15: Shadows and Nightmares
The full moon was still in place high in the sky, as the black 2013 SRT Viper GTS-R, with its dark purple aura smoke trailing behind, roamed nearer and nearer to the suburbs of Beverlywood, where Team Furious, the Rainbooms, and their new ally, Akira Serizawa, were last seen. The exaggerated body-kitted GTS-R belonged to the human version of Nightmare Moon, whose Cutie Mark can be seen around the rear fender, and she was currently searching for the two groups of drivers. The insidious Mare of the Moon once took control of Princess Luna 1,000 years ago in Equestria, and was banished to the moon, but after her return, she was defeated by the bearers of the elements of harmony. Now, however, she is back as a human on Earth, but with her dark magic slightly improved. It is still unclear how she was revived without Princess Luna, or a new host, but she was now wise enough to be on her guard for anything her enemies might throw at them. What she didn't understand was why she would drive her Viper on the ground every now and then, when she could fly around with her alicorn wings, or transform into a cloud of purple smoke to spy.
As Nightmare Moon drew closer to the intersection of Monte Mar and South Beverly, she quickly stopped her Viper. She can hear some unusual engine sounds, coming from far behind her. One of the engine sounds was getting closer quickly, as Nightmare looked at her rear view mirror, when her eyes grew wider at the sight of an orange and yellow-striped 2003 Chevrolet Silverado Trophy Truck, accelerating toward her back bumper, and slamming hard into it. The Viper GTS-R was now pushed forward, skidding to a halt 7 feet away from the unknown truck that assaulted Nightmare's vehicle. That truck's driver was Sam, smiling with pride, while Nightmare Moon was still recovering inside her Viper's cockpit. The rear bumper was badly damaged from the shunt, when it began to slowly repair itself, much like Rachael's ability. Nightmare then gasped when she saw six more racing vehicles approaching, which belong to the rest of Team Furious. The Rainbooms and Starlight Glimmer parked their street cars right behind them, as Nightmare snarled at them with great rage.
"How dare you try to assault me?!"
Right on cue, all the headlights of the race cars, street cars, and trophy truck were turned on, and blinded Nightmare's vision. She couldn't stand that many bright lights, so she quickly turned around and drove away from them, and the two teams chased after her black GTS-R. As they all raced out of the suburbs, Akira was watching them on the computer screens from inside the safety of his laboratory. In any case of emergency, he can help Team Furious and the girls with instructions, and keep them aware of their surroundings.
At this point, most of Los Angeles was in total chaos. So many people were trapped within many stores, malls, and even restaurants, afraid to step outside. Many buildings in Central L.A. were all covered with sticky green slime, that not even local rescue teams can penetrate through. Strangely enough, in Downtown Los Angeles, there was one building in the skyline area glowing with an eerie green aura. It gave a sense of fear to all the L.A. citizens below, as they all avoided the strange skyscraper. Inside, there were more green slime, dazed people in cocoons, and a female looking out the wide window. This was, indeed, the human incarnation of Queen Chrysalis, smirking with confidence. She watched all the destruction that King Sombra and Nightmare Moon have caused earlier.
"I guess this is even better than trying to do everything myself. Once all of this pathetic city is under my control, I can use its humans to create a new army, and return to Equestria to conquer it once again. Not even the Elements of Harmony can stop what I have in store for them!"
Chrysalis gave a loud sinister cackle, and as soon as she was done, she walked to her crystal ball to see what her "partners" were currently doing. The first image she saw was Nightmare Moon racing away from a group of motorsport machines and street cars. Chrysalis was slightly surprised to witness, but then she giggled.
"Well, well. The notorious Nightmare Moon is afraid of a little light from those..."
Suddenly, she stopped speaking upon see one particular hypercar, with a recognizable Cutie Mark painted on the rear fenders. The former changeling queen made a raged expression and snarled, remembering her one foe that she wanted revenge on, for reforming her changeling army.
"Starlight Glimmer!"
Nightmare Moon was weaving through the streets of abandoned vehicles, with Team Furious and the Rainbooms following behind, as they soon turned off their headlights. She tried to perform extreme evasive maneuvers several times, but they were still right on her tail. She found it embarrassing being chased by these humans, so she planned to use her dark magic to slow them down.
"Let us see if you humans are prepared for what's to come!" Nightmare growled.
Behind the wheel of the 2004 #24 DuPont Chevy Monte Carlo stock car, Charlie noticed Nightmare's left hand sticking out and facing upwards from her side window. He knew that she was going to use her magic.
