An uneasy calm overtook the ship. Those that had fascinated the controller of the undead was no longer there. The ship was little more than a bit of floating wood, useless and forgotten. The rotting pony carcases began to flop from the deck into the water, while others fell where they stood, life fleeing their corrupt forms, as forgotten as the ship itself. Firm Touch and the other remaining defenders made short work cleaning up, and soon had a boat clear of hostiles, just the victorious, the wounded, and the dead.
The fell creatures were single-minded, if they had a mind, in their purpose. All the defenders were simply in their way. Those that collapsed or retreated were mostly ignored, leaving them with far more injured than dead as the tally was done. Bottom had joined the others in the triage they had set up. She wielded the book of healing arts Shei planned to use, and she did her best to keep the injured from joining the dead. She was far from the best, or even competent, but she did what she could.
In the water, Silver and the others saw nothing at all. The moon and stars were just a haze at first, but quickly they were crushed out of existence, along with their chests as the water pressed in on them with a seemingly living malignance. They were being welcomed and rejected all at once. With every push deeper into the water, the fouler the fluid became around them. Skin crawled, fur itched, and the decided sensation of worms slithering just beneath the surface made their movements slower, all beside the fact that they were swimming and not breathing.
Nefer thrust her hands wide, forcing the very ocean back a few precious inches. She took a deep breath in the moment before the water seemed to pry and slither, penetrating the bubble she had tried to forge. Celestia swam up and fell into the space, her horn glowing as she lent her magic to Nefertari's attempt. Silver half-fell in a moment after, adding his effort to it. The entire team regathered, but the water was not satisfied. It probed and caressed over their shared shield, trying to reach those within. Their flesh felt defiled even in the dirty-smelling air of their bubble.
David took the time to sheath his sword properly since he wasn't swimming. "Just so we're clear, this is the fucking creepiest thing I've ever done."
Silver smiled with a bit of a sarcastic edge. "I hear that. I really would have preferred to skip this for you, but here you are. Let's survive it at least?"
Celestia got up to her full height. "Survival is an admirable start, but we've come this far. Let's make the world a little better than it was this morning."
Shei shook her head with clenched teeth. "I have only just started to learn the flow of magic, and even I can say confidently that everything about this is wrong." She twitched softly at the crawling sensations, an urge they all felt. David reached for her and gently scratched where it was worst. She sagged lightly. "Thank you... By the sun, can you see it?"
David grimaced. "I didn't want to say anything, but yes..." He could see the distended flesh warping beneath his fingernails. It was as if they were all infested with living worms that desperately sought a way free of them.
Nefertari snorted through her human nose. "This is no idle fight. I'm not even sure this is a fight we can win, but it's a fight we're in, and I don't plan to concede. Do you have any plans, Silver?"
Silver looked out into the dark, and it looked back. He could feel the unknown staring at him despite only the lights shed from the power radiating outwards from their horns. He was being studied, and judged, and reached for. "It knows we're here."
David elbowed Silver in the side. "We need more information than creepy-sounding horror movie tropes. I mean, yeah, it knows that, what else do we know?"
Celestia fanned her wings wide, penetrating the bubble and submerging in the crushing pressure of the ocean. She flared brilliantly, and we saw a city of crumbling stone and stoic majesty. It felt old and forgotten, and soon was lost to sight as Celestia sagged and swayed. The sensation of being watched rushed back as soon as the light had fled.
Silver perked his ears with inspiration. "It's not physical."
David rolled a hand. "Ok, that's a start, how so?"
Silver pointed a hoof into the dark. "If it was physical, we would have seen it just now, but we didn't. It's not just living in the dream world, it is... a part of it. Maybe it had a body? I don't know, but I'm guessing it doesn't anymore."
Shei turned to Silver. "Then you have to fight it. You have power over dreams, don't you? No matter how well any of us kick, we can't buck a dream or make a nightmare go away."
Nefertari snarled. "I don't like it. I didn't come all the way down here just to watch Silver do all the fighting, but if our part is keeping you alive down here, then we'll do that. Go and fight."
A dull thud echoed against the bubble as the form of a long-dead pony pressed against the bubble, then began to push through it. The stink of its still-rotting and moist innards choked at them. Nefertari ripped its head free and threw it back into the water, only for two more to climb in after it. The siege had renewed.
