I woke up refreshed and ready for the night of frights and free candy. I donned my Daedric armor and headed out towards Ponyville. It was about five in the morning when I woke up, so nopony was out on the streets yet. I went to the center of town and lifted my hand, creating a throne of ebony and obsidian from the earth. I put the shield at my feet and the sword on my back, sitting down and getting ready to wait for a long while.
As the sun rose, more and more ponies filled the streets to help get ready for Nightmare Night. A few of them questioned Mayor Mare why a statue was in the center of town, but she said that it must have been Pinkie that put it there. She said that you could never expect what Pinkie was going to do next year or the year after that. The rest of the ponies that passed by me just gave me awkward stares and murmured quietly that I freaked them out.
It was pretty boring sitting there all day, but I knew that the resulting prank would be totally worth it. The day went on and the town got decorated even further for the upcoming festivities. The apple bobbing booth had been set up near me, but far away enough that ponies wouldn't splash me with water when they finished. Mayor Mare had finally found Pinkie and asked her if she had put the statue at the center of town as a sort of prank.
"Why would I take the time to try to prank tonight when there is free candy to be had? That statue looks like it took way too long to build and or put there, so it definitely wasn't me. Ask Ordeus when he shows up if he put it there." She bounced off, going to get into her costume so she could go for candy later on. Mayor simply shook her head and stared at me for a minute before shivering and walking away.
When the festivities actually began, the town was filled with numerous colts and fillies dressed up as ghosts and ghouls. There were many parents that headed for the games after leaving their kids with a few of the older children to watch them. I stopped hearing the questions of why I was there and started hearing the murmurings of how scary I looked. I definitely fit in with the theme of Nightmare Night, but they questioned if the creepy statue was going too far.
I spotted Twilight out of the corner of my eye, just inside the visor limits for my helm. She was dragging Spike along with her, the young dragon munching on candy he had gotten already. "Hey look, we're here already! Should we get something to eat?" Spike just burped in response and kept eating the candy from the bag.
Pinkie rushed up to Twilight showing her the candy she had already accumulated. "Twilight, Twilight! Look at our haul! Ah! Can you believe it? And then, we went to Cheerilee's house, and got a bunch more goodies. Didn't we, Pip?" Pip gave a nod and exclaimed "Sure did!" before pinkie started to ramble on. "And then, we had to stop and wait for Granny Smith, and –"
She was interrupted as a crack of lightning went off behind her. She and the group of ponies around her screamed and ran off. Rainbow Dash, who was wearing a Shadow Bolt costume, was laughing maniacally on the cloud that had released the lightning and thunder that had scared off the small group that was following Pinkie. Twilight glared at her and chastised her, "Rainbow Dash, that wasn't very nice."
"Lighten up, old-timer. This is the best time of the year for pranks, other than April Foals day."
I tuned out the rest of the conversation because it wasn't going to actually get interesting. I moved my head slightly from left to right, looking for something that would interest me until I actually got up from my spot. I heard a shout from the apple bobbing booth beside me and glanced at it. The pony that shouted was pointing his hoof at me, and he trembled.
"I just saw that statue move! And don't try to tell me it didn't, because I know what I saw!" He scurried away, pulling his filly along with him. Applejack looked at me and shrugged, figuring that the pony that had run off was crazy.
I decided that I should probably just sit still until the town had accepted that Luna was going to come back for next Nightmare night. It took a few more hours, but the waiting finally paid off. Just as soon as Luna said that she was allowing Nightmare night to come back, I lifted to my feet and picked up my shield. The lightning and thunder behind me made it so I wasn't heard by her, but the ponies that were looking at her saw my silhouette. They shrank away from her and she turned around to see what some of the ponies were pointing at.
She gasped and faced me, lighting up her horn with her magic. "We will defeat you, vile demon of Tartarus!" She tried to pick me up and throw me using her magic, but she only managed in lifting me up a few centimeters off the ground. I swatted away her magic and landed, creating a small cloud of dust because of my weight. She looked stunned; her magic wasn't powerful enough to lift a creature off the ground when she was able to move the moon with relative ease!
"Oh how I would love to see you try, puny princess of the night. I shall shroud the entire world in a blanket of darkness and endless nightmares. I shall be known as the King of Nightmares, and shall be feared the world round!" I raised a fist and stomped my foot against the ground, creating red glowing cracks in the area around me. Laughing maniacally, I pointed at Luna and the ponies behind her. "Nothing you and your subjects do can stop me. Your sister will fail as well. It shall always be the night of eternal demons!"