"Stay on your guards, guys!" Charlie alerted his friends. "She's planning to do something!"
"Like what?" Twilight asked perplexingly.
As if to answer her question, dark purple aura surrounded Nightmare's hand, and was quickly shot straight into the sky, creating a swirling vortex in the clouds. Suddenly, dark shadowy creatures were descending downwards towards the city. All of Team Furious and the Rainbooms slammed on their brakes, and looked up into the sky, petrified. Akira witnessed what was happening through the computer monitors, and was speechless. Then, to everyone's surprise, Nightmare Moon performed a 180 degrees stop a mile away from them. The creatures surrounded her Viper GTS-R, waiting for her command, while Nightmare stared smugly at her opponents.
"Wha' in tarnation are those things?!" Applejack asked.
"I don't know!" Twilight answered nervously.
"I do." Akira replied through everyone's communication systems. "I remember those creatures from one of the My Little Pony comics by IDW Publishing! One of the story arcs tells of those 'Nightmare Forces' kidnapping the pony version of Rarity and transforming her into their evil queen."
The Rainbooms were shocked to hear this, especially Rarity, even though he was talking about Rarity from Equestria.
"What?! B-b-but... how?!" Rarity questioned.
Akira continued. "They tricked her by shattering her certainty and determination, and by giving her nightmares about her friends rejecting and forgetting her. But, in the end, her Equestrian friends were able to show her how special she was to them, thus setting her free. So, if those things try to do the same thing to all of you, just remember that what they say will be lies and deceptions. And most importantly, remember of all the good times you've had in your friends. Understand?"
"We'll have to use our movie car replicas, and our powers, to beat them." Charlie added in. "Then, divide and conquer around the city to keep them occupied. Stay in contact with each other."
Everyone agreed on the plan. Rarity, however, was a little concerned of all this. What if those Nightmare Forces succeed into making her evil, too? If they have turned Rarity from Equestria into Nightmare Rarity, then will that happen to herself? Bobby could see that she was mentally worried.
"Rarity." Bobby called to her, as she looked at him. "We won't let anything happen to you. You are in charge of yourself. And we all believe in you. Remember that."
Bobby gave Rarity a warm smile at her, and she felt how true those words sound. She then smiled back in tears. "Thank you... Bobby."
Suddenly, Nightmare Moon interrupted though everyone's car radios, and began to taunt. "What is the matter, humans? Are you not going to attack me again, or will you turn and flee? I suggest that you do, while you still have the chance!"
Glaring back at her, Bobby replied by revving the engine of his 2000 #1 Pennzoil Nissan Skyline GT-R JGTC. He wasn't afraid of Nightmare Moon and her army, and as she saw his fearless expression, Rarity revved her 2011 Ferrari 458 Italia's engine, as well. The rest of Team Furious and the Rainbooms, including Starlight, revved their engines, indicating that they are not going to run away. Not without a fight, that is. The loud sounds of the engines echoed everywhere.
"We are NOT afraid of you, Nightmare!" David spoke up.
"Your Nightmare Forces aren't going to stop us from saving the world!" Starlight added.
"Yeah!" Rainbow grinned. "You and your army are going down!"
"So, go ahead, Nightmare!" Rachael smirked. "Make your move."
Nightmare was more than happy to hear those words. "With pleasure! My minions, seize them!"
The Nightmare creatures lurched forward and flew towards Team Furious and the Rainbooms.
"GO!!!" Charlie commanded.
The two teams burned rubber and drove their cars at their enemies. But, instead of colliding them head-on, they quickly split up into different directions on different streets, while Team Furious changed into their secondary vehicles, except Charlie and Taylin. The shadowy creatures were surprised of this, but they split up, as well, and chased after them individually. Nightmare Moon didn't see the sudden change of vehicles from Team Furious. Then, Charlie spoke to Nightmare though his radio.
"Why make this an easy win for you, when we can make things a little bit interesting? You'll have to catch us in a game of cat and mouse, and you'll have to follow the leader!"
Nightmare was not pleased of this, having to chase the leader to end this. Even so, her minions will most likely succeed in capturing all of them, so she drove her Viper to wherever the red and blue stock car with the yellow 24 on the sides went.
Sam and Applejack drove through an empty street, while two Nightmare creatures chased after them. They saw a construction site up ahead, and Applejack decided to use that to their advantage.
"Hey, Sam! Let's head over there! Maybe we'll git rid of 'em if we climb to the top!"
