//------------------------------//
// Chapter 16 - Dark Side 
// Story: 10 Days, 3 Adventures - Part 1 - "In Dreams They Came" 
// by TP Night 
//------------------------------//

The trio made their way downstairs and after some times’ searching,
Applejack found a large stone door.

“Guys? You think this is it? It’s the only one made of stone, so my guess
is that this is the one we’re looking for.”

Luna walked up to it and examined it a bit.

“Indeed this is the one. I feel a strong magic radiating from it.”

Twilight walked closer.

“I can feel it too.. this must be it. But how do we get it open? There is no
handle or anything, at least none I can see...”

Suddenly the door started vibrating, and changing shape. A face emerged,
made of stone. Its mouth moved, and a deep voice echoed through the 
almost empty hallway.

“Who goes there?” The door asked. “I can not see.. My eyes are stone.”

“We are Princess Luna, ruler of the Moon and the Dreams!” Luna exclaimed
in a very regal tone and the royal plural form.

“And I... I am The Gate.”

“Open thyself and allow passage for us and our two followers, Gate!”
Luna said, still using the regal tone and plural.
“We demand it! We have business to attend on thy other side!”

“I can not.” The Gate said. “I can only open to those with Dream Magic.
One of you does not possess it. That one can not follow.
Without the magic, it would die when it passes through me.”

Applejack looked at the two others. 
“Well, what now then? I don’t have the magic, and I’m no unicorn,
so you can’t zap over some of it to me like you did with Twi.”

Luna looed as if she was deep in thought, sometimes glancing at the door
and sometimes at Applejack, and at Twilight. At one point she glanced
upwards, as if looking at her own horn.

“I have an idea, but it is risky. I have not attempted this variation of this
spell before, and to my knowledge nopony has ever done so.
However, it is a spell you are familiar with.”

“What do you mean...?” Applejack asked in a mixture of worry and
curiosity. Luna looked at them both.

“A couple of years ago, Twilight used a spell on you and the other elements
to turn you into breezies, temporarily. When she did, you inherited all
of the breezies strengths, weaknesses and other attributes.”

“...Yeah...?” Applejack said, starting to suspect where Luna was
going with this.

“My magic is tenfold that of Twilight. In theory, I should be able to
turn you into an Alicorn, for as long as you are in this realm.
When we leave the Dreamscape, all Dream magic will fade away.”

“You wanna turn me into an alicorn...” Applejack said with a dead-eyed gaze. “Are you bucking kidding me?!”


* * *


Fifteen minutes later, Applejack stood between Luna and Twilight,
looking at her new body parts - Specifically, she was looking at her wings,
with a somewhat skeptical expression. “Are you guys sure this is necessary?” She asked.

Luna nodded. “It is. However, as I said earlier, it is only for as long as we 
stay in here, in Dreamscape. Also, you will most likely not be able to
actually cast any spells, you will basically just be storing the magic.

Twilight inspected Applejacks wings and horn.

“I know it feels strange to suddenly have new body parts.
Remember, I was a unicorn before, and now I’m an alicorn.”

“Yeah, but at least you had the horn already.” Applejack said.

“How do you feel?” Luna asked. “Any pain, nausea, headache, dizziness?”

Applejack stretched her whole body, including the new wings.

“No pain or such, but I feel strange.” Applejack said.
“Every ten or so heartbeats, I feel like something warm washes through my
whole body, starting in the heart and expanding outwards.”

“That is the magic energy. Unicorns and Alicorns do not feel it,
Since we are born with it. But since you normally do not have that
amount of magic, your body notices it. It is harmless. You just need 
to get used to it.”

“Well alright then. I also feel I should probably not try flying.
I don’t feel confident I could control these wings.”

“Yeah, flying takes a lot of practice.. Just look at how it was for me.”
Twilight smiled. “Anyway, we should get going through Gate now.”

The trio of alicorns approached the faced stone door.

Luna spoke to it. 

“Open thyself. We intend to walk through now. We all have magic,
so we should all be able, correct?”

The stone faced answered in the same deep, echoing voice as before.

“Yes... The magic is strong in each of you know... You may proceed,
but be warned... Beyond me lies the Nightscape. There, nightmares
and dark fantasies are real.”

The door slowly split in the middle, sliding open with a creaking noise.
As it opened, the face faded away as if it was never there.

In the opening, they could see nothing but pure darkness.

“Okay...” Applejack began. “We gotta go in there?”

Luna nodded. “I am afraid so, yes.”

“Let’s get going then!” Applejack said, sounding confident.
“We got a job to do!”

Luna and Twilight quickly gained confidence too, and they all lined
up side by side, facing the dark doorway.

Luna extended her wings.

“Just in case.” She said.

The other two nodded and grabbed the wings, like before.
They all walked through the doorway into the darkness.

Beneath their hooves they could feel and hear the stone floor
continuing as they walked, but they could not see anything.

Lunas horn started glowing like a lamp.

Now they could see the stone floor in front of them,
but no walls or a ceiling. Only complete blackness.

