10 Days, 3 Adventures - Part 1 - "In Dreams They Came"

by TP Night

Chapter 12 - A Strange Encounter

Applejack looked around at what used to be the orchard.
Her expression was a mixture of curiosity and nervousness,
and if you looked close you could see a hint of sadness.

“It’s just a dream... It’s just a dream...” She kept repeating to herself
a few times. She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths.

“Applejack? Are you okay?” Twilight asked, a bit concerned.

Applejack nodded slightly. “Almost. It’s just... even if it’s a dream,
it’s still hard to see my home like this. I mean, the house is a crater
and the trees are all gone. This ain’t right.”

“I suspect this is most likely a nightmare from that older brother of
yours, or your younger sister. Maybe the old lady. Your... grandmother,
was she not?” Luna said.

“Yeah, Granny Smith. And yeah, this must be a nightmare from one
of them. Or possibly somepony else who really loves our apples and
apple products. Could be Rainbow, or Pinkie.”

“By that logic, it could be almost anypony in Ponyville. Most of them
love your apples. Myself included.” Twilight smiled.

“True...” Applejack said and gave a small smile.

“In any case I do not see any ponies here, so we might as well
move on to some other location.” Luna said as she looked around.
“All I can see here is smoking holes in the ground.”

“What about the forest?” Applejack said, glancing toward Everfree.

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked.

“Could there be something in there? I mean, it’s a dream world,
so a lot is different. Maybe there’s something in the forest?”

Luna scratched her chin. “Well, it is possible. For one thing,
Everfree Village might still exist here.”

“Everfree Village?” Applejack asked.

“Yes. As you know, myself and Celestia had our old castle in the forest
before it became... ‘alive’, in lack of a better word. At that time there
was also a village surrounding the castle. And the stones has gathered
dream fragments ever since those times. Which means, in some
of the dreams, that village should still exist. That in turn means,
there is a chance we can find it. And maybe there are still ponies there.”

“I see. Well, sounds worth a try.” Applejack said.

“I agree. Let’s go!” Twilight said.

They all started toward the forest, but slowed down once they entered.

“We better be extra careful.” Twilight said. “This place is dangerous in
the real world... Just imagine what a decade’s worth of nightmares
can do to it.”

“I’d rather not imagine that, thank you.” Applejack said with a small sneer
but quickly changed it to a smirk. “Okay, Let’s do this!”

* * *

The trio made their way deeper in to the forest. Just like in the real world,
the trees seemed to be moving on their own, swaying whichever direction
they wanted with no regard at all for the wind. In the distance they could
hear wolf-like howls.

“Timberwolfs?” Twilight asked.

“Could be. Or something similar maybe.” Applejack said, looking in the
direction the howls had come from.

“In any case those howls sounded far away, So we should be safe.
At least relatively.” Twilight said.

After a while they came to a fork in the dirt road, and stopped.

“So, which way?” Applejack said and looked in both directions.
“I don’t see any signpost with directions... And I can’t see the village
from here either. That is, if it even exists here.”

“Although it has been over a thousand years since I was in that village,
I still remember the location. If this Dreamscape is geographically
accurate, it should be the left road.” Luna said and pointed.

“Well then, Left it is.” Applejack said. Twilight simply nodded and followed.

A little bit further ahead, they heard rustling sounds from some
nearby bushes. Twilight slowly moved closer to take a look.

“What the...” She said, with obvious surprise in her voice.

From the bush, a pony emerged. Or rather, it looked like a pony,
but it was made entirely from leafs, and a few thorns. Its tail looked
like a vine, with some kind of red flower at the end.
Its eyes were bright red.

“Some kind of plant-pony?” Applejack said, equally surprised.

The pony-shaped plant creature smiled.

“Hi!” It said. “I’m Tendeww Thowwn! Who awwe you?”

“Oh...uhm.. I’m Twilight Sparkle. Pleased to meet you.” Twilight
said with a slightly nervous smile, not sure if the creature was
friendly or just seemed that way.

“I’m Applejack.” Applejack said, and extended her hoof
toward the creature. It looked at her hoof with a blank
expression. Appearantly it did not know how to shake hoofs
as a greeting.

“Tender Thorn?” Luna said. “Oh, great...”

Twilight looked at her surprised. “You know this... pony?”

