Chapter 25: In Nightmares, Part 1
...Sometimes ponies went to sleep because rest allowed them to recover. They went to sleep to escape the pain of living if only just for a second.
Luna had dealt with this pain long before, like an aethereal scar on her soul’s heart and heart’s soul. Never before had she felt the intensity of pain― one that masqueraded itself as relief. Now, she dealt with a stronger pain― a pain of sympathy, but being unable to do anything about it.
Sometimes, all you could do was watch.
Her father set the jar atop the counter. Pinkie Pie traded glances with him and took the jar away. Diamond caught something in their eye before Pinkie slipped into the kitchen. Both her father and Pinkie were missing that mischievous and playful look in their eye. What had lingered for a touch too long was a solemn, dark, and serious expression that seemed to steal all the warm feelings that Diamond had previously had.
"Where is she taking it?" Diamond asked.
"Someplace safe." He smiled. He pressed his hoof against her side, goading her towards a booth. "Come along, let's get something to eat."
Diamond sat down next to her father. Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo took their seats across the table.
"Okay… let's see here… what would like, Diamond?" Her father lifted up a menu in front of her with his magic.
"Daisy sandwich." Diamond answered quickly. Personally, she didn’t care what she got to eat, she cared more about what plans they had for the jar.
“Good choice!” Her father set down the laminated menu. “I’ll have some minestrone soup. What about you, Crusaders?”
“We are going to share some nachos!” Applebloom smiled.
“They serve that here?” He asked. “I guess it’s not a long shot. Pinkie seems to do anything she sets her mind to!”
“Aw, I wanted some velvet cake!” Scootaloo whined.
“I’ll get you some.” Mr. Rich winked. “You can put it on my tab.”
Scootaloo smiled. “Thank you, Prince Rich.”
“No problem.” Her father winked.
Applebloom smiled nervously. “Don’t tell Granny Smith I’m having nachos.”
Her father mimed through the actions. “Pinkie promise, cross my heart, hope to fly, s―”
“What can I get ya?” Pinkie interrupted. Standing at attention, she held a notepad in her hoof.
“Minestrone soup, daisy sandwich to complement it, nachos for the Crusaders, and a slice of red velvet cake for Scootaloo.”
“Can we have the nachos a pinch spicy?” Sweetie cut in.
Applebloom and Scootaloo cast a weary look at their friend.
“Sure thing! Touch of Jalapeno!” She flicked the pen off the notepad. “Anything else?”
“That’d be it.” Her father said.
“It’ll be out in a jiffy!” Pinkie bounded towards the kitchen doors.
“So, what have you three been up to?” Mr. Rich asked.
“Nothin’ much.” Applebloom said. “We are sleuthin’! Granny spotted some creature slinkin’ about in the orchard.”
“Oh?” Her father leaned closer towards them. “Did she say what it looked like?”
“She said it was like from the Doom Days.” Applebloom said. “Full of shadow, eyes of melted iron, somethin’ that give you the willies just by havin’ a gander at it.”
His smile fell off his face.
“What is it dad?” Diamond felt a tinge of unrest in her heart, like she had in her younger years, thinking of the monsters in her closet or underneath her bed. What Applebloom described sure fit the description.
“It’s nothing, Diamond,” her father said. “Just had a bad memory come back.”
“What was it about?” She asked.
"Another time, Diamond." Mr. Rich frowned.
Diamond couldn't help but cuddle in the crook of his flank. The warmth and the fluffiness mixed together. She was in heaven.
The hearth glowed a golden color, while the walls reflected light from the stars, creating an ambience like the amber sky during sunrise. Her heart reflected such light and at last, she never felt more relaxed or more at home in all of her life. There she was. With her father in paradise.
“Can you tell me about the jar?” Diamond asked softly.
He turned his gaze towards her. Before he could answer, somepony knocked at the door. His focus was stolen away just as quickly as her composure: in a blink of an eye. Silver aura covered the door as Filthy swung the door open with his horn. “Oh, Sciurus! Good Evening!”
