//------------------------------//
// When dreams become nightmares.  
// Story: Two Worlds. One Fate. 
// by Requiem for Gods 
//------------------------------//

		As the girls busied themselves with examining all the odds and ends they could fish out of the creature's strange bags, said creature began to toss and turn as it was enveloped in a strange teal glow, and its dreams quickly became nightmares.


Sun City


As far as dreams go, it was unimpressive at first. The creature, John by name, was sitting at his computer looking at the stock markets rise and fall, when all of a sudden an earsplitting siren roared into life. Stumbling from his chair to his window, John peered outside. The sight of which nearly stopped his heart. 

Dark purple clouds filled the heavens as lightning arced towards the ground like vipers, while blue flames rained from on high; turning everything they touched into ash. Tornadoes as black as night tore through whatever happened to lay in their path. In the distance shambling shadows could be seen rising from the earth, while others soared across the skies.

John's mind reeled as he tried to understand what was happening, his body however raced to his bedroom and began piling an assortment of random firearms. Having overcome the initial shock of witnessing; what could only be called the Apocalypse, John brought his attention to the furious movements of his hands as they checked and inspected the weapons before them. Having only recently taken an interest in firearms John could recognize most of them. To date he only had managed to purchase a Glock 22 which he always kept on his person unless forbidden by law; and doing so left him without food for a week, leaving him to wonder where the rest came from. 

“Where did I get all of these?” muttered John as his hands began placing guns in various holster that randomly appeared on his body. When all was said and done, his back sported an A.K. 47 and a PS-90 both loaded, on his hips he had two Glock 22s, a pair of hunting knifes, and a double barrel sawed off shotgun that rested on his crotch, finally his calves were fitted with a pair of flare guns. After gearing up John watched; rather perplexedly, as his hands picked up a bag filled with enough ammo to keeps his trigger finger happy for a month and eight ready to go Molotov Cocktails. “WHERE DID I GET ALL THIS!?”

Much to John's irritation, his body; which seemed increasingly to be beyond his direct control, made its way slowly to the garage only to explode into a sprint when a scream echoed from outside, “That sounded like Tony?” In the seconds it took for the garage door to open John played witness to the horrifying screams of his neighbor; with each one sounding worse than the last. “COME ON , COME ON! SCREW IT!” cried John as he forced his body to roll out from under the doorway, when his eyes finally settled unto Tony; he wished he hadn't. 

Tony; an elderly woman from across the street, was screaming as her body was ripped to shreds by her husband and a few of the neighbors. All of whom were zombies. Without thought or emotion John rose to his feet; unsheathing his PS-90 from its holster and lining up his sights. With a simple squeeze of it's trigger, the PS-90 roared into life and it's target burst into a fine red mist; ending Tony's pain. After the mist settled all that was left of Tony's head was a stump and a tongue hanging lifelessly in the wind. 

Despite her grizzly demise, Tony's assailants didn't seem to care, continuing the ghastly feast as if nothing happened. Seeing this John's mind went from numb to angry, followed by enraged, and to such a degree as to command his body's compliance. Bringing his PS-90 to bare, John focused all of his fury upon the undead as he pulled the trigger. One by one the zombies fell, their carcasses framing her corpse. Solemnly John approached the bodies, and in doing so sheathed his PS-90 and prepared a Molotov Cocktail. 

“Our Father in heaven ...” muttered John, praying for all of them. “....In Jesus' name we pray. 	Amen.” With that John turned his back on his former friends and neighbors, walked ten paces towards his house and threw a lit Molotov directly beside Tony's body. The flame quickly spread turning the macabre scene into a makeshift funeral pyre, the best kind of send off he could grant under the circumstances. While sparing a simple look back; for those lost, John picked up a faint whistling noise coming from above.

With reflexes honed from years of martial arts and dancing, John; with naught but a quick glance, deftly avoided incoming blur. In the brief look he got, John saw; beyond a shadow of a doubt, the rotting form of a pegasus pony. “What the fu?” Moments later the Hasbro Zombie returned to the sky and joined with a squadron of other pegasi. The collections of corpses circled overhead for a few minutes, making John feel like roadkill.

