Seven Days

by Vertigo22

Night 1: It's Just A Myth

Dear diary.

Well, 'Tia has told me that there's nothing to worry about, though I cannot help but question if she's right. I looked through some of my books on urban myths from recent times and it seems that there's a popular one about a ‘cursed electronic’ that sprang up a few years before I returned. Nopony has been able to prove its existence, so I now wonder: Is the tape we watched a prank that pulled on us by some rowdy colt or filly? If so… what of the phone call? A coincidence? I don't know. The thought of dying terrifies me. I've yet to do so much. I've always dreamt of finding a prince. To have that never come true because of a curse is soul-crushing.

Not even my worst nightmares are this taxing on my mind. I've every minute between then and now doing nothing but thinking about it. I tried to fall asleep, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't do so much as drift off into a twilight sleep.

Now I can only wonder: If this isn't a myth… what are we to do if Twilight’s plan fails? Do we just capitulate and let Sadako win? This has all begun to eat away at me.

I have faced many trials and tribulations with Celestia, but none of them match up to something that never fails to get what it has marked. Whatever, I must listen to Celestia. She's never failed me, right? Sure, I have gotten upset at her, but that's no reason to doubt her. Besides, she has Twilight with her. And I have a dream realm to watch over!

Princess Luna closed her diary and rested it on her nightstand. “Now to begin my nightly duties.” She exited her room, greeting her guards as she did so, and made her way towards the balcony that overlooked Equestria. A rush of cold, winter air hit her as she opened the door, which sent a shiver down her spine.

As Luna gazed out, she immediately took notice of the fact that the vast majority of houses had their lights off. Looks like tonight's going to be a busy night, she thought to herself. No matter. It's not like the holiday season is ever exactly easy for me.

Luna's horn glowed a midnight blue. The world around her slowly turned into one full of floating orbs with stars that lit up the otherwise dark land that had replaced the conscious world. To Luna's delight, the inhabitants were all sleeping peacefully and dreaming. “Ah, this is more like it,” she said to herself. Looking around, Luna examined each and every one of the dreams that surrounded her.

Derpy dreamed of a world filled with muffins. Pinkie Pie dreamed about a party that stretched around the world, while Fluttershy's dream was that of a winter wonderland, where her animal friends were indoors with her, playing a tabletop game.

Then she saw it. A dream that was… blurry. Though an unusually dark feeling radiated from it. One that was more intense than the normal nightmare, let alone a night terror.

Luna wasted no time in entering the dream, and found herself within an ancient lighthouse. Outside, a horrifically intense storm raged on. The trees that had once led up to the building itself had been reduced to splinters. Torrential rain streamed down to the point that Luna was incapable of seeing out of the windows. While she couldn't see them, she could hear monstrous waves slam into the rocks that surrounded the lighthouse. Exactly how big they were, Luna dared not think about. All she knew was she could hear some of the water strike the top of the lighthouse.

And if the stairway that Luna was about to ascend was any indication, she knew that they could bury the castle she called home with ease.

I hope whoever's in this dream hasn't suffered too much, Luna thought as the apocalyptic sounds reverberated throughout the lighthouse. And just how tall is this thing!?

Another surge of water slammed into the land outside, shaking the foundation of the lighthouse, causing the lights to flicker several times. The world around Luna to became as dark as the night sky. A second surge followed shortly thereafter, and made the entire building violently shake.

Luna cast a spell, which caused the lighthouse to restabilize. “Great,” she said unhappily. The faint bit of light that radiated from her horn provided a slight bit of illumination. She trekked on forward, but stopped when something caught her eye. It was the silhouette of… something. Something tall, and slender.

“Sadako?”

The silhouette tilted its head slightly before it dashed up the stairs, managing to tear up a few stairs in the process.

“H-hey, wait!” Luna cried out as she resumed running up the stairs. The air between the two had become significantly colder, and sent a chill down Luna's back. “Stop!” She attempted to grab the silhouette with her magic. However, instead of making any sort of contact, the spell simply passed through its shadowy body, before it struck the wall on the other side; creating a hole where the ferocious winds from outside tore through. Chunks of stone were thrown like they were simply leaves.