“First of all, Yes. I do. Secondly, ‘she’ is technically not a pony.
It’s a pony-shaped plant that somehow became sentient and
started acting like one. Some mutation from the Everfree.”
Luna said. “Just wait and see.”

“OH! I know you!” Tender suddenly said and looked at Luna.
“You’wwe the pwwincess who wwaises the moon and takes away the
sun fwwom me evewwy night! I don’t like you!”

Luna sighed and rolled her eyes.

“Listen, Tender. In here, you’re just a figment of somepony’s dream.
We need some help. We’re looking for a village that is supposed to
be somewhere here. Can you tell us where it is?”

“Yes, I can. But I don’t want to tell you, sun-stealeww!”

“Can you please tell ME then?” Twilight said with a smile.

Tender seemed to hesitate for a moment.

“Okay, if you pwwomise we’wwe fwwiends now?”

“We are if you help us.” Twilight said, her smile turning more friendly
and warm. “We really need to find that Village, Miss Thorn.”

“Nopony has called me that befowwe... Sounds stwwange.”

“If you prefer, I can call you Tender instead.”

“Yes please, call me tendeww.”

“So where is the Village, Tender?” Applejack asked,
trying to sounds as friendly as possible.

“It’s oveww thewwe, on the otheww side of those vines.” Tender said,
and pointed toward what looked like a wall of vines.

“Okay, Guess we’ll have to find an opening somewhere...” Luna said as
she looked at the vine-wall. “That is too thick to crawl through,
and we can not burn or cut through either because we do not
know what is on the other side or how thick the wall is.”

“Or maybe we can walk around?” Applejack suggested.

“If you follow it to the wwight, thewwe’s a gate.” Tender said.

“Oh, thanks!” Twilight said.
“You’ve been really helpful, Tender. Thanks for all the help,
but we really must go now. Maybe we’ll see you again someday.”

The trio walked along the vines, giong to the right like the plant pony
had told them to.

Tender walked away in the other direction.

“Well, that was... Interesting...” Twilight said.

“To say the least, yeah.” Applejack agreed.

“Oh, you two just wait until the strange stuff starts happening.
A plant pony is quite an ordinary thing in this realm.” Luna said
with a small smirk on her face.

They foud the ‘gate’ in the wall - or rather, a large gate-shaped hole.
Luna glanced through it.

“Ah yes! The village! This wall must surround it!” She exclaimed.

“So do we walk in?” Applejack said.

“Yes.” Luna said shortly, and stepped through the ‘gate’.

Twilight and Applejack followed.

The village looked very old, and like Ponyville, it seemed abandoned.

“Okay, so.. No luck here either I guess?” Applejack said.

Lunas ears perked. “Shush.” she whispered.

She then grabbed both Twilight and Applejack gently
and pulled them with her, inside an old house.

“Stay quiet.” She whispered to them.

She glanced out through a small window.

Twilight looked at her with questioning eyes.

“Nightling.” Luna mumbled.

Twilight and Applejack also carefully looked out the window.

Outside the window was a shadow-y being.

It had dark red but translucent skin, and inside it had no
visible organs or muscles, or bones. All it had was a dark,
almost black gas. Where the eyes should have been,
the gas was more yellow. It was hard to see, but it looked
like it had sharp teeth. It looked around, sniffing the air.
It made hissing noises, almost snake-like.

“Did it notice us?” Applejack whispered to Luna.

“I do not think so.” Luna responded, also whispering.

The Nightling kept moving, and walked past the house,
making its way further down the street.

“Phew.. We’re safe for now..” Applejack said, still almost whispering.

“So that’s how they look...” Twilight said.

“Yes.. That is how the Nightlings look.” Luna said.

Author's Note:

Fun Facts:

Tender Thorn is an OC from a friend of mine. Here's a link to his own picture of her:
http://ponycleverblue.deviantart.com/art/OC-Tender-Thorn-color-458382965

That guy is also my pre-reader, and helps me with ideas and such, so I gave his OC a cameo in the story.

Also check out his other stuff, he has some interesting OC's and such.

And, here's my old cover for this story, which shows the Nightling, designed and drawn by me.
(A new cover will be made and uploaded here later)
http://tp-night.deviantart.com/art/In-Dreams-They-Came-Front-Cover-527446971

Comments

[OmniFox]

OKAY!!!! I GOT TWO FOR THE NIGHTLINGS!!!!