After a few moments the pegasi reformed into a “V” formation, banked hard and fast and made a beeline for John. “...I should be running.” was about the only thought John could muster, but even so his body remained planted to the ground. “Why aren't you running?” cried John as his hands reached for a flare gun at his feet and the sawed off in his pants, only to hide both of them behind his back. The pegasi veered off a bit and leveled a good five or so feet from the ground, as the pegasi tightened their formation John felt his muscles tense. “One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Seven ponies. Ha ha ha...” mouthed John as he counted the incoming pegasi, only to mutter angrily, “damn you Count.”

The zombies were about fifty feet away now and flying fast, being so close John could start picking out the details of the lead pegasus. “ Broken goggles, orange mane, blue fur? No, wait...that's a suit! SPIT FIRE!?” While he could only see her face and wings, John whistled in pain as he saw the chunk of flesh torn from her face. “That just ain't right.”

Sure enough each of the pegasi had a singular unifying detail, they were all wearing the traditional Wonder Bolts athletics suit. John would have felt pity for the Wonder Bolts, and more so for their number one fan Rainbow Dash, but the gap between them was a mere 30 or so feet and he was otherwise preoccupied counting down to his doom. 

“Thirty feet...” muttered John as his body began to tense in his arms and legs.

“Twenty?” thought John, as his vision focused intently on Spit Fire.

His body had a plan and he knew it, “Alright, let's hope this works. Nineteen.”

With as much speed as his body could muster, John fired a single shot from his flare gun into the sky; drawing the attention of the zombies. Even with their attention elsewhere the pegasi kept flying at him, not losing an ounce of speed; and that was just what the body wanted. Taking a single step forward; and positioning himself to sustain the recoil, John fired his double barrel sawed off at near point blank range directly in Spit Fire's face. 

The shotgun rounds tore Spit Fire in two leaving John unharmed; save for a smattering of rotten blood over his person, the other pegasi however weren't so lucky. The remains of Spit Fire went flying and quickly dropped in speed, hitting the other ponies hard causing each of them to either fall outright or crash into one another. 

John was speechless as his body pulled a Glock from it's holster and took leisurely head shots at the ponies closest to him. Sparing each of the ponies a glance between shots, John looked aghast at the sheer mutilation some of the ponies had gone through. The stallion Soarin had most of his stomach eaten, leaving only his spine and a few ligaments between his flanks and his chest “Poor bastard...”

As his body went about the grizzly duty of putting the ponies to rest and ending their undead torment, John took notice of how nothing seemed to bother him about all this. Sure he felt sorry for Tony and everyone for being dead to begin with, but nothing he had been unaffected by anything he had personally done. “I've got some real issues.” muttered John as he walked over to the final Wonder Bolt. Unlike the others this pegasus seemed to have been knocked unconscious, “Heh, who knew zombies could sleep?” 

The pegasus in question seemed smaller than the rest, “Probably youngest of the group. Female by the looks of it too. Ah, well.” sighed John as his body brought the Glock to bare and pulled the trigger. Only for it to jam. “Oh, come on!” cried John as he noticed the mare stir, “Oh, no you don't.”groaned John as he held her wings down with his foot. The pony, to her credit, fought for all she was worth, which earned a solemn nod of respect from John.

As John took time to do a clearance drill and ensure it wouldn't jam later, he gave the mare a greater look over. “Hhmm? That's odd.” commented John as he noticed the mare's mane and tail had a total of six colors though; each of them were caked with so much blood that, he could hardly tell what they originally were. After checking his gun with a random shot to the sky John, felt secure in using it once more, “I'm sorry little one, I'd like to do more, but I'm afraid that's beyond my powers.” The pegasus responded with little more than a feral growl and another attempt at freedom. “Good bye, my little pony. Go home to your loved ones.”

With a bang and a flash from his Glock the pony ceased to resist, succumbing to the death it should have met so long ago. “God, please grant mercy to these souls.” As he knelt down to holster his flare gun, the mare's body shook scaring John to death, “HOLY SH...Stop that!”yelled John as he stood upright. The mare's goggles were tossed aside in her death rattle and John took notice of the brilliance of their deep rose hue. “Wait a minute...”

