//------------------------------// // Shadows // Story: The Nightmare in the Corner // by Kaffeina //------------------------------//         My sister left, rather quietly I might add, and I return my gaze to the items that lay before me. There were a few more, and I puzzled over which one to look into next, “So, which one to look at now?”         I pondered, my insanity toning itself down for the moment. It wasn’t that hard to control, merely hard to keep under control for any extended length of time. The rest of the item held no interest. They weren’t needed at the moment.         I looked up, but found myself still intrigued by the first of the Makutas. His history, as far as I could see, held many of the same aspects of power that I myself did. Whether or not these aspects were used the same was another question.         After a moment of musing, I picked up Makuta Teridax’s stone. This time, the greeting did not speak out but the item did gow, if not softly. A curious thing. I slipped a tendril in and found the Way to the item’s origin, Teridax’s world.         With my powers, I created a portal made from the Mindscape. It was simple but ignominious at best. I slipped through, my destination not of my choosing aside from the universe, and luckily, found myself inside a rather large room, made of smooth, dark stone. Large benches were lined up in orderly lines, and the air smelt of lime. Some kind of laboratory, by the looks of things.         “Hmm… interesting,” I muttered as I looked around in further detail. Dust covered most of the available surfaces, and the various vials and metallic instruments lying around seemed to be disused for a long time. “I do wonder if I’m in the right place. Mad scientists usually have some sort of nasties running about.” Looking around, there was indeed something else in the room- a rather large pedastal holding a rather large, boxy computer. “That seems to bode wellsprings,” I said, grinning at the machine before me. With little worry, I approached it. The machine was made of black steel, with a plain screen. Turning it on, the machine displayed, in crude text, Secrets and Files. Pass test to continue. I blinked, that was something. Shouldn’t be too much of a problem, to be honest. The keyboard only had one button. No indication as to what it did. With absolutely no qualms, I pressed down on the button. Immediately, the world digitized around me, and the next thing I knew, I was inside the computer. Inside, crude text displayed itself again. Beat virtual Teridax simulation to access Secrets and Files. You have as many attempts as you want. If you give up, your soul will be eaten by the computer. This was certainly something. I shrugged and looked for the Teridax sim the machine had mentioned- Thwomp. My head exploded, and I was confronted with a death screen. The Teridax sim had been behind me, no need to apple out, I smiled. This was going to be fun! Looking for a means to try again, the screen displayed two options: Continue and Give Up. Raising a hand, the Continue button glowed as I held my hand over it. This time, I immediately reverted to incorporeal status and sent tendrils out to warn me of any approach. Nothing nearby, then suddenly a blast of blue energy appeared from off the horizon. I watched through tendril that approached the location. The Teridax sim was there, and it seemed to pause. A meteorite came streaking towards me from the sky, causing me to rip myself from my surroundings and to those of the nearest tendril. The meteorite stopped, seemed to hang in the air, then fell towards me. I blinked, smart tactics. With a another tendril, I landed myself on the meteorite and sent out a plus of Fog, allowing my Nightmares to assist in destroying the rock. The Sim appeared suddenly and wordlessly fired another blast of blue energy, and from how it just sheared through the rock and left nothing behind, it probably wasn’t going to be an easy to survive hit. Thankfully, I managed to toss one of my nightmares into the path. The beam continued, unregarding of what was thrown in its way. With a last minute idea, I jumped into a tendril behind the sim. The sim briefly seemed confused, then, seemingly at random, walls of orange energy erupted around it. Obviously, not being stupid, I slipped into the Mindscape long enough to let the attack graze a small part of me. The damage it left behind was… Honestly, it looked like a small scale apocalypse had been left around it. The ground was melted and twisted, large swathes of the landscape were bored away from the blasts, and the sim was confused. Without an opponent it could see, it seemed to lose most of its intelligence - all it did was just stand there, waiting. An idea flashed into my head. I could attack it from the Mindscape, after all, there weren’t any restrictions as far