I picked clean the bones of the badger I had caught earlier. Two weeks I had been free and I still had yet to begin to do anything besides hunt and make some light conversation with Zecora. Still, I did find Ritual's Preserving Cupboard. So that's something extremely useful. The Preserving Cupboard is exactly what it sounds like. Anything inside it stops aging completely. And it seemed like Ritual had enough forethought to store a bag with my old stuff in there, but I still had yet to go through it all.

I gave the radio on the floor a light kick and it started playing one of the best songs in history as I began to work on creating a chair out of vines, leaves and sticks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9hLcRU5wE4

Hours later I had a mostly completed chair to go with my forest material bed. I chuckled which was interrupted by a yawn. I glanced up out of the cave and noticed the sun had sunk beneath the ground and the moon was beginning to rise. Has it really been that long? I yawned again.

I shook my head and dragged my sleepy self over to the preserving cupboard and pulled out a few strips of cooked deer. After snacking on them I collapsed in bed and closed my eyes, gently drifting off.

I opened my eyes to the sound of a distorted foghorn. I glanced around. This isn't good. The Dreamrealm was unbalanced, symbolising the state of my mind. I sighed as I looked around the mass of blood and demented ponies. I closed my eyes and envisioned the Circle of Tranquillity. Opening my eyes I saw I had appeared there but the Stones of Peace were scattered all around the circle. After picking them up and stacking them how they were meant to be there was a white flash and the more disturbing parts of my Dreamscape reverted to a more sane and balanced state. Over time more and more of the Dreamscape became more ordered and changed to look like a empty battlefield.

There was another flash, this time dark and from an outside source. Before I could do anything the Dreamscape changed to look like a field filled with sickeningly flowers flowers and disgustingly cute animals.

"Fear not, young one, 'tis but a dream." A dark blue Alicorn proclaimed, swooping down from the sky. Blue Alicorn? She's...not one of my creations. Could the rumors have been true? "Do not be afraid, 'tis, I mean, it is I! Princess Luna! Guardian of Dreams, Princess of Night!"

I snorted. So, it is her. I slowly clapped mockingly. "Oh, bravo. Well done. You blithering dolt!" I snapped my fingers and a disembodied fist shot from the ground beneath her, changing the Dreamscape back into the empty battlefield, and slammed into her gullet with the force of a car.

The princess stumbled back, coughing up some blood, her eyes locking onto me. "You...what are you you?"

"Why don't you ask your traitorous sister?!" I snarled.

She blinked and shook her head, "Traitorous? What...? My sister is not a traitor!"

I chuckled, "So naive. Your sister is a LIAR and a TRAITOROUS COWARD!!!" I roared, my anger building once again. "Just because I'm different I deserve to rot in a dungeon?! Just because I don't fit in this fucking perfect world?! Because I feel anger?! THIS ENTIRE THING IS HER FAULT!!!"

Luna narrowed her eyes in disbelief. Yeah, well, I don't expect her to believe me. "Who are you?"

I snorted. "Hasn't your precious sister told you? I am Blood. I am the monster that she so righteously hunted down and imprisoned."

"Blood?! Tia told me of you. But...she never mentioned you were intelligent. She said you were a raving monster."

I chuckled, "Well...I guess it's true. From a certain perspective." I glared at her. "Now...shall we dance?"

Her horn lit up. "Do not presume you are stronger than me. I am an Alicorn, I come with all the power that title possesses."

I snickered, "Yeah? And this is my Dreamscape, bitch." I waved my hand and a truck smashed into her side, sending her flying through the air. "You think you're in charge here?!" I roared as I teleported to the location she landed at. "YOU ARE NOTHING!!!" I clenched my fist and a pillar of dirt and rock forced her up into the air where a jet slammed into her. Walls appeared around her as she hit the ground. Metal walls and neon lights popping up as she got to her hooves.

I turned to the pinball machine to my side and pulled the lever down, a ball appearing behind Luna and dropping down...before I let go and both balls sprung up, the larger ball smashing into Luna and taking her along for the ride. Bumper, bumper, weird spinny thing, those knobs those lights appear in...all along to Luna's scream of panic. Before long the pinball shot past the enormous flippers and crashed through the wall at the bottom of the gigantic pinball machine. "Aww. Tilt." I muttered. I stared at the giant pinball, waiting to see if she got up from that. ...nothing. "Heh. Thought not."

I turned away when I heard and felt the explosion emanating from the pinball. I turned and saw that Luna had blown a large crater in the surface of the field. "ENOUGH!!! NO MORE GAMES!!!" She bellowed before shooting towards me.

"Ah, shit." I muttered before her blow connected, sending me blasting through the air. Before I could summon something to correct my path I was slamming through walls of a castle. Each wall breaking a bone in my body. Exiting the other side of the castle my body was healed just in time to slice through the sea of blades, each cut eliciting a sharp cry or gasp of pain. I finally came to a stop. Before I could sigh in relief I realised what I had come to a stop on. A catapult. Of course. I noticed a white Earth Pony with brown patches wearing pirate garb with a sword in his mouth. Swinging at a rope. As he cut through the rope the catapult sent me rocketing into space towards the moon. I crashed through the moon, tunnelling all the way through to the other side before slamming into the sun, the heat searing the flesh from my bones, almost turning me to ash before I rocketed back towards the planet. My bones breaking and instantly healing from the impact, my flesh and clothes returning as I climbed out of the crater.

Luna landed in front of me. "This is foolish! Neither of us can die in here!"

