Beyond My Grave: Night Terrors

by AnnEldest

That Same Place

I was running down the halls of the castle. I had just come back from the hospital after being told that Cadance was nowhere to be found. I went there myself to see and sure enough, she wasn’t in her room. Shining Armor had his guards looking for her outside of the castle while Celestia and I did our own search inside. Nopony seemed to know where she had gone off to. I looked in room after room. But I couldn’t find her. Since Shining Armor was busy working with the guards, I offered to watch over Flurry. I held on to her tightly not keeping my eyes off of her for too long.

My first thought was maybe the mare did something to her; which only made me fear for her even more. It had to her. There was nopony else that could have done this. If the mare did have something to do with Cadance going missing, I needed to find her fast. But how? Without Discord’s help, I was left to do this on my own.

I looked down at Flurry. “I know you most likely won’t know this but is there any chance you knew where your mother ran off to.”

Flurry blinked and pointed up. She then started laughing all of a sudden. Her eyes seemed to trail up at the ceiling, following something. I stared up to see what she was seeing but saw nothing. I looked back at her, confused.

“You see something?” I asked her.

Flurry nodded her head happily. It took me a moment of careful thinking to understand what Flurry Heart had meant. My eyes widened at realizing this. I knew what I needed to do.

“This gives me an idea,” I said to myself.

I thought maybe if I was alone with Flurry in her bathroom, the mare would appear to me. She seemed to always show up if Cadance was alone with Flurry, mainly in her bedroom. I didn’t know if it would work but it was worth a shot.

I went back to Flurry Heart’s room and slam the door behind me. I walked up to the crib and placed Flurry inside. Her eyes were still on the ceiling. I tried seeing what she was but I didn’t see anything out of place. I groaned loudly in anger.

“Alright you damn mare, where are you? What have you done with Cadance? I know you can hear me?! Stop hiding and face me!!” I yelled loudly in the room.

There was no answer. I kept yelling louder and louder hoping that I would get an answer of some kind. But no response came. After a couple of minutes, I gave up on it. I knew I wasn’t going to get anywhere with it. Flurry Heart wasn’t even staring at whatever it was anymore. She was playing with the toy that I gave her with not a care in the world. At least she was happy. It did give me something to smile about just knowing that she wasn’t scared. However, I still had no idea where Cadance was and I had no clue what to do next. I lowered my head and signed heavily. It was hopeless.

“Luna?”

I gasped and turned around; my horn already lit up as I shot a blast at whatever was behind me. When the smoke cleared, I saw that it was only Discord and Spike. Discord had made a shield around them to protect them from the blast. It was like he knew what would happen and was already prepared for it. Spike was hiding behind Discord who now was scared out of his mind. Seeing them made me feel a little better. I was slightly relieved that is was them and not anything that could kill me or Flurry Heart.

“Well, t-that was u-unexpected,” Spike said.

“Nice to see you too,” Discord said madly. “You really need to stop doing that.”

“Well, you need to stop coming from behind me,” I defended as I rolled my eyes. “Never mind that. Where have you been? I send letters to you and you didn’t reply to any of them. I got worried that you didn’t want to help me anymore.”

“No, it wasn’t anything like that. I was busy,” Discord said.

“Doing what?!” I asked.

“Running for my life,” He shrugged. I just stared at him and blinked.

“Ummm what?” I asked, confused.

“It is a looooong story,” Spike added in.

“I’m afraid to ask what you two did after I left,” I said flatly. Discord and Spike turned to each other and chuckled a little.

"You see, we went to find some background on our situation and well we found some," Spike explained.

"Well, at least there's some good news for once," I said. “Everything is turning so shitty pretty quickly. So I will take a win anywhere that I can. What did you find out then?"

"We found a dead filly who talked to me, its dad who tried to kill us and nearly succeeded, and a building that basically is scorched in death. Also, a great place to eat if you're ever traveling out of Equestria and a file that I'm pretty sure explains Discord’s dreams."

I was a little taken aback by everything he had said. I tried to process everything at once but my brain was not having it. So I summoned it up basically to dead filly, dead evil dad, hellish building, something about eating, and getting a file. Then a thought hit me. They left Equestria for this?

