//------------------------------// // 16: The Nightmare // Story: A Whole New Responsibility // by Flanagan //------------------------------//         “Wha-what?” I managed to choke out, eyes focused on the figure before me, “Ni-Nightmare–”         “I thought I spoke clearly the first time, you putrid waste of oxygen,” the pale skinned monster that wore Luna’s face interrupted, clenching her fists tighter, effectively closing off my windpipe, “Do your ears not work properly either? I was led to believe that you had at least an inkling of competence.”         Nightmare Moon pulled me closer as I started to choke for air, the harder I struggled, the tighter her grip around my neck felt. Despite my distress I managed to keep my eyes on her all the while, wondering what it was that she had planned for me next. Nightmare stood there in silence, looking me up and down as I floated, as if she was looking over an apple to make sure it wasn’t bruised before buying it. Before I could try and come up with a reason as to what she was doing my vision began to blur, the lack of oxygen finally starting to take its toll. However, Nightmare noticed what was happening to me and much to my surprise, she loosened her arcane grip around my throat, allowing me a quick, if not gargled breath. “It seems that I forgot despite all your prowess that you are still a mere mortal.” She said, flicking her wrist once more, completely releasing me from her hold. I fell to my hands and knees, holding my throat as my lungs greedily absorbed oxygen. “But when the windows to this world are so small, it can be easy to overlook such things.” I took a few long, slow, deep breaths to try to give my body time to recover before speaking, but my curiosity rose in regards to what she had said. “W-windows?” I choked out, staggering to a knee, “What–” “The weakling has let her emotions run freely from time to time, as you know.” Nightmare explained, “I tried to assume control during said events, but you always managed to bring her back…” Nightmare paused, taking a step towards me and bending over. She placed her pale hand on my chin and rose it to where I would look her in the eye, her face sporting a sinister grin. “Until now.” “I would say you’re welcome, but it’s not something I intended to happen.” I grunted, jerking my head away from her hand. Nightmare Moon’s smile quickly turned into a fanged grimace. She latched on to my face once more, digging into my flesh. I gritted my teeth, unwilling to so my discomfort. Soon after, a stinging, firm slap came across my face, nearly sending me to the ground. She latched onto my face and dug her nails into my skin again, but I still refused to give her the pleasure of showing my pain. “Such insolence in the face of awesome power,” she hissed, throwing me to the ground, the tile being just as unforgiving as it was ten minutes ago. “It is a wonder that a terrible fate has yet to meet you, whether it be here or in your old world.” “You know, I’ve heard about you and what you’ve done.” I retorted, dragging myself up to my elbows, gritting my teeth in pain. “You’re nothing compared to the things I’ve seen.” Nightmare bared her fangs for a brief moment, but regained some composure before she spoke again. “The mouth you have,” she said shaking her head, "Now I don’t find it hard to believe that someone such as yourself has made so many enemies without so much as looking their direction.” “It’s a gift,” I shot back, “now please–” Before I could finish, a jarring pain rocketed through my skull, The closest thing I could use to describe it being if someone were to take a power drill and bore between my eyes. My body involuntarily curled into a ball as the pain throbbed from within, pulsing from my temples all the way to my toes. “Oh, how pitiful,” Nightmare laughed, placing a foot on my head, only magnifying the pain, “Curled up like a babe upon the first inklings of pain? Perhaps you should be more mindful of whom you speak to before you try to say something foolish.” In spite of my pain, I managed to look at the bitch that had stolen Luna’s body, gritting my teeth as hard as I could in a vain effort to dull the pain. “H-how?” “A lack of intelligence as well, it seems,” Nightmare chuckled as the pain in my skull completely vanished, “despite her ineptness, I know that childish brat would never foul up a spell that needed such precision.” Nightmare snapped her fingers, driving me into indistinguishable pain once more. “I’ve tried for so long to split your souls, but only you have felt its full effect, it makes me wonder…” Nightmare knelt down, lifting my chin to hers once more, “are you as dedicated to her as she is to you? Or does your mind often travel to a more lustful realm?” “N-no…” I managed to say through my pain, “I… I love her…” “Oh there’s no doubt in my mind that you do, dear,” Nightmare smiled, patting me on the head as the pain suddenly subsided, “just how much