as I could tell. After trying, however, it was quickly deemed not as good an action. It was a program. Teridax had somehow copied how he usually fought and attacked into this machine. It had every move Teridax had ever done, but that was it. It had no original moves at all. That meant that anticipation was key and boy was I ever so eager. Competitor outside attack range. Moving sim into attack range. I frowned, “Now that’s just a bullshit move and totally unfair,” I said, diving back into the original fight area. This is a game. The A.I is unfair. Deal with it. The message appeared briefly, then disappeared. “Point taken, and registered as a steaming pile of crap,” I retorted, dodging the Sim suddenly coming back to life and swinging its spear. Swing spear, followed up by a blast of molten plasma coming behind it, then a large rock coming down from the atmosphere, laser eyes. “Shit,” I muttered as I dove into the Mindscape and out to another distant location. The Sim appeared again, then immediately went on the offensive. Seriously, does it know nothing else? With a sigh, I summoned a scourge of nightmares and had them merge before launching it at the Sim. Granted, I had some bullshit moves, but for crying out loud. The Sim just stood there as they just fell through him. Great. I wasn’t entirely sure how to win, but I could almost guarantee it wouldn’t be this time. It immediately charged me, and there was a low buzzing on the horizon. I blinked, wait… If this is a sim… Can I crash it? Cause enough mayhem it full-on crashes? That might kill me though. That buzzing was odd too. I’ll use it as a last resort. I grabbed the nearest nightmare and formed her into a blade, bringing it up to hopefully block the incoming attack. Off on the horizon, a large mass of blackness gathered. As it came over, I could see that it was a giant mass of wasps, bees, flies, mosquitoes, and all manner of insects. Honestly, could say that it wasn’t the first time I’d seen large masses of insects like this, but not usually against me. “...” The amount of bullshit this situation involved in this was ever increasing. The swarm washed over us as the Sim continued to fight, only using its massive scythe weapon. Meanwhile, now I was distracted by hundreds of thousands of flying insects doing their darndest to bite and sting me. The damnable insects wouldn’t stop, so I proceeded to send my nightmares, armed with flyswatters, after them so I could at least focus on fighting. Its strategy was to continue repeating its spear movements in an attempt to eviscerate me. Not exactly a good plan, as that meant I could anticipate it, whether or not I could strike was another. Every move was mechanical, felt mechanical even. Nothing new or original to it. I squinted attempting find a weakness and found one: every second swing, it would pause for a second, then go right back to it. I deflected the swing, waited until the opportune moment and struck. It froze, then: Congrazulation! You are of win! I blinked and squinted, “All that trouble and it takes one hit. Fancy,” I said, and grinned, “And being a pain in the ass. I like it.” Reality asserted itself and I was staring at the computer. The screen went away, to be replaced with an image of Teridax. “If you’re hearing this, at this exact moment, then I am dead and the time problems of this universe have been solved. Unfortunate, but not something I did not anticipate. Normally, there would have been plans on here. However, it was either the files or the sim. I chose the sim.” I raised an eyebrow, “Fun choice,”  I said aloud. “Since you beat the sim, I guess I should give you something. You have a high score. It’s meaningless but I guess you can try and beat it again. If you want to talk to me, I will probably be available in some form of hell. There may be something in my inner sanctum that will help. Good luck.” With that, the screen went dead. After a bit, a logo appeared. Supre Teridxa Smi 2000: Anything can hadplan! I frowned, “May or may not play again. As for hell,” I smirked, “You and me both,” I turned around, looking to find the ‘inner sanctum’ it had mentioned. The massive pair of doors at the back of the room posed little challenge to open. Inside was what looked like a massive tome, bound in leather, along with a crystal ball. All items were covered in dust. The room just had a massive block of the same black stone that made up the lab for furniture. Pretty impressive, I suppose. The crystal ball had a post it note attached to it. Picking it up, the post-it note had scribbled on it, to find things. “Handy,” I muttered, looking at it for a bit and moving it around in my hands. Inside, a tiny galaxy seemed to spin, before zooming in on a hell, and something inside. Mechanical and seemingly insubstantial, only its mask seemed recognisable. “Well,” I