Some years before the return of Nightmare Moon, Bon Bon wants nothing more than to take life slow and easy. Berry Punch just wants to raise her daughter. Neither of them feel like they entirely fit into pleasant Ponyville.

When little Ruby Pinch starts reacting with stark terror to the idea of sleeping in her own room, nightmares and an overactive imagination are the immediately obvious explanation. Everypony knows that the monster under the bed isn't real.

But maybe Bon Bon can offer a second opinion without immediately outing herself as a monster hunter. Some nightmares are more real than others, and ponies have to look out for one another.

Set some years before the return of Nightmare Moon in canon and my other Berry Punch stories, but can be read on its own.

Berry Punch has settled into her new life in Ponyville. She's made a friend whose daughter is a great friend to Ruby Pinch as well. Business is good, there's always money in alcohol. But Berry isn't a pony at ease with herself, and so she hates market day. Too many ponies to see, too many irrational anxieties.

The high point of her morning is therefore a visit by Ditzy Doo, taking a break on her mail route to have a chat.

Minor spoilers for MLP: The Movie

Her plans are foiled, nopony seems to bear a grudge and the Friendship Festival is in full swing. Tempest isn't in a partying mood and keeps to the sidelines, where she encounters an earth pony mare who knows a thing or two about screwing up your own life.

Takes place before Twilight Sparkle talks Tempest into showing off her horn powers through firework.

Berry Punch turned her life around and she knows two things:
1. Her life has never been better. She has great friends, and a much improved relationship with Ruby Pinch, her daughter.
2. She grew up a petty inner city criminal. Barely anypony knows, of course. Ponyville's problems tend to get solved by friendship, weaponized or otherwise, and if anypony did need to be roughed up, Berry was probably hung over at the time.

Berry is at peace. So what if she's a little rough around the edges? She's no crazier than her friends. However, her misspent youth and early adulthood seem to catch up to her when her daughter's sire sends a letter indicating that he wants to be part of his daughter's life. That stallion has never shown an interest, and Berry can't believe things are as simple as that. With help from her friends, she intents to get to the bottom of things, and tie up loose ends, if necessary.

It's only right to confide in Bon Bon and Lyra, after all. Bon Bon let Berry in on her past as a monster hunter in a surprising gesture of trust, and the other earth pony at least wouldn't judge Berry for her past.

Bellikos. Odd golems from an EverQuest expansion released long after the game had any relevance. The players helped them turn against their divine creator. Landshark is one of these creatures. Since those events, years have passed. She has traveled far and built herself a life among mortals, far from the divine domains of her creation. Now she's stranded in Equestria.

By instinct, she distrusts gods, and the ageless alicorns seem to be just that. She can't ask beings of such power to break through into other worlds to return the construct to more familiar places. So Landshark tries to make the best of her current situation and settle into Equestria to 'retire' and make friends.

(That's the pitch. If you want to know more about bellikos in the actual EverQuest game, click More.)

But what even is a bellikos? They're an enemy type from EverQuest's 16th expansion, Underfoot. But they're not just mooks that screech like rusty hinges and try to bite you. They're that, too, but they had a story.

Brell Serilis runs the Underfoot, populated by his servants and by the souls of worthy worshippers. He created most of the subterranean sapients. But his unique First Creation secretly turned against him. The First created hosts of servants, the elite of which were the Bellikos. Not primarily meant to fight, the Bellikos were sent out into the Underfoot to preach the ideals of freedom and the absolute supremacy of the Self over the needs of society. They were meant to be relatable, charming and cunning to aid in their purpose. It's not clear why they needed jaws like bear traps. Pictures do not do justice to how far these things can open up their maws to chomp at enemies.

The secret goal: Disrupt the ordered workings of Brell's realm, where every being has its duty and its purpose, or is a former mortal experiencing their afterlife reward.

But some Bellikos started believing what they preached. With the aid of mortal champions (following a quest line and doing an instanced raid), they discovered that the First's other servants were taught only obedience and sacrifice in preparation for open war with Brell's divided followers. This sparked a fight to share the knowledge of self with the First's slaves and reveal his plans to the rest of the Underfoot.

Landshark, then still known by the name she was crafted with, was one of these renegades, fighting to share the idea of free will among the First's slaves and sabotage his evil plans for the divine realm.

I do not own MLP or any intellectual property related to EverQuest.