is the issue.” She paused, rising to her feet with a grin baring a sense of arrogant confidence that I’d love to wipe away from her face. “Have you even told her about the things that Celestia has done to you?” Time seemed to stop the moment the last word fell from her lips, I sat there, frozen unable to make any reasonable acknowledgement of the question. “H… h–how?” “I share many connections with my lesser, as well as you, Aedan Ryan,” She laughed, pointing an accusing finger towards me. “And unlike her, I don’t feel the need to ask permission before staring into that feeble, primitive mind of yours.” “Connections?” I asked, grasping my head as I tried to rise to me feet. “What the hell are you talking about?” Nightmare Moon smiled as I fell to my knees again, my head was spinning too fast to even stay standing for less than a second. I kept my eyes on her, unable to react as she rose a hand towards me, extending an accusing finger my direction. My pupils shrank, Not knowing what to expect, especially when black tendrils seeped through her finger. Suddenly, without warning they wrapped around one another, forming a single black bolt that shot towards my forehead. My body tensed up, expecting to feel a shooting pain between my eyes. I expected to be dead, but after a few seconds I realized that I was still breathing. I looked back to Nightmare Moon, her smile still there, but the hand she once held in my direction was back at her side. “What did you-” “Nothing that I haven’t done to you before.” Nightmare interrupted much to my surprise, mainly because her lips weren’t moving, but I could still hear her clear as day. “H-how?” “Simple minded and unable to remember anything important that is told to you… It really is hard to see any redeeming qualities in you, though I can understand why Luna would stoop so low.” “G-get out…” I growled, bringing one hand to my temple. “Get out of my head.” “Oh how cute, you don’t want me in there.” Nightmare cooed, “Maybe if your mind was better guarded than a cookie jar, then maybe you’d be able to keep my prying fingers from opening your delicious little secrets.” Just as she finished, images began to flash through my mind. My childhood, High School, Military, home, Luna, every event in my short life was flickering through my head like a projector on steroids. The sheer volume of images filling my immediate conscious was overwhelming me, another moment of this would more than likely push me over the edge. “S-STOP!” I screamed with tears in my eyes, unable to do anything else I began to curl into a ball, all the while Nightmare Moon’s laugh echoed in my mind. “I thought you’d be stronger than this!” her voice cackled inside my head as she approached me in real life. “But I suppose enough is enough, maybe I should just show you one memory at a time.” Suddenly, the images began to slow until it stopped on one particular memory, one that I’d rather not remember.         “Does this one suit your fancy?” I heard her ask before she brought her hands to my jawline. “I’ve grown fond of this one during my time probing that sad pile of grey matter that you claim to be a brain.” “N-no…” I whispered, I didn’t want to look, but the fact that it was in mind made it impossible. The memory was one from when I was in high school, back when I was someone completely different, when I didn’t care about who’d I hurt for my own selfish desires.         “Was she worth it?” Nightmare Moon asked with a grin, “was she worth losing one who already loved you?”         “That… that was almost ten years ago,” I managed to say, “I’ve changed.”         “Such a beautiful liar,” She laughed, slowly pulling me to my feet. “Perhaps another memory will remind you of who you really are.”         Once again memories began to rifle through my brain until they came to a slow deliberate halt. Finally coming to arguably the lowest point of my former life. A cheap hotel room, empty bottles of beer and two sets of car keys on the end table next to a bed that was clearly being used for something other than sleeping at the moment.         “You remember this well,” Nightmare said through a toothy grin, “don’t you?”         “I’d rather not…” I replied weakly under my breath, too ashamed to even put up a defence. Back then I may have used the amount of alcohol in my system as a rebuttal, but I, and Nightmare Moon knew that I would have been lying.         “The ring on her finger meant nothing to you, even if she was the bride of your friend, what makes you think you can remain faithful to one whom you can’t even make such a commitment to?”         “I was different back then, okay!” I snapped at her, throwing my arms out as far as they could reach. “That’s NOT me anymore! Why are you-”         “Did you ever tell him?” She interrupted.         “W-what?”         “Your friend.” Nightmare answered, her smile still as sickening as ever. “Did you ever tell that Martinez fellow that you had slept with his wife before he died?”         