RING RING
A door chime rattles in the background. You open your eyes. The images are blurry at first, but then come into focus. A door just opened, a mare and her filly just walked into a convenience store. The mare smiles to you and nods, a young filly trots along beside her, her eyes fixed on all the candy strategically placed at her eye level.
“Hello, good afternoon.”
You say to the mare as she begins to stroll through the aisles. You stand behind the counter, a large cup of soda and several scratched off lottery tickets at your side.
A rumble occurs outside. You look out the window; streaks of green can be seen falling from the sky.
“What? …Wait…oh n-no…NO!”
Memories begin to flood your mind…quick sand, falling, the accident, Luna, memories of what is about to occur…
“N-no no NO, F-FUCKING NO…why this?!?!”
You look at the mare and her filly near the door way, they are looking outside at what is happening.
“Ru-Ru-Ru….get the fuck out of here!!!”
The mare continues to look out the window, grasping here filly close by her side. Explosions begin erupting outside, getting closer and closer every few seconds…
“They’re c-c-coming, h-HIDE!!!”
The mare looks at you with a bewildered and scared look on her face.
“Mommy, what’s going on?” The filly asks her mother.
The mother looks into her eyes, not sure what to say…
“REMEMBER… FOCUS… RELAX… focus… relax… Luna…. LUNA!”
A guard pony rushes up to the doorway of the convenience store and begins to yell to the mare and filly standing in the doorway.
“Take shelter! Get out of he-”
A green streak lands directly on top of the guard pony. The explosion rips the poor pony to pieces. The glass door of the convenience store shatters to pieces. The mare and filly are thrown several feet backwards into the store. You try to duck as the explosion occurs, but you can’t bend your legs… Small pieces of glass shrapnel scrape your face.
A cloud of dust and debris forms from the aftermath of the explosion outside the front of the convenience store. As the cloud begins to settle two blue glowing eyes open and can be clearly seen within the cloud. They divert their gaze to the stunned mare and filly lying on the floor.
“L-leave her alone Y-YOU B-BASTARD!!!”
You yell trying to distract what lies inside the dust cloud. The blue eyes begin to move forward from the cloud of dust. The changeling monstrosity comes into full view, its wasps like wings, its jagged, jet-black body, the long, sharp fangs…
“L-Luna help… Luna… p-please help!”
Tears begin to form in your eyes, you are not sure you can watch this memory happen again. A jolt of black sticks your vision, everything around you shakes, you shudder as if a struck by a chill.
The mare regains her composure from the blast. While prone, she looks around for her daughter. She sees her lying a short distance away, unconscious. The mare then begins to get back on her feet…
“O-O-over here, you changeling fuck! L-Look at me, n-not her!”
You try to lift your front hoof to throw something at the beast. You put all your focus into moving your right front hoof, your hoof begins to shake, but stops. It feels as if you hoof is glued to the ground.
Anger begins to boil inside you.
The mare makes it back to all fours. With her eyes on her child she takes a step towards the filly, but then stops. She turns her neck around towards the entrance of the convenience store, the blue eyes of the monster lock gaze with her own. The monstrosity lets out an awful shriek, both you and the mare cringe in fright. The black monstrosity begins to charge towards the mare. Paralyzed in fear the mare watches in horror as the vile creature draws near.
“NOOOOOOOOO!...” You cry out in fear and anger.
The fangs of creature sink deep into the throat of the mare. The mare lets out a scream of agony, but the scream is muffled by the blood pooling in her throat.
In a wild frenzy you sway back and forth, trying to move your legs. In the process you knock yourself onto the ground.
A flash of light appears beside you. The sleek, long, dark blue legs of the alicorn materialize directly in front of your gaze.
“LUNA S-S-SAVE HER!” You cry to the alicorn.
Luna notices you strewn on the ground and then turns her gaze to the horrific scene occurring in the middle of the store.
She watches in disgust and anger as the fangs of the monstrosity continue to tear into the mare. A large pool of blood now covers the floor.
“Moon Glider, STAND!”
“I-I-can’t-”
“YES YOU CAN!”
“My legs-”
“You lost them out there, not in here!”
The horrific scene is currently out of your view, but the sound of bones snapping and blood gushing fills you with disgust, you feel vomit building up in the back of your throat.
