.” Tenderheart replied as she turned to Scott. “My turn?” Scott looked at us for a second before answering. “I’ve been with Nightmare almost from the start of this trip so I’ll follow her to the show.” He turned to me with a slight smirk. “Knowing you, you will cause a panic.” Nightmare and I laughed. “That’s kind of the entire plan to be honest!” Scott facehoofed as Charles spoke up. “Nightmare has been the focus of my videos and so I’ll follow the two of you to record it for the internet.” “Sounds fair, I guess. In truth it is the least I can do since I got you to ride out all this way. Not to mention after the assault from Richfield.” I said rather nervously as we remembered the events of the previous night. “How about we never mention that place again?” We all could agree on that. Our meals soon arrived as we began to pool our cash together and split it up equally so that if one of us decided to go on a spending spree, we would not end up poor and beg for money. Our collective cash totalled $1250, which was rather surprising since Charles had already paid for the hotel, again. I was starting to feel rather bad about having him cover our expenses so many times. I hope he doesn’t end up on the street because of us. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. We resolved to split the money once we arrived at Las Vegas, $250 each to be precise. It was reasonable since we couldn’t really spend it on the way there. It would defeat the purpose of splitting it in the first place. After our meals, we grabbed our things and went to Charles’ car. While Charles checked us out of the hotel, I opened up his car with some rather decent telekinesis – I actually used the keys but the group never saw them and assumed I was using magic, I was not going to tell them otherwise – and placed the bags into the back. As he got to the car, he found the four ponies already sitting down, waiting for him patiently. Our three hour trip was definitely going to be rather mediocre but I had music and company if I felt like a conversation. I felt like nothing could go wrong now. Time: ??:?? Date: ?? Location: ?? “Ugh, what happened?” I got up and looked around. I saw the Greek Parthenon in front of me and – for reasons that will forever escape me – felt compelled to enter. The sound of metal on stone echoed through the empty, ruined hall… I felt uneasy. It was the sort of unease that could only be described as the ‘I am being watched’ feeling. I looked around at my surroundings but all I saw were ruined pillars, faded décor and rubble. Lots of rubble. “It happened.” I wheeled around and crouched, ready to defend myself despite Nightmare handled all of our altercations better than I ever could. “Oh, get up off the floor.” Nightmare gave me a small devilish smirk as she walked past me. I followed her further into the ancient Parthenon, coming to a halt at the base of the weathered statue of the Goddess Athena. Sadly time and neglect reduced the statue to nothing short of rubble and dust. What actually got my attention was the black form that laid on it. How and why I didn’t notice it earlier was beyond me but as I got closer, it looked familiar somehow… until the billowing ethereal mane gave it away. I was rather shocked and dumbfounded. Nightmare looked solemn and resentful as she turned to me. “Again, I blame you for this.” She said callously, pointing to the third Nightmare Moon. “Don’t you remember what I said the first time we talked?” I just shook my head. I had no idea what was going on at all. Nightmare slugged me over the head with a Thunder Hammer from Warhammer 40K. Involuntary flight was the result of the strike as I collided with a – surprisingly still standing – pillar. “You foal!” She shouted at me with the Royal Canterlot Voice, completely deafening me. Now I knew how Charles and the others felt when I did it around them. “That thing there is us!” As she shouted that, the gravity of the situation finally hit its mark. Nightmare fell onto her flank as she looked at the third Nightmare. “I used some rather forbidden magic to keep our current states but… she is us. We will no longer have control of our body.” “So we have been demoted to nothing more than her conscience now?” I surmised as I got to my hooves. Nightmare didn’t respond, she only stared at the sleeping form that was our combined personalities. “Nightmare, what exactly happened? I mean I would’ve noticed if the merge completed, wouldn’t I?” I asked as we walked up to Nightmare Number Three. “It was always going to happen but… there was an incident. Try to think back, just before you came into our mind and it should come to you.” She replied as she ran a hoof through the sleeping mare’s mane. The stars were bumped out of the way as her hoof made contact. She even gave a content sigh as she began to stir. “Time to see the world with a new perspective little one.” Nightmare said as I saw the world end around us. I shrugged my shoulders, I was not afraid of this. I forever saw my death in several situations, I was either shot, stabbed or died of a disease. Even suicide was one of them. “Oh, damn.” I said, finally having remembered what happened before blacking out. “She is going to hate me.” **** **** **** **** Time: Don’t care, this headache is pounding. Date: My ears are ringing, can’t concentrate properly. Location: I don’t give a buck, I can’t see! My head felt like it was placed in a vice and squeezed until it cracked open like an egg. My vision was black as the night sky. This was absolutely perfect: I was blind and my ears felt like I had my ear plastered to the largest speaker possible while attending a heavy metal concert. I just wanted to get my bearings and find a light so I could see but the headache stopped my attempts at any form of illuminating magic. “ Hello? Miss? ” I could hear a faint voice, it was distorted yet somewhat discernable as a lady’s voice. I tried to