Nightmares Coming to Life

by Spore Harvest

Chapter 4 "the Crystal empire"

The journey to the Crystal Empire was a long and tiring one. It took them five days to get there. It would have taken less time, but the constant attacks of bandits and rogue monsters that fled the Everfree and to add on top of that the weather was completely out of control. You know how the weather is usually controlled by the pegasi, well it still is in the towns that are still populated, but the area between them is completely wild. Meaning that they had to stop and wait out a couple of the stronger storms in caves. When they finally arrived at the Crystal empire they saw what happened to it and then Vinyl asked. "What the buck happened here?" She asked in a shocked voice. The crystal empire looked like it was having a fashion show through the entire city, with everyone wearing unique dresses or suits while the paparazzi were walking around and photographing them and to make the picture even more complete everyone was wearing a strained smile to complete the look.

"Well Vinyl it looks like they are having a forced fashion show and I only know of one pony of the elements of harmony who would do that and that would be Rarity." And right on queue Rarity appeared wearing one of her amazing creations. "Everypony quick hide!" Whispered the Doctor to everyone. With his warning, they all hid just in time for her to miss them. With them hidden they slowly crawled their way towards an alleyway while listening to Rarity talk.

"Oh, these clothes that I made for you all is simply divine. I'll make sure to create another fashion line for the next season, but until then I'll take a small break." She was currently wearing a nice dress made to accentuate her eyes. They also noticed that she was not wearing her armour which they assumed she would, but they thought that it would clash with the dark blue dress too much but enough about the dress she was now sitting at a restaurant and waiting for a waiter to start serving her.

"Okay, then guys we will have to blend in if we want to start searching for the next artefact in piece. Does anyone of you have any ideas on how we can do that?" After that everyone started to think of a plan on how to get around without being noticed. Then out of nowhere six black suits fell from the sky and after that Discord popped his head out of a portal in the sky just above them.

"Hello there guys I managed to get away from Fluttershy for a little while and I saw you were in a bit of a pickle over here so I decided to pop in and give you something to help you out." He said with a small grin.

"Okay Discord what exactly did you give us?" Asked the Doctor.

"Well, I gave you some suits and sunglasses so that you could quote on quote blend in and I also gave you ear pieces so that you could talk to each other when you aren't all grouped together." When he finished saying that some strands of pink hair appeared again and a sweet and yet still evil voice followed it and said.

"Discord what did I tell you about running away. Do I have to let the manticores on you again." After that, the hairs wrapped around him and was pulled back into his portal while screaming.

"No please no not the manticores please nothing but the manticores!" And then the portal closed, leaving our six friends scared and completely confused.

***Random Island***

After that little show Discord and Fluttershy appeared in front of all the princesses and Shining Armour. "Hello, Celly. Hello, Lulu. Hiya Cady and hello Shiny. How's your vacation coming along?" He asked while turning Fluttershy back to normal.

"Oh, it's simply marvellous. Even if it is at the expense of my little ponies. Speaking of how are things going in the rest of Equestria? Is anybody hurt?" Asked Celestia while laying on a beach chair and enjoying a nice coconut.

"Well they are either panicking, tired or annoyed, but no one was harmed. Even in Rainbows territory. Which is a complete surprise since she has a gladiator thing going on." After that Luna stepped up to discord and said.

"As long as nobody's getting hurt everything is alright. They so or so need to toughen up a bit. But enough about that Are you up for a round of volleyball. Shining just taught me the rules and it sounds like a really fun game." She said while levitating the ball next to herself. After giving it some thought he said.

"Sure why not." Then he turned to Fluttershy. "Fluttershy we are going to take a small break so get comfortable and enjoy yourself for a bit." Then Discord and Luna flew off to a volleyball field where Cadance and Shining were waiting for them while Fluttershy simply went up to a beach chair and laid down. After some time Celestia turned to her and asked.

"So Fluttershy how does it fell to run your own kingdom?" Fluttershy first made a quiet eep sound, then she gathered her composure and answered.

"Well, it is nice especially for me, because I get to take care of all my woodland friends, even if I do look like a monster. But there is also the problem of trying to balance my usual personality with the evil one. It certainly takes it's toll on me." She said in her characteristically quiet voice.

