"Bray!"

The donkey jumped at the sound of his name being bellowed. Turning toward the source, he dropped down into a bow, lowering his head until the tip of his chin touched the ground.

"Master Grogar, you're alive. I was certain that the mare had killed you."

Grogar raised one hoof and smacked Bray on the head.

"I am dead you dim-witted dullard of a donkey!" he yelled. "That insolent mare foolishly sacrificed herself to try and stop me."

He let out a sigh, turning to look around.

"It seems that instead of sending me back to the shadow world or into the afterlife, it brought me back to the dream realm instead. I can take some consolation in the fact that despite a major loss, I am still able to try again. Tell me, what happened with Sombra?"

"According to the report, a failure," Bray said as he stood up. "The Bearers were able to use their rainbow power on him, with assistance from Princess Cadance and The Crystal Heart. However, instead of destroying him, it seems that it reverted him into a young colt. He was last seen on a train heading for Canterlot."

"And our allies?"

"Alive, and free. Everypony in The Crystal Empire was so focused on Sombra's return and attack, none of them thought to seek out any potential ponies aiding him in his return. The population of Ponyville is unaware of the details of what happened. In both cases, there have been no searches for ponies involved. Although Healthy Hope and Stormstrike have decided to leave and not assist with us any longer."

"An incompetent pegasus is hardly a notable loss," Grogar declared, "and we will not be needing to collect blood from any creatures, so Hope would have been useless. This is nothing for us to worry about.

"I believe that I will need some more time to recover before I am strong enough to be made into flesh again. In the meanwhile, we are going to need to come up with a new distraction for the princesses and their champions."

"Oh, I don't think you have to worry about either of those," a feminine voice called out. The sound caused Bray to jump, looking around rapidly. Grogar tensed, turning around.

"Who dares to intrude upon our conversation?" he called out. "I command you to show yourself."

This was met by a chuckle.

"You have no authority over me," the voice purred out, "especially here. This is my domain after all. However, I do wish to show myself, so you can consider yourself fortunate that I will cooperate this time. Look up. At the moon."

Curious, Grogar and Bray both looked up toward the crescent moon up in the sky above them. As they watched, the moon turned sideways. A line formed in the middle of it, spreading out and zigzagging near the ends to turn into a grin with fangs. A pair of turquoise and teal eyes opened up above it, the vertical pupils narrowing as they focused on the goat and donkey.

A face formed around the mouth and eyes as it seemed to move closer, turning darker as the stars disappeared. More and more of the form appeared, turning from sky to flesh as it approached. The figure grew smaller as it went, stopping when Nightmare Moon stood before the two, now fully formed. Her now ethereal mane and tail trailed behind her, the blue and purple shifting to black before fading from sight.

She turned her attention to Bray, her horn starting to glow.

"This conversation does not concern you," she said. The energy shot from her horn and hit the donkey. There was a slight yelp of shock as he vanished in a flash of dark blue.

"I suppose it was inevitable that you would end up here as well," Grogar said calmly. "So, is this display of your power and the destruction of my minion supposed to intimidate me?"

"As you pointed out," Nightmare Moon stated, "this is the dream realm. If I were to 'destroy' him, he would merely wake up and be unharmed. Instead I sent him elsewhere. He is currently having a bad dream about being chased through a dark forest by monsters. He can't see what's chasing him. Just glowing eyes and sharp teeth. Not that you care, but he'll be fine when he wakes up. Scared, panting, and maybe having pissed himself, but unharmed."

Her eyes narrowed as she grinned again, showing her fangs.

"But you can't wake up, now can you?" She took a step forward. "You're trapped here, unable to leave."

Grogar's eyes narrowed as he bared his teeth at her.

"Insolent foal," he snarled out, his horns lighting up with his power. "Do you think you can intimidate me? Have you forgotten what I was able to do to you all the other times we met in this realm?" He then unleashed a blast of raw magic at Nightmare Moon.

It struck her in the chest before dissipating, seeming to have no effect on the mare.

"Oh, I remember," Nightmare stated. "Quite well in fact. I remember the pain as your forced your way into my head, digging through my memories. I remember the disgusting feeling of your magic every time it touched me. I remember the fear that filled me every time you got me in your grip. I remember all of it."

Her own horn lit up with power.

"But that was then. Now you are in my domain where I have power once more. Where I am at full strength. And you... are not."

The area faded around them, leaving them in a black void.

"Here, and now, you have nothing. Essentially, you are nothing."

The void took shape, forming into crumbling stone walls and barren ground. Soon a castle emerged, one that was slowly collapsing.

Grogar looked around, his eyes wide.

"This... this is Tambelon."

"Yes," Nightmare agreed. "The kingdom that you supposedly ruled all those millenia ago. The same kingdom that you let fall to the ruin you now see before you in your desire to do... whatever it was you were trying to do. The same kingdom that you used as a base of your power as you brought fear, pain, and death to ponies."