"Not if we can stop it," Shouted somepony behind me. I turned around and met a buck straight to the chest from Applejack. It didn't even move me an inch; it only got my armor dirty. The girls were gathered around behind her, Twilight writing a letter to send to Celestia. "They may not be able to stop you but we can!" Rainbow Dash said, getting straight in my face.
"Be careful, colorful one. Your courage is brash, as you know nothing about the one you are challenging. I could crush you all underneath my boot without having to move from this spot." I lifted my foot and pointed to the bottom of it. "You would be flattened without a second thought."
A spell, sent by Luna, harmlessly bounced off my back. I turned around again and glared at her, my eyes giving off an ethereal red glow as I looked at her. "Thou shall not harm our subjects as long as we stand!" She sent another spell at me, intending to paralyze me, but I caught it with one hand using a small magical ward and I sent it back at her. She fell stiff and frozen to the ground, unable to move because of the strength of the spell she had used.
"As I said before, you have no hope of stopping me. Your magic is powerless against me and any physical attacks will simply bounce off of my armor. Now, be gone from my sight! Your presence is bothersome." I gathered a ball of magic in my hand and flicked it towards Luna. She screamed as she vanished, disappearing slowly from sight.
The ponies in the crowd gasped, they had seen one of the most powerful ponies in existence defeated so easily by this new creature. In truth, I had actually just sent Luna to her quarters in Canterlot castle, but the ponies in front of me didn't know that. The ponies then began to scramble off to their houses and shops to get away from me, screaming and yelling as they ran.
I heard a small thump behind me and turned around to see Celestia standing before me. I had to look down somewhat because I had gotten taller than the last time I stood before her in my human form. "I really wish that you ponies would stop making me turn around to see what was happening. It gets tiresome to continually turn around." I tapped Celestia on the muzzle. "Boop, you're it." I slid into the shadows that surrounded me, quickly disappearing from Celestia's sight.
"Be careful, Princess. It defeated Luna without even trying. We don't know the extent of its true powers." Twilight explained as she followed her mentor through the streets of Ponyville as they looked for me.
"I know when to exercise extreme caution, Twilight. That is why I also brought the Elements of Harmony with me in case I cannot defeat this monster. Now go, I do not wish for you to be harmed in the upcoming battle." She shooed Twilight with her wing. Twilight looked up at her mentor and then ran off towards the library. Celestia sighed and spoke to the building next to her, "I do not see why you did this. You said that you wouldn't harm our subjects."
I slid out of the shadows of the building. "Don't worry, I don't actually mean any harm to these ponies. It is simply a large scale prank, orchestrated by me. I will be 'defeated' by the Elements after they have been retrieved by the girls. I will repair any damage done and provide free psychological counseling to those affected by my appearance and the 'defeat' of you and your sister." I raised my shield and took my sword off my back. "Are you ready to 'fight' for the safety of your ponies?"
She readied her magic, a small smile on her face. "Only if you're ready for a true battle."
She started off by using her magic to create a blinding light, forcing me to close my eyes and look away. She took the chance to fire a large fireball straight for my chest. I heard the crackling sound coming for me and raised my shield, deflecting the blow off into the air. She teleported behind me and shot a paralyzing spell at my back. I fell over for a brief second before I leaped back, swinging the blunt side of my sword at her. It hit her flank and she yelped and jumped back out of my sword's reach.
"Hey, that thing is cold! Is it a real sword?" She looked at her flank, which had a red mark where my sword had hit her. "And why did you have to hit me there? That place is sensitive!"
I chuckled, "Well maybe you shouldn't have given me such a big target. It would do you good to lay off the sweets somewhat."
She blushed a deep crimson and charged up her horn again. I wasn't going to let her take the offensive again, so I charged her with my shield raised. I knocked her back and she hit the ground, momentarily stunned. I sheathed my sword and charged up a paralyzing spell of my own, ready to end the fight. She got up and dodged my spell as soon as I had cast it, firing off a freezing spell of her own. I found my feet suck to the ground by ice, and I tugged by feet until they came free.
The battle went on for a few more minutes, while we traded off the rolls of attacking and defending. It finally ended when Celestia had gathered up a large amount of energy into her horn and thrown a large ball of light at me. I hit it with my sword, sending it back to a surprised alicorn. It hit her and she fell out of the sky. I caught her before she hit the ground, and then I healed her wounds that she received.
