Twilight slowly opened her eyes and took in her surroundings, being met by the soft glow of the morning sun just barely illuminating the room. Sighing, Twilight slipped out from under her sheets and began her typical stretches. When she was finished, she looked over to Spike's bed and was unsurprisingly met with the sight of the sleeping dragon. It was still fairly early, so she figured she should let her assistant continue sleeping, and instead make her way downstairs.

Twilight magically opened her bedroom door and walked out before silently closing it again. When that was done, she turned around and began to make her way towards the stairs. As she walked, she couldn't help but reflect on what last night's dream.

The dream had hardly been better than the night before, but fortunately, this time Luna had been able to banish her nightmares. She had been dreaming about giving a lecture about how crystal-fluid dynamics affect the formation and stability of unicorn magic when the door at the top of the lecture hall was thrown open and a screaming pony came crashing in. Before anypony could question what was happening, a strange creature, looking not too dissimilar to Draxton, walked into the room. The being was significantly taller than the size she remembered Draxton to be, and was wearing a large, black, hooded robe.

Before she was even able to think, the strange creature attacked one of the ponies in the room, knocking then unconscious with a single hit. It then removed a cloth bag from over its shoulder and deposited the unconscious pony into it. Not knowing what was happening, but not wanting to see her fellow ponies hurt, Twilight fired a stunning spell at the strange beast when it's back was turned. This was when everything turned for worse.

Her spell impacted with the force of one of Applejacks bucks and sent the thing flying, but it didn’t stun the creature, it did the opposite. When it got up, a red mist exploded around it, and all Tartarus broke loose. The thing became extremely aggressive and came after her, running at her at a speed she could hardly fathom. She was barely able to avoid the creature’s attack when it swung its bag like an improvised weapon. When the bag hit the marble floor where she had been standing, a sickening crack was heard, and the already slightly red bag started to grow redder as it began to leak that horrible metallic liquid.

As Twilight was about to respond to the thing with an attack of her own, the creature pressed its attack, swinging the bag around its head, causing her to have to jump back. Before she could rethink her plan of action, a unicorn stallion who had been in the lecture ran up to the creature while charging a spell, yelling for the thing to leave the princess alone. Twilight never even had the opportunity to yell out, to warn the stallion or cast a spell to teleport him to safety. She could only watch in helpless horror as the creature rounded on the pony and landed a sickening hit on him with a fist.

When the attack landed, everypony in the hall could hear as the stallion’s neck snapped, that sickening, unnerving sound of ligaments tearing and bones shattering. The more sickening version of the sound she had heard in the forest when she was with Draxton. As she watched the pony be thrown away from that thing, colliding with the lower tear setting of the hall and stopping, seeing the cade of his face caved in and blood beginning to pool around his now motionless corps, she was reminded of the bladenboro beast that Draxon had killed, and something just snapped.

Twilight’s eyes began to glow white while her main and tail started to blow in a nonexistent breeze. Then suddenly, a whitish-blue spell, one she could not explain as she had never cast it before, erupted from her horn and slammed into the vile creature. After the spell was cast, Twilight seemed to come back to her senses as her eyes ceased to glow, her main and tail stopped their waving, and she began to look around for the creature that was just there not even a second ago.

When her eyes caught sight of the creature laying on the ground, she actually wished that she hadn’t. The entire front of the creature’s torso was missing, exposing the viscera and organs that had been there, or at least, what remained of the shredded chunks of flesh that had once been organs. Twilight had studied enough anatomy to be able to tell one organ from another at a glance, but the cavity in this creature’s torso was so mangled and eviscerated that only the sections of the organs that were still relatively in the right place could be identified. Everything else was just a mass of nearly liquified flesh.

The area around it and the nearby ponies who had been near it when this happened hardly faired better. The entire area surrounding where the creature had been standing was covered in blood or small chunks of flesh. The ponies that had been around the creature, having been too fearful to move were unequivocably coated in blood and viscera, staring at her with looks of unbridled fear. While not physically injured, the psychological damage of seeing such a horrific sight would likely haunt them for the rest of their lives.