They kept walking for what felt like roughly ten minutes.
Then, they noticed the stone floor was gradually changing into grass.
Dark, cold, wet with dew drops, like a field early in the morning mist.

The darkness around them started gradually fading into trees and bushes.
They were standing in a forest clearing.

“Well... ‘Welcome’ to the Nightscape...” Luna said.


* * *


Twilight shrugged. “I don’t like this.. I feel a dark aura all over this place...”

Luna looked up toward the sky, noticing that it was a dark tone of
orange. She saw a black moon and black clouds drifting slowly across
the orange sky. It reminded her of sunsets, but more sinister.

“I feel it too. This entire world is made up of dark energies.
Like I said earlier, this is the true nightmarish side,
where all nightmares, dark fantasies and fears become real.
Here, I advise you to be even more careful than before.
In the regular Dreamscape, there are still dangers, but nothing too bad.
In here on the other hoof, many of the creatures - and inanimate objects too - 
will actively try to hurt you. This is where all monsters and such are.”

“I don’t often feel afraid, but this place scares me...” Applejack said
as she looked around, seeing the trees move.

A lonely raven sat on a branch, observing the trio. It sat quietly, just looking.
They didn’t notice it, and after a minute it flew away.
As it left the branch, it broke off and fell to the ground with a small thud.
Applejacks ears peaked. “Did you guys hear that?”

Luna turned around. “Nothing to be worried about, Applejack.
Just the forest animals moving around.”

They started walking along a path they found, which seemed to lead
out of the forest. After a few minutes they reached the edge.

But just as they were about to exit, they heard noises in the bushes
behind them. They all turned around and saw four Nightlings
standing there. One of them spoke, with a weak hissing voice,
almost whispering, and pronouncing every “s” really stretched out.

“Ssstop right there, Poniesssesss! You won’t go any further than thisss!”

“Oh yeah? Wanna bet on that?” Applejack said in a confident tone.
Twilight and Luna took a defensive stance.

“We will ssstop you! Thisss will be your end!” another one of the 
Nightlings said.

Luna raised a shield around them, and Twilight cast her fire spell
once again, like they had done with the Cacti turrets earlier.
However, the Nightlings seemed immune to fire.

“Flamesss doesssn’t hurt, Poniessess!” One of them said, almost shouting.

The one most to the right made a quick leap, tackling the shield.
He did not make it through, but the energy was interrupted for a split second,
and the shield became unstable for almost a whole second.

“Damn!” Luna exclaimed. “Their bodies somehow disrupt the flow
of magic in the shield!”

“Your bubble won’t hold againssst usss!” the Nightling shouted, 
and tackled it again. This time, a second Nightling charged at the
same time, hitting the shield during the unstable moment.
That was enough to completely break it. The bubble of magic disrupted
completely, and the two remaining Nightlings both tackled Luna,
holding her down. Twilight tried to tackle one of the other two,
but it dodged her attack.

Applejack took a deep breath.

“Luna... Thanks for Alicornifying me! I have an idea!
Magic don’t seem to work on these guys, so we go Earth Style!”

With those words, Applejack charged head-on at full speed, 
ramming one of the Nightlings with her horn, piercing its red,
translucent skin. The grey gases inside it leaked out and dispersed
in the air, the empty skin falling to the ground and dissolving.

Twilight had sen what happened. A Nightling came running toward her.
Applejack saw it and shouted, “Twi, Watch out, on your left!”

Twilight reacted instantly, using her wings to leap up into the air.
The Nightling missed its charge, and Twilight made a diving attack,
piercing the Nightlings neck with her horn.

The two that held Luna did not seem to notice, being too busy with
holding Luna, who kept struggling.

Twilight and Applejack looked at each other for a second, 
and then at the two Nightlings. 

“On three?” Applejack asked.

“On three.” Twilight responded.

“One...” Applejack said.

“Two...” Twilight continued.

“THREE!” They both yelled and charged together, making a twin attack.
Both of them tackled and pierced one each of the Nightlings,
who fell to the ground while leaking gas. Luna stood up and shrugged,
shaking off some dirt from her fur.

“Thanks.” She said. “Now we know how to destroy these things.”

“Yeah” Applejack said. “Sometimes magic doesn’t work. 
In those cases, you can always try doing things the Earth pony way.”

“Being a Alicorn, it is easy to forget or underestimate the power
of non-magic ways. However, you have proven just how effective 
such techniques can be. So now we know we can use our horns
as manual weapons against Nightlings.”

“I think Lunas will be even more effective though.” Applejack said.

“Why? the magic doesn’t matter, that was the entire point of this.”
Twilight asked in a skeptical but curious tone.

“Her horn is pointier than ours.” Applejack said with a small smirk.

Twilight facehoofed. Luna smiled and giggled.

“Anyway, When I leaped up I saw a tower far away in the distance.
I think that might be the one we’re looking for.” Twilight said.

“Most likely, yes. We should go there right away.” Luna said.

Twilight pointed them in the direction she had seen the tower, and they
started walking.