A chuckle escaped Grogar, his chest rising and falling with the action.

"Is that your plan?" he asked. "Are you going to try to appeal to my conscience? Try to change me into a good goat that will not harm the poor, pathetic, weak ponies that are beneath me?"

Nightmare stepped toward the middle of the courtyard, looking up at the sky above them. Her horn continued to glow as she went. Stopping she looked down, lowering her head to sniff at a small tuft of weeds. One of her hooves padded at the loose dirt.

"I was recovering from our return here the same as you were," Nightmare stated. "During that time, I decided to assume that you had managed to be brought here as well. After all, it was where you had been before, so it made sense that if I were able to come back, you were as well.

"While I was alive and made flesh, I found some very interesting stories, the intent of which were actually to frighten ponies. Some of them had some very interesting ideas and concepts, both for frightening the characters in the story and for the readers."

"Is there a point to all this?" Grogar asked. "Are you trying to find out if you can bore a creature to death in the dream realm or something?"

"I would have thought that you would be more patient," Nightmare said. "It did take you months to go from attacking me for my blood to making your move on Ponyville. Besides, it's not like there is any need to hurry. We have all the time in the world as the saying goes. More than, actually."

She took a bite of the dream grass, chewing it a moment before spitting it out.

"In case you aren't aware, time does not move here the same way it does in the physical world. A dream that last a few seconds to a sleeping pony can seem to go on for minutes, hours, even days. When one is in control here, be it a dream creature such as myself or a pony that has mastered lucid dreaming, one can actually control the passage of time in this world." She turned to look at him. "As I have been doing. As we have been speaking, I have slowing down the time in this place."

"I still don't see a point to what you are saying," Grogar grumbled. His own gaze shifted to look at the ground. For a moment, he thought he saw something move.

Nightmare Moon stood up to her full height and turned to face him.

"Tell me, Grogar, how many ponies have suffered because of you? How many have been scared, or hurt, or gone hungry? How many did you allow to be miserable and helpless in your so-called 'kingdom?' More importantly, how many ponies have died because of you, necromancer?" She spat out the last word, eyes narrowing.

"So we are back to trying to appeal to my conscience?" Grogar asked.

"We both know you have no such thing."

"Then why do you ask? Do you think I bothered to keep track of such things?"

After giving him a smirk, Nightmare Moon turned and took off. Slowly she flew up, stopping to land on the castle wall before turning to face him.

A bony leg burst out from the dirt in front of Grogar, bits of flesh and soil sticking to it.

Grogar let out a bleat of surprise at the sight, backing up. His hind leg struck something, causing him to turn around. There, another leg was forcing its way from the dirt.

A second leg joined the first one in front of him. Placing the hooves on the ground, they pushed. Soon the entire front half of a pony skeleton emerged. Its eye sockets looked at Grogar, mouth hanging open.

All around Grogar, more limbs began to push themselves through the dirt before pulling the rest of their skeletal remains up. They all continued to face him, staring with empty black holes where eyes should have been.

Horns lighting up with magic, Grogar blasted one of the pony skeletons.

It seemed to have no effect as it continued to move toward him.

"What is this?" He bellowed. "What's going on?"

"I asked you how many died because of you," Nightmare called back from her spot on the castle wall. "Well now you get to know why." She spread out a wing, motioning at the yard. "All around you are dead that you are directly responsible for."

Grogar's horns glowed brighter as he shot more magic at the skeletons. Still it did nothing to them. Every second there were more of them, making their way toward him, coming from every side.

A hoof exploded from the ground directly underneath the goat. This one grabbed a hold of Grogar's leg, pulling it down into the dirt.

"Stop!" he cried out, trying to kick free. "Release me this instant."

Another bony hoof took a hold of him, pulling one of his front legs down into the ground as well. The approaching skeletons grabbed as his body, holding him as they started to sink with him.

"Nightmare!" he shouted as the dirt began to reach his chest. "Please!"

Nightmare Moon, turned away from the goat and the skeletons around him, her wings spreading.

"WAIT!" Grogar called out at the top of his lungs. "You can't do this. You can't leave me like this. It isn't what heroes do!"

"That is where you are making your mistake," Nightmare Moon said in a voice that was soft, but could be heard perfectly clearly. "I am not a hero. I am a Nightmare."

With that, she took off, flying up into the night sky before vanishing from sight.

Grogar could only watch, no longer able to move, as he was pulled down further and further into the ground. No matter how much he struggled, it seemed to do nothing. He could feel more and more things -- most likely the limbs of skeletons -- grabbing at him and pulling him down further and further. Soon he was buried up to his neck, and still sinking.

His horns were grabbed, pulling his head back. A scream of terror tore from his throat as he continued to sink, until dirt filled his mouth, cutting off the noise.