A Vivid Dreamer – NM3
Familiar Faces
What Luna saw standing above the wrecked remains of the door was the headless horse. That was until she saw that it still had its head; the monster’s head hung limply in front of its chest. Its neck was broken and pushed to the side, in its place was a misshapen bulge with red tipped antenna protruding from it. Its coat a sickly brown with a shedding and matted black mane, its back was covered in pustules and whip like tentacles thrashed from its right shoulder. Its legs were mismatched sizes and the skin was bulging; oozing green ichor. At the end of each leg bone pierced the skin and wrapped around shattered hooves, ending in wicked claws. The one eye that faced the sisters looked at Luna and blinked, its mouth moving wordlessly, and then it leapt.
The monster pony arced through the air all four hooves outstretched, ready to cave Luna’s skull in. Luna still shock at the horrid rendition of a pony could only stare as it flew towards her. Celestia although just as shocked and deeply disturbed reacted first, seeing her sister in danger she reacted instinctively. Luna watched as the mass of malignant meat was speared by a solid ray of golden light, the light instantly incinerated the flesh where it contacted. With its midsection non-existent the upper and lower half of the monster landed with a disturbing squelch spewing green pus along the floor.
A wave so thick with the putrid smell of rotted flesh washed over the sisters, it reeked so much that to smell it invoked their gag reflexes but to breathe through their mouths would cause them to taste it. Luna would have taken the time to void her stomach of its contents if it weren’t for the multitude of creatures that came through the wrecked opening. There were more monster ponies, each a perverted shade of the colours they should have had. Then there were the tall ones, each one was as tall as the princess and walked on two legs. Their heads lay on their shoulders; each one was twisted into the look of a silent scream similar to the faces of the pony monsters. The forelegs of these new monsters were mutilated into grotesque shapes, one foreleg; but seeing how these monsters walked arms seemed more appropriate was bloated, skin stretched taught while the other was a writhing mass of tentacles wrapped around a bone spear that used to be its forearm. Crawling around walls and reaching the ceiling like ants from a kicked ant hill; were tiny little things just larger then Luna’s hoof with the appearance of a potato with a snubbed tail and too many roots, the larger monsters charged.
Celestia’s golden ray cleaved through the creatures, either leaving flaming remains or just piles of ash. Luna took aim at the bipedal monster closing in on her; aiming for the center mass and the most vital of organs, Luna unleashed a lance of silver magic. The pinpoint magic hit the creature in what remained of its heart, as it pierced the monster it passed through leaving a clean hole but neither killing it nor halting its progress. Luna was again saved by her sister as a wave of telekinetic magic threw the monster into the wall. Upon its impact Luna heard several bones break and its bloated arm burst; splattering the wall with green ichor and revealing the brown bones still held in place buy tendons. The crumpled remains began to rise and charged again, even though its leg was bent at a wrong angle; each time it took a step the bones in its leg would pierce and shred what was left of skin.
With her lance ineffective Luna switched tactics; she flicked her horn vertically, sending a crescent blade of silver magic racing towards the monster. As the blade reached the monster it passed through without hesitation, cleaving the biped into left and right halves. The two halves splattered to the floor spreading the green sludge that now vacated its chest cavity. Luna began to flank her sister throwing out crescent blades while Celestia burned anything that moved. The monsters continued to pour out of the doorway; they were either cleaved or incinerated by the magic of the alicorns. That was until the potato shaped ant-things began droping from the ceiling with their ‘root’ like appendages outstretched. Both sisters noticing the skyward assault reached out with their magic to grab hold of them, much to Luna’s surprise; as soon as she gripped them they burst. They popped as if they were just balloons the whole time, but with so much force it caused a chain reaction; popping others that were too close to those that burst. Just as Luna marveled at the apparent fragility of the small things, the door they had used to enter the room shrieked as it flew inward; spewing forth another torrent of monstrosities.
Luna and Celestia stood side by side; each facing the opposite direction, covering the others rear. Luna didn’t know how long they stood there laying waste to the monsters, the air was so thick with their stench that Luna could feel it crawling down her throat each time she drew breath through her mouth. Then just as suddenly as they came; they stopped. It was like someone had turned off a faucet. Luna stood guard waiting for more of the things to arrive, when a gasp from her sister caught her attention.
Looking over Luna saw her sister staring at the lower half that remained of the first creature she had killed. Luna followed her gaze to the legs, and grit her teeth, there on its flank was a cutie mark; a shield overlaid by a spearhead. Observing the remains of the carnage Luna could make out all types of ponies; earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi but with their feathers stripped and the remaining bones turned into serrated blades. Each and every pony monster had a cutie mark; some even still had the plate armour of the royal guard. Looking over the remains of the bipedal monsters Luna saw that they were mutilated versions of the creature they examined before they were attacked; most of the monsters still had ruined remains of the olive green armor.
Turning to face her sister Luna saw tears running down her muzzle, Luna spoke slowly, “If you wish it, We could return us to the Dreamscape.”
Celestia turned to face Luna, a fire burning within her tear filled eyes, “No! I must find out what could do this to my little ponies, and if this creature that resides within our borders brought this threat with it. Which way do we proceed now?”
“Through there.” Luna pointed to the door that the monsters first came through. “Be ready.”
As Luna travelled through the corridors with Celestia in tow, she noticed a rather stark difference to the corridors and chambers they had seen when they arrived. These rooms had been fought in; blood and ichor splattered the walls. Brass tubes littered the floor and the scorch marks of combat spells could be seen. Both sisters were on edge, they had yet to be attacked again but they now had the uneasy sense on being watched. They proceed down the corridor ready for anything, except what they found in the next chamber.