The pony at the door had a harvester’s bag full of apple on his side. His face and hooves were caked with dirt. Which was odd… she recalled that the dirt here wasn’t supposed to fragment and rubble. “Prince Rich, the Princesses require your presence in Sweet Apple Acres.”
“Oh? What news do we have from the Apples?” Filthy asked.
Sciurus’s eyes darted nervously away from Diamond. “The Princesses require privacy to the matter. It’s urgent that we leave now.”
Mr. Rich’s tone, light and calm from before had become darker and unsettled. “I understand.” He turned to Diamond. “Sorry sweetheart, I just need to check on Mom’s tree. I will be back later this evening.”
“But what about the jar?” Diamond asked again.
“I really need to go, Diamond.” Filthy said as he hopped off the couch. “I’ll be back to tuck you in after I tend to the field.”
“But!” Diamond said. “Wait… can I go with you?”
He shook his head. “It’s nothing much really, just tending the garden. I know how much you dislike to get your hooves dirty.”
“B-But I―!” Diamond stuttered.
“I’ll be back in half an hour.” He slipped on his coat and wrapped a scarf around his neck hat before proceeding out the door.
The sky grew dark. A swirling storm churned above the town. Everypony in the streets froze and gazed up at the sudden change in the weather.
“FOR THE LAST TIME, DIAMOND!” Filthy shouted. “IF YOU EARN YOUR CUTIE MARK, YOU FADE BY NEXT SUNRISE!”
The passersby ducked into nearby houses and those who were running the stands quickly closed their shops.
Her father growled with as his gaze locked onto the storm. “It’s too late. She’s already summoned.”
His horn glowed ready, waiting and watching for something― Something that Diamond didn’t know. But whatever it was, it spooked her father.
The wind blew and blew, occasional items floated around. As she gazed towards them, she had a surreal sense of dread wash over her- a creepy and cold feeling of dae ja vu. It was then and there that a thought forced itself into her mind, like an intruder in the fortress of her mind-
She was dreaming.
Diamond recognized the items from a ghostly vision, a previous nightmare. An IV, a picture of Coco and Yttrium when they were young, a lab coat, a needle. Suddenly, a particular item caught her eye.
A tiara.
The tiara hovered in front of her. It hummed like a tuning fork as it levitated. Once the humming stopped and melted into a shiny goo. As it melted, other items joined it, together in a silver slurry like mercury. It formed an ornate ring, decorated with grooves and cuts that looked like the work of a Canterlot artisan.
“No!” Her father’s horn blasted it, but the beam of light ricocheted off and shattered a nearby window. The nearby building had begun to crumble from the blast, showing fragmented crystal like a broken mirror. From the shards and debris, the ornate ring gathered up more material into the melt.
His horn lit up again, charging for its strike.
Suddenly, a couple drops of silver liquid, sprouted like tendrils from the mirror and wrapped around his horn.
“Ugh!” He yelped, rearing back to yank the grip of the coating off. It wasn’t until he reached a hoof to pry it off he yanked himself free.
The reflective liquid became still in the middle. A rake of pain dashed across the top of her head. Before she could tuck her head into her hooves, something pinned her neck in the upright position, like her mother did when she was teaching her to keep her posture. As if it read her mind, it pinned her gaze towards the reflection.
A mirror shown her reflection, the edges were various knick-knacks she had from past, present and future. Her reflection, a mare, stepped out of the mirror. She had dragon-like eyes and a wide grin with rows of razor-sharp teeth. The reflection deviated from mirroring Diamond’s stance, and gnashed her teeth in mirror’s edge.
The glass shattered. The Demon stepped out. “Greetings, Diamond Dazzle Tiara.” She smirked. Her voice was dissonant, like two voices in unison. One was a higher pitch, her voice, and the other was a lower pitch, her mother’s voice.
“Dazzle Tiara!” Filthy shouted.
Diamond turned to her father. The Demon turned to him as well.
His mane glowed with strands of gold and silver, like blowing on the embers of a fire. “Go back to Tartarus! Or I’ll―”
“Or… what?” Demon Tiara said. “You’ll use the tree? You misunderstand. I’ve grown stronger than you’ll ever be!”
“What?” Diamond asked. “Dazzle?”