Before Luna could think about resuming her pursuit, a shadow was cast over the land. Looking outside, she could see a colossal wave loom over the lighthouse. As quickly as she could, Luna cast a spell that sealed the hole in the wall and braced for impact.

Crash

The skyscraper-sized wave slammed into the lighthouse. Luna was thrown into the side of the stairway. Slowly, she stood back up and looked ahead. To her delight, the silhouette had been kind enough to wait on her to recover. “Who are you?” she asked after several seconds.

The being motioned for Luna to follow before it tore up several stairs as it dashed away.

Luna resumed her pursuit, but no matter how fast she ran, the silhouette was always but a few feet in front of her. Every crashing of a wave only further increased that gap though as Luna found herself growing more and more weary from running and maintaining the spell that kept the lighthouse stable. Before she knew it, all she could do was assume that the thing she had seen was still in front of her.

After what felt like an eternity of running, Luna stopped to catch her breath. “How… how tall is this thing?” she wondered aloud through gasping. “Who designs such a large lighthouse!?”

I did.

A soft voice echoed inside Luna's head. “Who said that?” she asked as she looked around for the source of the voice. “Sadako? Is that you?”

Why don't you continue up? I can assure you though, I'm not the one you call Sadako. I'll keep a lookout for her and tell her to come your way if I see her though.

A faint chuckle filled the air before dying off. That had to have been her. She sounds like she'd be one to torment her victims, Luna thought as she continued her journey upwards. As she did though, another wave crashed into the side of the building, which caused it to shake violently, and for the window to go into a static frenzy. Luna watched in horror as the static slowly ceased—only for it to no longer show the outside, but instead dozens upon dozens of shots of the well from the tape.

Then a hand slammed down onto each of them.

“No, no, no!” Luna resumed running as a second hand landed onto the top of the wells. Every section of the window flew into a static frenzy as she ran passed. Soon, the entire stairway was filled with the sound, and assaulted the princess’ ears relentlessly.

Eventually, she reached the door at the top. To her delight, the sound ceased. It was then that Luna saw the silhouette standing in front if it. It turned to face her. “Sadako? Is that you?” she tilted her head; and silhouette mimicked her action.

A few moments later, the silhouette blew open the door before vanishing into thin air. Before Luna could even think about what had just happened, the cry of a foal filled the air. Inside the room, Luna saw Sweetie Belle; terrified and in tears.

“P-Princess Luna?” Sweetie Belle said as she did her best to hold back tears.

“Sweetie Belle, what in the world is wrong?” Luna asked. Although she knew she should probably be slightly more restrained with the filly, even she had begun to wonder why a foal was dreaming of what she could only assume was armageddon.

Sweetie Belle looked up at Luna. Her eyes were red from crying. The fur on her face was drenched, and whether that was from crying of having been outside, Luna couldn't tell.

“S-she’s going to end it all!” Sweetie wailed before falling back into hysterics. “There's nothing anypony can do!”

Luna wrapped a wing around Sweetie. “Nopony is going to end anything,” she said. “But who is ‘she’? Why do you believe they will end it all?”

“R-Rarity…” Sweetie looked up at Luna again and wiped away her tears. “Rarity had a magazine she got from the market. She left it on the table and it said that doomsday was upon on us because of The Lady of the Shadows! She’s going to awaken a beast of legend!”

Luna cocked her head. She had not heard that name in ages—let alone any foal who still feared her. “Sweetie Belle,” she began, “there's no such thing as the ‘The Lady of the Shadows’. That was an old mare’s tale from back when I was a foal.”

“Yes there is!” Sweetie protested with a horrified look in her eyes. The winds outside suddenly increased in intensity tenfold. “She's standing behind you!”

Luna turned around. Behind her, with a tome under her arm, and with a bit of hair covering her face, was the silhouette that she had chased up here, though she now looked distinctly more humanoid and having a more smokey appearance. She felt her heart sink as the Lady stretched her arms out and looked to the ceiling. Purple lightning sparked from her body and quickly engulfed the entire room.