rely on my other senses, touch and smell since sight and hearing were out of commission and taste was not an option. I was going to taste everything I came across. I could smell the fragrance of some forms of antiseptics and medicines. Dear sweet Celestia, I was in a hospital or worse: a mortuary, being embalmed. I truly didn’t know which could be worse. I tried to get up but I fell back down as a sharp pain in my ribcage decided to voice its presence. Not only that but my legs hurt and my right hind leg felt like it had a stiff piece of… something attached to it like a splint. Okay. Let’s try and do a count of our situation. I tried to rationalise as I noticed the hard bed I was laid on. “Okay, my legs feel shattered; my head feels like I took on a freight train and lost; I can not see for the life of me; I have this incessant ringing in my ears and it hurts. Oh, I and I feel like I’m being watched.” I summarised vocally, hearing myself speak ensured that I was probably still amongst the living. “Can you hear me?” Okay, so my hearing was definitely returning, that’s progress and it put me slightly at ease. I must be in a hospital since morgues are for the dead and as far as I could tell, I was still kicking, albeit barely by the feel of it. “Yes.” I replied nonchalantly as my hearing began to normalise. What was normal anymore anyway? A question for another day as the other voice spoke again. “That’s good. I’m going to remove the blindfold but keep your eyes closed and open them slowly so they can adjust to the light.” The female voice said calmingly. I still tensed up as I felt a pair of hands press up against the sides of my head but I did what I was told and opened my eyes slowly. My vision was rather blurry but I could make out the horrid green curtains that hospitals had for a patient’s privacy. The sun was reflecting off something metal in the distance, causing me to try and avert my eyes. Luckily the attending nurse saw my discomfort and stepped in the offending solar rays’ path. “Give it to me straight Doc.” I said, with a small smirk on my face. Or at least I was sure it was a smirk, my headache was not making it any easier on me. “You have five fractured ribs, the rest are badly bruised. Your right wing is missing several pinions and the coverts are slightly singed while your left wing has several scorched secondaries.” A man next to me said. If I wasn’t in so much pain, I would have jumped out of my coat or attacked him with a blast of lightning. Either one would have resulted in more pain so I was glad I did neither. “You were also comatose for a while and the concussion will most likely persist for some time.” “Great… wait! What about the others?!” I shouted, as I suddenly panicked. I was with some other ponies before winding up here, wasn’t I? “I’m afraid I am not at liberty to say as I am not their attending doctor.” The doctor replied. I felt my face turn into a scowl, I wanted to tear him a new hole in his chest and stuff a grenade in it. Where did that thought come from? I’m not that violent, am I? I thought as I fought with my body to get up. “Stay down.” Doctor said, trying to ease me back into the hospital bed. “You should not be walking around just yet. You may open up the stitching we had to do when we operated on you.” “You operated on me?!” I bellowed, knocking the doctor and nurse onto their backs. The force literally rattled the windows and I’m sure somewhere, somepony just suffered a heart attack that came from the bowels of Tartarus itself. “Please don’t shout!” The doctor cried out as he scrambled to his feet, clasping his hand over my muzzle. It kind of stung a little and I was tempted to let him have another blast but some part of me thought it was a bad idea so I relented. “There are patients that could react horribly to a massive shock and your voice qualifies.” I rolled my eyes and nodded my head to show him I understood. “Perfect. Now, I will try to see if I can find out about your friends for you and when you are better, I will take you to see them.” With that, he left me in the nurse’s care. My day was long, boring and as dreary as being on the moon. The white walls made me feel like I was in a psychiatric ward rather than a hospital. Nurses, doctors and patients walked past my room, ignoring me completely. My headache was getting better as the hours rolled by at least. Although, the one thing I couldn’t shake was the feeling that the situation was far worse than what they told me. Hospital staff love to keep patients in the dark, I think they get some sick kick from it. The good thing about my receding headache was my reacquired magical reach. My telekinesis only resulted in minor increases in the migraine as I finally discovered the offending metal object that was refracting the sun into my eyes. It turned out to be an azure coloured helmet, chestpiece and four shoes that would fit perfectly on my hooves. A part of me just felt familiar with them but I decided to place them at the other side of the room, under the window so that the sun didn’t bounce off them again. Time: 18:43 Date: Threepday Location: Sunrise Hospital and Medical Centre, Las Vegas The nurse was kind enough to tell me the time, date and location of my current whereabouts. Eleanor – as she eventually introduced herself – had a daughter who loved the show and wanted to see me with a burning passion. Lucky for me, visiting hours had long since finished which spared me the hug I probably would have been forced to receive. I didn’t mind it but I think it might have broken a few stitches. Once the nurse had finally left, I managed a rather painful walk out of my room. I had to find my… friends? They were my friends weren’t they? I walked over to the reception after getting down there via the elevator. There was no way in Tartarus I was going to use the stairs, three flights? I’d rather face another 1000 years of isolation on the