Hesitantly John knelt down and peeled back the Wonder Bolts suit from the mares flank, and in doing so revealed a cloud shaped cutie mark with a rainbow lightning bolt confirming what his mind told him was true. “I just shot Rainbow Dash...I. SHOT. RAINBOW DASH!!” roared John as he took the limp mare in his arms. Whatever latent emotions he'd had at shooting his friends and neighbors came bursting out like a flood. As he cradled the broken Rainbow Dash, John's eyes began to blur and his sobs and screams faded into mere white noise


Down Town Phoenix


When John came too, he was no longer holding Rainbow Dash, and he couldn’t recognize the surrounding area, that knowledge was overcame by the sheer amount of pain he was being subjected too. “WHAT THE HELL!?” screamed John as he took stock of his person and immediate area, “Oh....”

John was lying on his back surrounded by corpses of both human and pony, the latter in every make and model available; save alicorns. Most of them had either gaping holes in their heads or none at all. Intermixed among the corpses were cast aside guns and spent shell casings, with the rounds from his A.K. being the most prevalent. All in all, the sight was awesome. That was until he saw the damage to his body.

A hole larger than his fist tore through his skin and bone into his chest revealing a erratically pulsating heart and a slightly visible lung. His stomach was torn open with his intestines pulled out and leading into the maw of one of the undead. His left leg was perfectly whole, with not even a scratch on it. His right however was little more than blood stained bone. His left arm conversely was missing only a bit of its triceps, where his right was lying somewhere among the rotten corpses. 

While the pain had; at first, left John unable to do more than scream, his peculiar habit quickly kicked in. “HEH, haha. HAHAHAHAHA!!” roared John laughing boisterous at first, only for it to devolve into mindless cackling. Throughout his life John had developed this trick for dealing with severe pain or incredibly dangerous situations, and time and time again it had served him well. School yard bullies quickly fled a bloodied and beaten target when it looked at them and laughed like a madman. On more than one occasion his teachers would request he see a psychiatrist, though when he finally did the shrink thought it a minor thing; especially when weighed against the other reasons for his being there.

However, the pain was too much for him to laugh away, as there wasn't anything to scare off he quickly let his laugh die down and replaced it with a prayer. 

“Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name. 

Your kingdom come, 

your will be done, 

on earth as it is in heaven. 

Give us this day our daily bread, 

and forgive us our debts, 

as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

John took a look at his good arm he noticed a Glock still lying within his palm. Checking the magazine, John let out a happy sigh when he saw a single round left inside. John could feel the pain overtaking his senses, and his heart; which he could easily see, was starting to slow in it's beating, 'Well this is it.' John paused his pray to give a chuckle as he brought the Glock to his head. 'I always wanted to go out with a “bang”.'

“And lead us not into temptation, 

but deliver us from evil."

When his vision finally faded into total blackness, and he could feel his final life breath leaving
his lips John pulled the trigger, “Amen.”

Darkness of his mind

John felt cold and limp as the darkness fully overtook him. He waited to see the “Pearly Gates” or feel the black flames of hell, but after awhile; when nothing came, “Well...death's a bit of a let down, but I guess it could be worse.”

“Indeed it could be.” spoke a voice.

“Who's there?” called John.

“Honestly. No one. Currently. I am merely an imprint, a recording if you will. I am here to give you a message.” spoke the voice, it's tone as cold as ice. “Come find me. I await you at the place of my birth. My defeat. And my redemption.” The voice went silent for a moment, leaving John alone in the darkness of the after life. “That is all, oh and until you do, this dream you had. Will be the only one. So unless you wish to experience death again and again, you will give haste. However I am afraid you have more pressing matters to attend to.”

John was about to ask what it was talking about when a thunderous boom scared him out of his sleep. His eyes, quickly registered the sleeping bag covering his body and the unusual pillow beneath his head. Looking around the room, John paused at first. His dream still fresh in his mind, slowly gave way to the knowledge of his actual location. John's mind, which would have normally gone nuts with questions, had only one concern at the moment. Finding the source of that boom, which he knew for a fact to be from his Glock. The horror of what his gun could do in his current surrounding, fueled his need to find his firearm. A loud bit of rustling above had John looking for a means of getting there and when he saw a stair case to his right, John pounced on it like a tiger. 

