Locksmith

by QuartzScale

10. Nightmare

I don’t think that bends that way… my groaning is all I can hear. She used her magic to slam me into the ground then continued to use the force to crush me into the ground. She finally landed nearby and glared down at me. I replied by standing back up… though my back leg was wrong.

“Poor little knave. You are but a jester soon you will be naught more than a corpse when I’m done with you.”

I snapped my leg back into place screaming the entire time while she just chuckled at my pain. She was in a haze of darkness I could barely breathe through. Perhaps I was too hasty in picking a fight but… this was unavoidable. I know what I need to do regardless of how I feel about it even if I’m on the floor writhing around in agony. A quick cure spell fixed that up and made the horrible agony into mild annoyance at this point. Her surprise was palpable when I cast the spells I did without having a horn.

“Seems the jester has more surprises than I once believed. Now I remember seeing my subjects finally realizing who they should have worshiped blinded me. If I had you then I could do what I always needed to do.”

She instantly slammed into me pushing me against the wall with her front hooves. When she did I attempted to summon the keyblade only for it to fall from my grip. She cooed slightly when she noticed and tossed me to the side.

“Yes this is the thing I needed. Such a good messenger to deliver my prize. Now I don’t require you anymore.”

She picked up the keyblade and angled it at me ready to pierce it through my neck. I really need to practice some fighting styles eventually. Might as well go for surprise then.

The blade was thrust forward only to disappear in a blaze of light back to my muzzle. I darted forward through the pain and hit Nightmare Moon across the neck and from below on the chin. While she flinched back from the sudden strike I reared back and bucked her with my back legs sending her into a heap.

“You aren’t worthy.”

I really hoped that line made my point because I don’t think I want to take anymore attacks from her. I didn’t break anything but I still felt that my wings were sore meaning my way of flying was still shot. I also didn’t have any MP since it was still recharging. Game mechanics in real life can be very disconcerting… and she’s getting back up…

“You foul cretin I shall… Curses more interlopers. They are merely rats but… Heh heh I know what to do. Come shadows and serve your Princess of the Night.”

I managed to cast my cure spell when a huge amount of shadows burst out of a portal of darkness. They immediately conjoined into a large tower of darkness as it flew through the air… they can do that. Crap I’ve never seen a heartless actually do this.

“Servant destroy this servile peasant and bring the blade to me. We shall need it for my goals. I will take care of these interlopers myself.”

I don’t know if the heartless actually understood the order but it immediately swarmed down towards me forcing me to fly up just in the attempt to get away from onslaught. She teleported somewhere and left me to my fate. Fat chance that this would actually work but they were fast.

“Looks like I’m getting a workout tonight. Maybe I should have made an apprentice.”

The tide of shadows swarmed around me forcing me to strike out whenever it got close and it felt like I wasn’t doing much damage. There were hundreds of shadows in the combination and every couple of swings take out a few shadows only for more to take their place. A few more slashes against me forced me to cure once again.

“This is not working out right…”

I immediately took off through the basement running past several of the dungeon cells causing the tide of heartless to take alternate paths to get to me. I shot off several thunder spells in between though. The crackle of lightning was guided by the metal bars causing them to be supercharged by magic electricity. When the tide came in the shadows were shocked and faltered off their path and fall to the side. Instead of falling to the side the entire group disappeared into the ground. Then it appeared behind me and tried to tackle me to the ground.

Rolling off to the side I just kept dodging firing off a thunder spell whenever I could. There was a sphere of darkness somewhere deep inside the tide controlling it. I noticed it after the last attack but the speed at which it was travelling at forced me to fly around as fast as possible. The entire room was warped into something twisted during the entire onslaught. It didn’t help that I could hear the shouts of ponies calling out for Twilight out in the distance. The entire ceiling in that time was covered in shadow heartless as they congregated around the core. Then the ground turned to darkness and the core turned a blood red color. Tendrils sprouted out and the shadows all circled the core surrounding it in blood red energy. I instantly landed and raced through the debris as several hundreds of the shadows were flung at me forcing me to dodge and weave. Every time I got stuck on something was another time I was hit by the claws of one of the shadows. I was forced back into the air just to get away running across the walls in fact just to dodge the attacks.