The longer Twilight looked over the now-deceased creature, the more of a pit began to open up in her stomach. She knew that she was responsible for this, she knew she had cast the spell, she just couldn’t remember any details. But what she did know the details of was what she had been feeling. Seeing this... monster, attacking and killing the ponies she was supposed to protect had filled her with rage. She wanted to make it pay for what it had done. But that was the problem, she wanted, no, needed to kill the monster. Every cell in her body, every ounce of her soul had called for the eradication of this thing.

Those thoughts, those feelings were not her own, yet she couldn't bring herself to think of them as anything but. There was a foreign sense to those thoughts and emotions, she knew without a doubt that they were not who she was. There was no doubt that the desire to kill, never mind in such a brutal and inhumane fashion, was brought on by something outside of herself. Yet, despite that, there was that small part of her that not only was fine with what she had done, it was condoning it. She wanted that thing to die in the worst way possible, friendship and kindness be damned. The cognitive dissonance she was feeling was slowly bringing her to a panic attack, her uncertainty over what she actually believed and thought breaking her.

In the midst of this panic, the thought to check the bag to assess the damage the creature had done to the pony it had snatched crossed her mind. Despite the discomfort the desire to kill had caused her, she still could not help but worry about the safety of the ponies around her. She slowly approached the bag that was still firmly grasped in the creature’s overgrown hands, not out of a fear that the creature might still be alive, no, it was undoubtedly deceased, but out of dread for what she would find when she opened the bag.

When she was finally beside the bag, the foul, acrid scent of blood, sweat, and other scents she could not name began to assault her nostrils. She could stand the scent, but it pulled and tore at her mind, eliciting strong thought of repulsion and pleasure. She magically conjured a pair of scissors and slowly cut open the bag, being careful to not cut too deeply for fear of injuring the pony inside further. Unfortunately, this had been for naught.

When a cut had been made from the bottom of the bag to where it was being held by the creature and the sides parted, all that was revealed was more death. The pony she had seen be placed into the bag, an earth pony mare looking not too much older than her mother, was impaled in the temple by the horn of a unicorn mare that had also been in the bag, her death looking less gruesome as only her neck seemed to be snapped. The unicorn’s horn was, for better or worse, fully inside of the earth ponies head, making them look like strange conjoined siblings. The only reason Twilight could tell it was a unicorn was because of the blood that was spilling out of the pony’s temple and the position the two were in.

However, what unnerved Twilight to her very core, what brought bach her panic attack was the fact that she felt nothing. Sure, she knew it was tragic, and she could feel a tugging at her heart over what she was seeing, but she wasn’t feeling anything that could be described as sorrow or remorse, or even empathy for them, if anything, what she was feeling was a detached sense of pitty.

But before Twilight could begin to ruminate on this, a scream came from outside of the lecture hall, spurring Twilight to get over her feelings and try to help whoever it was that had screamed. Twilight moved to her hooves shakily and quickly made her way to the doors, watching as the ponies she passed not so subtly pulled away from her as she passed, sending pangs of regret through her heart at what she had done.

However, Twilight could not have prepared herself for what she would see when she reached the door and looked outside.

Canterlot was in disarray, the streets were filled with hundreds of screaming ponies, dozens of those monsters that had attacked her were slowly walking around and attempting to capture more ponies. Several fires had also begun around the city and looked to be spreading, causing more ponies to begin running and drawing the attention of the strange things.

She noticed one of the monsters was approaching a young foal, most likely no older than ten, and was slowly causing them to back into the side of a house. Not wanting to see such a young pony be attacked, Twilight immediately began to run forward. But when she was halfway there, the foal was suddenly lifted into the air. Twilight came to a sudden halt and looked up at the foal, but, unlike what she had been expecting, there was no magic surrounding them, they seemed to be floating there for no reason. Except, when she looked closer, there was something there on the building.

It looked like a heat coming off of a surface and distorting the light, but it was lot limited to only a few inches off of the surface of the building, it looked almost like an invisibility spell, except, whatever had been turned invisible looked to be just as big Tirek had been when he had absorbed almost all magic in Equestria. But as she looked at it and was beginning to make out more of a shape, she was hit with the most painful headache she had ever experienced. The corners of her vision seemed to go fuzzy while also twisting on their sides. Everything was going wrong and she had no idea what to do.

