Quest For Equestria

by Skyguy626

Chapter 62: Nightmares

"So how did you get the other 250 bits?", Skywalker asked as the guys minus Big Mac and Phoenix were walking home after Applejack's birthday party. "Oh, Lyra offered to pay me that exact amount if I helped her with some research.", the Sutakira explained as he started to flashback.

Sutakira had arrived at Lyra's house, after a single knock the door flew open and Lyra ushered him in. Taking a seat in one of the chairs, Lyra spoke up, "Well, I'd like to start by just asking you a few questions. Is that alright?".
Sutakira nodded, "By all means.", he said gesturing for her to go ahead. "The first thing I'd like to know is why humans don't have cutiemark and how you figure out what your special talent is without it?".

"I'm not sure why we humans don't have cutie marks.", Sutakira answered. "My best theory is that it's because we aren't magical creatures like ponies. In reference to your other question, it is really hard to figure out what your purpose in life is without something telling you what it is. Some humans pursue what their passionate about, while others pursue what will make them the most money, and while all ponies are talented at something, some humans just don't have a certain talent or niche to fill.", he explained to the best of his abilities. The unicorn nodded, "Wow, interesting. Well, the next question I want to ask is why are humans so fascinated with the advancement of technology?", she asked.
Sutakira thought about it for a moment, "Most humans are curious creatures by nature. Since the beginning, we always wanted to know two things: how the world works, and how we can make it better.", he added with a chuckle.
"I see... there's one more question I want to ask you before we move on..." Lyra saids, as he nodded. "Are human males good at sex?".
Sutakira wasn't quite sure how to answer this at all, "Um uh, I'm not quite sure. Why? Do you plan on doing a human someday?".
Lyra let out a giggle, "Well maybe. So are they?". He gave a shrug at this, "No idea. Why don't you just watch some human porn or something?". He jumped back startled at Lyra sudden outburst, "THERE'S PORN OF HUMANS MATING??!!".
"Y-Yes! In fact, the internet probably has more porn than anything else!", he added with a chuckle.

Sutakira was brought out of his flashback by Skywalker next line, "Well AJ seemed happy with her motorbike.", black haired young man said as he looked up at the sky, "I hope it will work out between you two.", he added with a smile gaining a confused look from the bluenette. "What's that suppose to mean?".
"Yeah, I'm that blind to love.", Skywalker snarked gaining a scoff from all the other guys. "What?".

Skywalker runs through a burning Ponyville, all around him ponies where being attacked by those black creatures. Suddenly, Skywalker's feet came to a halt as he saw his closes friend broken and defeated at the feet of a tall humanoid dressed in a black cloak, two blue orbs shining from under his hood. "Don't you turn your back on me, Skywalker. I want you to look at me when I kill you. I want to see the light leave your eyes.".

Skywalker woke up with a start, after coming home last night it had seem that he had fallen asleep on the couch. Needing to clear his head he decided to go for a walk. As he made his way across Main Square he started to think about what was happening. "There has to be some meaning to these nightmares, or could they just be dreams? I never have just dreams. If I dream, its always of things to come. Unless I get a PTSD, I don't see any other way...", he was brought out of his train of thought when a half asleep Big Mac crashed into him, sending the both of them to the ground. "Oh... Sorry, Skywalker...", the big stallion said as the two got back on their feet. "It's okay, Big Mac... I should've been paying attention.", he said scratching the back of his head. Big Mac nodded, "I'm a little off course today, too. I haven't been sleeping that great.", he admitted.

"Me neither...", Skywalker admitted as the both of them said at the same time, "All week, I've had nightmares!" , the two gave each other a surprised look. Before more could be said, McGrath, Rarity, Applejack and Fluttershy walked up to them, none of them seemed to be well rested. "Not to be a pest, but would ya mind keeping it down a bit, Phoenix, er, Griffifth, Rainbow Dash? I mean Skywalker.", Applejack asked as she closed her eyes. "Yes, some of us haven't had our beauty rest.", Rarity added.
"Have you had nightmares, too?", Skywalker asked.

