//------------------------------//
// Chapter III - The Dream 
// Story: True Inspiration 
// by ClayInTheCarpet 
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Far Cry was suddenly in a strange and unfamiliar place. Drawn by the dim light in the night sky, he looked up to notice a large moon hanging overhead. However, the moon didn’t look like the Equestrian moon he had known for his entire life. There was something inherently different…He could only see a little more than half of this moon. Even the stars in the night sky weren’t recognizable. The constellations he knew well could no longer be found. He could barely make out a mountain range nearby under the dim light of this strange moon, but it wasn’t similar to any he had seen before. What, exactly, was this place?

It was then that he felt the hard floor on which he was standing. It was made of stone. Turning around, he could see that he was on the balcony of a large castle. As far as he could make out, the castle was old and in a state of dilapidation. It may not have been cared for in over a thousand years, judging by its outward appearance. Starting to feel a bit uneasy about his surroundings, Far Cry began to walk around the balcony. “H-Hello?...,” he stuttered out quickly. “…Is anypony there?”

***CREEEEAAAAAK!!***

The sudden noise startled Far Cry. He quickly turned in the direction of the noise, which appeared to be an open doorway to one of the castle’s only fully intact spires. “Um…W-Who’s there?!”

Unease quickly turning into fear, he timidly walked toward the doorway and entered. Inside, he could just make out a spiral staircase that led to the top of the tower. There were lit torches hanging up along the outer wall of the stairwell, which was odd, considering that it looked completely abandoned, otherwise. Still curious as to where he was and who was there with him, he decided to ascend the stairs.

Finally at the top of the staircase, Far Cry entered a large, open room. It had very thin openings in the walls spaced evenly apart, which he could only suppose was to protect against arrow attacks. However, the light illuminating this room was not from the strange moon hanging outside…It was from a set of candelabras and torches hanging around the room. Looking around, it did not take long before Far Cry noticed another object – a giant box centered right in the middle of the room. The box was much longer than it was tall – bone-colored and decorated along the edges with ornately-carved details and handles along the lower half of the box.

With a gulp, he began to step closer to the box. He had some strange desire to see what was inside, though he was getting pretty creeped out by this entire experience. As he grew closer, he noticed the top of this ornate box had a horizontal split down the surface. No locks could be found. Whatever this thing was, it had been there for a long time; spider webs adorned the bottom half of the box as if it had set there for years. Finally feeling satisfied that there was nopony else in the room, he slowly placed his hoof on the side of the box in order to flick its lid open. Suddenly…

***CREEEEEEAAAAAAAAAK!!!***

The top half of the box lid quickly swung open, startling Far Cry. But that was nothing compared to what he saw next. The box was occupied. As Far Cry peered over the edge, a truly frightening image came into view: a large spindly creature in black embroidered robes. Staring in fixation, Far Cry's eyes wandered over a myriad of horrible features, least of all the lack of hooves. Instead, the thing pushed open the container with a spidery appendage ending in five long, tapering digits with pointed nails. The head, too, was monstrous. It was nothing like a pony's. There was no muzzle, no fur or mane, queerly pointed ears, and the skin was unnaturally wrinkled. Eyes of the brightest yellow slowly opened as Far Cry looked on with mounting horror. Those eyes were nothing like the cute yellow eyes like he had seen on Derpy during so many trips to town before…These eyes obviously had purely malicious intent – and they were staring straight into his soul.

Without a beat, the horrendous creature gnashed a mouth full of incredibly sharp teeth and hissed loudly at Far Cry. Now completely petrified, Far Cry screamed to the top of his lungs, “AAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHH!!!!!!”

It was then that his own blood-curdling scream woke him up. In a cold sweat, and heart pounding harder than it had in his whole life, it took a few moments to calm down and reassure himself it was only a dream.