As she dropped to her stomach, pressing her hooves into her temples, a sickening squelch could be heard in front of her. Desperately needing to know what had caused it, Twilight cracked open her eyes and witnessed something truly awful. The mangled body of the foal had been crushed, their entire body looked like it had been forcefully compressed, causing blood to explode out and pieces of bone to protrude out of the flesh. Just as Twilight’s vision was starting to go fuzzy again as she looked at the invisible monster and the late foal, a black void of stars appeared around the foal, and in less than a second, all traces that the foal had been there had vanished.

It was at this point that Luna had found her and helped to banish the dream. Twilight was still staring up at the place where the foal had disappeared, still trying to grasp that it had all been just a dream. It took Luna some time to calm her down and assure her that none of it was real, that every feeling she had was the result of the dream turning fowl. It was once Luna left that she had awoken, and began her descent to the kitchen.

As she walked down the stairs of her castle, she couldn't help but silently berate herself for her thoughts on Draxton. She still hadn’t gotten over her fear of him, let alone her distrust in him for what he had done. It was the Trixie situation all over again, except this time, she didn’t know if she would be able to get over her feelings. She was starting to think that her role as the princess of friendship was given to the wrong pony.

When she finally arrived at the kitchen and opened the door, she nearly had a heart attack when she saw Draxton standing right in front of her. “Sweet Celestia!” Twilight jumped back out of fear while Draxton remained motionless. He was still in the outfit he had been in yesterday and was staring down at her in his usual unnerving way. “Do you ever sleep?”

“Yes.”

“Than may I ask why you aren’t? I have my doubts that you don't need to sleep as long as a pony.”

“I was awoken by Princess Luna as a precaution.” Draxton turned back to what he had been doing, which was apparently making coffee, as he opened the cabinet where it was stored and grabbed the bag of beans and the old hoof-cranked grinder.

Twilight raised an eye at that. “That’s… certainly interesting. Luna never wakes a pony from a dream. She always tries to help the pony work through what it is that is bothering them.” As the words left Twilight's mouth, she couldn't help but remember her own dream. Rather than help her through it, she had banished the dream in its entirety, something she said was only to be used in the direst situations.

“You can’t work through the Hunters Nightmare, only survive it.” Draxton dumped a good amount of beans into the grinder, placed it on the island, and began to go to work. “And she woke me to save this town.”

Ok, she would need quite the explanation as to why Luna felt it necessary, let alone why she felt waking him up would be how to save Ponyville. But first, she needed to save herself from a repeat of yesterday. “I think I will be making coffee today thank you very much.” Twilight grabbed hold of the grinder and pulled it away from the human.

Draxton simply allowed the grinder to be taken from him and went to the refrigerator and pulled out an apple before moving over to the table and sitting down. Twilight didn’t know how she should be taking this but right now was not the time. Instead, she needed to make the two of them some coffee and get some answers out of him.

“So how would waking you up save Ponyville? You don't exactly look like you were preparing to save the town from an attack.”

“My presence in this world dream realm poisons it. If I enter it, all dreams around me are turned to nightmares.” The statement was in his usual disinterested tone, saying it as if was telling someone the most basic piece of information before biting into the apple.

“WHAT!” Twilight almost threw the grinder off the island as she turned to face Draxton, horror pained across her face.

“If I enter-”

“I understand that. But how… did you know about this?”

“No.”

Twilight watched his unmoving expression, looking for any sign of dishonesty, but there was none. Granted, Applejack was the pony that could tell at a glance if someone was lying, but she felt that she could do a serviceable job. Unfortunately, Draxton could rival Maud for how unemotive he could be, so trying to determine if he was telling the truth was next to impossible.

If he was telling the truth, that would perfectly explain why she had been having nightmares since he had arrived. On the plus side, it meant that her subconscious was not tormenting her in her sleep due to an inability to come to trust Draxton. The downside though was that, according to him, him going to sleep was equivalent to Sombra casting one of his fear spells.