“This is your mind Moon Glider! You are master of this domain, but only if you allow yourself to be…”
You look the alicorn in the eye as she tells you this. You return your gaze and concertation to your front right hoof…
“Focus, Moon Glider…” Luna replies, voice lowered in volume.
Your hoof begins to shake once again…
“Avenge her…” Luna whispers.
Your hoof slowly begins to rise to the top of the counter. The crewing noises continue in the background. You grab hold of the counter and begin to pull yourself up.
“You are almost there Moo-”
“AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!”
Luna’s words of encouragement are cut off by the shriek of the filly watching in horror as the monstrosity gouges upon her mother.
The black beast, now covered in blood, stops feeding from the carcass of the mare and gazes upon the filly.
“N-no you don’t, F-F-FUCKER!!!” You yell at the beast as you successfully regain footing on all fours.
The beast lets out another bone chilling screech, and then begins moving towards the filly.
Luna sees the spear of the dismembered guard pony from outside the store and grabs onto it with her blue magic aura.
“Moon Glider, CATCH!”
She throws you the spear and you catch it firmly in your front hooves.
Using your back hooves you leap from behind the counter and propel yourself into the air using your wings.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!”
You let out a cry as you fly towards the monster, spear in your hooves. The beast diverts its attention away from the filly and turns towards you. Right as it turns your spear meets with its chest. The beast lets out gut-wrenching howl, but you remain unwavering and continue to push the spear into the beast.
“D-DIE YOU MOTHER FUCKER!!!!”
The beast swipes at you with its hooves, but thanks to the long shaft of the spear you are out of reach. The beast looks you in the eye and its brow lowers in anger. The horn of the beast begins to glow, and suddenly the creature turns bright white. The creature then quickly transforms into the mare which lie gutted on the floor.
The mare looks at you and in agonizing pain says “PLEASE STOP! PLEASE!”
Despite knowing that this mare is a hideous monstrosity in disguise, you are momentarily fazed by this illusion. Your grip of the spear loosens. Grabbing this opportunity, spear still in its chest, the mare lunges towards you. You quickly strengthen you grip on the spear, the mare still out of arm’s length, but closer than before.
“I SHALL FEAST UPON YOUR FLESH PATHETIC PONY!” The mare screeches in its horrifying voice.
The mare grabbed the spear with her front hooves and pushes it further into her chest, further closing the gap between her and yourself. You watch in horror as the mare slides closer and closer.
Luna, realizing that you can use some assistance, yells out “Moon Glider, now might be a good time to fast-forward this memory. Remember how the changelings were removed from Canterlot?”
It takes you a second to realize what she was saying, then you remembered, the only reason you survived that day of the attack was because of the…
A flash of light occurs outside; a rumble begins to occur, low at first, but growing louder and louder.
“F-F-FEED ON THIS YOU MOTHER FUCKER!”
The rumble now became a thunderous roar. You lift the spear and the mare-disguised monstrosity up into the air. A wall of magical energy enters the convenience store, the wall safely passes through yourself and everything else in the store, but when it reaches the monstrosity on the end of the spear it carries the beast directly into the brick wall behind it. The beast momentarily lets out another high pitch screech but is quickly silenced as it is sandwiched between the brick wall and the wall of magic. The wall of magic keeps moving, while the brick wall holds firm. The monster’s body is instantly liquidated and green and black fluid flies everywhere across the convenience store.
The smell is horrible…
You wipe the fluid from your eyes. The walls, floor, and ceiling are smeared with the disgusting fluid. The traumatized filly lie there covered in fluid as well. You walk towards the filly, slipping and sliding in the fluid along the way, and clean the fluid from her eyes.
“It’s ok… y-you’re safe now…”
The filly, completely traumatized, buries its face into your chest and begins wail in anguish. You wrap a hoof around the filly to comfort her.
Your gaze looks to Luna, surrounded by a spherical magic shield that is covered in the green and black liquid. Luna carefully deactivates the shield spell, avoiding getting any liquid on here mane and fur. She glances at you with an embarrassed look on her face. She bites her lower lip for a second before speaking to you.
“Uhh…sorry… this is a fairly common nightmare for a lot of ponies... When you’ve been in the business as long as me you know when to dodge out of the way of the blood and guts… It just really messes up my mane…”
You stare at her blankly for a few seconds while the filly continues to bawl her eyes at your side…
Luna replies to your blank stare defensively.