"What gave it away!? Whenever I close my eyes, I'm struck with those ghastly images!". a even more irritated, if that was possible, McGrath shouted. "Though I had plenty of time to read my fathers research!", McGrath admitted.
"The baddest dreams ever!", Fluttershy shouted gaining the attention from the others. "Sorry! I didn't mean to be so negative! I think I'm a bit grounchy.", she admitted.
In an instance Skywalker was at her side, "Its okay Flutters, no harm done.", he told her petting her on the head. "How come we all have nightmares all week?", Skywalker pondered as he fold his right arm over his chest while propping his left elbow up on it and placing a hand on his chin.

Later that night, the gang had all gathered at Sugarcube Corner per invite of Pinkie, who had organized a sleep over to help them over their nightmares. "If anything can chase away those heebie-jeebie dreams it's a girly night of fun! Right, Skywalker?", Pinkie asked as the guest placed their sleeping bags on the ground. Skywalker was not paying attention as he was busy playing on his 3DS while floating in the air. HE was brought out of his concentration by a pillow thrown at him by Pinkie. "That's it. I declare war on you Pinkie Pie!", he declared with a smirk as he grabbed his own pillow and charged at the pink mare.
"Say are the Cakes okay with you having guys sleep over?", Sutakira asked while he and Twilight we're playing a game of Vanguard, with Twilight in the lead. "Of course not! But they are out of town to visit family and McGrath said its okay to rebel against your parents.", Pinkie explained before being hit in the face by one of Skywalker's pillows.
"Yeah... I don't think McGrath is the right person to ask advice about parents to.", the bluenette said as he placed his cards on the field before declaring an attack.

"So which movie are we watching?", Big Mac asked McGrath and Phoenix who were busy setting up the TV and connecting the later's laptop to the screen. "The first movie in a great franchise, 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone'.", Phoenix told him gaining an angry glare from McGrath, as if that is anything new.
"Excuse me? 'Sorcerers Stone'? You mean the 'Philosophers Stone'!", McGrath said as the red head rolled his eyes at his friends comment. "Please don't start with this discussion again! Just say 'Sorcerers Stone' like the rest of the world.", Phoenix said with a smirk as his green eyed friend let out a cold scoff. "Rest of the world? I don't remember America owning the entire world!", McGrath shouted as the two stood against each other.

"Fine! I declare a thumb war! Winner gets to decided if its 'Sorcerers Stone' or 'Philosophers Stone!", Phoenix declared. He and McGrath intertwined their hands as Phoenix said, "One, two, three, four! I declare a thumb war!" and as soon as the words left his mouth, Phoenix let out a painful groan as McGrath pinned down his thumb declaring, "One, two, three, four! You lose!".

And so after 159 minutes of movie, the need for sleep was catching up to them so the gang decided to hit the sack. "Let's get some good Z's.", Skywalker said as he felt Fluttershy laying close to him, the scent of flowers entering his nose trills. "Let's hope so. Good night.", Twilight said as the others each said something along the lines of "Sleep tight!", "Nighty Night." and "See you in the morning.".
"See you guys in the morning.", Phoenix said cheerfully before letting out a big yawn. "That's what I said.", Fluttershy said offended as the smell of cotton candy filler her nose, the smell of Skywalker's hair. "No, you said 'see you in the morning', I said 'see you GUYS in the morning'. That's a whole world of diffrence.", the red head explained but he was interrupted by an angry McGrath shouting, "All of you shut up and go to sleep!".

A few hours later, dark purple smoke peers trough the window, taking the form of a very tall and thin humanoid with unnaturally long, tentacle-like arms, like the rest of its body, its face is purple and featureless. Out of the palms of its hands, it let out a vapor similar colored of itself. Its attention was soon caught by Rarity, crawling over to her he looked inside her mind to see her nightmare.
"My... She'll make the perfect host.", the intruder said to itself.