Twilight returned to grinding the coffee, doing her best to take her mind off of what she had just learned. She ended up having to pour about half of the coffee beans back into the bag but she was hardly surprised given yesterday’s unconsumable sludge. All the while she could make out the sounds of an apple being eaten. Remembering yesterday, the simple fact that Draxton was making some noise, no matter how small, was enough to but her a little at ease.

As she poured the coffee grounds into a filter and began filling a glass pot with some water, she thought that it might be best to start to move their conversation off his horrifying new power. “So, when did the princess wake you up?”

“About two hours ago.”

Twilight looked over to a clock she had on the wall and nearly felt her jaw hit the floor. It was four-o-seven in the morning, and she distinctly remembered wanting to turn in for the night at a little before ten-thirty. Draxton hadn’t even slept for a full three hours. If at all possible, she would need to figure out a way to counteract his nature. She couldn't even imagine only being able to sleep for such short intervals. She knew that doing so would be disastrous for one’s health, but the mental costs had to be severe.

“What have you been doing all this time?”

“Reading about this Princess Luna.”

“And, what do you think?” Twilight asked hopefully as she placed the container of water on the stove and turned on the heat.

“She is interesting. I feel she’s never wanted to rule.”

“Ok… and why would that be?”

“Her first appearance after her return was after several months, she is content to manage the dream world, and the way she spoke to me.”

Twilight had no idea what was going on in Draxton’s head that was making him think that Luna had no desire to rule, but as long as he didn't say that to her face she was hoping it was just him thinking. She finished boiling the water after a few more minutes and proceeded to carefully pour the water over the ground coffee while it was over a pot. When that was done, she poured a mug for herself and one for Draxton, opening the refrigerator and removing the cream, and taking it all over to the table.

When she finally sat down and passed Draxton his mug, she received a polite ‘Thank you’ before he took a sip.

“So, the princesses are coming today to meet with you. Since you already met Luna, you just have to meet with Celestia. Don't worry, I was her personal student, I’m sure she’ll like you.” Twilight desperately wanted to keep Draxton talking, this had literally been the most words she had gotten out of him in one sitting.

Draxton just gave her a slight nod before taking a slight sip of the coffee. Twilight couldn’t help but groan internally. She had forgotten that he didn't respond to statements, and questions needed to be phrased properly to get him to actually talk.

The two of them sat in silence for some time after that, this time, however, the quiet felt less oppressive and more friendly, like the quiet times she would have with her friends. Draxton still put her on edge somewhat, but he didn’t seem so unapproachable now.

The silence was not meant to last though as Draxton eventually tipped back his entire mug, slugging down its contents and placing the cup on the table upside down, standing up, and walking towards the kitchen door.

“Are you going to try to go back to sleep? I don't think that would be a good idea.”

“No, I need to talk to Fluttershy about her timberwolf.”

That response sent a chill down her spine, one so sold it was as if a windigo had materialized in the room. Twilight was about to respond, to tell him that it might not be the best of ideas to talk to her, let alone visit her, right now. She was going to say this but a thought crossed over her mind, he might be going to apologize for what he did. While she hadn’t figured out just why Draxton acted the way that he did or how to predict his actions, he hadn’t acted maliciously since he had come to Ponyville, so she was hoping that she was right about at least that. So she simply closed her mouth and allowed Draxton to go off to talk with Fluttershy.

As the door to the kitchen closed and Twilight watched the steam coming off of her coffee, she could only think of how the meeting between Draxton and Fluttershy was going to go. She could only hope that Fluttershy was willing to be at least slightly reasonable and not try to fix Draxton with the Fluttershy stare out of anger.

Celestia, while enjoying the rare period of silence her mornings usually lacked, could not help but grow increasingly concerned for her sister. Normally, Luna would be waiting for her at the table so the two of them could share a meal before she needed to retire for the day. But today, Luna was nowhere to be found. What made it more peculiar was that she thought she had been clear that she wished to meet the human today, and the longer she waited for her sister, the later they would be. She could even see the chef nervously shifting from hoof to hoof, unsure about what she should do since Celestia had instructed her to wait for her sister to arrive so they could order breakfast at the same time.