"Great fight, Tia, but you're out of practice. I'll send you back to Canterlot and you'll be in the medical ward of the castle. I'll see you again around Hearths Warming." She nodded to acknowledge what I said and I teleported her to Canterlot. "Now that I finished that, it's time to spread some nightmares to the Element bearers." I made my way to the library, sending out nightmare threads to affect the ponies. They imagined their worst fears while asleep, but they wouldn't be physically hurt.
When I got to the library, the door was barred from inside. It didn't really bother me because I just kicked the door in, forcing the planks to splinter under my boot. "Here comes the King!" I roared, causing some of the books on the shelves to fall off. The library was dark, but I could see a light coming up from the basement, so I made my way down there. When I got to the bottom of the stairs, the girls were waiting there for me with the Elements charged.
"Fire!" Yelled Twilight, and there was a rainbow blast quickly making its way towards me. I made a hole into a pocket dimension and let the blast go in there. The girls had floated down and stood there, flabbergasted. "How did that not work!? It always works!"
I let out a demonic bellow. "Do you really think it would be that simple? No, I'm going to make you work for my defeat. Sleep now, and face your worst nightmares to find your Element." I waved my hand in front of me, casting a sleeping spell on the group. I sent out my nightmare tendrils into their minds and began to ready myself to enter their minds. Right before I jumped into the first nightmare, there was a metallic ripping sound from above my head. I turned around and saw Spike, dressed in makeshift battle armor of pots and pans, standing behind me with a horrified look on his face. "Oh, I nearly forgot about you Spike." I cast the sleeping spell on him but I didn't send the nightmare tendrils to him.
I quickly jumped into Pinkie's mind, because she was the one that was closest to me. I fell for a short moment in a sea of darkness and then I landed in a deserted Ponyville. There were some buildings on fire, and some that were already burnt down to their framework. I found Sugar Cube Corner and walked in to find a very dark sight. There were torture racks with ponies tied to them. There were also small puddles of blood underneath some of the racks. I found Pinkie tied to one of the racks, her hair deflated and a scared look plastered on her face. When she saw me she giggled slightly and then went into full blown hysterical laughter.
"Why are you laughing, pink one? Is there something in my appearance that you find humorous? Is there no fear in your heart and mind for the one that brings nightmares to helpless ponies?!" I slammed my fist on an empty rack beside me, making the crusted on blood flake off.
"You have a frying pan stuck on your head, silly!" She wheezed, after having had laughed for a good while.
I turned around to look for a reflective surface, and I soon found one. What Pinkie had said was correct, there was a frying pan stuck to my head. It was jammed on one of the spikes on my helmet, probably there from when Spike had hit me. It was what created that ripping noise. I tore the pan off of my head, and turned around again, only to find that Pinkie wasn't behind me anymore and that I wasn't even in Sugar Cube Corner anymore. I was standing in a lush field of grass with the sun shining down on me.
"So where are you going next?" Pinkie asked from above me, right before she fell on me. I fell under her weight, pinned to the ground. "Oops, I forgot about that. Since we're in my dream, you're subject to my imagination. And that means that if I can think clearly, then you have no power in my head. And that means that your plan has failed." She jumped off of me and I got up slowly, popping my back. She had her Element around her neck.
"You realize that the others won't exactly know this, except for maybe Twilight. So I can still have some fun while the night is young. So now that your nightmare was completed, I guess it's time to move on to the next pony. Who do you think I should go to next?" I pulled up an image of the room where the others were still asleep. Pinkie was standing up, completely awake. I looked at the image and then at the Pinkie I was standing next to, then I just shook my head. Rule number one for Pinkie is don't question what Pinkie can do.
"You should go into Fluttershy's mind next. She isn't as strong as the others when it comes to nightmares." I swiped my hand, causing her to not remember the nightmare anymore. Pinkie pushed me out of her mind before she fell to the ground and I was forced into Fluttershy's mind. I found it unsettling how powerful Pinkie really was because of her meeting with Tim.
When I landed in Fluttershy's dream, it was like I had left Pinkie's dream and arrived in the same place after a fight. There were claw marks all over the ground and small craters that had burning fires within them. I looked around some more and found a set of hoof marks that led to Fluttershy's cottage. What was strange was that there was also a long drag mark that trailed beside the hoof prints. I got to the door and opened it slowly. The walls were adorned with the pelts of dead bunnies and squirrels.