I nodded, "True. Our bodies heal almost instantly. But we can still beat the other down until their will is BROKEN!!!" A wall appeared behind Luna as I kicked her through the air and she smashed through it, sending dust and blood into the air. "You think you stop me?!" I bellowed. "You are NOTHING IN HERE!!! YOU'RE JUST LIKE HER!!! YOU JUDGE WITHOUT THINKING!!! ACT WITHOUT KNOWING!!!" I reached Luna and threw a punch that she blocked and replied with a headbutt.

"WE ARE WILLING TO GIVE THOU A CHANCE!!!" She boomed, delivering a left hook. "DO NOT THROW IT AWAY!!!"

I stared at her few a few moments before drooping my shoulders, "...Not like anyone will believe you." I grumbled. "Your damnable sister will claim I'm controlling your mind. She sees the world in black and white. She's so wrong. It's all shades of grey."

Luna lay a hoof on my shoulder, normally I would have pushed it off, but I felt so empty, so tired of all this hiding. I needed to let someone in. Might as well tell someone who will never be believed. "And what are you?" She asked.

I small smile graced my lips, "Dark grey." The Dreamscape rippled and changed to a warm living room where a young boy with a mess of brown hair and grey eyes was playing with an older girl and two adults. My fist tightening I turned to Luna snarling, "Get out of my head!"

She shook her head, "I'm not doing anything. I may be able to manipulate dreams but I can't change them entirely. Only the dreamer can do that."

I trusted her for some reason and relaxed my fist. "...I miss them." I murmured. "I miss them so much."

Luna cocked her head slightly, "I don't understand. Surely Tia offered you a way home?"

I sighed and closed my eyes. "Even if I was able to go home I still wouldn't be able to see them." I opened my eyes as the warm room changed into a cold graveyard. The young boy, now in his late teens, was on his knees, crying, in front of three graves.

Luna gasped. "I...I'm so sorr-"

"DON'T!!" I snapped. "I'm so sick of people giving me goddamn sympathy! They're dead! They're not coming back! I'm over it! PISS OFF!!"

Her look of pity stopped. "Very well. You're over it. Fine. Come with me." She headed off. I raised an eyebrow but followed. "Do you remember what you felt as we fought?"

"Excitement. A rush. Pleasure, but not sexual! I'm not some damn freak! Satisfaction. A sense of belonging. What's it to you?" I mentally cursed, don't know how that works seeing as we're in my mind but fuck it. The Dreamscape always made me more honest than I liked, more open.

"I remember similar feelings from long ago." She said. Huh? The scene shifted to a battleground, similar to my field. Two armies standing at opposite ends, one wearing armour of gold the other armour of black. Both armies were spearheaded by an Alicorn. One was Celestia. I almost charged at the very sight of her, but it was the other Alicorn that stopped me and drew my attention. It looked like Luna with a darker coat and in battle armour. "This was my darkest hour." The scene shifter yet again and the two Alicorns were locked in battle as the bodies of the soldiers piled up around them. "My final battle with my sister." So that is her. What happened to her? As if hearing my thoughts Luna answered, "I had given in to the darkness in my heart. A deep jealousy I had felt for my sister. It began a war for which there was no end for six years when she finally sealed me in the moon."

"What does this have to do with me?" I asked.

"You are travelling down the same road that turned me into Nightmare Moon. While you have little to no magic you could still become as twisted as I was."

I shrugged. "I dunno, lady, I'm pretty twisted as it is."

She nodded, "True, but even you have limits, do you not? A group even you would not harm?" I hesitated. "I thought so. If you become what I once did, these hesitations? Gone. You would slaughter any and all in your path. There is great darkness growing in our world. My sister cannot feel it, refuses to believe it. She places too much trust in our ponies. She believes they could never do wrong. Even when bringing up King Sombra she says that he was not, in fact, a citizen of Equestria. That the Crystal Empire is a separate country altogether. I do not believe this. There is darkness in every heart. Some choose to unleash it, others chose to lock it away."

I stared at her amazed. I didn't know a pony could see things this way. The right way. "Well," I chuckled. "You're definitely my favourite princess. You see things as they are, as very few can." I blinked. Dammit, I'm becoming philosophical again. Another side effect of spending too much time here in the Dreamscape.

I turned to Luna, "You should go. I'm the bad guy, remember?"

Luna shook her head, "I don't believe that. I never will. You're just dark grey." She started to fade out of existence. "No matter what our subjects believe Celestia is capable of making mistakes. No matter what she says, I trust in you. I will not hunt you down and I will try to sabotage her plans when she discovers you are missing."

I nodded, "I...Thank you."

"You have twelve weeks until she discovers you are missing. That is when she said she is going to take me to see the monster she stopped. Make this time count." She stared intently at me. "Remember. Twelve weeks. That's a week after Nightmare Night."

I blinked. Why did she tell me? Does...does she really trust me? "I...will take that to heart."

"Good luck. And pleasant dreams." She said before fading away altogether.

Author's Notes:

Okay, I know that Blood might seem really open and quickly appeased in this chapter but that's to do with the Dreamscape. He repaired the Circle of Tranquillity and Stones of Peace in the Dreamscape, which both brings order to his mind but helps him see through his anger. It's not a completely fool proof method but it does its job.

As I mentioned in my blog, the real story will begin soon! Now, where am I in this script? Yadda, yadda, yadda, blah, blah, blah...Ah! Here we go.
Enjoying the story? Some of you must be because I've got about 50 favourites! That's...that's unbelievable! I never expected this! Thank you all! Thank you so much!

Also, the Dreamscape? It's going to make a comeback, so if you like ridiculously overpowered battles you're in luck!

P.S. In the battle there's a quote from a film, if you find it I'll give you a cookie! Hint: The quote is from a slasher film where the two killers are fighting in the dreamrealm.

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