To Sleep, Perchance to… Nightmare?
Night of the Hunter
Author: Draconis187
Time: 17: 23
Date: Spartaday
Location: A mock set of Deal or No Deal
Dream’s POV
Typical, this just had to happen to us didn’t it? Here we are on a game show set and who is our gracious host? None other than the menagerie of Frankenstein’s rejected parts, Discord. And he decides to bargain my friends’ safety and health just so he can recruit me into his ranks? Is this his idea of a joke? Scratch that.
Anypony have any ideas? I inquired of my two other personality controlled illusions.
Any plan of attack or defence would get rewritten, Discord knows how to bend, break or make entirely new rules. Came Chris’ reply. I noticed he was shaking slightly in his white armour.
So our options are greatly limited. We need some course of action that will catch him off guard. Nightmare commented.
Discord was staring at us, waiting for his answer. Each second only seemed to annoy him further as we just stood there, conversing with each other in thought while the others were in total silence.
“Come now, did my deal make your brain overload?” Discord sniggered, “You join me and your friends can go home and I’ll never bother them again. Heck I’ll turn them back to their normal human selves if it’ll make you feel better. Don’t, and I won't be held responsible for the mob behind me.”
Almost forgot about the group of PAPA supporters that were eying us like a leopard would stalk its prey, just waiting for the opportunity to strike. I can not follow the orders of a maniacal spirit of chaos but I couldn’t allow my friends to get hurt because of my pride. Wait… catch him off guard?
I have an idea, can you two use any magic besides telekinesis? I asked my two ‘parents’.
I'm afraid not. I overestimated the amount of magic you used to create the illusions we are using. We can modify them slightly but any spells beyond telekinesis would cause these illusions to essentially ‘die’. Without all three of us in unison, even your magic is diminished as it lacks my knowledge and control. Nightmare responded, sounding rather disheartened.
Well, my plan should still work then. I reply, a small grin appearing on my face.
Are you going to tell us or are we going to have to guess? Nightmare turned to me as she thought this, giving me an ‘I’m waiting’ look.
Lose the illusions, I’m going to catch him off guard and I’ll need to be at my best. I need you to trust me. I responded confidently.
I felt a hoof on my shoulder, turning around I saw the perpetrator was Chris, with a grin on his face. He didn’t say or think anything but the nod he gave me spoke greater volumes than any spoken word. His ‘body’ faded from existence as I felt his presence return to my body. He seemed to waste no time in finding out my plan and I received a nagging feeling coming from him that told me that it could work.
I heard Nightmare sigh deeply as she walked over to me, fading away. In no time I felt more confident in my physical and magical prowess. I knew she was back and I was truly whole again. Discord shook his head as he pulled out a pocket watch the size of a dinner plate out of his fur. He looked at me and tapped the side of the watch impatiently.
“I need an answer like today Dream. I have places to go and chaos to create,” Picasso’s nightmare said with an air of annoyance.
“Sorry to keep you waiting Discord, I have an answer for you,” I replied, taking two steps closer to him.
“Finally! Now then my little Dream what will it be?” He said, gleefully rubbing his claws together.
“I’ll take… PAPA. Even they are a better option than dealing with you,” I respond, spreading my legs out slightly and lowering my head as I got ready to defend myself against the audience.
“Really? Pfft, you think these are your friends? Your friends died in that accident. You are all alone,” Discord retorted, “I saved you so that I could offer you a chance for a clean record, free of your transgressions in Equestria.”
“I already have a clean record Discord,” I replied, turning to my friends as they smiled at me, “I may not have existed for very long but I have all the memories of our journey together. Meeting Scott was under rather questionable circumstances and Charles did get on my nerves but he meant well. Sugarberry and Tenderheart were great for conversation and support. Every day I spent with them was filled with joy. They didn’t care about who Nightmare once was, they cared about who she is. And that is what friendship is about.”
“Oh gag. They’ll turn on you the first chance they get, they're still human on the inside,” Discord argued. I chuckled… Tartarus, I laughed almost maniacally, “what’s so funny?”
“You forgot, I was also human. I am actually the combined personality of both a human and a pony. Your argument is invalid. Get it through your thick skull Discord,” Spying the little transparent box with a red button that formed part of the Deal or No Deal set, I used my magic to slam the thing closed, “No. Deal.”
Discord laughed at me, “Trying to call my bluff?”
I raised an eyebrow as the group still didn’t move forward, “Yes, I am. I’ve seen a lot of PAPA supporters and yet not one of them has insulted any of us yet. I would’ve expected some insults or maybe somepony there to get out of hoof. It’s rather strange but given it seems to make sense since humans are as unpredictable as yourself, you didn’t want to risk any one of them overstepping their boundaries and attacking without your consent. Not only that but I doubt that they would take orders from the likes of you in the first place.”
