The room disintegrated around Luna, but the figure remained, silent and staring. Jason continued to raise his machete, until the blade was on level with his soulless gaze. Soon it was just the two of them, trapped in a staring contest as the moonlight grew brighter and the darkness seeped from the corners of the now forgotten room.

Jason had his prey cornered.

The moment of silence was finally broken, however, when Jason took a step forward. Luna immediately shuffled backward and started trotting at a furious pace. She didn’t know where she was or even where she was going, but the overwhelming chill that ran down her spine from looking into the eyes of… whatever that thing was, sent her in a mindless state of panic.

Jason followed behind, his prey disappearing in the dense forest that suddenly sprung up. But it didn’t matter. No matter how far they run, they always die in the end.

Luna crashed through foliage and brushed past trees, her hooves never stopping for rest so much as she felt the icy chill still on her backside. The forest was shrouded in darkness so bleak she only managed to dodge a tree when it was only five feet in front of her. The only available light was from the moon high overhead, which broke through the tree cover in small scattering rays.

Her lungs heaved as her strength ebbed and finally reached her limit. She had been running for what felt like hours now. Her pursuer was most likely left in the dust, since she heard nor have seen any sign of it since she retreated. Slowly coming to a stop, Luna leaned on a tree trunk and panted desperately for more breath.

“What… was that... thing?” Luna said in between breaths, finally sucking in a huge gulp of air and blowing it out in a long sigh. “And where am I?”

Looking up, Luna only saw the foreboding trees from before. They appeared sinister in appearance, warped and twisted by a malignant force of some kind. The air itself was drowning in a dark presence that made every breath uncomfortable and heavy. And looking down at her hooves, Luna noticed that a slowly swirling fog stuck close down to the ground.

“This… this can’t be a nightmare, can it? I don’t even remember entering one.” Luna gulped, closing her eyes and focusing in on her magic. Her horn glowed with a pale purple luminosity, but even then it appeared weak and not as strong as before. “No,” Luna whispered, letting go of her magic and sighing, “my magic is not as up to par as it normally is. What does this mean?”

The snap of a twig brought Luna’s attention back to the present. Lifting her forehead slowly from the treetrunk, Luna looked over her shoulder. The moonlight was no longer being blocked by a tree. Rather, it was that same figure from before.

Jason just found his victim.

Luna screamed, horn lighting up and releasing a wave of uncontrolled magic directly into Jason’s chest. Jason took a step back at what felt like a hammer blow hitting him. But it didn’t deter him for long, for he was already reaching out for Luna with his machete held high above his head.

“Stay back!” Luna shouted, striking Jason with another powerful magical blast. This time, it hit him with a force equivalent to a moving car, sending Jason flying back into the undergrowth. But he was still on his feet, already walking back to her as he shrugged off her attack. Closing her eyes hard and feeling all her magical strength ebb into her horn, Luna opened her now blindingly bright eyes and screamed, “I said STAY BACK!”

Now a force on par with a wrecking ball whisked Jason off his feet and into a nearby tree, breaking it half as a violent storm of splinters rained down from where it fell. The crash of the tree falling to the earth echoed throughout the forest, the creak and crack of breaking lumber resonating through Luna’s bones.

Panting, Luna stared at the last spot she had seen Jason. With the downed tree came an overwhelmingly bright patch of moonlight shining down on the forest floor. Not a sound could be heard other than Luna’s own breath.

Luna’s eyes squinted as a flash of light shone in her vision. Out in the pale moonlight of the fallen tree an arm was held up, machete pointed directly at the sky and reflecting the light. Soon it was joined by another arm, then a head, and finally an entire torso as the monster known as Jason rose up as splinters and dust fell off his ragged coat.

No matter what she threw at him, Jason just kept on getting back up. Luna didn’t know what to do. This thing… it was unstoppable.

However, the most horrifying thing Luna noticed about this creature was its face. It was gone. In its place was a horrifying mural of rotting flesh, diseased skin hanging from the bone, a mouth of yellow teeth drooling scum and pus, along with even more frightening depictions of the most terrifying dark corners of the imagination some sick mind could make. But what really scared Luna, to the point she felt like her heart might stop, were Jason’s eyes. Hollow, cold, almost like the eyes of a dead animal staring right at you. Not a trace of emotion and not even a single ounce of intelligence or empathy behind them. They were the eyes of an animal that were entirely soulless.