Before I could respond, my tormenter once again flipped through my memories, stopping when she the memory she desired, the one I’d spent the last three years trying to forget. I tried to gather my bearings and placed a hand on my knee, but instead of feeling plastic and steel, I felt the soft, warm feeling of flesh and bone. I tried to make sense of it, but my ears were ringing, almost as if Luna had started screaming just inches away from my face, but that couldn’t be it, this place, wherever it was, felt nothing like the castle, the gunfire zipping through the air and ricocheting off nearby metal made it sound nothing like the castle, even the smell, a mix of smoke, burning rubber and searing flesh. Nothing about this was right, but because of everything Nightmare had put me through I couldn’t quite put the pieces together. Finally I opened my eyes and all I saw was carnage. Several men in my old unit were hunkered down behind their humvees, trying to fire at whoever was shooting at us on the hill tops. Several of them were already on the ground, either lifeless or holding tightly to parts of their bodies that were drenched in blood. Even Gordon was there, curled into a ball, holding to a case cuffed to his wrist for dear life while two Marines stood between him and the chaos.         “Ringing any bells?” Nightmare Moon’s voice echoed across the land, I tried to offer a response, but instead I looked to Martinez, radio in hand and making his way towards me.         “Got the radio!” He shouted dropping it at my feet.         “Take position by that humvee!” I shouted as I was still trying to process what was going on, “Cover my ass, I’m bringing the rain!”         Martinez nodded and rushed for cover as I began to bark coordinates over the radio. It was then that I finally realized where Nightmare had brought me. The leg, the chaos, it all made sense now, but instead of feeling relief, a pit formed in my stomach. Seconds after I heard the all clear over the radio I turned my head towards Martinez, just as several rounds pierced his neck and arm.         “MARTY!” I shouted, throwing my hand to him.         I tried to stop myself, knowing full well what was going to happen next, but this was a memory, I couldn’t control myself. For the second time in my life I dropped the radio and tried to get to Martinez, only to have my left leg to be torn off by enemy machine gun fire. Pain rocked my body as I rolled over myself, watching my leg fly into the air as I continued my tumble.         “STOP!” I roared angrily, somehow breaking the memory. “Why are you–” Before I could finish my statement I found myself in utter darkness, I thought I was back in the hallway where this whole thing started. Everything felt real, the floor, my skin, it all seemed like I’d broken free from Nightmare’s grasp, but the air was still full of tension, like a sandbag being held by a thread. I staggered onto my good leg, peering into the abyss, hoping, praying that I’d be able to make out something, but my hopes were false. “Luna?” I called into the blackness. “Luna, are you out there?” My calls were met with silence. I waited, but still, nothing. Taking an uneasy step forward with the twisted metal I now called a leg, I stumbled forward, catching myself only because I’d managed to counter my balance relatively well. As I pressed forward there were still no signs of light, or sound, or even smell for that matter, the only thing that seemed to be there was me and the dark, until the sound of a switch flicking on revealed a single lightbulb glowing dimly over a table and a single chair. “What the hell–” “Sit…” a voice said in the shadows, nearly causing me to jump out of my skin. “What?” I asked, I tried to take a step back, but the moment I tried it felt like a brick wall was suddenly erected to keep me from moving away. “Sit…” It repeated, only this time with noticeable anger and frustration in its voice. “No,” I replied. “I said SIT!” The voice roared. Before I could react, something wrapped around my arms and legs and slammed me into the chair. I tried to resist, to pull myself away from the chair, but it held me down tight and squeezed tighter the harder I struggled to break free. Whatever had me wanted to make sure I wasn’t going anywhere for a very long time. “Aedan Collin Ryan.” I froze, not many addressed me by my full name, but almost always when they do it’s never a good thing. In the pause I was finally able to have a good look at my surroundings, there wasn’t much, the light was way too dim to allow me to make out anything in the room, except for the faint silhouette of what appeared to be a man at the outer reaches of the light’s grasp. “Who the–” “He loved her, you know.” The figure interrupted, starting to pace back and forth, always staying just outside of the light’s range. “She was his whole world.” I took a painfully dry gulp