Twilight stirred in her sleep, opening her eyes, "W-who's there? Skywalker?". The creature turned it's featureless face towards the lavender unicorn startling her, "No... I'm not Skywalker, Miss Sparkle.", using its vapor, it blasted a large hole in the wall behind it before grabbing Rarity in the same kind of vapor. But the large explosion had waken up the other heroes, who directly stood at alert. "Oh, I'm sorry. Did I wake you up? I must be more quite when I blow up walls... I'll be taking her now.", it said before turning into vapor and taking Rarity with it, escaping into the night. "No, Rarity!", McGrath shouted as Skywalker and Rainbow quickly flew after them.

High above the skies of Equestria, Rarity was trying her best to get out of the vapor, but somehow its grip was solid as stone as the vapor was dragging her towards the moon. "Let me go, you...", Rarity demanded to the creature as it's upper body appeared from the vapor. "I think not, we Nightmares need a queen.", it said but its attention was caught by the voice of Rainbow shouting, "Hang on Rarity! We're coming for you!". Turning its head around it saw Skywalker and Rainbow catching up quickly. "My... It seems we have a hero...", it hissed annoyed before sending a magic blast at the heroes, which they managed to dodge, if just barely.

"That was too close! Don't worry Rarity, we'll be right there!", Skywalker said, he wasn't ready to attack back at the creature for fear of hitting Rarity. "Jason! Don't wait up!", Rainbow said to her best friend as he gave her a quick nod before blasting off. Skywalker was gaining air by the minute, Rarity just out of his reach. The tips of his fingers were inches away from Rarity's hoof when in a puff of smoke, she and the creature had disappeared, shocking the two friends. "Where did they go?", Rainbow asked just as surprised as Skywalker. "I don't know, lets go back and talk this over with the others".

Back at Sugarcube Corner, the gang was debating over what happened, as Twilight was writing a letter to Celestia. "The princess must know what to do I hope...", she said. Surprisingly to them, McGrath hadn't said a word ever since Skywalker and Rainbow had come back.
"This is all my fault... She shouldn't have become involved with me... This is all my fault, I wasn't strong enough.".
"There must be a link between our nightmares and that Slenderman rip off. Who could help us with that?" Sutakira said as he paced around the room.

"Luna.", Skywalker said, gaining the attention from his friends, "She is the protector of dreams and she was taken over by Nightmare Moon. She could help us find Rarity.", the explained as the rest of the gang nodded. "She is our only hope! Anyone have a scroll!?", Twilight said but she was interrupted by a sudden voice. "You can ask her in person.", turning their heads towards the speaker, they saw Celestia and Luna standing there. "I believe a dark energy has been infiltrating your dreams. My sister may be able to help.", the sun princess explained.
"Celestia, Luna, good to see you. What's going on? And more importantly, how do we get Rarity back?", Skywalker asked, glad that his mother figure and his ex-girlfriend had arrived.

"I prefer if you would call me Princess Luna, Ser Skywalker.", the princess of the moon informed him coldly, not looking him in the eyes. Skywalker felt a sharp stab in his heart at the cold way his former girlfriend was speaking to him, turning his gaze towards the floor, the younger princess started to speak. "Honestly, I have no clear answer for you. Only that evil, dark forces have taken your friend to the Nightmare Dreamscape.", the princess of the night explained, as the others nodded.
"Let's blast our way up there and get Rarity back! We're wasting time!", Big Mac said but Luna interrupted him. "You can't do that, you don't know what they are planning.".

In turn she was interrupted by Skywalker, "Then you don't know anything about us. They have one of us, and we're not going to rest until we have her back. I'm not asking you to accompany us, just point us in the right direction and get the hell out of the way.", Skywalker said in an uncharacteristically cold voice, "Princess.", he added that last word with such coldness that the temperature of the room could have dropped a few degrees. "Alright, I'll help you get to the moon.", the princess said. "I hope your friend is brave, the Nightmare Dreamscape is not for the faint of heart.".
"Rarity is strong... Unlike someone else...", McGrath suddenly said, turning his gaze to the side. "We must move fast. We don't know how long Rarity's bravery will protect her. I must warn you, the Nightmare Dreamscape is filled with your worst fears. It's denizens will not hesitate to use them against you.", the night princess said. The gang merely shrugged at this, they were ready of another adventure and to save one of their own. They hadn't failed yet, and they were surely not going to fail now.