I heard the sound of heavy breathing coming from upstairs and made my way there. I turned the corner to look down the hall and saw a door that was cracked open slightly. I pushed it open and saw Fluttershy, standing on a bearskin rug, clutching her eyes shut and taking care of a dragon that was badly injured. Her Element was sitting on a bunny skull that was discarded in a corner of the room. I quietly made my way to stand beside Fluttershy, taking the gauze out of her mouth so that I could bandage the dragon myself. She wasn't doing much with her eyes closed.
She yelped and jumped back towards the corner of the room with her Element sitting there. She cracked open one of her eyes slowly to see what had taken the gauze out of her mouth and screamed when she saw it was me. "Leave me alone! I don't want any of this! It's too much for me." She fell upon the floor and started to weep, covering her eyes so that she wouldn't see the room around her.
"You know that you could end this anytime you wish, right? All you have to do is grab your Element from that skull in the corner, and this would all end." I finished wrapping up the rest of the wounds that the dragon had and began to rub healing ointment onto the bruises he showed. "Death is a natural part of the world balance, and these decorations are quite common in the lands of the griffons and the lands of the wolves. I said that you have to face your fear, and you seem to not want to accept that these things are normal. Just open your eyes and grab it, and this will all be finished.
She stopped crying after a few more second and then she opened her eyes, which were red and puffy from the crying she had done, and she leaped for her Element. She clutched it to her chest and quickly fastened it around her neck. The image of the room around us disappeared and we were in the same meadow that we started out in. The difference was, it was the meadow that I had seen in Pinkie's dream.
I walked over to Fluttershy and took off my gauntlet, rubbing her head lightly. She cringed away from my touch. "Don't worry, I won't harm you. I'll help you forget about the horrors you have seen created by your own mind." I placed my hand on her head again and wiped her memories of the nightmare from her mind. She fell to the ground in a heap of fur, lying like how she was in the real world.
I chose to go to Rainbow Dash's nightmare next. It was pretty easy to guess what her worst nightmare would be. Not having the ability to fly. She loved her wings and would be crushed to never have them again. I hopped into her mind, to find that I was surrounded by white walls and the place smelled like bleach. I would have held my nose, but that would require taking off the helmet. I cast a quick spell to make it so if I wore the helmet, it would always smell like I was in a room with freshly baked snicker doodle cookies.
When I had done that, I started to look around. It seemed that I was in a mental hospital because I passed a few empty padded rooms with slots in the door. I passed one that had the Doctor in it, who had a sour look on his face. I opened the door and walked in, startling the occupant of the room. I looked at him and shook my head, and then I went over to him and undid his jacket.
"Why thank you, person that I don't know. I don't know how I got here, but when I did some crazy pony grabbed me and put me in here. They said I was demented for going on about time not being a straight line. It is clearly wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey stuff that is not a straight line."
"I know what you are saying, Doctor. You need to get out of here, or else you'll most likely be stuck in the mind of Rainbow Dash when she wakes up. Did Derpy get in here with you, or is she safe at home?"
"She didn't come with me, so I'm assuming that she is safe. I shall leave post-haste! Tally-ho!" He galloped off towards the front entrance of the hospital, making loud clopping noises as he rushed down the halls.
I made my way out of the cell and headed on my merry way. This place wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be. I was used to seeing mental wards that had bloody walls and body parts hanging everywhere. Also, I was running from some kind of undead monster that was trying to rip my face off. But this place was safe, no blood and no monsters.
I stopped dead in my tracks when I heard a loud shuffling behind me. I turned around slowly and was face to face with one of the ugliest things I had seen in my life. It was tall, about eight feet, and it had two mouths. Its right hand dragged along the ground and it walked with a limp. It looked horribly burned, with skin peeling off in random parts of its body. On the end of its hands, it had four fingers with jagged claws. The worst part was that it had no eyes and no nose, just the two mouths that covered its face.
"It seems that we have a new patient. You are diagnosed with identity crisis. You think you are a primate that walks on two legs and has superior intellect." It clubbed me across the back on my head, knocking me out. The last thing I remembered, I was being dragged across the floor.
I woke up in a cell of my own, but there was a window on the right side of the cell from the inside. I slowly got up and walked over to the window. What I saw next made me take a step back in shock. The room next to me was filled with wings strapped to the wall, and hanging from the ceiling by hooks. Everything was dripping blood, meaning the wings had just been recently removed. In the corner of the room was Rainbow Dash, huddled up in a small ball and whimpering quietly. She had two bloody stumps where her wings would have been, if they had not been ripped off and hung on the wall.
I knocked on the glass and that startled Rainbow so badly she jumped five feet into the air. She hit the floor with a 'thwump' and looked over to the window. When she saw me, she looked really confused at what I was. Small holes in the window allowed me to talk to her without having to yell through the glass.