Sam tipped his white hat in agreement. "Roger that!"
Sam drove his General Lee through one entrance to the construction site, while Applejack entered her off-road 2010 Ford F-150 through another. They saw that the large unfinished building had four metal floors installed, with ramps in between each one. Both of them climbed to the first ramp up to the second story floor, but the creatures suddenly stopped, and after a few moments of looking at each other, they smiled and flew quickly all the way to the top floor. Applejack saw them through her passenger side window.
"They're headin' to the top fer' us!"
"We'll surprise 'em with our high beam lights!" Sam answered.
The Nightmare creatures waited for Applejack and Sam to arrive, in order to ambush them. But, as the two heroes reached the top, they flew towards them to attack, only to be blinded by too many lights from the F-150's off-road light bars, as well as the high beams from the General Lee, with the Dixie horn sounding off. Not bearing the light any longer, the creatures flew high in the sky to get away from it. Applejack and Sam climbed out of their vehicles to see where they went, and saw that the two shadowy forces were gone from sight.
Sam sighed. "Ah' guess bright light repels 'em fast."
"That's good." Applejack smiled. "No reason to stick around 'n' fight 'em anymore."
Sadly, Applejack soon found out that she was wrong, as the creatures returned after recovering from the surprise attack from her and Sam. They growled at them and circled around them.
Applejack groaned. "Ah' spoke too soon."
Deciding to battle after all, Sam switched his street clothes into his Wild Western battle outfit, and Applejack transformed her clothes into her Crystal Guardian outfit. They prepared themselves for battle, as the circling monsters quickly pulled away from the two heroes, and charged at them. Sam used his plasma crossbow to shoot, while Applejack used her super strength to smash and defend themselves. Unbeknownst to them, King Sombra's shadow form flew past them from afar, and was approaching to a random area of the city.
Three Nightmare minions chased Fluttershy's custom 2001 VW Beetle and David's Ecto-1 down a street that goes past a museum. As they swerved left and right, Fluttershy was nearly crying as she drove, while David was, nervously, flipping a few switches on his dashboard. This activated some proton canons, which suddenly emerged from Ecto-1's roof rack, pointing to the rear. David open-fired at the three Nightmares with very powerful protonic energy and shocked them enough to instantly disappear into nothing. David and Fluttershy stopped their cars to look and see if anything else followed them.
"I'm glad that's over." Fluttershy sighed with relief. "I thought those things were going to get us for sure. But what was that stuff you blasted them with?"
"Proton beams." David gladly replied. "It's what the Ghostbusters use to capture ghosts, but this was a powerful version."
"Well, let's find the others and..."
Before Fluttershy could finish, she screamed with fear. David faced to where Fluttershy was looking at, and his face went cold with fear, as well. King Sombra was approaching them from over a random building, and this prompted the two friends to slam their foot on their pedals and flee. Even though they were accelerating fast, Sombra was even faster, as he covered his shadow over their cars. This prompted David and Fluttershy to stop, and suddenly experience hallucinations of their greatest fears, or at least some scary moments.
Within her mind, Fluttershy saw that she was back in Canterlot High, and the other students were teasing her, laughing at her, and calling her names, and she was feeling so scared and embarassed.
"Please! Leave me alone!"
She began to cry, and ran away as far as she could, but it felt as if her surroundings didn't move at all, and all the laughter and name calling was getting louder. Then, everything went black, and Fluttershy could see her closest friends up ahead.
"Girls! Please help me! Everyone's making fun of me!"
But the illusions of Sunset, Rainbow, Rarity, Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie, and even Spike, turned towards her, and they didn't look happy.
"Fluttershy," Applejack shook her head, "why can't you just stand up fer' yourself?"
"Well... I...I just..." Fluttershy tried to explain, but was interrupted by Rainbow.
"Why can't you be brave enough to fight back for once?!"
"Honestly, darling." Rarity scoffed. "I thought you were our friend."
"I am your friend!" Fluttershy began to shed tears. "It's just that... I..."
"Then, why don't you just turn around, and fix your problems alone!" Sunset scolded.
Twilight turned her back on Fluttershy. "You can't just rely on us to help you all the time."
Pinkie said nothing and just turned her back, as well. Fluttershy fell to her knees, ready to cry her broken heart out, when Spike came up to her.
"I can't believe you'd be someone who disappoints her friends like this." Spike sighed, as he walked away.
Fluttershy cried and begged for her friends to come back, but they didn't stop until they disappeared from sight.