Luna watched as the protective spell she'd set up against the storm shattered into a thousand pieces. Once it was gone, the Lady glowed purple, which increased in intensity by the second. “Duck!” Luna set up a barrier around herself and Sweetie Belle. Mere seconds later, a burst of energy erupted from her.

Luna took down the barrier and shot a glare at the Lady. “Cease this cruelty immediately, you fiend!” she yelled angrily.

The Lady remained silent, and simply looked out the window behind Luna.

“By order of one of the Princesses of Equestria, I demand that you answer me!”

“I do not serve your authority, Luna,” the Lady said in an arrogant tone. “Nor do I serve the pathetic excuse of a princess that you call a sister. No, I serve a greater authority.”

Aren't you just a charmer… bitch.

“I heard that.”

“Oh…” Luna blushed. “Well, I don't know what sort of authority has more dominion here than I do,” she said. “May I ask who you serve?”

“I serve a far greater power!” the Lady snapped. She walked over and smirked. “A power that you cannot even hope to fathom!

“What's she talking about?” Sweetie asked, a scared look on her face.

The Lady chuckled. “I'm surprised that you've never heard of the one I’m alluding to considering the fact you know my name,” she said with a grin. “Or are you as wilfully ignorant as all the others who think I'm but a fable?”

“Enough!” Luna fired off a blast of magic, which struck the Lady's chest. She staggered back and glared daggers at Luna.

“Aren't you feisty.” The Lady held out an arm. A dark aura surrounded Luna, and she was slowly dragged over to her. “Have a nice trip, princess.” She blast open one of the nearby windows, which let in a ferocious draft. With a wink, the Lady cast Luna out of the lighthouse and into the violent sea below.

Luna slammed into the ocean. A brutal stinging sensation filled her body as she slowly stopped sinking. After she had, she mustered up the energy to cast a bubble around herself. To her left, she could see an enormous rock that, if it wasn't for the fact it was connected to the earth itself, Luna could've mistaken for a mountain suspended in the ocean. To her right was the dark, forbidding depths of the ocean that beckoned to her; to journey and discover their secrets.

Before Luna could begin her ascent back up to Sweetie Belle though, a low growl disturbed the waters. Something shifted around, causing rocks from above to plunge into the ocean.

Then the rock cracked along the middle in a straight line. Every so slowly, it opened. A sickly yellow eye that glowed faintly in the murky waters glared at Luna, who could only see its pupil, which itself was the size of a large town.

Luna stared in horror at the behemoth. The only sound she could hear was that of her heart, which made her head throb with its every beat. As she continued to stare, the monster that rested mere inches from her finally made another movement.

It blinked. Slowly.

Luna flew as fast as her wings could take her. She shot out of the water and burst threw the window she had been thrown out of moments before. “W-what is that thing!?”

The Lady ran a hand through Sweetie Belle's mane and chuckled. “So I see you've met it?”

“Answer me, you insufferable bitch!” Luna growled as she prepared a spell.

“Now is that any way to speak around a foal?” the Lady asked sardonically. “But if you must know.” The Lady glowed an absurdly vibrant purple. “This isn't a lighthouse. It's the horn of that which I intend on awakening!” An immensely bright beam of magic struck the ceiling and surged downwards into the ocean. “You stand atop a god!”

The ground heaved and quaked. The waters, both afar and local, were perturbed with incredible force. Slowly, Luna watched as the land rose and pierced the heavens. Off in the distance, more and more land masses shifted, sending waves in every which direction with even the slightest of movement.

“Behold, dear princess,” the Lady said. “The herald of the end of all things that you've ever held dearest to your heart.” A thunderous roar, unlike anything Luna had ever heard, even in the darkest of her nightmares, tore through the air. “Behold: the Leviathan!”