"Don't worry Rainbow; you can get out of this. You just have to get out of that cell and escape this place." As I was speaking to her, I was working free of the straight jacket the monster had put me in. It was pretty loose in some areas because it wasn't made for something like me. When I had finally gotten out of it, I had learned that Rainbow Dash had about the same story as the Doctor did. She was placed in this cell by the monster after it had said she needed to have surgery because she had a mental disease of too big of an ego caused by her ability of flight.
"Look for the way out while I try to find my way out of this cell, it shouldn't be too hard with the skills I know." She tentatively made her way around the room while I looked at the door. It had a simple lock, one that I could easily pick if I had something like a wire or paperclip or something. I tore up some of the padding in the room, looking for something that could help me. After I had found nothing in my search, I went back over to the window. "Have you found the way out yet? I need something to pick the lock with."
"I looked all around the room, but I couldn't find any kind of door. But I did find this broken light bulb, and it looks like the filament on the inside is a bit loose. You could probably use that to pick the lock." She picked up the light bulb and moved over to the window, holding the light bulb so that the filament fit though one of the holes.
I grabbed the small wire and tugged and twisted at the same time, pulling the filament out of its socket in the light bulb. A small spark popped out of the hole and landed on the floor of my cell, easily lighting the torn up padding. A metal grate slammed shut over the window, cutting off Rainbow's cries of alarm. I rushed over to the door and inserted the filament into the lock. I quickly found the right positions for the tumblers of the lock and opened the door. I slammed it shut behind me, leaving the fire in the room to die out. It had nothing else to burn after it got through that padding; the rest of the cell was made with concrete.
I was hit with the smell of bleach again, but I didn't have my helmet to block out the smell so I had to bear with it. I looked over to my right and blinked in surprise. There was no door to the cell beside me! I rushed over to the blank wall and started to look for some kind of switch or button that would open the room, but I found nothing. Then I heard the shuffling of the monster in the corridor around the corner. I looked around and found a hiding spot, a small crack in the wall adjacent to the door I came out of. I slid in just as the monster came around the corner.
It saw the smoke coming out of the slot and shuffled over to the door. When it looked inside, it gave off a ghostly howl. "That creature has ruined my observation room! I was hoping to take it apart piece by piece to see what it was. But now that it's dead, I get no satisfaction of its screams as I tear it apart. No matter, I shall see how that rainbow horse is doing. They normally die by now." It took a look at its waist, where a key ring was sewn into its flesh. "I just have to remember where I put the key. I could have sworn I had it in the mess hall." It slowly shuffled off further down the hall, disappearing from my field of view.
I waited until I couldn't hear it anymore, and then I slid out of my hiding spot. I made my way to the end of the hall and peered around the corner, checking to see if it was really gone. Then I made my way to the plaque on the wall saying where I was. I was in S Ward, and there was a small map beside the plaque. It showed me where I was, and I was a significant distance from the mess hall, but I could make it there before that monster did. I just had to take the path that led outside and then take a left.
I ran off down the halls, my feet making soft pattering sounds as they hit the floor. I saw more cells that were unoccupied as I made my way to the outside world, but they were more than just unoccupied. They were filled with puddles of blood that seeped out from below the door. I almost slipped in a few blood puddles as I ran. Lights in the hallways didn't always work, so they went out every once and awhile. This left me running in the dark, surrounded by walls and trapped in a mental hospital with some demonic monster RD had created.
I finally reached the door to the courtyard that would allow me to easily make my way to the mess hall. I opened it and dashed out, running into four very large dogs that had the same appearance of the monster. They barked and started to chase me as I ran towards the door that would allow me access to my destination. I threw open the door when I had reached it, slamming it closed behind me. The dogs ran into the door and began to scratch at it, their claws making small holes in it.
I left that behind me and started to look for the key. I had entered through the kitchen, and nothing was in there that would allow me to get RD out of her cell. When I entered the main area, I saw that it was covered in a fleshy substance that hung from the ceiling as well as covered the walls. I saw a glint out of the corner of my eye and turned to see the key sitting on a table, in the ribcage of a half-eaten pony. I dashed over to the key and grabbed it, and then I heard the shuffling behind me.