Then it got crazier as it knocked me back to the center of the dungeon and circled me before launching several spheres filled with shadows which slashed at me whenever it got close and there were so many coming directly at me. Crap… crap… crap… need healing.

“This sucks so much. Wait what’s that…?”

The shadows fell to the ground and were forced back into a single tower of shadows instead of a flying group. It didn’t stop attacking me though but now I could actually strike back at the tower knocking it away from me. It swerved around like a snake trying to strike me but it was slower and couldn’t reach me when I flew.

“Ha! Got ya now.”

I spammed as many thunder spells as I could then launched as many combos as I could. Being in the air made it much easier to deal with these problems. As I struck another set of strikes the tower ran back into the shadows and the entire area turned back into the basement. The area still had a dungeon but it wasn’t as horrifying as it was when the heartless had corrupted the area. No more fleshy parts and dead iconography littered the area.

I don’t think cure did much as I fell to the ground and curled up slightly. I was bleeding, I think, I could finally see the wounds on my body… while I still saw some delusions I could now see the wounds on my body. Several cuts were across my sides and my wings had some tears in them. Adrenaline was probably the only reason I survived because I sure as hell didn’t destroy the tower. I made it retreat. Admirable… but not good enough.

I opened the Lexicon and searched through the book finding exactly what those particular heartless were. It actually terrified me when I found the right entry.

Demon Tide

A core of darkness surrounded by a conglomeration of shadow heartless. Employs vicious attacks which could change the very foundation of reality. The core can be affected by increasingly high levels of magic.

Demon Tower

A core of darkness surrounded by a conglomeration of shadow heartless. Due to the high density of the heartless that incorporate this form it is forced to stay mobile with a link on the ground. It has severe strikes due to the high density and are cowardly by nature.

I looked through my heartless list and found that the book actually counted them as a kill in a sense. I shakily sighed out and managed a small smile. It wasn’t praise from anyone but the confidence that I managed to defeat those particular heartless types was refreshing. I couldn’t treat this like the games do anymore. I was still wary of the other keyblade wielders though. Who knows how much shit they would pull me into when I could barely survive against one of the more dangerous pureblood heartless. At least I think that those two types were purebloods since they were only formed from shadows.

“So it looks like you survived… Unfortunate.”

I looked around only to find a wisp of smoke in the shape of a alicorn float down from above. I pulled myself together and cast another cure spell on myself. The wounds did heal but I felt so heavy. Too many wounds and too little time to heal made this a critical moment. One more battle perhaps…?

“Still it is impressive that you survived. With your body we could be something far grander. You shall SUBMIT!”

The wisp of smoke charged at me and I instantly shot one of the light beams that locked the keyholes of world at the smoke locking it in mid air. I flew straight up at it screaming in a bloody rage as I slashed the now solidified smoke into a pulp. I didn’t care I wanted it gone and I made sure I would get rid of it. As my swings started to slow down I charged the light again and slammed it down on the wisp knocking it into the ground where the smoke dissipated. The scream emanating rang into my ears but I don’t think I could stay up anymore. I fell to the ground and my eyes closed. Tired…

“I wonder if the Lexicon can send messages… Wake me… in the morning…”

Obtained the power of the stars. Gravity now available.

Meanwhile…

Princess Luna had accepted her sister’s friendship and trotted back with the others to the carriage. Two were set up so they could all get back. Twilight and her friends took one while the sisters took the other to fully break the ice.

“Sister… I truly am sorry for everything.”

“Luna there is no need to apologize I’m just glad you’re part of my life once again. Though it is troubling that you think you were attacked while in your Nightmare Moon form. Are you sure you don’t remember what happened?”

“Neigh sister. Though it is troubling because that means something happened even during my madness. I also felt so infuriated during my encounter with your protege Twilight Sparkle. Something happened between those two times… but my soul does feel lighter at least.”

“I see. Whatever did happen at least you have been saved from the nightmare that had taken you from me.”

“Yes. I look forward to seeing this new world… maybe in foal steps though. I have been gone for so long and I will need to learn the customs that have come into being.”

The two alicorns remained silent as the festivities in Ponyville bloomed into something amazing. Everypony smiled as their newest princess was revealed even though she was an old princess. The mares who saved the world relished in their newest friends staying around to live in Ponyville.