"Well as long as you don't go overboard. Now relax and enjoy the rest of your stay here." After that, they both relaxed and enjoyed the day.

***Crystal empire***

After Discords portal disappeared and after about a minute of them staring at the space where it was completely confused, Vinyl said. "Okay is anyone else scared to take on Fluttershy?" That snapped everyone out and then the Doctor said.

"We are going to have to suck it up and do it. Until then lets change out of the snow gear and put on those suits and then we can get started on finding the next relic." He said while getting out of the parka that he was wearing. Everyone soon followed and then they started to put on the suits that they got from discord once that was finished one of Rarities guards noticed them in the alley and said.

"Hey, you get your lazy flanks out of there and go back to your posts you don't want to be turned into a living mannequin now do you." At first, they all froze, but when they noticed that he was not attacking them the Doctor turned around and said.

"Well get back to our posts immediately sir." He ended his statement with a salute. The rest of his friends did the same and after that, the guard left them alone. When he did they all let out the breath that they didn't even realised that they were holding.

"Okay, that was again way to close for comfort. Now with that out of the way let's start searching for that relic." Said Vinyl.

"You are right now let's split up like we did at the store and start patrolling the empire. If anypony finds anything that might look like the relic then please contact each other through the ear pieces." Said Doc while pointing at his piece.

"But how are we going to be searching for the relic if we don't have the map?" Asked Lyra.

"Whops I forgot about that..." After a moment of thought a lightbulb turned on over his head and he said. "I've got an idea you are all going to make sure that the guard doesn't get suspicious of us while I and Derpy snoop around. Can you do that?" Asked the Doctor.

"Trust me when you asked for a distraction no two are better for the job then Lyra and Vinyl." Said Bon Bon.

"Hey!" Both of the aforementioned ponies cried out.

"Oh shut up. You both know that that's true." Said Bon Bon. After that, they both harrumphed and turned their heads away from them. After a minute of the Doctor spoke up.

"Okay then. If there are no further objections let's get out there and start searching." Then they all put on their sunglasses and went out of the alleyway where they promptly began to search the Empire.

***

After around two hours of searching our six friends met back at the alleyway where they started to compare notes. Once there Vinyl asked the Doctor. "So Doc did you and Derpy find anything?"

"Nope. Zip. Nada. We didn't find diddly squat and we searched the entire empire. Oh, this is bad. This is really really bad." Said the Doctor in a slightly panicky voice.

"It's going to be okay Doc we just didn't find it today doesn't mean we are not going to find it ever." Said derpy while trying to comfort him. Then she noticed the map starting to glow. She pointed it out to the Doctor, who quickly took it out and started to search around. When he noticed what the relic was supposed to be he threw the map on the ground and said.

"Celestia damn it Discord." After that, he vent to the wall and started to hit his head against it. Why? You may be asking yourself. Well, you see the map pointed out that the next relic was located on Rarity meaning that it was probably her dress. After he finished his head banging he stepped up to his friends and asked. "Does anyone of you have any idea on how we can get the dress off of Rarity without getting ourselves killed?"

"Well, we could always knock her out and then take it." Suggested Vinyl. After that Octavia hit her upside the head and said.

"That is a stupid idea. I have a better one. We follow her around until she puts those clothes away and when she does and is out of the picture then we can quickly grab it and are out of the empire before she even knows that it's gone."

"Well if we're doing that then let's set it into motion now because she is getting away." Said Lyra while pointing at the disappearing form of Rarity.

"Okay then let's go but make sure to stick to the shadows. Don't want to attract any unwanted attention." With that said they all started to follow her, making sure that they didn't get spotted.

***

They followed her for hours. Rarity seemed to have a pretty busy day. From checking on all of her guards to making an appearance at all fifty-eight of her stores and to add on top of that she had at least ten still being build. Her final stop, as it looked like, was her home in the crystal palace smack dab in the middle of the Crystal empire. "Phew that was a long day of work, but now I really must put my clothes away and take a long relaxing bath and maybe a massage." She said while opening the castle doors. When she stepped in the doors started to close behind her automatically. Since our six friends couldn't follow her in fast enough Octavia used her newfound magic to keep it open.

"Okay, I could really get used to this." She said.