The horn of the Leviathan glowed a dark crimson. Luna levitated Sweetie Belle over and placed her onto her back. “Hold on!” she said as she took off out the window she'd been recently defenestrated. They found themselves just below the storm clouds; the world beneath them was barely visible. However, not too far from them, a portion of the Leviathan's body rose out of the water. Entire sections of Fillydelphia collapsed off of it as it reached the zenith of its rise before it crashed back down into the water, causing the rest of the city to be given a watery grave.

As Luna watched in horror, another thunderous roar filled the air. She turned around just in time to see the Leviathan's horn fire off a powerful beam of magic at them. Flying out of the way, she and Sweetie watched as the beam obliterated the clouds that it struck. She flew towards the opening and dove down. Within a few seconds, the two found themselves on the ground. Once they settled, they could see the flora of the land had withered and died.

“Luna,” Sweetie Belle said with a weak voice. “What's going on?”

Before Luna could speak, a shadowy figure flew past them atop a giant raven. “Don't worry, dear child,” the Lady said as she dismounted the bird, which vanished into a puff of smoke. “I promise that your death will be a swift one.” A blast of dark energy struck Luna's chest, which caused her to stagger backwards in pain.

“Luna!” Sweetie Belle ran over to the princess's side, only to be yanked backwards by a dark force.

“Enough, little one!” The Lady trapped Sweetie in a dark cage before setting her sights back onto Luna. She held an arm out and waited. A massive shadow slowly spread over the land, Luna and Sweetie watching in horror as a gigantic red aura filled the sky. Then a crimson beam vaporized the land surrounding the three. Ever so slowly, it encroached onto their location.

Luna snapped out of her stupor. She looked at the Lady and fired off a beam of magic, which struck the Lady. “I should've figured that the enticing scene of mass destruction wouldn't be enough for you, princess.” She glared angrily at Luna. A shadowy hand wrapped around the princesses throat and yanked her forward. The Lady pressed her nose against Luna's muzzle and grinned. “How does it feel to know that all that you've done to resist me has been all for naught?”

Luna grit her teeth. “Can it, heathen.” A blast of magic shot out in all directions from her horn, slicing through the Lady. Once she was freed from her grasp, Luna fired off a volley of magic bolts at her opponent, each tearing a large hole through her. “You shall torment Sweetie Belle no more!” Luna fired off one final blast of magic at the Lady, which struck her chest.

The Lady cried out in pain as she felt the power in her dwindle. She fell to the ground, limp, and vanished in a cloud of purple smoke. As she did, the chaotic crimson beam vanished and the Leviathan receded into the ocean. The storm also cleared, and the light of the sun filled the land once more.

“You… you did it!” Sweetie said cheerfully as the prison she was in vanished. She ran over to Luna and wrapped her legs around her.“You actually beat her!”

Luna wrapped her legs around Sweetie. “Listen,” she said. “I’m going to cast a spell and you will wake up,” she continued, to which Sweetie nodded in response. “This was nothing more than a nightmare caused by a nonsensical tabloid article.”

Sweetie Belle broke away from the hug. Immediately, her eyes became fixated on something behind Luna. She went dead silent for several seconds, which greatly unnerved Luna. “Y-yes, princess,” Sweetie replied once she found it within herself to speak up.

Luna’s horn glowed a vibrant blue, at which point Sweetie Belle vanished. Before she could do anything else though, a powerful blast of hot air struck her. A sense of unfathomable terror coursed through her. The gaze of the beast ripped through her soul, destroying any bravery she may have had to stand up to its god-like might.

A growl shook the very land that Luna stood upon. A gust of brutally hot air blew past her, which was followed by an unspeakably terrible stench.

Then, everything went deafeningly silent.

Luna took off flying as fast as her wings could possibly carry her as the very land she had stood on mere seconds ago was torn apart. The sounds of life itself being eviscerated by skyscraper-sized teeth penetrated her senses, sending a sensation of absolute fear the princess had never felt through her body.

Chunks of earth fell around her, with some of them having entire towns falling along with them. Another blast of hot air struck Luna. A gaping maw of endless teeth loomed over her. Off in the distance, she could see a cataclysmic beam of magic vaporize the beautiful land. Beneath her was a direct mirroring of the nightmare above her. A tongue that separated the two rose up and attempted to wrap itself around her.