Silver moved to join the fight, but Celestia raised a hoof in his way. "Sleep. If you win, it's over. If you lose, we're doomed either way. Sleep, and win." She turned back to the oncoming horde and joined the others in keeping their little bubble free of the unliving. They seemed stronger and more coordinated beneath the sea, far from the touch of light, far from Celestia's beloved sun. While she was weakened, they pressed with unrelenting determination. They began to fall from the ceiling, crashing down on the defenders and clawing at them with rotting hooves and bony stumps.
Going to sleep in that was far from ideal. But it was his job, his only way to help his friends, wife, and lovers. Silver threw himself, mentally, into the dreamspace, and fell to the ground bonelessly.
There was no hallway. There was no tranquil pool, or curtains of gems, or endless galaxy. There was only the staring eye of the being that sought him. It spoke, but its words were a thousand little corruptions across Silver's ears. Just hearing it made him want to vomit as his belly tried to implode in defiance of the urge. This creature didn't belong here, or most anywhere else. It had no place in that world.
Silver lost sight of it, and everything. He was seated on a long psychiatrist's couch, laid along it with his hooves swaying. The doctor was a well-dressed Freudian-looking man that nodded at Silver. "Tell me more about your mother."
It wanted to know more about him. Silver did not oblige. He rolled off the couch and stood tall. "You are not welcome here."
A mirror appeared, showing off Silver. In the mirror were countless ponies he had met with, fought with, struggled against. Rich brats that wanted him as a toy, and ponies that thought he was a symbol of their oppression, and other ponies that glared at him with jealousy as he rose and rose and rose instead of them, leaving them forgotten and unnamed. He had many enemies.
Silver drove a hoof into the mirror, breaking it in a strange way. Even glass and light were warped by the thing's presence. "I have found a place for myself, damn it. You haven't. You are a nightmare, foul and terrible, and we have no room for the likes of you, here."
Another Silver appeared, its eyes that of a squid, blinking out of sync as it rose a hoof that was attached not with a leg but a tendril with an octopus' suckers. Silver ducked the first swing, only for its head to reach out on a flexible neck and bite into Silver's throat, piecing deep with lunar pony fangs.
Silver jerked back, but couldn't free himself of the burning agony, but that was a dream. Silver stood on a tall green field on a clear summer day. "This isn't your world!"
David thrust a hand through the ground, and climbed up in front of Silver, shaking off dirt as he went. He was covered in lesions and boils that oozed angrily in what appeared to be constant torment. "It's not your world either. Tell me how you fit in. Tell me how you made them love you. Tell me how you make them obey."
Silver pointed a hoof at the sickly-looking human. "First step, stop being creepy. Second, stop being a dick." He spread his wings wide and snarled at the not-David. "You're just a terrible person."
"Tell me," commanded the not-David before lashing out with terrible speed. Silver rolled with the strike across his snout and flipped in the air before coming down upright. Silver reared up and lashed out a hoof, knocking the beast back a few steps, but neither was getting much done. They hurt, and they stung, but their minds were intact, and what else mattered in that dream world?
Silver was seated on a couch. His father sat beside him, awkward and lost. His cat was in his lap. Michael was his name. He had lived a long... long life, filled with wonderful memories. He was a good cat. He was a loyal cat. He put dogs to shame with how personable and... a person he had become, but... he was alive. All living things only have so long, and that time was running out. Michael was old. Michael was dying.
It was Father's idea to take a picture of them together. They hadn't taken many pictures. David thought it was silly at first, but sitting there, his dying cat in his lap, it all fell apart. The sorrow became too much with every flash of the camera. They were trying to capture some fleeting thing, some wisp of memory of this wonderful creature that would soon be gone, forever. There was no going back. All the flowery talk of heaven and hell meant nothing. This creature was going away. It would not return. There would never be another Michael the Cat. The finality crushed him, and he cried. Father took pictures anyway, lamely trying to salvage the situation.
The cat would become sicker and sicker, weaker and weaker. They eventually brought it to a vet to give it peace, but the doctor mocked them. He told them they could have done more for the cat. He could have lived longer. They were bad parents. It was their fault the cat was dying then. Michael died alone in the arms of a stranger. Michael was not seen to this last step by David or his father. The doctor laughed without laughter. He left them both crushed and defeated. David held back many of his tears though. There was no room for them. His father was breaking apart. He took the doctor's words to heart. He had killed Michael. He was a terrible person. The fact that Michael was old for a cat meant no--
Silver broke free suddenly from the memory that threatened to drag him further and further into oblivion. His friends were relying on him. His wives were waiting for him. All of Equestria needed him to win. He would cry later, there was no time for it. Just like the old days, he could wait to cry.