The monster made its way into the mess hall as I had finished climbing one of the hanging things. It was strong enough to hold my weight without breaking easily. So I figured as long as the monster didn't look up, I was golden. It made its way over to the table where it had left its half-eaten meal and groaned in frustration. "I may have just left it in my office. I can never keep track of all my keys. Maybe I need to change all the locks so that I only need one key." It started to walk out, but it stopped when it heard a fleshy ripping sound. The thing I had grabbed onto was falling from the ceiling, bringing me along with it.
I hit the ground with a hard thud, causing the monster to whirl around to see me. It made an angry hiss and lurched in my direction. I ran off, trying to lose it in the labyrinth of halls. The dream was starting to get darker, the walls peeling and showing more of the fleshy substance. The lights were so dim; it was almost as if there were no lights at all. And when my feet hit the floor, they made squishing noises as every step caused blood to flow from the floor. After a short while, I couldn't hear it chasing after me anymore. I guessed it was safe to take a somewhat slower pace back to the cell room where Rainbow Dash was.
When I got back to the S Ward, I made my way over to RD's room. I tried to use the key on the door to the right of the spot where her door would be, but I had no luck. I peered around in the dark to see if there were any helpful clues on what I should do next. I spotted a sign that pointed to the stairs, so I figured I would check upstairs for any clues. When I got to the next floor, I made my way over to the room above Rainbow's. I tried the key on that door and was pleased when I heard the click of the lock unlocking. I walked in and saw that there was a large hole in the floor, for the monster to throw in its victims.
I locked the door behind me so that there would be no nasty surprises and then I walked over to the hole. I peered down and could see Rainbow huddled in the same corner of the room that she had been in before. I could also now see that the monster had thrown my armor in there as well. I jumped down and landed with a wet squishing sound that startled Rainbow. She bolted upright and started to try to go further into the corner she was in.
"Whoa, calm down there Sally. I'm here to rescue you. I'm guessing all we have to do is get you out of this place and this nightmare will end." I walked over to my armor and quickly put it on, blocking out the smell of blood that now permeated the air.
Rainbow Dash looked at me and glared daggers before she rushed in to give me a buck. "How dare you! You hurt my friends and then put us in these weird nightmares!" I slid out of the way right before her hooves connected with my midsection.
"Hey, as I said before, I'm here to rescue you. This one has been a nightmare for me as well. This place has some messed up stuff. Let's get out of this hole so that we can escape this place." I started to climb up the chains, crushing some of the wings that hung from them. Rainbow Dash cringed every time that happened. When I reached the edge of the hole I hoisted myself up and looked down to Rainbow. "You coming up? I don't think we have much time until that thing realizes where I went off to after I grabbed its key."
"I can't! Look at all those wings, torn off of helpless pegasi!" She fell into a heap on the ground, crying loudly. "Even if that didn't disturb me, I still can't climb chains, I have hooves. Not those things you have at the end of your arms."
I sighed and then jumped back down, and then I realized that something was very wrong. The wings on the wall were dripping blood at a faster rate, causing the room to fill with blood at a somewhat fast rate. The wings on the hooks were doing the same, causing blood to drip down on us. "Well, we definitely don't have time to just sit around and cry out of fear!" I grabbed Rainbow and placed her on my back, making sure that she wouldn't fall off. I climbed the chains again, slipping down a few times because the blood had made them slippery.
I got to the top and threw myself onto the floor of the room. I got up, Rainbow still on my back, and opened the door using the key. When I shut it behind me I could hear the squelching of the floor from down the hall. I looked over and saw that the dogs had found me again, and their master was right behind them. I bolted down the stairs, using the railing as a slide to get down faster. I cast a wall of flame at the bottom of the stairs quickly before I kept running. I looked back and saw that the fire had no effect on the monsters.
"Where are we going?!" Rainbow Dash yelled in my ear. She clung as tightly as she could to my armor, trying to not fall of as we made our way through the halls.
"As I said before, if we make our way out of this place, the nightmare will end. So, I'm heading for the entrance." I slid around a corner, grabbing onto the corner of the hallway so that I could slingshot myself to be faster. This caused me to gain some ground against the monsters chasing after me. Rainbow Dash and I swiftly made our way to the lobby, seemingly losing our pursuers on the way there. I threw open the front door and was about to make my way out when I felt a set of teeth clench against my armor. I was thrown off of my feet, and when I looked up I was looking at one of the demon dogs.
Rainbow had been thrown off of my back when I had been attacked, and she had gotten outside. I scrambled up to my feet and slammed the doors shut. I soon found myself surrounded by the demon dogs; they circled slowly and started to close in on me. I heard cold laughter coming from the lobby desk and saw that the monster had been there the whole time.