of air as my eyes followed the figure’s movements, he sounded familiar, but his words were garbled and course, like someone had just rubbed his throat down with sandpaper. “Look, I don’t know what’s going on.” I managed to say through a shaky breath. “How did I get here? This place, I wasn’t here before.” “And even though you knew how much she meant to him, you still fucked her senseless in a dirty hotel.” I hung my head low, clenching my fists so tightly my knuckles turned white. “Look, like I said earlier, that was the old me, I’m not like that anymore, I–” “You knew he loved her, you knew that doing what you did would ruin his life…” The figure interrupted, finally pausing, almost as if he stopped to look at me. “And yet you still did.” “Look, I’m sorry!” I roared at the figure, “If you for one second don’t think I regret what I’ve done everyday you’re wrong! I was a bastard back then, a horrible man!” I paused, trying to let myself calm down, but my eyes started to grow misty. “Everything changed, Sara dying, Amanda… I got a dose of my own medicine. I know what it’s like now! If anyone ever did that to Lu–” “Lies!” The voice hissed. “You’re still the same heartless bastard who cares only for yourself, you always will be!” “You’re wrong!” I shot back, nearly bursting out of my chair. “There isn’t a day that goes by that the things I’ve done don’t haunt me! I regret everything, the sleeping around, the lying, the backstabbing, all of it! If I could now, I’d take it all back, but I can’t…” My sudden burst of energy gone, I slumped back into my chair, not even bothering to hold back my tears. “I can’t…”                  At that moment, I heard footsteps, their slow, methodic click against the hard floor growing louder and louder with each step, until finally they stopped. Hesitantly, I began to raise my head, I didn’t want to know who or what approached me, but I knew I couldn’t run anymore, so I may as well just face this and come to terms. Needless to say I was not prepared.         On the other side of the table stood a man, his face was still shrouded in darkness, but he wore Marine Corps utilities, his chest protected with a flack. Despite our location, his body seemed to be covered in dirt and sand with what appeared to be a blood stain trailing down one of his sleeves. The smell of stale sweat and dried blood assaulted my nostrils, causing me to gag momentarily before somewhat adjusting to the stench. Just as I was about to ask who, or what he was, he slammed both his hands onto the table, making me jump in my chair, after the initial shock I finally realized his face was finally visible. At first I was hesitant to look at them at first, but when my eyes finally met his, I was thrown into shock once more. Martinez, but not like I once knew him. His face was covered in caked on muck and dried blood, three gaping holes oozed blood from his neck, giving his uniform a reddish sheen around his collarbone, but what was the most unsettling were his eyes. By all accounts they seemed lifeless, dilated and dried, but they still bared the look of anger that could be carried from this life to the next. “M-Marty?” I managed to stutter, my hair standing on end. “No… N–” “LIAR!” He roared as surgical tubing spewed from his mouth, the overwhelming scent of medical alcohol mixed in with syrup like blood causing me to gag once more. “You only care about yourself! You always will!” “No!” I retorted, struggling in my seat, watching the tubing slowly slide across the table like it had a mind of its own. “I’m not like that anymore! I gave up everything to be with someone! I let go of everything because I love someone!” “But for how long?” Marty asked, his voice further muffled by the tubing still slithering out of his throat, “you left it all, your home, your friends… your family… and for what? Fresh pussy? Just wait until you’ve grown tired of her, you’ll move on to a new set of legs that are eager to spread for you, you always do.” Normally I would’ve said something in response, but my eyes were more focused on the tubing, it was slithering all over the table, in my direction. My instincts were telling me to either fight or run, but I was bound tightly, I wasn’t going anywhere. I had to watch as the tubes marched forward, as they slowly wrapped around my forearms. Panic started to set in, I started to thrash by instinct, but that seemed to make the tubes slide faster across me. Within seconds, the tubing was around my throat, the slimy film of blood and alcohol oozed down my body, I couldn’t help but gag once more at the thought, but the moment I did, the tubing wrapped around my throat even tighter, just barely allowing me to breathe.  