Discord stopped laughing and walked up to me casually with a grin on his face, “So you noticed. Hmph, I will have you as my assistant whether you like it or not.”
Oh, buck. He reached out to me with a claw and the first thing that came to my mind was that he was going to ‘discord’ me like he did the Mane 6 in the first episode of the second season. I didn’t want to know what it felt like and my desire to remain where I currently stood diminished rapidly. I lashed out at him with a blast of raw magic like a whip. He gave a short whelp but I ignored it as I turned to my friends.
“We’re out of here, now!” I shouted. The others needed no further encouragement as they bolted for the way we came in. I turned to the group and fired off a light from my horn, trying to make it as bright as a blue-white star before chasing after my friends.
As our hooves drummed through the hallways, I remembered the darkness that enveloped the hallways and wondering why in Tartarus I never thought of it sooner, I shouted to Sugarberry while I hoisted Tenderheart up and onto my back, “Use your horn to illuminate the hallway!”
Sugarberry responded by lighting up her horn in a burst of pale pink while my horn gave the area behind us a dark blue glow as I brought up the rear. All I managed to hear as we continued to run down the hallway was Discord cursing. I doubted we would lose him but we needed to be on a field where we would be on equal terms and without my friends in the balance. Teleporting might have been easier than running but I didn’t know my surroundings and trying to teleport might have less than satisfactory results.
We eventually stumbled our way out and into a loading dock area where the ambulance was still parked, blocking our way. Looking around I found the door that was used as an entrance to the loading dock and used a burst of white hot lightning to melt the door and the locking mechanism in one go. I gave the door a swift kick and it opened up, revealing Las Vegas as the sun was setting in the horizon. I turned around, finally remembering about our bags but Sugarberry had beaten me to the punch as our things were placed by our hooves.
I opened up the zip on the bag and checked through it. The laptop had cracked almost entirely in half. The motherboard had suffered the same fate, rendering the entire thing useless. Luckily the hard drive was intact but without another laptop to connect its SATA cable to, I can’t use it for anything short of a paperweight. I did have a stroke of luck as my phone was intact. Best thing about smartphones? Internet access. I connected to the internet, walking with the group as Sugarberry sifted through our things for money so we could get some sleep at a hotel.
I chose to keep the busted laptop only to keep the hard drive safe. One thing was for sure: my parents weren’t going to be happy. Or Chris’ parents which I guess are now mine as well? This whole thing is confusing, best not dwell on it for now.
“What now?” I heard Tenderheart say from her spot on my back.
“I honestly don’t know,” I responded. I didn’t have a better answer or plan for that matter to help ease our worries.
“Look!” Sugarberry exclaimed as she pointed her hoof to a sign outside of what I gathered was a convention centre of some form.
Looking at the sign brought hope. It said: ‘My Little Pony Bonanza! Meet your favourite pony!’ The sign itself had a picture of the MLP: FiM logo with the Mane 6 just under it, striking various poses. I looked around and found a pamphlet under the sign. It had the schedule for the entire show and we were halfway through the last show!
“Everypony, I think I have a plan,” I grinned.
I walked through the doors and all four of us came face-to-face with a burly security guard. He eyed us, looking up and down as he made his silent judgments in his head.
“You're a little late aren't you? The show’s half finished,” He complained.
“We apolo-” I started but the guard cut me off as he raised his hand.
“Don’t care, just get going. Pfft, cosplayers,” He mumbled as he let us through, “Pretty decent costumes though.”
“That was lucky wasn’t it?” Scott half laughed.
“As long as it doesn’t turn into another Discord trap, I'm happy,” I replied as I looked back at Tenderheart, “Are you alright back there?”
“Yeah, thanks. Your wings are quite soft, you know?” She responded softly as if she was struggling to stay conscious, “Tenderheart says we all just need rest and we should be fine.”
“It’s a good thing we have a nurse in our group,” I giggled as we navigated the convention centre.
A number of people wandering around looked at us with a mixture of shock, amusement and bewilderment. This kind of popularity was a little strange. It was nice that I saw a few people wave at us with smiles on their faces but I wondered how much of that was actually genuine. We finally found the stage that the show was on. Looking at the stage, it had the background of the inside of Sugarcube Corner. What was not part of the painted background was the counter, the four layer cake that I was sure was probably a plastic prop and the six oversized ponies. Each one was an over-fuzzed, plush costumed person that stood a tad taller than I did.
We got a few gasps from the crowd as we made our way down. Looking at Twilight, I felt disgusted that they couldn’t get her manestyle anywhere near right. It was a mess, if Pinkie had pulled off some form of prank I could forgive it but Pinkie had – apparently – only just arrived and wasted no time in pulling the ‘Mane 6’ into a group hug. The actors inside the costumes looked at us as we walked on stage.