Luna narrowly dodged it and fired off a beam of magic at it before flying out of the mouth of the beast. As she did, she cast a spell that enveloped her in light. The warmth of the sun filled her as she felt herself slowly slip back into reality. Just as she disappeared, she looked into the mouth of the beast before it finally clamped down onto the air she had been.

Then she hit the cold, hard ground of the balcony.

“Luna!” Celestia hugged her sister. “Oh, thank goodness you're okay!”

“Celestia…?” Luna sounded dead inside. “What… what time is it?”

“I don't know,” Celestia replied. “But I was about to cast a spell to help you get out of whatever dream you were in. The sun was supposed to have been raised ten minutes ago. Just what sort of nightmare were you in?”

Luna's thought for a moment. “I remember the Lady of the Shadows…” Her eyes widened as she remembered her experience in the stairway. “And… and the Leviathan” But that was it.”

“Are you sure, Lulu?” Celestia asked, visibly worried.

“Yes, Celestia. I'm just exhausted.” Luna stood up and hugged her sister. “I'll eat when I wake up.”

“Understandable,” Celestia said. The two performed their respective duties to set the moon and raise the sun. “Do sleep well.”

Luna nodded and walked off, all the while a thought ate away at her.

How did she know?

It echoed through her head until she arrived at her bedroom, which she staggered into. “I can't possibly have been dreaming about her. I hold power over the dream realm! She has no authority over it!” Luna fell to her haunches and looked at the ceiling. “How can she possibly enter it? Is… Is she actually real? Was I wrong to ever doubt it?”

A few moments passed before Luna let out a sigh. She got up and walked over to the book she had read earlier in the day.

Legends of Equestria: Volume XI

She flipped the book open to the page that had the sketch of Sadako she had seen in Twilight's book.

We can neither confirm nor deny the validity of this legend, but one has to question the reality of a videotape that can kill you in seven days.

Luna glowered at the page. She tore it out with her magic, crumpled it up into a ball and threw it into a nearby trash can. In a huff, she walked over to her bed and fell onto it. A tear ran down her face as she stared back up at the ceiling. She let out a sigh as a realization dawned on her. “I guess she's not a myth. She's real. Sadako's real. And wherever I go, she will follow me.”

Comments

[TheMysteryMuffin]

[Stellar_]

Been waiting for this one for a while ^^

[Temnizziv]

I'll admit. I thought this was never going to happen, that you had given up on the project. But I'm pleasantly surprised it came through.

[The Ranger]

A crossover with The Ring? That's something I haven't seen before! I wish you luck in this story, and I hope it reaches the praise such as it deserves.
On a sorta-related note, I once began a crossover with Ju-On/The Grudge, but I gave up on it rather quickly..

[Vertigo22]

9082550 I honestly expected someone to link Samara's Song. This, however, works too.

9082690
9082744 Truth be told: I just scrapped the idea of posting the entire thing over the course of seven days. I realized that if I posted it now and looked at how it was received, it may light a fire under me and motivate me to finish it. That isn't to say I wasn't motivated to write it, it's just that I got side tracked. A lot.

9082747 Thank you so much for your kind words! I'd wanted to write this back when Rings was coming out, but opted not to as I was still extremely inexperienced with writing. When this version of the story came about, it was going to be a wicked dark comedy, but it slowly morphed into what it is now. Also, I myself have contemplated writing a Ju-On crossover myself. I still sometimes do. We'll see...

9082748 Thanks! Hope you continue to enjoy it!

[The Ranger]

9082774
Well, I like the story so far, and I'm waiting to read more and hope it only gets better
As for a Ju-On crossover, I've contemplated several times to pick the story back up, and I still do from time to time even nowadays. I still believe it could've been the best story I'd ever written, but stuff came in the way so it never happened. Oh well. If you ever make a crossover with Ju-On, I hope you treat it with respect and makes us shit our pants from fear!