That had been half an hour ago.

Celestia sighed to herself and was about to get up when the large double-door in front of her opened, revealing the worn-out shape of her sister. As Celestia returned to the position she had been sitting in for the better part of an hour, she watched as Luna almost seemed to be shuffling in to take her seat.

“I was just about to come looking for you. You usually aren’t this late.” Celestia levitated over her cup of tea and began to take sips.

“Well, I’m usually not attempting to fix so many nightmares that the raising of the sun waking the ponies I am still trying to help releases from my duties.” Luna groaned as she finally climbed into her chair and began eyeing the kettle of water and bags of tea in front of her almost hatefully.

Celestia's eyes widened as she heard this, almost choking on her tea as a result of her shock. When she finally recovered she fixed her sister in a hard stare. “If you are trying to prank me, I don't find it to be very funny.”

“I’m not lying dear sister, last night I needed to fix dozens of nightmares, almost all of them in Ponyville, and of those, they all could be attributed to the human that Twilight is housing.” Luna levitated over the kettle of water and two bags of tea, dropping both into her cup before pouring in the water, all the while talking as if this information was to be expected.

“What! Are you sure? I remember the letters that Twilight sent, but none of them said he was so horrifying that it would give anypony that saw him nightmares.”

“That isn’t exactly why his presence in Ponyville caused so many nightmares. His dreams are…” Luna hesitated for several seconds as she just stared into her cup of tea and watched as the bags leaked their contents, unable to figure out the right word. “...different. He had a nightmare last night, and I don't know how it happened, but darkness began to leak from it and into the dream realm. corrupting every dream it came in contact with.”

“That sounds awful.” Celestia’s tone had softened a great deal, becoming almost a whisper. She could hardly fathom a nightmare so intense that it was capable of infecting other dreams. “To have a dream so terrible that others could be infected. Where you at least able to help him with his nightmare?”

Luna stopped as she was about to add some milk to her tea. The memories of that dream she had been trying to suppress since witnessing it came flooding back to her. She closed her eyes and tried her best to beat back the visions. “I was only able to remove him from the dream realm. I could not save him from his nightmare, I’m not sure if anypony could.” Celestia was about to ask for Luna to explain what she meant, but Luna continued before she was able to. “His nightmare wasn’t a typical nightmare, it was a memory.”

“Are you sure about this, Luna?

“I am. I saw it myself. Before the human’s dream materialized, the dream realm of Ponyville was shrouded in a dark mist, but when the hunter's dream appeared, it looked as if Sombra had materialized. When I went into the dream, everything was just too detailed, too vivid, and when I tried to dispell it, it wouldn’t work.” Luna visibly cringed before she continued. She would rather push the memories as deep as she could, but with how much her sister wanted to know, and how important this information most likely was, she needed to go on. “If his memory is to be believed, the world he hails from makes every villain we have faced look like foals. Every creature was immediately hostile, I had to travel through a river of actual blood to reach the human. And… there was a monster there. It… it was…” Luna couldn't continue, the thought of that thing was horrifying enough, she didn’t know if she could even describe it if she wanted.

“Don't force yourself, Luna. I understand.” It felt like a pit had opened up in Celestia’s stomach. To hear that not only was the human's memory so grim that it had the power to influence other dreams, but horrifying enough to even terrify her sister, was a testament to how dreadful it was. “Perhaps we can reach out to a professional on these sorts of things and see if they would be capable of helping him move on. I’m sure you would be able to help him again should he have to relive a terrible memory again. Hopefully, his infectious nightmare was a one-time occurrence.”

“It wasn’t his dream.” Luna’s voice was a whisper as she swirled a spoon around her tea to mix it with the milk.

“Pardon? I didn't catch that.”

“It wasn’t the dream that caused the nightmares, it was him. I removed him from his dream but it only made things worse. I don't know why, or how it happens, but just his presence in the dream realm is enough to create nightmares. Even while he is awake, his darkness lingers in the realm.”

