The Escapades of Lord Corn Wall

by Megatron

The Night of Nightmare

The view from the balcony was amazing. From here Lord Cord Cornwall could see Canterlot towering over the misty forest that surrounded his alpine lodge. The noble had no desire to be in the city today due to the fact that tonight would be Nightmare Night. The streets would be flooded with common folk, all of whom would be celebrating ancient holiday in the loudest and most exuberant manner possible. While most onlookers (including the royal sisters themselves) would see the sheer joy of Equestria’s citizens as heart warming, the nobility saw it as sickening. They believed that commoners existed purely to work under them and should work without end. Lord Corn Wall would always flee to this retreat in the forest to escape such celebrations.

Corn Wall took one last look at the city, shivered with disgust at the thought of the impending folk holiday, and then finished the rest of his brandy in one large gulp. The forest was beautiful this time of year and he often liked to travel up the riverside trail beside his personal lodge. Nopony lived in these woods, so he often traveled alone. Fall was definitely in the air and the temperature would soon start dropping. It was at times like this, when he was alone and felt at peace that he would think of about his family line. Did the great Corn Lord live somewhere like this? Did he face the same never-ending power struggle as his descendants? What was it like living during his time? All these things and more, Corn Wall would never be able to know.

The noble suddenly stopped and looked up at the sky. It was well into the day and he should hoof it back down the trail if he wanted to make it before nightfall. He began the trip back but suddenly felt himself lose all control over his limbs. He heard a ringing in his ears and his vision went black as he was being lifted up into the air. Then he lost all consciousness and disappeared.

When next he awoke he saw a bizarre world before his eyes. This place looked like the forest, but it was very dark, foggy, and had an unnerving purple hue to it. In the darkness he saw a huge pair of gleaming red eyes starring directly at him. The noble was completely terrified of the otherworldly being… until it spoke.
“Hey there.” Said the casual, kind, and completely nonthreatening sounding voice from the giant shadowy mass.
“Um, good day.” Responded an extremely nervous Corn Wall.
“How are you?” The voice asked.
“Very confused actually, where the hay am I?”
“Oh your just in my personal pocket dimension.”
“Why am I in your pocket sir?”
“You’re in another smaller dimension modeled after the forest I found you in.”
“Why did you take me here?”
“Being one of the most powerful beings in all of reality gets boring after awhile and I need something to keep me entertained.”
“If you would be so kind as to release me from this place, I would happily bring you as many other ponies to for you to toy with as you please.”
“If you want out you’ll have to find your way out.”
“How in Celestia’s bleeding name do I find my way out then?”
“If you find your way back to your lodge, you will instantly be transported back to your realm. Be wary however, there are all sorts of monsters spawned directly from the nightmares of mortals in this place and they’ll desire nothing more than to devour you whole once you set off.”

With those words Lord Corn Wall took several titanic swigs from his flask and set off into the fog. The forest was extremely dark so he couldn’t see very far ahead of him but he could hear every terrifying noise for miles. Blood chilling screams, unreal howls, and shouts in alien languages filled the air and even overpowered the sound of the noble’s heartbeat. Corn Wall always thought he could see movement out of the corner of his eye but when he looked, he saw nothing. He couldn’t worry about such things his only goal right now was to make it to the lodge. Then he saw it.

It looked like a huge, fleshy dog covered in tentacles that all had blades on the ends. Corn Wall tried to sneak past it but within seconds of him sighting the beast, the flesh hound was already starring directly at him. The noble ran without a second thought, trying merely to escape. The abomination was chasing him with unnatural speed. Suddenly, Lord Corn Wall found himself in water. He had found the river that ran beside the trail. On the bank of the river laying but a few feet in front of him, was a light grey mare with a flowing black mane. She was looking into the water, sobbing deeply. When she saw Corn Wall she seemingly became enraged and ran toward him. Once she reached him she forced his head under the water trying to drown him. But then he saw his unlikely salvation from above the water.

The terrifying flesh dog that had been chasing relentlessly earlier was afraid of water and thus couldn’t chase him in the river. Once it saw the mare drowning it’s former target, it saw a new source of prey. The beast leapt at the mare knocking her back and releasing the noble. Corn Wall watched these monsters fight a horrific battle as he recovered from near death. It seemed that even nightmares had nightmares and would violently try to destroy these monsters. Most of these things were all but unstoppable so they would be fighting each other forever. Now that he had found the trail, getting back home would be easy.

Only one nightmare could appear at a time and so all Lord Corn Wall had to do was run from one until another appeared and they were both tied down. It was almost sad how little skill the whole journey took. The noble even managed to get used to the sounds of these horrors after a while, actually starting to laugh at how over the top they were. Some of these “nightmare creatures” even took laughable forms. More tyrannical and militaristic versions of Celestia, Luna, and Cadance all appeared and shouted phrases so over the top they were hilarious. Tax collectors, teachers, and managers showed up, blathering on about lateness and lack if effort. The monsters were spawned from the nightmares of mortals, weather they were primordial horrors, or simple stresses.

After awhile, Lord Corn Wall finally reached the front of his lodge and suddenly the world returned to normal. Time Stopped as he could see the giant red eyes peeing at him from the shadows once more. The unintimidating voice spoke once again.
“Well this has to be my greatest failure in all my eons of existence, all these things ripped from the nightmares of mortals turned against each other, leaving you completely alone. Though now that I think about it, seeing all those insane things fighting each other was extremely entertaining… thank you pony, for showing me this new source of enjoyment. Now leave me alone for the next few centuries, I’ve got a lot of monster battles to watch.”

Time resumed normally and the noble could see that the sun had just set. Lord Corn Wall went back to the balcony and looked out at Canterlot once again. There was light everywhere and fire works filled the sky. Tomorrow he would return there and continue his schemes to be the most powerful noble in existence. He hoped that as the leaves fell, so to would all his competitors. If he was going to win he would have to do that which none of his predecessors could, go on the offensive.

Author's Note:

Spooky scary Halloween special. I absolutely love October and Halloween, so writing a Halloween special was an absolute must for me. Unfortunately, I kind of think that this chapter sucks, but at least I wrote something for Halloween.

-Lost_One, 8/7/19