With breakneck speed John ascended the stairwell, only to come to a wooden door; but this was hardly enough to stop him. Seeing the door ahead of him, John positioned his shoulder in place and gritted his teeth, just in time to throw the door completely off it's hinges and down to the floor.

Inside was a collection of ponies, if he wasn't scared out of his mind he would have noticed that the three standing were Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle and Apple Jack; however this was neither the time nor place. Pushing his way through them John came face to face with an unconscious Fluttershy with a streak of blood trickling down her face coming from somewhere inside her mane. 

As the scene fully registered in his mind; as well as who was standing beside him. John's hands went to cover his face as tears surged from his eyes, “Fluttershy?” Under other circumstances John would have began to question his own sanity; or jump with joy in lack of concern for it, but at the moment his sorrow was quickly giving way to a growing sense of anger. Turning to see the others, he asked, in tones so heated and filled with hatred the mares thought their ears would catch fire, “What? Happened?”

Rainbow Dash, pointed towards John's Glock lying on the ground with a spent shell lying nearby. John's eyes, which had already been swimming in tears broke like dams and left his eyes looking like waterfalls, angry, ANGRY, waterfalls. 

Just as John felt his habit coming to call, as a soft, almost angelic, groan brought everyone's attention back to the yellow coated mare on the floor. With a simple cough she sat herself up on her hooves and looked around the room. “What happened?” She would have asked more but she was quickly covered in hugs, three from her friends, and a hug big enough to hold her and her friends from the creature down stairs. 

When the hug ended, and only after the creature finally let go of all of them and stopped apologizing, Fluttershy looked at the creature and asked, “Hello, I'm Fluttershy, what's your name...that is, if you don't mind sharing.”

When Fluttershy whispered the last part of her question, the creature smiled and laughed; his previous demeanor washed away with his tears. “Sorry, Fluttershy. My name is John and it's my most sincere pleasure to me you. All of you, but first ” Then he turned to each of the mares and said, “Twilight Sparkle. Rainbow Dash. Apple Jack. Allow me to apologize for my temper earlier. I beg your forgiveness.”

“Well, John is it? Y'ah don't need tah be sorry, in fact ah think it's mighty kind of y'ah to worry about Fluttershy like that.” replied Apple Jack as she offered a hoof for a shake, which John slowly took, “Though, ah'd suggest y'ah keep that anger of yer's under check. If'n you know what ah mean?”

“All too well I'm afraid. Though I can agree that none of us want to see anypony hurt like that.”

With a quick exchange of smiles John turned from Apple Jack and looked at Twilight, “And what is your verdict Miss Sparkle?”

Twilight looked at the creature and flashed a lighthearted smile, “I agree with Apple Jack, so long as you keep that temper under control I'll forgive you. Though, the reasons I can assume was only out of concern for Fluttershy?” With a quick nod from John her smile widened, “Than all's forgiven. Now do you mind if I ask you some questions.”

“In a moment, there is one more that needs to give her blessings, Rainbow Dash?” replied John, quickly avoided the flood of question Twilight's mind no doubt held.

Rainbow Dash just looked shamefully at John for a moment than to Fluttershy, “It should be me who apologizes, I could have really hurt Fluttershy. Even after she warned me about not to play with that thing.” Rainbow Dash motioned her hooves to the Glock lying on the ground. Rainbow Dash looked solemn for a bit longer before she fixed John with a hateful stare, “Why'd you even have that thing?!”

John knew Rainbow's attitude from the show and also knew getting into an argument would only lead to problems longer down the road, “Because Rainbow Dash, where I come from, you have to watch your back for every shadow or flicker of light.” As he continued his voice grew in sorrow, “In my world people kill and beat one another for things a simple as a different of opinion or a difference in appearance. Because in my world, a single word or phrase can be the difference of living or dying, even as one as simple as 'excuse me.'”