"Yeah. Now let's go before we lose sight of her." Said Bon Bon. With that, they all made their way inside the castle. Once inside they noticed that the castle was decorated with allot of mannequins wearing different styles of clothing for ponies. Most of them were extravagant dresses with the occasional suit here and there and on the end of the hallway there stood Rarity putting her current dress back onto a mannequin.

"Okay then the dress is now neatly put away, now it's time for my bath." Then she left the hallway and entered into what was presumably a bathroom. After the door closed Lyra said.

"Okay now is our chance let's grab the relic and go."

"It isn't that easy Lyra. We have to make sure that the right person takes it otherwise the pony that touches it is going to get shocked." Said the Doctor.

"And how do we figure that out?" Asked Bon Bon.

"We just guess and hope that we don't get shocked. So who wants to go first?" Asked the Doctor. When none stepped forward he sighed. "Okay, I'll go first." Then he reached for the dress and just like before he got shocked. "Ouch. Well, I guess this one's not mine. Lyra why don't you try?"

"Um okay. Oh, I hope I don't get shocked." With that, she also tried to touch it but was again shocked. "Ouch."

"Okay, it's not Lyra's ether. Why don't you try it Vinyl?" Said Doc.

"This is gonna sting so bad." Then Vinyl closed her eyes and tried to grab it, but this time she actually touched it. When she did the fabric started to glow and morphed into a golden necklace, only that hers had a black musical note on it. After the process was complete Vinyl opened her eyes and asked. "Did it work?"

"Why don't you check for yourself." Said the Doctor while pointing at her new necklace. then she took a look at herself and grinned.

"Sweet I wonder what I can do with it?" She said while tapping her chin.

"That's all well and good and I'm sure that we can figure that out later, but now we need to get out of here." Said, Bon Bon, while pointing at the twisting door knob. After they all saw that they quickly ran out of the castle, but not before Rarity spotted Derpy because she hit her head on the doorway and fell down.

"What is going on here who are you and...?" Then she took a look to her mannequin and saw that one of her dresses was missing. Then her hair turned into a tornado, her eyes turned completely white and after that, she yelled out. "GUARDS CAPTURE THE INTRUDER AND RETURN TO ME MY NEWEST DRESS. AFTER THAT I WANT TO SEE THEM TURNED INTO MANNEQUINS FOR THE REST OF THEIR MISERABLE LIVES!" And with that Derpy quickly made her exit just in time for one of Rarities magic beams to strike the place where she once stood. Once Derpy caught up to her friends Vinyl asked.

"Derpy what happened?"

"I might've sorta alerted Rarity to our presence and now she and her guards are after us." She said while still flying next to her.

"All the more reason to get out of this place." Said the Doctor and when he did a large magical blast flew past him. "Woah there."

"Okay, relic if you can hear me then please help us out!" Screamed Vinyl to her element and after she did a giant red glowing record appeared in front of her. "And how...? Oh yeah, this could work." After that she made the record allot bigger and placed it behind herself and her friends. After that she made another one appear in front of them and said. "Jump on we are flying to our next destination in style." At first, they all looked confused, but after a couple of magic blasts from Rarity, they quickly jumped on it. When they were on Vinyl jumped on as well and then she levitated the record with all her friends high into the sky until they were above the cloud layer avoiding Rarities magic strikes in the process. The final thing that they heard behind them was a frustrated scream from Rarity and then nothing.

"Well now we have two relics and we know that they give us some new abilities. With that squared away where do we go next Doc?" Asked Bon Bon. Then the Doctor pulled out the map and looked over it. After some time he said.

"Now my friends we go off to Las Pegasus." He said while pointing in the general direction of the city.

"Okay then hold onto something, because we are going full speed ahead." Said Vinyl. After that Octavia stepped up to her and said.

"Don't you dare Vin..." But she didn't get to finish her statement because Vinyl made the record fly towards their next destination at the speed that was almost equal to the speed of sound.

Author's Note:

Here is the next chapter. As always I hope you enjoyed and if you did then please like comment or share this story with your friends.

With that said I now have to sacrifice a lamb to the eldritch monstrosity that is living in my closet and if I don't do it he gets cranky.

See you in the next chapter.