“N-Nightmare Moon!” The Fluttershy knock-off squealed. If I could applaud one thing about them, it would be their capability to act somewhat like the originals.
The Rainbow Dash wannabe tried to run at me but was held back by the Applejack fake who had a surprising grip on her ‘friend’s’ tail. The Twilight turned to her friends and hopped onto their train of thought and placed her head down, tapping her ‘hoof’ on the ground: the iconic meet Twilight versus Nightmare Moon bit. I rolled my eyes and decided to play along.
“You're kidding. You're kidding right?” This elicited a few squeals from the younger part of the audience. Curse my desire to go along with this nonsense.
The Twilight cosplayer charged at me for all she was worth, a stage hand seemed to use a form of smoke machine that was rather fast in its action to cover the area between us with smoke as I just walked towards her. I nearly coughed up a lung as I grabbed the Fake Element of Magic and hoisted her up into the air as if she was nothing. She was but that’s besides the point here.
“Let me at her!” The ‘Wonderbolt hopeful’ cried out, I sighed and proceeded to lift them all into the air, “let me down!”
“No. I have plans for you six and there is nothing that you can do to stop me,” I was starting to have a blast now as Scott tried his best to stifle a laugh while Sugarberry had already fallen hard onto her back, laughing her pink mane off.
Even Tenderheart was sniggering at the little impromptu performance from her position on my back. I slowly eased her off and onto the ground. She managed to get onto her hooves as the six fakes above us flailed about in vain. It was funny watching them try wiggle out of my grasp but it wasn’t happening. A few of the children watching this were getting frightened, asking their mothers and/or fathers if ‘Twilight’ and company would be alright.
I sighed a little and placed the six costumed pillocks back onto the floor. They ‘stared’ at me, wondering what I was going to next. Lucky for us all, a lady came up on stage and clapped her hands together once. She got the entire room’s attention in an instant.
“Okay then everypony, that’s all for today!” She said as the room went into a single loud expression of utter disappointment, “come back tomorrow for the conclusion!”
The parents filed out with their children, grumbling about the lady being a crook with this cliff-hanger performance. I looked at her and saw she had a salmon coloured dress with frills that would only look good on the dead. She was a brunette with her hair almost as curly and ridiculous as Pinkie Pie’s mane. If this entire ensemble was her conscious choice, then I had just met the craziest human on earth.
She turned to me with a scowl, “Just what do you think you are doing? You ruined my show!”
Eeyup, she’s a nutter. As I was about to defend myself, she noticed the state of my friends and got even angrier.
“What did you do to them!?” She cried out, giving the best impression of the Royal Canterlot Voice I've ever heard… even though it’s the first and only impression I've heard.
“Now wait just one minute,” I retorted, placing my hoof up, “I did not come here to intentionally ruin this event.”
But it was the plan in the first place. I noted.
“My friends and I had recently been involved in an accident and we’ve also had to escape the God of Chaos himself so we are not in the best condition right now,” I continued, “we are currently seeking somewhere to stay and a form of income for the time being.”
The lady was still fuming, “and wha-. What in hell do you want?!”
The fake Twilight took her head off and revealed a red haired woman. She must have been in her mid-20s maybe? She was whispering to the woman who looked like she would scare off the Huns and make Hitler himself curl into a foetal position with a single glare. The woman’s scowl began to slowly fade as she gave a sigh that one heard when somepony gave up an argument. She turned to us with that angry expression returning in full force.
“Okay, how much of the show do you actually know?” She asked, eying us intently.
“Well, I’ve seen all the way up to the end of season 2,” I responded, “Sugarberry?”
“Not much really, a few of season 1 and maybe four of season 2,” She responded.
Tenderheart spoke up, “I’ve seen a few more than she has but not all and even the ones I have seen I don’t entirely recall.”
“I've only seen the Hurricane Fluttershy episode,” Scott said as we turned to him. We knew this already but she didn’t.
The woman sighed once more, facepalming, “it seems like I've got some work ahead of me. I’ll let you stay with us on the bus if you A: behave yourselves, B: you will be earning your keep so you will take part in our shows without argument and C: You help keep the bus neat and tidy. Do we understand each other?”
I nodded as I looked around, the others nodded their agreement as well, “Thank you. We shall accept your terms, miss…?”
“Carter, Janice Carter. This is my daughter Annette,” She said, pointing to the Twilight cosplayer with slight disdain, “She’s the one you should thank, not me. I would have let you fend for yourselves.”
Annette walked up to us as she removed the costume, “Hi! My mother already told you my name so would you mind telling us yours?”
“Call me Dream,” I replied as I began to point to my friends, “This is Sugarberry, that is Great Scott over there and finally Nurse Tenderheart.”