John wanted to cease his current train of thought but; like his tears earlier, it just kept coming. “Because in my world, you have to lock your doors at night, just so you feel that there's a slight chance of survival. And only because with a locked door between you and someone else, you have a few more precious seconds to grab a weapon to defend yourself with. Because Rainbow Dash, I live in a nightmare, alone with no friends or family to speak of. Because that...” John now sounded like he was on the verge of tears again as he pointed towards his Glock, “is the only thing keeping me from death when words fail me. It isn't a perfect defense and I don't know if I have the ability to use it, but often times it's mere presence is enough to save your life; where I come from.”

John simply let his eyes fall to the floor, trying to avoid the horrified looks on the mares surrounding him, “Because Rainbow Dash, I'm too much of a coward to go without it. And my cowardice nearly cost us the life of someone completely innocent. I probably should apologize for that as we...” Before John could utter another word he was encased with tearful ponies, and hugs that threatened to choke the life from him. 

Rainbow Dash was around John's neck, with her face buried in his hair. Fluttershy grabbed hold of John's chest; or at least as much as she could, he face buried in his shirt. Twilight Sparkle and Apple Jack each held fast to his legs. “Oooooookkkaaayyyy? This is a little awkward.”

Twilight was the first to answer, her voice shaking, “Sorry, but we can't image something like that. A world so dark. So....”

“Scary....” whispered Fluttershy, her voice barely distinguishable as her face remained buried.

John sighed to himself, and mentally cursing himself for taking his explanation too far. “Girls, please stop. The truth of the matter is that, my world, is indeed scary and dangerous. But that is only a small part of it. I again, apologize for scaring you as I have. Please calm down. If you don't mind, all this 'excitement' has left me tired, and before I go to sleep, I'd like to take care of whatever damage Fluttershy has taken.” 

For a moment John was afraid the girls would never let go; a little afraid and mostly hopeful, but eventually they released him and Fluttershy showed him to her medical supplies. After examining the wound atop Fluttershy's head, “Alright, it seems the bullet merely grazed her. I've cleaned the wound and applied sufficient pressure so she should be healed up by tomorrow. Regardless I highly suggest a stop off at Nurse Redheart's and Tenderheart's, and I won't take 'No' for an answer.” Giving the normally shy pegasus a pat on the head, which earned him a gentle smile. 

“Wait, bullet? That was a gun?” asked Rainbow Dash as she hovered next to his head.

“Yes, wait? How do you know what a gun is? I thought Equestria didn't have advanced weaponry?” queried John as he repacked the first aid kit. 

“Well yes, but nothing like that thing. We call them muskets and they're no where near as fast as your's.” answered Twilight taking over the conversation for Rainbow Dash. John spared Twilight a quick nod and realized the dam was about to burst.“Wait, how'd you know about Equestria? How'd you know our names? Why'd you think you knew our weapon technologies?” rattled Twilight, her question coming out so fast and in such volume John thought of her mouth like a machine gun on full auto. Eventually her questions were coming out so fast, after awhile John could only hear, “Who? What? When? Where? Why?”

John was about to try and calm her down when a rough cough echoed from his mouth sending him down to Fluttershy's bed. Twilight was about to ask him if he was okay, but Fluttershy beat her to the punch by rushing over and helping him to sit up and to cough by pounding on his back with all the strength she could muster; meaning he though a breeze had rolled in. John passed out soon after and with a quick check of his forehead, Fluttershy knew he was suffering from an intense fever. “Twilight, please he's still sick and needs his rest. You'll have to wait until tomorrow. Please, help me get him downstairs.”

“What about his gun?” asked Rainbow Dash, worried about the idea of just leaving it there on the floor. Twilight simply lifted it up with her magic and put it on top of one of Fluttershy's larger bookshelves. “Oh.”

With that taken care of each of the girls did their part to get John downstairs. Twilight levitated him while Apple Jack kept him leveled on her back. Fluttershy went down to prepare the couch and to stoke the fire, with Rainbow Dash there to assist. Soon, the girls had John in bed and right afterwards they themselves went to sleep.to sleep.