muttered, “How to talk…” He looked at me directly, seemed to judge, then nodded. “”Come through.” A portal opened itself right next to me. I blinked and stepped through the portal without a care. Teridax turned to me. “Welcome to a hell. I have to say, you came at a good time. Did you enjoy the fight sim?” “It was fun,” I said, “I have to give you that,” I said, looking around. He smiled. “It really was. Since you’re the only one who’s found my lair, I suppose I shall reward you with some idle chit-chat.” He flowed around, before coalescing into a form more in line of what the sim had lead me to believe. “Thank you,” I answered with a slight nod, “Personally, I only know of you from your item and looking into your universe.” He seemed to sit in mid-air. “Yes. I suppose I can say something like that would draw interest. I sought to conquer reality itself and rule everything.” He chuckled at that. “As you can see, I have had a temporary setback in that.” “My plans are a little more… nightmare-ish. Why rule,” I grinned, “when plunging them into an eternal nightmare works just as well?” Teridax shrugged. “To each their own. You have our mutual gift, don’t you?” I nodded, smiling, “It does come in handy, doesn’t it?” “Yes. Anyway, I did promise some chit-chat. Unfortunately, I have a wide variety of plans still active, so I’m going to have to ask you not to interfere with them too much.” I tilted my head to the side, kicking my legs into the air, “I see no reasons, and honestly,” I clicked my tongue, “I feel a mutual agreement, partnership, something in those regards would work out best because, you see, I need information about certain aspects,” I smiled, “about working with your kind of metal. My NIghtmares have slight trouble preserving in reality, and my sister, Roodaka, has agreed to make bodies for them” Teridax waved a hand. “No problem at all. Protosteel is one of my favourite mediums. A forge is necessary, first of all. Obviously, she must have one. The second thing I have to ask is, how much physical substance do they have?” “The majority have a fair portion, for a short time. My strongest, and the middle ground ones, have solid bodies until they start deteriorating outside of the Mindscape. It's proven to be a major pain when interfering in Equestria,” I frowned. Teridax shrugged. “They’re related to dream stuff, I’m guessing. Here’s a tip.” An illusion sprung forth- “This is called a dreamcatcher. It may work, or it may not. It depends. Find a magic user and enchant these things. Above all, believe that they will work. Belief is as powerful a multiversal force as love and friendship, after all.” I nodded, “Tried a similar thing and it certainly lasted a while longer, but,” I frowned, “it only works for my nightmares. I need something I can inhabit long enough to accomplish a few tasks In Equestria. The NIghtmares,” I waved a hand, one of them nuzzling my side, “aren’t going to accomplish this goal without me.” “Hm. For that to work, the best solution would be to merge the dream world and the real world.” Teridax waved a hand idly. “Possible, if you can find enough idiots willing to do that kind of thing.” I smiled again, “That’s part of my plans, however,” I lifted up a hand, a tendril dancing between my fingers, “I can’t do that yet, it would my enemies with power as well. That’s why I wish to have my sister build bodies, both for me and the most powerful Nightmares.” Teridax considered this. “Hm. Difficult problem.” He mulled it over, then cracked his knuckles. “Can they possess people through their dreams?” “Not for nearly long enough,” I said shaking my head. Teridax seemed satisfied. “Simple enough. Find a bunch of mentally retarded people, get rid of their personalities, and then integrate the brain into the armour. Wire it up and it should work.” “Brilliant, as for anything else, I need, I can’t think of anything at the moment,” I said, grinning, “if I think of anything, I’ll let you know. In exchange, anything you need me to do, relay, stuff like that?” Teridax waved his hand. Several portals opened. “I’m content for now. Besides, my little project is happening. What happens when you take the closest versions of the greatest composers in the multiverse and then drive them mad with one song?” “It obviously varies, but it sounds super fun! I may have to try something like that,” I laughed, “Though I expect the result is a rather appealing tune.” “Of course.” With that, a thousand renditions of the same song played. Truly breathtaking. I grinned and bowed, walking towards a portal. “Why the people act like you are a taboo, my friend, I may never know,” I stepped into the portal and out into the Mindscape once more, pulling out and umbrella and splashing through the blood singing, “If you like pina colada…” Note to Self: Trademark this. Put it on a T-shirt...