Archdemon of the displaced

by Megaphiles

Night Mare

Gaismagorm looked out at the horizon as night finally fell upon the Badlands. For his safety, he quickly made his way underground.

For some reason, he felt safe sleeping in a hole. He relaxed his entire body and let himself be immersed in the land of dreams.

He was covered in black smoke, the only consistent features of his form being a human-like head and clawed hands that resembled those of a tiger.

He looked around. All he could see were floating islands, each carrying fragments of a city. The sky above was a swirling blend of pink, magenta, and crimson—an endless void.

Ruins of a city.
A familiar city.
A city that stirred memories.

It was his old home. A home he couldn’t fully remember. It wasn’t amnesia or his draconic instincts overwhelming him—it was just that he genuinely had a poor memory.

He didn’t move at first. He simply reached out and picked up a building that now seemed the size of a toy. It crumbled into dust in his hand.
As the grains of sand fell to the floor, he sighed and began walking. The land shifted beneath him to form a path, molding itself to support his steps—until a thought crossed his mind:

What if the land didn’t move? What if it let me fall?

Unknowingly, the land obeyed the thought. It stopped forming beneath his feet, and he plummeted off the islands.

His body distorted. He was no longer solid—now he was liquid, and he was being pulled into a swirling vortex.

Then, suddenly, he was seated in a room beside a table. The room was barren, lit only by a dim red glow coming through a window.

He stayed still as his senses spun. Then, a strange sound drew his attention. He turned to the window and saw something flying through the air—something unnatural.

Urban islands floated across the void, connected by twisted, spiraling roads. Some of the roads fused with amorphous, shapeless masses. There was no clear beginning or end.

He blinked.

That thing... it didn’t belong here.

In a moment of lucidity, he told someone—he wasn’t sure who—to feed on it.

The window vanished. Darkness enveloped him as he felt himself sliding downward, like on a water slide—

---

Princess Luna had seen strange dreams before—nightmares too—but even she couldn’t tell whether this was supposed to be a dream or a nightmare.

The structures resembled those of Manehattan, but they lacked vital details: no doors, no streets—only windows.

Then she heard something below her. She looked down and saw a faint, flickering light—fire.

Magenta-colored fire suddenly burst upward in towering pillars, hurling her through a building that shattered on impact. The torn building's upper half unfurled, forming a tunnel. Luna found herself suspended within it just before another burst of flame—now deep red—rushed toward her.

She reacted quickly, raising a magical barrier.

The flames struck with force, pushing her out of the tunnel. They weren’t just chasing her—they were hunting her. She fired a blast of magic at the oncoming fire, but the energy passed straight through it, useless.

Luna flew hard, weaving between buildings, trying to lose her pursuer. But the fire flowed through obstacles like water, growing larger with every moment.

Then she slammed into something. A wall—a massive brown wall that extended endlessly in all directions. Bipedal figures stood atop it, shrouded in black fire. Somehow, gravity bent around them: their flames flowed sideways instead of upward.

They were spaced eerily apart across the wall, like a forest of flame-cloaked statues. They didn’t move. They didn’t breathe.

They didn’t blink.

Luna stepped cautiously onto the wall. Her hooves clung to the surface as if gravity had shifted for her as well, but her mane and the weight of her body still acted normally. It was disorienting.

Then she noticed something: the figures had eyes. Glowing eyes. None of them blinked. None except one.

Far in the distance.

Is that the dreamer? she wondered.

The figure turned toward her, locking eyes with an unsettling glow. Its jaw stretched open unnaturally wide, glowing with that same otherworldly light.

Then the pink flames returned—this time forming a ring around the dreamer like a protective wall. They twisted upward into a pink fire tornado, with smaller ones spiraling around it, flickering in and out of existence.

Luna stared, stunned.

She blasted at the tornado, trying to reach the dreamer, but her magic simply vanished on contact.

The dreamer floated higher now, lifted by the vortex of black flames and smoke—if it was smoke. A headache began to form behind his eyes as a harsh light shone down on him like a stage spotlight.

And then... he sang.

It was a catchy tune. He didn’t understand the lyrics, but that didn’t matter.

---

Gaismagorm woke up.
Surprisingly refreshed.

He dug his way out of the underground and greeted the morning with a raspy grin.

“Good morning, my Qurio,” he said, as the bat-like leeches slithered from his jaws and fluttered around him.

He began marching toward his next destination, a smile hidden behind his crocodilian visage, unreadable to most.

---

Princess Luna exhaled deeply. It was time to switch shifts with Celestia. She lowered the moon as her sister raised the sun, then immediately flew to the edge of the Everfree Forest and began blasting back the invasive plunder vines.

Even with her hooves full, she couldn’t stop thinking about that strange... dream? Nightmare? She wasn’t sure.

She and her sister had been staying in Ponyville temporarily since the vines appeared out of nowhere and began swarming the town.

It had been a jarring change of scenery for both royal sisters, especially with how chaotic their schedules had become. Thankfully, they’d managed to shuffle their royal duties to prioritize the evacuation and investigation surrounding this “Gaismagorm” creature.

It was exhausting work with little to show for it so far. But their true objective—reaching the old castle in the Everfree Forest to find the source of the vines (and perhaps check on the Tree of Harmony)—was scheduled for midday.

Progress was slow, but it was coming.

What troubled Luna most was how the vines had managed to take Ponyville by surprise. They appeared to be using a massive underground tunnel system—one nopony had known existed.

Twilight theorized that the tremors mentioned in her last letter might have unearthed the tunnels, and that they were somehow connected to both the vines and the Qurio.

Possibly even Gaismagorm himself.

Luna blasted away another vine with a flick of her horn and narrowed her eyes.

‘At least this threat isn’t some ancient evil we couldn’t handle back then... I hope,’ she thought grimly, and continued her work.

Author's Note:

Haven’t mentioned before but I’m open to corrections to my grammar and criticism to the story

Comments

[Darkwarrior06]

Oh there gonna be in for a rude awakening once they actually see what there dealing with, elder dragons are forces of nature, hell id say there more in tune with nature then even alicorns are and god help them if they actually get him mad and go full power like he does in the fight

[Dr_Doom666]

The dream was a little confusing but other than that I loved it

[Megaphiles]

12166561
That was the intention

Dreams are usually a mess that just mixes elements together to do a recapitulation of someone’s feelings, and I tried to make the dream be as crazy as a real one