Celestia went pale at hearing this. To her knowledge, there had only been one entity that had the capacity to corrupt dreams, the Tantabus. But the Tantabus was both the product of her sister's immense powers and limited to infecting one dream at a time. The fact that this human simply needed to exist to corrupt dreams was enough to make her blood run cold.

“I fear that every time he rests we risk turning every pony around him’s dreams into the worst form of nightmares.” Luna stopped mixing her tea and took a long sip. It was obvious to Celestia that Luna had no idea how they were meant to deal with this.

Sighing, Celestia felt that now was probably not the best time to talk about these things. “We can discuss that later, for now, I think we should have our breakfast and prepare for our trip to Ponyville.”

The chef happily approached the table in preparation for finally being told what the two of them would be having this morning.

“I believe that an order of waffles with apricot syrup and a nice fruit salad would be ideal for me this morning,” Celestia said with a smile as she closed her eyes. “What about you, Luna?”

“I would like to have hay-bacon, a breakfast wrap, a side of oatmeal, a pecan muffin, and a black coffee. And make sure you use my evening blend, I need to be awake today.”

“Are you sure you would not like to add an order of pastries dear sister? I would hate for you to go hungry this morning.” Celestia couldn’t help but laugh at finally being able to use her own sister’s words against her.

“I am not in the mood for such games sister. I have had a stressful night and would like to make it through today without any more stress.”

Celestia just rolled her eyes and smiled. She would have her fun with Luna soon enough. These last few days have been a little too serious, it would be best to try to lighten the mood so that the two of them wouldn’t turn into Twilight after something unexpected occurred.

In a dark corner of Canterlot Castle, below the deepest foundations, beneath even the Crystal Caves, in a room built from bedrock and crystal, and protected by magics unknown to even the sisters and Starwirl, three ponies rathered around a softly flickering candle. The minimal light and unnatural darkness that permeated the room preventing any of the three from knowing who it was they met with.

“The Nightwalker is awakening. We must capture them and return them to the Cosmic Caves.” The voice was feminine, holding a slight lilt that many stallions would find immensely attractive. Her words were an odd mix of excitement and panic.

“No, they have yet to truly see.” The second pony’s voice, the deep and commanding voice of a stallion interjected, leaving little room for discussion. “They see the edges of what truly lies beyond the veil of lies that the world has to offer, but that is it, only the edges. They have been blinded, and their vision must be returned. Only then will the knowledge that was stolen be returned.”

“He is correct.” The third voice was on odd one, seeming to belong to neither a stallion or a mare. Its words were measured though, lacking even the slightest hint of emotion. “They still look at the world through the eyes of a mole, the truth of the world stolen from them. But hope still remains. The Slayer of Nightmares has and will bring with them the visions to help. The Nightwalker will be shown the truth by the Slayer. We must only wait.”

“But waiting is all we have ever done!” the first pony shouted as she slammed a hoof onto the table, sending droplets of hot wax onto the table as the candle jumped. “I was chosen to work here in preparation for their arrival, and since then, all I have done is wait. We need only show-”

“I said no. The last time, such fervor led to the collapse and elimination of our work. Need I remind you, long before even your ten-times-great-grandfather drew his first breath, it was his mother who was there on that day? It was only through her swift actions that the entirety of our cause was not laid to ruins, and why your bloodline remains among our most prized.”

The pony possessing the odd voice turned to the first pony, looking neither angry or upset. “Know this, Deep Thought.” The words sent chills down the first pony’s spine. None of them should even know who the others were, let alone their true names. That was one of the strongest enchantments on this room. “Within the week, the presence of the Slayer within the mind of the Nightwalker shall awaken the truth within them, and only then shall we move. You have the most important role to play within this. Your position within the castle's walls grant you the liberties to observe their progress. You will be entrusted to assure that the Nightwalker’s eyes have fully opened before we move. Can you be trusted?”

“Yes, I will watch over the two that have known the truth and assure that that which has been forgotten will not remain so.”

At the completion of these words, the candle on the table flicked out, returning the room to the dark abyss of complete silence the room had possessed before the three ponies meeting.

Author's Notes:

It is here. Just try to forget that this is a day late and probably not as long as it needs to be. I am sorry, deadlines are my nemesis.