Just as that happened, Martinez stood tall once more, the darkness enveloping his face again, the tubing still spawning from his mouth being the only evidence that he was still there. “Like you always do…” he repeated, and the tubing around my throat twisted around to face me, sprouting a needle at its center, dripping some kind of substance. “M-Marty…” I choked out, watching the needle move slowly towards my eye. “Like you always do…” he said one last time, before the tentacle reared up and and drove into my eye. I should have felt pain, I should have felt the needle boring into my eye, I should have been screaming, but instead I felt a pair of arms wrap around me, comforting me. When I came to my senses once more, I saw that I was in the hallway again, my torment finally over, then I felt one of the hands that had me in its embrace release me. I didn’t want it to, not after what I had been through, until it gently slid across my body and slowly began to rub my back. "You always act so strong, pretending that the things you've said and done don't affect you…”   I froze, that voice, so much like Luna’s, so soothing to my ears, but still there was a hint of a more sinister presence about it. Slowly, I sent my direction upward, praying it wasn’t true, but the moment I made contact with those hard teal eyes, I knew. “When will you stop lying to yourself?" Nightmare asked, her tone almost motherly as her other hand began to caress my jawline. “When will you stop pretending and be the person you know yourself to be?” Before I could respond, the one who had taken Luna’s body began to pull me close. I tried to fight back, I tried to pull away, but some other force wouldn’t let me, something inside me wanted to continue. As our faces moved ever closer, a sense of failure began to wash over me, I should be strong enough to stop this, I should be able to fight, I should be. Then, with our faces merely inches away, my hand slid across her stomach. The combined smoothness of the silk she wore and her skin sent the shot my body desperately needed, and with our lips barely touching, I stopped. “No…” I growled definitely, forcing myself to pull away before she caught me. “No?” she repeated with a laugh, digging her fingernails into my scalp. “How can you possibly resist? After all, I am the only one here now, the weakness of my former self finally cleansed.” “You’ve taken advantage of a pregnant woman’s emotional weakness and stole the body that was rightfully hers.” I retorted, wincing at the pain. “That just makes you an opportunist, a lowly scavenger...” I paused, watching the rage build in her eyes. “A vulture…” Nightmare bared her fangs once more and threw me across the hall. “You dare!” She roared, shooting out a tendril from her arm to catch me. The tendril drug me back to her, flipping me upside down and letting me dangle in front of her face. “You dare claim that I am weak? You dare compare me to a vulture?!” “If the boot fits…” I grunted back, offering a half smile simply out of spite. It only took a second for me to regret those words, because in an instant I found myself face first on the ground, the wind knocked out of me and a stiletto heel driven into my sternum. “Contemptuous, putrid, pathetic waste of oxygen…” she hissed, driving her heel even deeper into my chest. “I am perfection! Even in this… human form, I am superior to all, yet you still have the gaul to use say such insults against me?” “If you were so much better, then you wouldn’t be so offended.” I retorted through gritted teeth. “Then again, Luna–” “Don’t use that name around me,” Nightmare interrupted with a hiss, finally taking her heel off my chest to give me a swift kick to the gut, knocking the wind out of me yet again. “I thought I told you I will not to be associated with such weakness ever again.” “You’re... kinda using her body,” I wheezed, pointing in her direction and staggering to my knees. Nightmare’s eyes began to glow as she rose her hand to either slap me or send me flying across the hallway again, but soon brought it back down to examine it. “That is true…” she said reluctantly, slowly rubbing her hands together. “Though I’ve made the desired changes in appearance, I still can’t deny the fact of whose skin I bare.” She paused once more, sliding one hand down her arm and to her stomach, “And this…  parasite you’ve placed inside of her.” My body tensed up and my fists clenched as I cast a death glare to the woman in front of me. “Parasite?” I growled through gritted teeth. “You have–” “Don’t even try to play this game with me.” She interrupted, covering my mouth with some sort of inky black substance. “I’ve seen inside your mind, one could say I know you more intimately than Luna herself.” “Bullshit!” I roared, painfully ripping off whatever she’d put over my mouth, “Luna–” “Still doesn’t know how you truly feel about your offspring.” Nightmare finished for me, Smiling as she wrapped a tendril around my mouth to silence me this time. “She doesn’t know just how scared you are.”  