"Wait what the… wherein Equestria did you go?"

"Nowhere in Equestria," Discord corrected me. "We went outside of Equestria to a place with really good food."

"Wait a second. So while I was here dealing with this deadly spirit and worried sick about Cadence, who could be dead right now, you two were out of Equestria eating?!" My voice almost reached a scream.

"Whoa cut us some slack, Luna," Spike said angrily. "We stopped to eat after we got done running for our lives."

"Why were you running for your lives? Where did you go?" I asked, my patience running out.

"Like Discord said we went somewhere outside of Equestria to try and figure out Discord's dream. While we were there we went into an old building were let's just say we weren't very welcomed by the horrifying demon that tried to kill us."

I looked at Spike then back at Discord who just shrugged. As vague explanations went it wasn't terrible. There were still a lot of questions I had but my mind was flooded with thoughts of Cadence.

Somewhere outside of Equestria, to get answers for Discords dream, monsters and demons attacking them, so the basics. I could work with that not like we had a lot of time.

"Wow you two need to be supervised sometimes," I said

"Yes, we know that already," Discord admitted as he rolled his eyes." Now do you want to know what we've put together so far or not?"

That question, the obvious question that I had been waiting for the entire time to be answered. At that point, it became pretty clear to me that perhaps Discord didn't truly grasp the weight of the situation. He didn't feel the weight that drilled into my chest.

"No, Discord I don't want the info you have that could potentially save my niece’s life."

Discord looked surprised at my response. It's just then that I realized that he didn't know my situation anymore than I knew his.

"Ya that's right Discord," I said more rudely than I probably should have." Cadence is missing and I'm really scared for her life. Whatever this thing is that's after her, really wants to hurt her and I don't think you understand how bad that is. So yes if you have any useful information to share, then please do something more useful with your life."

Spike and Discord stood there staring at me. I could feel my breath shaking my body. I had forgotten to breathe during my little lecture. I honestly didn't care if I was being rude. I knew they had been through a lot more than I realized, but like I said, I didn't care.

I could tell there were probably a million things that both of them wanted to shout out, but to my surprise, they held it back. Fighting was pointless, and I knew that but I couldn't help but feel like they had left me to deal with all of it. It probably wasn't true but it's how I felt.

"So it turns out that the building that Discord and I went to was an old toy store owned by a mare by the name of Rosetta and her husband. Rosetta went on to have a baby," Spike explained." Long story short the baby ended up getting murdered, by if I had to guess, its father, Iron blood. That's actually who attacked me and Discord. We don't know why he did it but it didn't go over very well with Rosetta. Three days later she went back to the store and murdered Iron Blood and pretty much everyone else in the store. The authorities ride it off that she went insane, which is probably right on point. They don't know how she died but Rosetta's body was found behind the building."

There was a slight pause as Spike went through everything in his head again." Ya, that's about the ins and outs of what we got."

I thoroughly thought about his summary, trying to pick out any details that could help us. The store was serially a huge eye-opener. It was clear that the mare attacking Cadence must have been Rosetta from Discord's dreams, but it still wasn't clear how this had anything to do with Cadence.

"Is there anything else?" I asked

Spike looked out in thought." No, I'm pretty sure that's all to it."

"Are you positive? There's no other little detail that it mentions?"

Spike nodded.

"Nothing extra about the scene or her death that could help us?"

Spike nodded slowly then he stopped. He looked back over the paper and began reading it out loud." Ya, all it says is about the scene is just how gruesome it was. And all it says about her death is that she had no markings or anything that explained her death. Oh and that she was hugging a doll quite tightly, but that's it."

"A doll?" I asked as I walked over to him.

"Ya, it's probably her baby's doll. While we were there, I talked to the daughter and she said that she had a doll that she used to play with all the time. I guess her mother took it after she was killed for obvious reasons.”

I looked over to Flurry's crib as she played with her toy. A doll. A doll, that was a pretty significant detail. A doll of a filly that a mother loved because it was the only thing she had left of her child. A doll that her spirit could perhaps hang onto as a result of not letting go. A doll, just like the one that I bought for Flurry Heart. It started to all come out me as to why this was happening.