moon. “Pardon me…” I asked as the man at the reception had finished handing a nurse some paperwork. He turned to me with those fake smiles that you know people wear in these types of jobs. “Yes, can I be of assistance?” He said, Mark was printed on his nametag. “I was admitted earlier today and I have to ask if there were any other ponies with me?” Mark nodded at me. “Can you please tell me where I can locate them?” Mark directed me to a room located near the I.C.U. ward. It was on a floor higher than my room so I walked over to the elevator once more. The nurses and doctors gave me rather strange looks as I hobbled across the floor. Being on my hooves for only twenty minutes had already resulted in several muscle pains as the bruising and the stitches in my chest became aggravated. I searched down the hallway, mumbling the room numbers and plaques on doctors’ offices in my search for the four companions I was travelling with. I looked into one of the rooms to see three ponies. A powder blue Earth pony, a white Pegasus and a white Unicorn were laid near each other on the beds. In an instant something in me recalled their names in the same order I looked at them: Tenderheart; Scott and Sugarberry. That same part of me felt like it needed to help them. I opened the door slowly to not draw their attention but the door creaked rather audibly. As they looked at me, they smiled happily. It turned out to be contagious as I returned their happy expressions. “How are you holding up Nightmare?” Sugarberry asked cheerfully. She had a drip in her left foreleg while her hind legs were in casts and suspended in the air by wires. I looked at her but I somewhat stopped, my mouth hanging open. I closed it and looked down. Nightmare? Nightmare Moon I’d gather but that didn’t sound right. There was another name… Chris but even that had a somewhat sour taste in my mouth. I looked at Tenderheart and saw she was in a full body cast, unable to move at all while she had a tube in her neck, just above the cast. Scott looked like he had the better part of the deal as his wings were spread out, supported by splints. His head was wrapped up like he was wearing a turban, only showing one of his eyes. “I’ll be fine but what about you?” I replied, finally recollecting my composure. A princess is not meant to show weakness. Wait, I’m a princess? “We’ll be fine. We were lucky.” Tenderheart said. “Well, those two were luckier than me since I can't move. I have the worst itch on my rump that I just can not get rid off.” The other two laughed at her expense but stopped as they coughed, hard. As they settled down, I found a bench that would serve well for me to alleviate my own pain. I was mercifully correct in my assumption and learned rather quickly that the bench was more comfortable than the bed I laid in earlier. As much as I thought it would be a bad idea, I had to ask. “What happened exactly?” The three ponies’ happy expressions ended instantaneously. They looked as if they were just told that their loved ones had died and for all I knew, they might have. “It happened rather quickly but I can tell you what I can remember.” Tenderheart said, her voice was slow and rather hoarse as she recounted the events. “We were all just half an hour away from Las Vegas, going along the I-15. We were having a good time, you and Sugarberry were singing a weird metal song.” “It was Nightmare Night by the Wooden Toaster and Mic the Microphone.” Sugarberry said with a meagre smile that did very little to change her mood. “Oh, ok. Well, we were coming off the intersection near the North Las Vegas Highway when a truck collided with the car. The truck smashed the side of the car and basically put us in hospital. Charles… h-he…” Tenderheart began to choke as tears started to form in her eyes. I could tell what she was planning to say. “He didn’t survive.” Scott said, a small tear falling down his muzzle. “The driver’s side took most of the damage. H-he was taken to the morgue… i-in pieces.” I gasped, throwing my hoof to my mouth in shock. Our driver, friend and YouTube chronicler had died trying to get us to a destination he never chose with ponies he never even knew. I could feel my own tears start to form before they silently fell to the ground below. I seemed to tune out the world as I slowly cried. I could somewhat hear them calling ‘Chris’ or ‘Nightmare Moon’ but those names didn’t hold much meaning to me. I knew that they were referring to me but the words did not feel like any of them were my name. It was as if I wasn’t who they were seeing. Like a stranger that everypony knows and yet the stranger doesn’t know any of them. I slowly got up, planning on heading for my room so I could cry my heart out there. As I turned around, I heard them gasp. “Your Cutie Mark!” Tenderheart cried out, pointing to my left flank as I was nearing the door. As I looked I saw the white silhouette of some thing that a part of me said was called a FALKEN or whatever. In the centre of the silhouette was a purple crescent moon, like the one… on my right flank? I looked and yet, there it was. The same purple blotch that meant to represent the night sky and a white crescent moon. It was baffling, how could anypony have two marks?! “Nightmare, what does it mean?” Sugarberry asked as she was visibly trying to figure it out as well. “That name still doesn’t hold any meaning to me and neither does Chris.” I respond as I opened the door. “Ok then, what are we supposed to call you when we need to get your attention? Mary Sue?” Scott asked as I used my mane to grab on the doorknob. I looked down for a moment and considered the question. Nightmare sounds like something I wouldn’t like or want to be associated with. Maybe if I chose the opposite? But what was the opposite of a Nightmare? Wasn’t it a dream? It was short yet sweet and without negative connotations. “Dream, call me Dream.” I said as I shut the door.