Luna walked into the chamber from the second floor, looking down she saw the purple dome of a familiar protection spell. Luna could make out four vague pony shapes within the dome, surrounded by at least four of the biped monsters and three pony monsters.
“Shining?” as soon as Celestia saw the protection spell she leapt into the air, and burned the monsters to ash before they could react.
“Princess? You shouldn’t be here.” Came a calm stallions voice from within the bubble, it was easily recognizable as the voice of Shining Armour. The spell was then released; revealing Captain Armour, two grey stallion unicorns and a single white pegasus mare. They were all wearing royal guard armor; Shining’s being its usual purple while the other wore the traditional gold. The three other ponies were huddled together, their eyes red and puffy; betraying the fact that they had been crying. Upon seeing the two rulers of Equestria they immediately got to their hooves to stand at attention, cheeks still damp.
Luna landed beside her sister as Celestia stood before the ponies before her. “Sister that is not the real Armor, it is but a projection.” Celestia turned to Luna.
“How? Shining is with Cadence watching over the crystal ponies. How could this dreamer know enough about him to provide such a detailed projection?”
“We do not know, perhaps our dreamer read about him in a local newspaper. But if he is part of this nightmare we can use him to gather information.”
“You do know I’m standing right here?” Shining huffed. His voice then took on a darker tone, “Your highnesses, you shouldn’t have come here, this place is far too dangerous.”
“Captain what are your standing orders?” Luna immediately took on an authoritative tone and addressed Shining as the Captain she expected him to be.
“Princess,” Shining gave a quick salute, “I was leading a platoon of guardsponies in a joint operation with human forces to retrieve an ancient artifact called The MacGuffin.” Both Luna and Celestia paused at the mention of humans. Luna could only recall them as myths; it was said that they walked the surface of the planet long ago, before they suddenly disappeared without a trace. There were still ponies out there that believed them to be real.
Celestia asked the next question, “Shining why are you here?” gesturing to around the room and the remains of the monsters she had slain to get to the Captain. Shining cringed as he recalled the events leading to their current predicament,
“We are all that are left, aside from the squad of marines that continued on to the objective.” While both princesses gasped in shock, Luna was the next to question.
“Of a whole platoon? What happened?”
Shining drew in a deep breath before he continued, “We encountered these horrid monstrosities. A parasite of sorts is all we can determine; it would steal a pony’s body turn it into misshapen shadow of their former selves and use it against us. They attacked in waves, every time we would lose many of our own their numbers would increase in turn. While the human weapons proved effective against them, our weapons and certain combat spells are nearly ineffective.” Gesturing to the three guards behind him Shining continued, “we got separated from the main force after the last attack, and are the only ponies left. The human officer told us to find a spot and bunker down, and that he would return for us after he has retrieved The MacGuffin.” Luna assumed that the dreamer was either with this officer or more likely was the officer itself.
“Captain it is of vital importance that we reach this human officer at once. We request the assistance of your remaining forces; as you know more about what we dealing with.” Luna knew that this was only a projection of Shining but he was also part of this dream; meaning that he would have access to the dreamer’s knowledge. Knowledge that was invaluable given the alien nature of their current environment, as well as to its threats they now faced. Shining's reply was cut off by a blood curdling scream, everyone turned to face the source.
The scream had come from the mare; she had one of the parasites on her back. Blood sprayed as it quickly sliced through the plates of her neck guard; before anyone could do anything it deflated and slithered into the hole it created. Luna could see it moving around underneath the mare’s fur, suddenly there was an audible pop and the screaming stopped as her head went limp and flopped down to hang in front of her chest the look of horror frozen on her face. One of the stallions leapt to her side using his hooves he scrapped at the hole in her neck trying to get to the parasite.
“Rose! No! Rose not you. Take me inste—HRRK” The stallions barrel was suddenly wrapped in tentacles that had burst through the mares shoulder plating. There was a sickening crunch as they constricted; his rear legs hung limply as his spine was broken. The stallion was still trying to remove the tentacle with his forelegs when three doorways suddenly burst towards them, filling the chamber with monsters from all directions.
Celestia tore the stallion from the tentacles grip and threw the mare into a larger group of monsters, she arced her golden ray through them incinerating most. Luna flanked the second stallion, slicing the monsters with crescent blade while the guard at her side set those she missed ablaze with fireballs. Shining had dropped to help the stallion who lay limp screaming, his back broken in several places.
Luna was just about to deal with another wave of monsters when something heavy collided with her from behind, the weight of it threw her to the floor. Looking at what lay on top of her she saw purple armor, its owner’s neck bent at an awkward angle while the plates around his barrel were caved in. Shining was unmoving; he no longer drew breath. Looking up at the culprit Luna saw it as it brought its hoof down on the wounded stallions head; reducing it to a pulped mess. This monsters coat was a browning lavender, its mane was nearly all gone but was remained was purple with a stripe of pink. Its rib cage pierced the skin near the spine; splayed outward in a grotesque display resembling wings. Its head while inverted turned to Luna its one eye, the other being covered it a green-brown growth, shed tears that traveled down its forehead. Its mouth began to move, forming shapes and with a rasp said one word.
“…run.”
Celestia just barely catching the strange yet familiar voice turned around, what she saw nearly stopped her heart.
“No! No! NO!” Celestia reared up and brought glowing hooves down with the final word. The floor cracked, and began to glow the same colour as Celestia’s magic. Everything froze as the glowing cracks spread across the floor, and then the cracks began to on the monsters. Luna’s mind was filled with the sound of shattering glass as large chunks of the room fell into light so blinding she had to close her eyes.
When Luna couldn’t hear anything but quiet sobbing she opened her eyes. She was once again on her balcony, her sister sat before her as tears streamed down her face and neck. Luna reached out a hoof to comfort her sister, but before she could reach her she teleported away.
“Oh… Tia”