“Diamond don’t let her―”
“Oh? I believe your father hasn’t told you yet.” The demon’s chainsaw-like teeth gleamed in the afternoon light. “It figures, he keeps everypony in the dark about his doings. That’s his downfall!”
In the distance, a mushroom cloud of darkness rose.
Diamond’s heart sunk. She looked at the epicenter of the blast and found a tree split in two and suspended in midair by dark strands.
Diamond gritted her teeth. Now, this was personal. Nopony messed with mom’s tree! She pulled her hoof back to punch the Demon. In response, Demon Dazzle’s mouth hissed open, and a strand of darkness jutted out and latched onto her hoof.
Even whilst her mouth was open, Demon Dazzle could laugh and talk. “Foolish filly! You underestimate the power by which you were created! I have the power to mold you into any shape!” Demon Dazzle’s hoof sprung up; a beam of darkness shot out towards Filthy’s way. Luckily, he tucked and rolled.
“Hold Still! If you know what’s good for you!” Demon Dazzle growled. She shot a barrage of beams, each Filthy dodged with a duck, hop, sometimes a somersault. He was doing a good job at it, since Demon Dazzle was confused.
“Enough!” She pointed a hoof at Diamond. A glowing ember at Demon’s frogs blazed softly. “If you keep resisting, your daughter’s next!”
Filthy froze.
Still struggling to put her hoof down, Diamond jostled the strand of darkness, in time, catching Demon Dazzle off guard. Diamond dodged a spire of darkness as it jutted out of Demon’s hoof. Just in time too as she felt the sharp pain as the beam of darkness graze across the top of her forehead as she ducked. It didn’t help that her hoof was still caught in the grip of the shadow tongue of the Demon.
“So, we’ll play that game!” Demon Dazzle shouted, still holding the strand taut. Her eyes glowed in the colors of the rainbow, Purple, then green, red, blue, yellow, then orange.
“NO!” Filthy cried as he dove in front of Diamond. He landed on the strand, causing the tongue to snap back into Demon’s mouth. Diamond’s eyes squeezed shut as she hit the ground from the recoil.
Diamond coughed as the dust around her got in her lungs. Spooky. The magic that the town had was fading, usually she would hit the ground and brush off no rubble. But now, the dust was more than prevalent.
As the dust cleared, she froze up as tears came to her eyes. Stone hooves planted firmly against the ground in her line of sight. As she looked up, her father’s face was frozen-petrified in a horror-filled glance. He had been turned into a statue.
“Ha! Another thing he failed to mention!” Demon tapped on the stone. She pointed to the inside of her mouth and hacked. Suddenly, a familiar gem came rolling out of her throat. It was blue, about the size of an apple, but lacked the shape of a balloon. It was shaped like a swirl.
She spat it out of her mouth and into the grip of her magic. “Look familiar?! The foundation of Equestria that has been graced to fall into the hooves of its rightful owner! The Elements of Harmony!”
That is how she turned her father to stone. She’d seen it before when Princess Twilight had reversed the effects of chaos and sealed Discord back into stone.
“It figures since that counterfeit Princess tossed them into the void from whence I was sealed! She couldn’t wield it anymore! It took me a millennium to figure them out, but now I have pure power of cutie marks!” Demon sneered. She spat out five more gems. Each with familiar colors, but disorganized in the fact that they weren’t in the shapes of the Mane Six’s cutie marks. Then… she noticed. One of shapes was in the shape of her cutie mark.
“Now, what shall I do with you?” Demon’s tongue tapped against her own chin. “Oh! I know!” She smiled. “I will send you to the void for the next millennia!” Demon’s horn glowed a like embers of a dead fire. She lowered her head and took aim at Diamond.
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Can I please get a link to that song?
10224181
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYiFa8TBQUU
One of the many reasons why you may not find it using apps such as Spotify or itunes is because this is a royalty-free song (as far as I know). The artist started out on a Newgrounds page, so there is a free download for the music file.
Newgrounds: https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/268376
Thank you for asking this! I think I should put in another edit for the story description... or better yet, a link in the story description that leads to a blog post regarding the why and how behind this (Since this is meta).