"I see that we have lost another patient today, but we will reclaim another. I had thought that you were dead, before you stole my key! But no matter, I will find another room for you and make sure you never escape." It clicked its claws against the table. "You may now attack it, but do not kill it."
"Well, have fun with that you ugly beasts." I ducked under the first one, causing it to sail past the space I previously occupied with my head. I slammed my fist into its head, causing its neck to snap. It fell limp on the floor where it landed, a few feet away from me. The other two growled and leaped at me at the same time. I jumped and clung onto one of the growths from the ceiling. I dropped down on them, crushing their heads under my greaves.
"Well, you know what they say," the monster said as it got up from its seat, "never tell others to get something done for you. Get it done yourself." It launched itself towards me, claws outreached to pierce my armor. I sidestepped and felt its claws rake against my armor. It left gashes in the metal where its claws had gone.
'You also should know that you should never throw the first attack unless you have the element of surprise." It launched itself at me again, a low growl emanating from its chest. I grabbed its arm as it swung at me, using its force against it. I threw it against the floor, stunning it for a moment before it straightened itself. It came at me again and I jumped into the air, clinging onto the growth from the ceiling again. It dodged out from under me as I came crashing on the ground.
It started to rely on throwing things at me, which I either block or dodged out of the way easily. The last thing it threw at me caused me to drop my guard for a second, which it took advantage of immediately. It rushed me again, slamming into me and causing my chest armor to dent. I fell to the floor, dazed, and got up slowly. It didn't relent in its attacks, causing me to keep dodging and defending. Its foot slipped and I used that opportunity to trip it. I put my greave against its neck and started to put pressure on it slightly. The creature gasped for air and writhed a bit before it resigned to its fate.
"Do you have any last words, beast from Tartarus?"
"Only one thing. Sombra will return, and he will crush your soul with his unending cruelty."
"Oh, will he now? I'll be waiting for him." I sneered under my helmet and slammed my foot down on its head, causing a satisfying crunching sound and a fountain of blood to spray on me. The nightmare started to dissolve around me. I looked at the doors and saw that Rainbow had seen me in the last moments before I killed the monster. "Don't worry, this is all over now. I'll wipe these memories and get on to the next pony."
She looked like she was about to say something, but then I cast the spell and she fell on the ground of the meadow. I looked into the window that looked into the basement of the library. Fluttershy was up and talking to Pinkie about having the worst nightmare that she couldn't remember even one detail of. I realized that dream walking was a tough job. I didn't envy Luna at all for the fact that she did this every night. Rainbow Dash had the longest nightmare sequence of the ponies I had finished with. I jumped into Rarity's mind next.
I landed in the boutique, and saw that it was completely filled with ponyquins that were wearing horrible dresses. I carefully made my way to Rarity's workroom to see that she was working on dress after dress, trying to make them beautiful. Every dress that she worked on slowly turned ugly again after she had put it on the ponyquin next to her that was empty. I face palmed, causing a clanking noise. Rarity spun around and glared at me.
"I have no time for this right now, Mr. evildoer. I have to make all these dresses beautiful be tonight for the show, or my reputation will be ruined!" She went back onto working on the dresses, looking up occasionally to check how many more dresses she had to work on.
"Come on Rarity! This has got to be the lamest nightmare I have seen in all my years of living! Just give up, you're getting nowhere with these dresses. As soon as you accept this, the nightmare will end." I moved over to her and picked her up from her seat.
"No! Put me back right now you ruffian! I have to…" She got a look of understanding on her face. "This is a nightmare? But it seemed so real! I even woke up in the basement of the library and went through the normal day before I got this large order for dresses." The nightmare dissolved around us as she accepted that this was a nightmare.
"Seriously, to believe that something as lame as that was your nightmare. Could have been more exciting, considering that Rainbow's felt like it had been going on for hours." I put her down on the grass, popping my wrists and neck after she had fallen asleep, waking up in the real world. She got up more quickly than both Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash had and she went straight to Rainbow to ask her about what her nightmare had been about. I decided to hop into Twilights nightmare next, leaving Applejack for last.
I fell on Twilight's bed in her bedroom as I entered the dream. I made my way downstairs and found Twilight rearranging all the books on the shelves. She was muttering to herself and her mane was in a mess like it had been when she was learning lesson zero. I knocked on the bookshelf next to me and Twilight didn't even look around to see who it was.