“Do not give us that look! Thou can smell that vile stench, can thou not? ‘Tis a cockroach and excrement smoothie! We must smell this every night whilst trying to help ponies overcome this horrid nightmare! ‘Tis not just a few ponies, every pony in all of Canterlot has this nightmare! If only Shining Armor had been able to tell the differences between bug fornicating with bug and fornicating with a pony none of this would have ever happened!”
You continue to stare blankly at her for a few seconds… but you can’t help but to let out a smile followed by a chuckle. As you chuckle some of the fluid gets into your mouth. The foul tastes instantly makes you gag.
“Oh… let me help you with that, I think saw some clean napkins back here.”
Luna reaches underneath the counter and pulls out a sealed package of napkins with her hoof.
“HUZZAH! We hath found thee!”
She yells with glee as she thrusts the napkins into the air to show you she found them.
While thrusting one of her hooves into the air the top heavy mare throws herself off balance. The slippery floor caused the mare to stumble backwards and fall on her side.
The pulpy remains of the monstrosity completely cover half of Luna’s fur and almost completely soak her main and tail.
“FUCK! BY CELESTIA’S TAINT NOT AGAIN!”
Despite the grieving child at you side, and her mother’s mutilated corpse not too far away, you can no longer help yourself. You being to laugh uncontrollably.
Luna pulls herself up and sees you laughing at her. At first her dark blue face almost turns red with rage, but after she catches a glimpse of her reflection in store window her mood lightens up. She also begins to let out deep laugh.
After a minute of laughing you both calm down, both distracted by the wails of the filly. You are overcome with a wave of sadness.
“In the actual memory I c-cowered in fear behind this counter as both this mare and filly were m-mutilated by that m-monster. Everyday I’m haunted by their s-screams. Everyday I hate myself for not trying to save them… just s-sitting behind the counter like a fucking c-coward.”
Luna, gazes at you, then speaks in a soothing counseling voice.
“We all have our regrets Moon Glider… not everyone can be a heroic monster slayer.”
“But I should have at least tried, these two might still be alive…”
“Fight or flight… you chose flight. Considering you had no idea what you were up against, no combat training, no weapons, no reinforcements… you made a choice which allowed you to survive. Whether it was right or wrong… well… right and wrong are both subjective aren’t they…”
“But it was my fault…”
“Did you maul them to death Moon Glider?”
“...No… but”
“Then it is not your fault! You can’t keep living a life of regret! There is no reason another pony’s life should be ruined because of what happened here. If you want to honor that mare and filly then get out there and help make the world a better place!”
You look at the filly as she continues to cry at your side.
“Listen, what happened in the past cannot be undone... but if you are looking for some sort of redemption or some sort of happy ending, then this is your chance… Now would please do something about that kid, that crying is going to give one of us a migraine, and that’s the last thing either of us needs right now...”
You look at the mutilated corpse of the mare on the ground, she is far from a possible recovery.
You look back at Luna and give her a shrug…
“Don’t look at me, be creative, it’s your head!”
“Umm…”
The wail of the child continues…
You lift the chin of the child up with your front hoof.
“Don’t worry kid, you mom is going to be just fine”
She pauses her wailing, looks at her mother’s corpse and then stares at you confusingly.
“Really?”
“Yeah…uh…she just needs some first aid…”
You scan the around the convenience store looking for things which might be able to help you in this predicament. You walk over to the aisle which contains a small assortment of medicine. The section mainly contains cough syrup, headache pain relievers, and condoms. You did not carry any serious first aid equipment in your store…
“Let’s see here…”
You grab a box of band-aids and a bottle of hydrogen peroxide. You look at Luna, she tries to hide a grin as she sees what you have in you have in your hooves. You begin to back to the corpse of the mare, but then stop, something in the aisles catches your eye.
“AH-HA! Just what I was looking for.”
You grab a roll of duct tape from the shelf and then walk back to the mare. You kneel down next to the mare, a close look at her mutilated corpse almost makes you want to vomit. You look at the filly, her eyes are staring at you expectantly…
“Uhh... d-don’t worry kid, I’m a fully trained EMT… now let’s see here…”
You grab the hydrogen peroxide and begin pouring the bottle upon the large gaping wounds, the once bloody scene is now a combination of red and white foaming bubbles. You unroll the duct tape and begin patching the large bite marks where the monster ripped out large chunks of flesh from the mare.