My friends gave a few greetings as I called out their names. After we acquainted ourselves with Annette, she introduced us to her co-stars. Applejack was another young girl from Montana called Elise Jenkins. Her hair was a hot pink, tied up in a ponytail and her skin was tan. If only Pinkie Pie could see the grin she wore right now, she’d probably end up wanting her as her sister. As if the theories behind Surprise being a Pegasus version of that hyperactive pony weren’t enough.
Fluttershy turned out to be as shy as the real deal. She was eventually coaxed out of her costume by the Rainbow Dash cosplayer: Annabelle Smith. She ended up being revealed as Annabelle’s younger sister: Cassandra. I wondered if their parents had an affinity for nine lettered names. That was probably due to Chris’ over thinking mind. Why in Tartarus would I want to know something so useless?
I almost didn’t notice the Rarity cosplayer telling us her name was Viola Levkov, a Russian who somehow had an impeccable English accent. Finally in the role of the Pink Menace was… a guy? Anthony Fitzgerald was a relatively young guy with an unnaturally girl sounding voice. I was at a loss as to how this was possible but I guess that right now nothing should faze me anymore.
Once introductions were done we were led backstage where they got out of the costumes. I noticed Tenderheart was still limping. She gave me a brave smile that only made me worry more. Scott kept his one eye closed as it seemed to still be agitating him. Sugarberry was the only one who looked anywhere near normal. Then again things haven’t been ‘normal’ since the start of this trip.
“I’m going out,” I told the group. “I’ll catch up with you all later.”
Before the barrage of questions could ensue, I teleported outside the front door which led into the building. The sun had almost completely set, bathing the sprawling city in a deep orange colour. I opened my wings and flew to the top of the convention centre. It wasn’t anywhere near as tall as the buildings that surrounded it but it still gave me a beautiful view of the city as the lights came on.
“Beautiful,” It was the only word that could properly describe what I was seeing and yet it didn’t do it justice.
It looked like somepony took the night sky and emulated it on the ground. Various lights in just as varied patterns in a myriad of colours that made the city look even more enrapturing. The breeze was cool on my coat as my mane ignored it and moved on its own. I took a deep breath as it finally sunk in: I have arrived.
“And yet all it took was to lose a friend and my humanity,” I mumbled to myself, a tear trailing down my cheek. “Charles, you may have been a pain in my flank but you shall be missed.”
“Oh, gag! Almost makes me want to cry… almost,” I turned around to find Discord had yet to give up on getting me as he stood just metres away.
“What are you doing here?!” I shouted, mentally preparing myself for whatever tricks he has up his proverbial sleeves.
“One way or the other, you will join me. It’s only a matter of time,” He said with a snide grin.
“I will not bow. Especially to you,” I almost seethed at Discord.
“Oh, please,” Discord retorted. “I would ask you to reconsider but I’m guessing I’m not going to get through to you?”
“Only if Tartarus froze over and the God of Christianity walked the earth,” I remarked. That was the longest odds in any universe and bordered on impossible.
Discord didn’t respond but he did decide to vanish from sight with a snap of his fingers. I turned my attention to my friends who were being led outside to a large black bus that stood all on its own in the parking lot. The cosplayers were carrying their costumes in their hands while Scott had Tenderheart leaning on him.
What do I do? Do I stay with my friends and hope for the best or do I run off? What if Discord was right about them betraying me? No, no they wouldn’t. They have stood by me and one another throughout everything that occurred along this trip and now I’m not destroying what I have just because Discord tries to convince me otherwise.
I strode over to the edge of the roof and jumped off, extending my wings to glide down to my friends. I will guard them like I would my family, Discord will never break us. I will endeavour to ensure that outcome, no matter what.
The bus resembled those big tour buses you can have specially ordered and modified to suit your needs. The thing was a double-decker for the love of the Moon! It had the My Little Pony logo on the sides as if to advertise what they occupants do for a living. Other than that, it looked like any tour bus you see bands travel around in.
Inside the bus the various people and my three pony friends were making themselves comfortable in the upper deck area. They only had six beds in the entire bus, one for ever one of the cast members which left us with little choice but to sleep on the floor.
The bus had a large plasma TV, a bathroom on the lower deck while a shower was situated in the upper deck. The kitchen facilities were on the lower deck, including a mini-fridge and freezer. The beds in the upper deck were fold out ones, almost army styled. I think the floor was more comfortable.
Janice whistled loudly, making those of us with better hearing than humans to clasp our hooves over our ears in pain, “Alright all of you, get some rest. We are going over tomorrow’s act in the morning, is that understood?”
“She scares me,” I heard Sugarberry whisper as we all nodded our heads.
I turned to her with a pained smile, “It was either this or Discord.”
“I think I would have rather taken my chances with Discord,” Scott mumbled, eliciting a few giggles from the cast.