"Spike, don't be making so much noise right now. You know I have to have all my concentration when I'm re-sorting the books. Somepony found it funny to move all the books into the wrong shelves and whenever I turn around, they mess with them again." She kept on moving the books around on the shelves she was looking at intently. The bookshelf next to me tipped over and made a loud crashing sound. Twilight jumped up and spun around, fury in her features. "Spike, don't knock over the…" She stared at me a second before yelling and backing up into the bookshelf behind her.
"Hey, I'm not that ugly am I? There's no need to scream, Twilight, we're in a library. And it wasn't me who knocked over the bookshelf, neither was it Spike." I looked over into the kitchen, where Spike was just making his way into the library to see what the noise was about. He sneezed from the cloud of dust that he walked into that was raised by the bookshelf falling. It caught the dry pages of the books on fire quickly and spread for the wall.
"Oh no, I have a spell to stop this though!" Twilight gathered her magic and cast a bubble around the fire. It didn't snuff it out; it only seemed to make the fire grow larger and wilder. It spread along the wall and started to lick against the ceiling. "That was supposed to work! Why does nothing work anymore?"
"That's because we're in your nightmare. Apparently Spike made his way into your mind when I made him fall asleep, possibly because of the magical link you two share. But that is not important right now. You need to face your worst dreams here and now. The princess has abandoned you, and your friends have left you with your precious library burning down. There will be no help from outside forces, only you and Spike may get this done." I walked towards the front door, a flaming beam falling behind me and blocking the front way out.
I walked around to the back and timed how long it took for Twilight and Spike to get out of the house. It took them six minutes and thirty two seconds, because they had tried to put out the fire with anything they knew would usually work. They came out coughing and spluttering, Twilight had a slightly singed tail but Spike was perfectly fine in appearance. His scales had protected him from the flames
"Now that is over with, what do you plan to do now; now that you have been abandoned by all the ponies that cared for you?" I picked her up from where she was sitting and looked her in the eyes. She was starting to cry, and her sobs carried out through the empty air around us. I set her down and made the nightmare end because it was most likely that she wouldn't stop crying anytime soon if I left it there. I picked her up and bopped her on the nose, stopping her crying.
"Remember, this was only a nightmare. If you focus strong enough and tune out the fear in your mind, you can change it into a dream. It all depends on your will power and thought process. Now it is time for you to return to the waking realm, as it is almost midnight and I will have no reign after Nightmare Night is over." I waved my hand over her and Spike, causing them to wake up. I moved to my final destination, Applejacks nightmare.
I found myself in another hospital, but this was like a normal hospital. Doctors were walking around, acting as if I weren't there at all. I walked up to one and tried to poke him, but my hand went straight through him. I realized that this wasn't a dream or a nightmare really, it was a memory. That was why I couldn't affect the world around me. I wandered the halls, looking for any sign of AJ in this place.
I walked past a room with an open door and what I heard made me stop. I heard a quiet sobbing, that was obviously AJ's crying. I walked into the room, and I saw that she was crying next the bed of and older stallion that was most likely her father. He wore the Stetson that Applejack normally wore and he was primarily orange in color. He was hooked up to and IV drip, and he was almost completely covered in bandages. He was talking softly to Applejack in a raspy voice.
"You know that I don't have long for this world anymore, AJ. I want you to know something." He leaned in close to her ear, as close as he could get without messing with his bandages or pulling out the IV. I moved closer so that I could hear what he said. "I lied to you when I said that the farm is going to be ok. I also lied when I said that I would be fine after that barrel hit me. I want you to have my hat and I want you to take over the farm. I know you can keep it running better than I can."
He pulled the hat off of his head and placed it on AJ's head. He slid back into a more comfortable position on his bed and breathed his last breaths. The heart monitor let out a final beep before he flat lined, leaving AJ crying even harder while holding onto her dads hoof. "Ah'm gonna make ya proud, Pa. And I aint gonna let lies come out of my mouth."
I walked over to Applejack and placed my hand on her shoulder, pulling her out of the memory. We appeared in the meadow, her with her Element around her neck now. I waved my hand and sent her back to the waking world. I was pulled along with her, and I entered the basement right where I was standing before I went into Pinkie's head. The girls were up and gathering themselves for another use of the Elements.
"Don't even bother with it. I've had enough for one night. I'm not even coming next year. Rainbow, your dream was some kind of whack, and of course you don't remember it. I'm out." With that, I blinked over to my house, where I bumped into Luna and Celestia. "Luna, your job freakin sucks. I'm goin to bed. See you two at the wedding." I closed my door behind me and threw my armor on my stand. I flopped down on my bed and went to sleep.