Without the ability to rebuttal, Nightmare pulled me in, suspending me much like she’d done earlier. This time she decided to take her time, all the while a confident smile plastered on her face. “Don’t even think you could deny my claims, I am what all nightmares are made of.” She laughed, stopping just inches away from my face. “You’ve seen so much, loss, destruction, even death, none of that ever really scared you, but this.” She paused again, this time taking my hand and placing it on Luna’s stomach. “This terrifies you.” I wanted to say something, I wanted to rip her a new one, but all I could do was stare. The rage in my eyes burning beyond any normal means of measure before finally, I closed my eyes and went limp. Nightmare smiled, slowly sliding the tendril around my mouth away, presumably so I could speak. She stood there, waiting for me to say something, to tell her what she wanted to hear, to admit that she’d won. If only she knew. “You’re right,” I said hanging my head low, “I am terrified.” “Just as I thought,” Nightmare smiled, reaching an arm out to me, “Was that so hard to–” “But she isn’t.” I interrupted, jerking my head away. “What? Who are you–” “Luna, I’ve been scared of this since she told me. Every time I look at her, I’m scared, I do what I can to hide it, but I’ll never deny it.” I paused, making eye contact with Nightmare once more. “Not Luna, ever since day one she’s been positively glowing. I couldn’t tell you one time where I didn’t see a smile on her face when her mind was on the baby.” “What’s the point of this?” Nightmare hissed, baring her teeth as her tentacles wrapped me up tightly once more. “I care not for her or her infant, it is a sign of her weakness to lay with a mortal!” “You’re… wrong…” I managed to grunt out as the coils squeezed tighter, “that’s her strength, to love anyone, the baby is that strength made physical…” I smiled once again, slowly casting my gaze to her, “and it’s that strength that’s going to end you.” Nightmare bared her fangs once more in a rage. “Pathetic dolt!” She roared, her tentacles slamming me into the wall, just inches from the shattered window. “None are stronger than me! Not Luna, not Celestia, not even this wretched pile of filth that you’ve placed inside her!” She paused for a few rabid breaths before looking down to her stomach and donning a wretched grin. “And I will show you…” I could feel my blood turn into ice the moment her hand turned into a blade, I felt my heart stop at least once when she slowly slid it across her belly. Adrenaline kicked in as I shot to my feet, I didn’t care about the fact that I wasn’t in any condition to run, my thoughts were on Luna and our child. It felt like slow motion while she rose her blade-like appendage into the air and readied for a strike, but I kept moving, I couldn’t let her plan come to pass, I wasn’t losing anymore than I’d already had. “NO!” I roared reaching out to her arm with mere footsteps away from us, only to be sent face first into the ground a second later. “You will not stop me insect!” Nightmare laughed, using a tentacle to prop my head in her direction, “but I will let you bear witness to my ultimate victory over you and my lesser.” I watched with panicked eyes as she rose her arm again, thrashing in my bonds like a wild animal I tried to escape, but it was no use. I had to watch and pray that all of this was a dream, but after all that had happened, I knew that this nightmare was all too real. Once again it felt like slow motion, watching Nightmare’s bladed hand descend towards her abdomen, I could see every last detail on her face, her murderous eyes, her fanged grin, her hand coming closer and closer to my legacy. “NO!” I yelled in tandem with another, far more familiar, voice. In my confusion I looked over to Nightmare Moon, her face just as shocked mine, but her eyes were on her blade, a blade mere inches away from its target. “Wh-what is the meaning of this?!” she asked frantically, trying to stab herself once more, but again to no avail. “I am in control, I can do–” "NO!” Luna’s voice roared from Nightmare Moon’s lips as she tried once more, “You will not harm them!” “Luna?” I said in disbelief, “you’re… you’re…” “How?!” Nightmare’s voice shouted back with, “There’s no possible way! I have complete control!” “Had,” I shot back from the floor, “You can fuck with me all you want, but you did one of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen anyone do.” Without a moments notice the Tentacles wrapped me up and pulled me to Nightmare, her eyes burning with both fury and confusion. “WHAT?!” she roared. “You fucked with an expecting mother.” I smiled, just as the tentacles dissipated, freeing me and sending me face first into the ground. With a painful grunt I looked back up to see Nightmare Moon thrashing uncontrollably. Parts of her body were temporarily reverting back to Luna, each time longer than the last. Nightmare still managed to hang on though, like a rabid animal backed into a corner she continued to fight, going so far as to even lash out at the parts of