Meanwhile, David suddenly saw himself behind bars, and he didn't understand what he did to land himself in jail. Then, he saw his parents looking at him with disappointed looks.
"David!" David's father yelled. "You were street racing this whole time?!"
David winced at his dad's sudden outburst. "I have, but..."
His mother shook her head. "We're disappointed at you, David Jefferson. You know street racing is illegal and dangerous."
"Well... yes, but... I was only doing it to get some money to support us!"
"And your 'friends' told you this was okay?!" David's dad scold loudly. "That's it, son! When you get out of jail, your street racing days are done, and you are never seeing your friends again!"
David's parent left his sights, and he was shocked to hear this. To never see his team again was his biggest fear. Feeling depressed, he sat on the single bed in his call, and began to weep.
Back in the real world, King Sombra had already left Fluttershy and David to cry in their worst nightmares. Akira saw what happen to them and heard their weeping in their cars. He knew the solution to their predicament, but he was unsure if they're willing to fight back.
"Fluttershy! David!" Akira called through their car radio. "This is Akira! Can you hear me?"
David and Fluttershy both gasped at the sound of his name, as well as theirs. "Akira?"
"Listen! Whatever each of you are experiencing is not real! King Sombra has placed you under some hallucination spell of your greatest fears! The only way to make it stop is to face them head-on!"
"I can't!" Fluttershy burst out. "My friends all hate me now! If I face them, they'll just hate me even more!"
"I'm currently in jail because I have been street racing!" David cried out. "I can't get out of here and help my friends!"
"That's just it!" Akira suggested. "Fluttershy, you have to face your friends, and give them a valuable lesson of why they need to stay friends with you! And David, you have to use your Proton Pack to break out of jail! It's the only way to save Los Angeles!"
Hearing what Akira had suggested gave both Fluttershy and David some confidence and agreed to do what he said. Back inside her head, Fluttershy stood up, wiped her tears away, and ran towards her friends again. They still weren't glad to see her, but before one of them could speak, Fluttershy spoke firmly first.
"Now, listen to me! What you all said to me was very mean! That's no way to treat your friend like that! I may not be the bravest, or the strongest, but I have always been there for you when you needed me!"
Suddenly, Fluttershy noticed her friends, and Spike, begining to feel guilty, which means she is winning, so she sympathized them with forgiveness.
"I will always have each of your backs, and I will forgive you, if you are sorry, too."
Then, each of her friends made small smiles, and said in unison. "We're sorry, Fluttershy."
Right at that moment, everything went white and Fluttershy found herself back to reality, and behind the wheel of her custom '01 VW Beetle.
David summoned his Proton Pack to appear, and quickly adjusted the Neutrino Wand to create a powerful Boson Dart, and blast his way through the concrete wall. He prepared himself for the blast and pressed a button to unleash the sudden burst of proton energy. After the small rumbling, a hole in the wall was created, which was the right size for David to escape through. There was a bright light on the other side, and it made its way through the hole, causing David to reach his left hand for it. After that, David was back in the driver seat of his Ecto-1 replica. He and Fluttershy had broken Sombra's spell, and they both sighed with relief.
"Thanks for your help, Akira." David smiled.
"Yeah." Fluttershy joined in. "How did you know that facing our fears would break the spell?"
Akira smiled with pride. "Ah, you know. Movies and cartoons can, sometimes, show you what to do." Then, his voice turned serious. "Now, you guys better hurry. Bobby and Rarity may need your help. They're approaching near the Fashion District."
"We're on it!" David nodded his head.
"Um.. I don't where that is." Fluttershy interrupted.
"Follow me. It's not that far."
David led Fluttershy the way towards the Fashion District area, while a dark shadow of a hypercar watched them from a few blocks away, before reversing and disappeared.
Stats
Page generated in 0.036 seconds
Total duration
987 users online
7,305 hits today, 2,139,894 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
10283445
What's that?
When you say "violence," do you mean punches and kicks?
10437833
Yeah. Something like that in later chapters. I put in violence due to the use of some weapons my original characters use, and the explosions.
10437832
It's a classic #43 1970 Plymouth Superbird that Richard Petty drove in NASCAR in the 70s. But it's not used in this story.
10444906
In this story, humans from the real world would remain humans if they visited Equestria, since the real world created fictional universes, if you know what I mean. At first, I wanted Team Furious to turn into talking cars, Disney's Cars style, since their passion is street racing. But they wouldn't fit through the mirror portal as cars upon entering Equestria, and it would probably be an idea for another story.