• Published 26th May 2013
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Battle Ready - D101 Reviews



Battle Ready is a unicorn from a strange land, fleeing to Equestria to escape some unknown tragedy and seeking a better life. His past however, doesn't quite want to leave him alone. (Anthro ponies)

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Nightmares: Battle's Premonition

Nightmare: Battle's Premonition

Battle's head was spinning slightly from the aftermath of his match with Dash. As Twilight bade farewell to the guests, Battle made his unsteady way down into the basement. He opened the door to his bedroom and tottered inside. His good spirits evaporated as the door closed behind him and darkness swallowed him. He illuminated the room with light from his horn and quickly stripped to his undergarments as he had no proper sleepwear to speak of.

As he undressed, he occasional brushed his hands against his various battle scars. Some were faint, and easily hidden under his fur. Others were much more noticeable. A single gash that sloped from his left shoulder to his hip was a permanent, easily visible reminder of his past. In some places it was still a sore, pinkish red from where it was still healing.

He slipped into bed and the light from his horn faded. He wasn't afraid of the dark, though he was slightly nervous about having his only real weapon so far from him. Battle was accustomed to sleeping with a knife under his pillow. Still this arrangement would have to do. After all it was not the shadows he feared, but the nightmares. Battle knew it was a foolish hope to believe he would be allowed a peaceful night's rest; one uninterrupted by the horrors of his own mind.

Resigned to his fate, Battle closed his eyes and awaited the torture.


He knew this ground. This frozen bitter landscape. It was a dark place. A hate filled place. The kind of land that one visited only in nightmares. Battle had the misfortune however of visiting this place in life too. He often prayed he would never have to visit such a place again, but it was a wasted venture. It seemed almost every other night he returned to this place to face some inner demon.

Battle was unaware of this land's history, but the fate that had befallen its people had been left for all time.

Frozen statues as far as he could see. Ponies locked in a position of malice and fear. All of whom looked ancient, sickly, hungry. There was hatred in their eyes and contempt in their hearts. Earth ponies, frozen trying to salvage some food from their failed, frosted crops. Unicorns, trying to use their magic to keep the bittern cold from their bones. Here and there he saw the shattered remains of a pegasus who had been caught in mid-flight attempting to dispel the blizzard.

Such was the fate that befell those who suffered a Windigo's power.

Battle had had the good fortune of never actually seeing a Windigo, but had seen the effects of the lands they called their homes. The beasts of ice and cold fed on bitterness and hate, leaving nothing but ice and death in their ethereal wake.

Battle walked through the frosted lands and glanced at the remnants of such an old civilisation. Pity consumed him, though this was not the first time he had seen these scenes and it would not be the last time, he was sure of that.

Preferring to get things over with rather than wait it out, Battle began to climb over the crest of a snowy dune and crunched through bitter cold. He was dimly aware he was fully clothed, though he knew it would not matter. Where he was going, terror would find him no matter what he wore.

Battle climbed over the icy bank and looked out over a flat, harsh plain. The ice was no longer clean here and the forgotten and frozen dead were no longer present. The scene before him was like something out of a brutal and sadistic nightmare. A sight which only the most tormented and insane of ponies could conjure.

What might have been most shocking to an outsider, would have been to learn of its authenticity. This place was real. It existed; the final, ugly blot on this already dark and bleak landscape.

A field of death and gore lay spread before Battle. Ponies, garbed in black and golden armour lay in positions of the most gruesome deaths imaginable. The clear ice was stained a permanent red, so dark it was almost black; the blood that had been spilled now an eternal fixture in the land. The bodies that remained had been preserved somewhat by the cold, the frozen faces blue with death, and red with blood.

Battle found himself making his uneven way between the corpses, his morbid journey one of alarming familiarity. It would always go this way. He would pick his way slowly through the battle field, awaiting some torture he knew deep in his heart he deserved.

He tried not to look at the bodies around him though he knew it was impossible. Flashes of horrific deaths flashed past his eyes. Pegasi with their wings torn and mangled, unicorns with their throats slit and earth ponies near trampled under foot. Battle was accustomed to such violence. He had seen and done equally twisted things. After all, what could one expect of a pony with a Cutie Mark such as his?

A small frown came to his lips and he paused to turn on the spot. It was usually at this point in his dreams that he would encounter some beast or demon, or the dead soldiers that lay around him would rise again and consume him in his entirety. This... lack of torment made him nervous. His expectations had always been the same of this place and each time he visited those expectations came to pass with chilling clarity. But now? It was almost as if he was being toyed with, as if he were being mocked.

It frightened him.

Unsure of what to do, he continued his silent walk, wary now for the first time in many moons. Deeper and deeper into the forest of the dead he walked, his nervous disposition growing more powerful. This new form of torture was particularly menacing. Such a lengthy build up would surely have a devastating pay-off.

He reached the edge of the battlefield and still there was no sign of any terrors. Not among the dead at any rate.

Battle found his eyes being dragged to a glacier wall in the distance. His blood ran cold at the all too familiar site. A set of double doors, sixty feet high and forty feet wide, it was a doorway for a giant, constructed out of a strange, gold like metal that shone with faux light and another, more humble substance, a white material that shone stark against the ice beside it. Battle knew what both material's were. Bone and shadow metal, each engraved with powerful runes and wards designed to keep whatever remained behind the doors trapped for eternity. Huge metal chains hung limply by the doors sides. The chains, Battle knew, had once been stretched across both doors, as further incentive to keep them closed. A large, bone symbol had been left on the doors. A wicked hook-like coil wrapped around a slanted, bestial eye.

Battle's breath caught in his throat as he saw the gates. For a moment time seemed unimportant, space unreal. Battle felt his mind start to unravel at the sight of the door, the open jaws of madness threatening to consume him as sheer terror gripped his heart. He forced the feelings of fear and madness back and held a hand to his head, squinting malevolently.

He slowly began to make his way closer to the giant doors, his jaw locked, his heart hammering a bruise onto the inside of his ribcage. Time seemed to stretch and warp the closer he got to his destination, his navy blue eyes quivering in his head It Somehow he reached the foot of the great cavernous barrier and stopped. Darkness leaked out of the crack between the doors. Pure unfiltered evil.

Battle took a shuddering breath. He could feel it in his bones. The door wouldn't hold the beast behind them back for long. Something had happened. Something had unbalanced the enchantments that held it in place.

With this thought, realisation came crashing down upon Battle. His resolve shattered and he stumbled backwards, mind reeling, gibbering incoherently. This was his nightmare. His greatest fear realized. The Gates of Wrath would open once more and the beast that lay beyond would break free seeking hatred, seeking blood, seeking revenge... seeking Battle.

Battle screamed in terror, a scream that shattered the silence and the ice. A scream that reverberated into life. A scream that made the doors before him tremble, as the beast beyond laughed with bitterness...


Battle lashed out, sitting bolt upright, eyes wide, heart pounding against his rips. He was drenched in cold, icy sweet that clung to his body and doused him in cold. His eyes strained to pierce the darkness as he slowly readjusted himself into the real world. He sighed, his throat raw from the scream that had just escaped as he had awoken. His horn bathed light to the room once again as he put his head in his hands and began to think.

That was no ordinary nightmare. That was a warning, a message that what he feared most would soon come to pass... if it hadn't already.

Battle gulped at that thought and curled up, shivering with cold sweat and terror. It would be a long time 'til morning.