"Ya Spike," I signed." I know what doll you're talking about. Actually, I kind of know exactly where it is."

"Wait really?" Discord said finally breaking his silence. "How do you know?"

I lit up my horn and used my magic to lift up Flurry Heart who was still holding on to the doll. Discord and Spike looked surprised as the sight of the doll. Spike took a step back, shaking his head. His mind didn't want to believe it. I sat her down after a few seconds.

"Cause I'm pretty sure I'm the one who got it for Flurry Heart."

I collapsed to the floor putting my hooves against my head. The mare was stuck to the stupid doll that had been with Flurry Heart since it had all began. The reason she loved Flurry was cause she missed her baby. Well, that or she thought that it was hers. Either way all it meant that it was my fault and that I'm the one who brought it upon Cadence.

I smacked the floor in anger. I had to fight back my tears a little as guilt began to pour into me. All that time people were starting to think Cadence was mad, but instead, it was because I had doomed her from the start. All I wanted to do was take the mare by the throat and tell her to haunt me and to leave Cadence alone. Cadence was the last pony who deserved a fate like the one she was in. Especially, me and Discord deserved that fare more than anypony.

"You did what now?" Spike said as he ran up to me and held my head up. "Luna, what are you talking about?"

"I bought it for Flurry at some stupid sale or something, I don't know. I just wanted to do something nice. Celestia was on my ass about getting to know Cadance so I thought it would help. I didn't know I was gonna kill my niece over a damn toy." My throat began to hurt as I fought harder to hold back from crying.

Spike sat back as he too finally put the final pieces together. I couldn't see his face as mine was buried in my legs, but I heard him say. "Oh sweet Celestia, now it makes sense."

Discord walked up to me and held my head up. At that point, holding back my tears were in vain. I could feel it run down my face.

"Luna come on this isn't your fault," Discord said with his rare sweet caring voice.

"Luna you had no way of knowing that the one doll you so happened to buy was haunted my an obsessed, psycho, rotten demon pony mother thing." Spike came up to me and hugged me. "I get it ok, I’m sorry for not being here to help you. This isn't your fault though, not even a little.

I wiped my face as I finally looked up at them. They were right that I had no way of knowing but how could that justify that I still technically brought damnation upon my niece and her baby. In that moment, I just wanted to curl up and die.

"Wait," I sniffled. "If she wants Flurry Heart so freaking badly cause she lost her baby, then why is she focusing so much on Cadence? Why didn't she just take Flurry and left?"

Spike let go of me and looked at me pondering on the question." Well, my only guess is that she wants to be able to truly take care of "Her baby"." I flinched a little at his phrase. "Unfortunately, she needs Cadence to do it or at least her body.

"Well dang," Discord said as he weirdly looked into a mirror that was randomly in the middle of the window. I looked into it only to see nothing but his reflection. " That is just some messed up ghost crap right there."

Discord looked at us then back into the mirror. His eyes followed something and he seemed to change expressions. It was as if he was talking to someone and whatever they had sad was bad and Discord surely didn't like it.

"What are you doing Discord?" I sniffled.

"Oh umm nothing," he chuckled." Do you know what C.D stands for?"

"Umm no?"

"Then it's not important," he said as he looked back into the mirror." I'm just thinking about morticians."

I was far too confused to put any sense to what he had said. That was Discord for you I guess he never really made sense. However, he was probably on the right track. We probably would need a mortician of some kind in the end of this.

Author's Note:

Wow, poor Luna. But it is like they say: "No good deed goes unpunished." Well, what are they going to do now? And where is Cadance? Will they be able to stop the mare and save Cadance? Who knows? Find out soon enough as we are close to the end.

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Till Next Time!!!

Comments

[toshibafox]

Is it not too late to call the ghost busters, I'm pretty sure its something strange in this neighborhood.

lately I've been making ghost buster puns for some reason.

[DarkChocolateMuffins]

Sooooo the end is nigh😟

[AnnEldest]

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Don't worry. I have the third book already done. It will come out after this one is done