Leaning down, Jason picked up his hockey mask and put it back on his face, covering his deformed visage in exchange for a much colder appearance. He was unstoppable, unbeatable, and most of all, indestructible. And he was going to get his prey, no matter what.

“No… no, no, no! This can’t be happening!” Luna yelled, backing up and tripping on some brush to fall on her rump on the ground. She still continued to drag herself backwards, however, her coat and mane tangling with twigs and branches that met her path.

Jason didn’t say a word, just continuing his agonizingly slow pace with his machete held tightly in his grip. Luna didn’t want to see the end result of that machete’s blade, so she broke out in a run much like before, although with much less enthusiasm or endurance than last time.

The fog grew denser around her hooves, rising higher as she ran further down whatever path she was mindlessly taking. Her path finally ended at a lake, which had sprung up suddenly at the forest’s edge.

It was shrouded by a spooky blanket of fog covering its surface, so much that no light could be seen reflecting off its surface.

Luna stopped at its banks, turning around to the shadow ridden forest she had just departed from. No sign of Jason could be seen in the darkness, so Luna allowed herself a sigh of relief.

This sigh was interrupted by the machete blade that came only inches away from cleaving through her neck. “Ah!” Luna cried out as she fell with a splat at the water’s edge. Her body became soaked by the icy chill of the lake’s water, making her bones feeble and her muscles weak. “Please, don’t!” Luna shouted, holding her hoof up in protest.

Jason swung at her, Luna narrowly avoiding the machete’s blade by ducking beneath the lake’s surface. When she came back up she felt the machete graze her cheek as it hacked at her, as if she were a hunk of fresh meat.

Diving underneath the surface again, Luna panicked in its icy confines. If she went back up, she’ll be beheaded or dismembered for sure. If she stayed down here, then she’d drown or die of pneumonia. So she had to do something.

“Luna,” a voice spoke. It was in the center of her mind, not speaking through her ears but somewhere else entirely. “Luna, my sweet, my precious, I am here. Do not worry.”

Luna released a gasp of air long held in, the bubble rising to the surface as water replaced it in Luna’s lungs. As she choked and coughed on the dirty lake water, the voice whispered, “Don’t fret, my beloved. Embrace me, and we shall live, you and I. Just come into my arms, my sweet. Come… come to me…”

The water’s surface broke and Luna rose with her eyes shining a dark purple light. With a guttural scream, she grabbed Jason with her magical grip and held him several feet up in the air. The slash of his machete was reflected back by an invisible force that broke the handle from the blade. Then, with a turn of her head, Luna threw Jason like a ragdoll up in the air, where he flew for several seconds before hitting the lake’s surface and sinking underneath the waves.

Much like the first time, Jason was drowning. Cold water creeped into every corner of his body, filling in rotting skin and decaying flesh. As he sunk to the bottom, Jason knew this wouldn’t be the last of him. No, it was never the last of him.

Luna dragged herself out of the water, dripping and soaked to the bone. She felt like a walking ice cube and her only effort to stay warm was clattering her teeth and shivering uncontrollably.

“Wh-what h-h-happened?” Luna chattered, hugging her body in an effort to stay warm.

“We saved you, my beloved,” the voice whispered again, a laugh echoing in Luna’s mind. “We saved you from doom because we love you.”

“What… a-are you?” Luna asked.

“Look to the water and find out.”

Luna did so hesitantly, fearful that even now Jason could pop up. But the only thing she saw in the water was herself. Nothing else but a reflection.

However, it took her several seconds to realize that her reflection was muddled. She didn’t know if it was because of the pale moonlight or dirty water, but she looked different. Malevolent eyes, fangs sticking out from her lips, and even a helmet atop her head.

“Do you not see what we are, my dear Luna?” the reflection asked with a laugh, smiling while Luna frowned. “We are you, one and the same. We saved you because we didn’t want to die either. We are—”

“Nightmare Moon,” Luna blurted out, the realization hitting her like a bolt of lightning.

“Yes.” The reflection smiled wider, eyes glowing in the darkness of the night. “And if you want to survive this night of terrors, you must become one with us, Luna. Or else we shall both die.”