her body that Luna was taking back. Every part of my being wanted to run in there, even though I knew I wouldn’t have been much help my instincts pushed me to protect her. I rose shakily to my feet and stumbled forward, determined to do whatever it took to help get Nightmare Moon out of Luna, but just as I was within arms reach of her, a loving, reassuring voice stopped me. “No.” Luna’s voice echoed in my head. “No?” I asked back, “but I have to–” “You’ve been through enough Aedan,” Luna interrupted, her tone laced with love, “I’ll finish this on my own.” “But,” I said under my breath, “I don’t… I don’t…” “Fear not, Aedan, I know I will best her.” Luna’s voice echoed in confidence. “I have everything I need to make sure she never returns.” “What?” I asked, “What are you–” “GEAAAAAH!” Nightmare cried, throwing her hands to her temples, gritting her teeth in agony. “This is MY body!” Luna’s voice roared as Nightmare bent over and clutched her head. “You can’t have it!” “Fool!” Nightmare roared back, rearing back up, “I have always been your better! I will win this in the end!” “It is you who will lose!” Luna retorted as the violet, misty hair of Nightmare Moon started to flash into Luna’s midnight blue. “I have something that makes me stronger than you will ever be!” The two minds continued to battle for the dominion over the body they both claimed was rightfully theirs until finally they hunched over, their face turned away from me so I couldn’t tell who was in control. “L-Luna?” I asked hesitantly, slowly making my way towards whoever was in control. As I got closer the tension built, instinct told me to run, but a mixture of hope and stupidity kept me coming closer, until I was within arm’s reach, but just as I was about to touch her shoulder, a pale hand wrapped around my wrist and I was face to face with Nightmare Moon’s hard teal eyes once more. “You…” she growled rising to her feet and taking me with her. “She has you…” Nightmare rose to her feet, taking me with her. I tried to pull away, but the combination of her inherent strength and magic I was locked down. Moments later her tendrils wrapped around my free arm and legs, splaying my legs  as far as the could and even going so far as to dislocate one of my shoulders. I gritted my teeth to prevent myself from screaming and giving her the pleasure of seeing me in pain. “She has you…” Nightmare repeated again, only this time with a smile that would have scared Pennywise shitless. I kept my eyes locked on hers, trying to see if I could find Luna in the see of evil that was Nightmare, but I couldn’t find her, Nightmare was using pretty much all of her power to hold Luna off at this moment. As our staring contest continued I heard the quiet hum of magic. My eyes shot to her free hand, only to see the same blade-like weapon she summoned in an effort to prove her strength over Luna. “She has you.” Nightmare Moon said again, sounding more like a demonic broken record than an actual person. “I think it’s time we change that.” My pupils shrank as I kept my eyes on the blade. “Are… are you insane? Luna and I are bound by the soul! If I–” “Die… she dies.” Nightmare finished, slowly sliding her weapon across my stomach. “We’re all in this! It’s not just me and Luna, you’ll die too!” “Will I?” Nightmare asked, her teeth still bared in a dark grin. “Last I recall Luna tied herself with you, not–” Before Nightmare could finish her statement she began to thrash violently, her grip on my extremities loosening before they tightened once more. She was starting to lose control, even with all her power being used to hold Luna down, she wasn’t going to be able to hold on for much longer before Luna put her down for good.                  “Only one way to find out.” Nightmare said, aiming her weapon towards my heart.         “NO!” Luna’s voice echoed as Nightmare drove her hand towards my chest.         A massive flash of light filled the hallway, blinding me, the sensory overload threw my mind for one hell of a ride, almost enough for me to not feel the sharp pain coming from the lower right side of my stomach. I fell to my knees, reaching for the pain, only to feel moisture and heat pumping into my hand. I started feeling light headed as I looked to my hand, the color red pouring through my hand. As I continued to stare my balance began to wane, but before I could hit the floor I was wrapped up in a pair of loving arms. “Aedan!” Luna cried through misty eyes, “I… I’m sorry! I tried to stop her, I–” “Is the baby alright?” I interrupted. “Did she hurt our baby?” Luna froze, looking me square in the eye, taking one of my hands before placing the other over my latest wound. “No.” she said as her eyes began to glow, slowly healing my wounds. “She wasn’t able to harm them.” “Them?” I asked with my vision starting to go black, “why do you keep saying that?” Luna smiled and took my hand, placing it on her stomach. “We’re having twins.”