Three other ponies, however, were not as thrilled by the events before them. He didn’t return from his exploration phase. Raindrops had searched all over Ponyville when the sun rose and found neither hide nor hair of the stallion they had met. Vinyl kept her emotions on the back burner and remained silent while she partied through checking every pony who was in town in case he was hiding his wings. She found nothing. Octavia was the bravest and actually managed to ask the guard if they had seen anypony named Nebula Gray and even mentioned that he was a thestral. None of them recognized the name or even knew the pony in question. When the guard she asked tried to hit on her she accidentally ignored him and wandered off to the chuckles of his fellow guards.

“I haven’t found him…”

“Neither have I.”

Vinyl shook her head and merely led the way back to the conjoined house of Octavia’s and her’s. The celebration came to a close and the three mares sat sullenly around the table within. Neither option they thought of made them feel any better.

“Think he was killed…?”

Both ponies looked at Vinyl and violently shook their heads in the negative. Vinyl bit back her cynicism and sighed.

“Sorry. I just… think we need to think about all possible outcomes.”

“I know… it would at least be preferable than hearing he’s trying to ignore us. That might actually be worse. I know we all said that we should try to find if he likes us but maybe we’re jumping the bale here. Maybe we should at least become friends before we pursue going farther. Besides if we get to know him maybe Vinyl’s crazy idea of a herd won’t actually be dismissed on principle.”

“Hey!”

“That’s a good point Raindrops… Still we don’t know what happened to him. This is really bad and nopony else seems to know about him. We’ll be clutching at straws looking for him. I don’t even think Pinkie knew where he was because she was looking around confused. I heard her mutter something about there being one missing pony but she couldn’t put her hoof on it. “

As the three ponies sighed they looked around pensively until Octavia noticed something she didn’t see until then. On the back of the door was a small note seemingly written hastily and pinned to the back with a tack. She brought the note to the table and was startled by the content. She proceeded to read out loud.

‘Dear girls, I’m probably gonna be out looking for that thing I mentioned before I left and don’t know when I’ll get back but most likely it will be in two days because I have such a large area to cover. I’ll be back as well so don’t worry too much about me. I always manage to return home somehow. I’m just lucky like that. We’ll hang out some more later. Nebula Gray.’

The girls examined the note but remained as calm as possible. While they now knew he would be back they were all curious about what he was looking for. Secrets were Gray’s game and they all wanted to know the rules if only to get to know the pony who played those games. Vinyl muttered a few curses about waiting before heading to her room to rest. Octavia walked Raindrops out and wished her well as she flew off for home and her own bed. Octavia looked at the note one last time glad that they hadn’t scared him off before trotting off for bed and resting from all the excitement of the Summer Sun Celebration.

Throughout all the excitement a small portion of the Nightmare cloud managed to keep form even though the blade had pierced and sliced it into nothing but miniscule particles. Weakened and actually frightened of the terrible weapon it looked around for the monster that tried to kill it.

There he was on the floor unconscious. Ripe to be killed… but in its weakened state it couldn’t muster enough force to move far. The damage was too extensive.

“Worthless sword wielder I shall make you suffer but not today… I will have my revenge.”

The smoke caught the first thing it could which was a small beetle infecting it and turning it into a nightmare being as well. It crawled out of the dungeon heading for other areas in order grow back to it’s full power. It was only a matter of time till it returned.

Comments

[Lorddarkrai2000]

opened the Lexicon and searched through the book finding exactly what those particular heartless were. It actually terrified me when I found the right entry.

Demon Tide

A core of darkness surrounded by a conglomeration of shadow heartless. Employs vicious attacks which could change the very foundation of reality. The core can be affected by increasingly high levels of magic.

Demon Tower

A core of darkness surrounded by a conglomeration of shadow heartless. Due to the high density of the heartless that incorporate this form it is forced to stay mobile with a link on the ground. It has severe strikes due to the high density and are cowardly by nature.

those boss heartless are among the nastier pureblood heartless

[QuartzScale]

8131099 Yeah I needed a way to break his delusions. Believe if he had fought someone like Discord and still couldn't see his wounds.

[Reishin Amara]

Ah..a small part survived...planning for nightmare rarity in the future?

[Darkmaster10000000]

So, Nightmare is still alive, and our hero has yet to meet the Mane 6. Hopefully they'll start to work together soon.