You look at Luna, she has a bewildered and embarrassed look upon her face. She looks as if she really wants to say something to you, but instead she simply nods and smiles in encouragement. You take out the band-aids and begin applying them to the mare, mostly in random locations. You look at the child.
“All right, we need now is a little defibrillator action and she will be as good as new.”
You look back at Luna.
“Luna, would you be so kind…”
Luna shoots you a worried look.
“Of course…”
Luna charges up her horn and quickly zaps the mare’s corpse with a bolt of lightning. The majority of the band aids you put on fly off from the impact. The corpse is now charred and smoking.
The child lets out a scared gasp.
“SHIT! I wasn’t ready for that! One more time Luna, maybe tone it down a notch this time…”
Luna rolls her eyes, the annoyed and skeptical look on her face shows that she wants no part of this farce, but she still charges her horn one more time. A bolt of lightning strikes the mare.
“GHHUUUUUAAAAAH!!!!”
The mare takes in deep breath.
“HOLY SHIT... IT WORKED!”
“MOMMY!”
The young mare runs to the side of the newly reanimated mare.
“What happened?…” The mare asks in confusion.
“Just another day in Equestria ma’am…” You say as you let out a sigh.
The mare looks around her and sees the absolute carnage of the store, as well as the pool of multi-colored bodily fluids covering the floor.
She gets to her feet and signals to her daughter.
“Let’s go home baby…”
The mare and filly begin to walk towards the door.
Before the mare leaves the store she pauses and then looks back to you…
“Oh, I almost forgot…”
“No thanks necessary ma’am, happy to help.”
“Can I get a pack of Camels, 100s.”
“What?”
Your jaw drops…
“…and a pick 4, boxed.”
Luna lets out a chuckle but then quickly bites her lip.
You let out a disappointed sigh.
“Yeah… just a sec…”
You proceed to the cash register to ring her up.
“That will be 12 bits and 47 cents.”
The mare, still covered in blood and duct tape, places a twenty bit piece on the counter. You give her change and her receipt.
“Thank you, have a good day…”
The mare and filly finally leave the store.
“I hated this fucking job…”
Luna walks up beside you.
“Not too shabby Moon Glider, you are beginning to get the hang of this.”
“Please get me out of this hell Luna…”
“Gladly, although it is not going to be easy…”
“I’m prepared to do whatever it takes, I can’t keep reliving these terrible memories…”
“Then you’re probably not going to like my solution…”
Luna says hesitantly.
You let out a sigh…
“Let’s hear it…”
“In order to get you out of your coma we need to trigger increased amounts of brain activity. In order to do that we will need to go through as many key memories as quickly as possible.”
Your heart skipped a beat upon hearing this…
“Remember, you need to keep your composure during these memories. Extreme levels of pain or emotion will cause a collapse… and Moon Glider, I’m not sure you will be able to recover from another collapse… It took you quite a while for you to manifest consciousness since last time…”
“H-how long have I been in this coma?”
Luna pauses and then carefully answers the question.
“Quite a while… but your ability to achieve stability in a traumatic memory such as this is very promising. Your lucid dreaming skills have also been steadily improving. After what I just witnessed here I’d say that you have a fighting chance of pulling through this!”
You noticed how Luna dodged your question, but you decide it is probably for the best you didn’t know for sure. Still you shudder just thinking about it…
“Are you ready to move onto another memory Moon Glider?”
You look her in the eye, hesitation grips your mind, were you going to be able to do this?
“We are going to get through this Moon Glider.”
She makes a determined smile and places her hoof on your shoulder.
“Yeah, I’m ready… Let’s do this!”
“Excellent”
Luna says as she begins to charge her horn.
“Hey, your stutter is not as bad as before Moon Glider, that is a really good sign.”
She’s right, you hadn’t noticed yourself but after she pointed this out you are filled with a renewed sense of hope. Luna extends her front right hoof to you. You extend your front left hoof. She tightly grasps onto it.
“You are going to want to hang on tight, and remember what I told you Moon Glider…”
“Relax and Focus…”
“You got it! Alright, here we go.”
Luna’s horn turns a bright white, both of you are surrounded by her white magical aura. Your vision is slowly overcome with a bright light. The convenience store slowly fades from view. Whiteness completely overtakes your vision…