Dreams of the Damned

Chapter 5

They marched her down the hallway, guards on the left, right, in front of her, and behind. They had come for her at the end of the third day, and she had let them take her, and her guard knew not to mess with them. She allowed them to lead her to wherever they were taking her, and she soon found out. They entered a dark room, and shoved her into a chair. Multiple wires and cables were strapped to her body, all connected to large machines, occasionally giving off a burst of steam, and making whirring noises. But that wasn’t even the unsettling part.

She couldn’t see them, but behind her sat multiple projectors, she could hear the clicking noises they made, the pictures they were showing appearing on the walls in front of her. Pictures of Manehattan, Ponyville, the Crystal Empire, Canterlot. From inside the palace. All recent. Scenes of her, her sister, the Elements of Harmony, the royal guard…

“You’re finally here.” She lifted her head. A single figure sat behind a glass window, looking down at her, its voice garbled and off pitch. “What do you know?”

“I don’t understand.” She answered calmly, and braced herself for what was to come. She cried out in pain as an electric shock was sent across the wires.

“What do you know?” The voice asked again, this time a bit more forcefully. “You are one of two ruling monarchs in Equestria, and we have been as discreet as possible as to not alert you to our actions. Yet, you still somehow managed to learn about us, and come in here invading this place with your royal guards. Meaning, the only thing that could happen is that someone tipped you off to our actions. Who told you?”

“Fuck you!” She growled, her body still slightly spasming from the electricity. Another electric shock caused her to kneel over in pain.

“It would be best for you to answer my questions. Each time you don’t, one of your little guards get a bone broken. If you continue to defy me, then, they will get their necks broken. Understand?”

Luna gulped, but glared at her interrogator. “Understood…”

“Now, who told you about us?”

“No one tipped you off. I just found out. You have many powerful magical artifacts here, no matter what kind of shield you put up it will still give off some kind of magical signal.” While it was actually true, that's not how she found about their little hideout, not that she would tell them that. She couldn’t tell if the person believed her story, but he continued.

It went on like that for a long while, the interrogator asking her questions, most of which she didn’t know the answer to, getting shocked multiple times, and eventually being left in the dark room alone. She briefly wondered how she had even ended up here, but decided that it didn't really matter.  Celestia was coming to save her, and then they could finally figure out this mess. Hopefully.  

The heavy metal door she had entered through slowly opened, and a single pony walked in. He pulled up a chair and sat in front of her, a stack of papers hovering in front of him, suspended by his horn.

“Princess… Luna.” He said, slowly, softly, as if trying to remember her name. “I hope you realize your arrival has caused a lot of… concern with my superiors.”

“Well, you know, that’s kinda the whole point of barging in here like that, to let you know your little operation isn’t as safe as you thought it was.” Luna said nonchalantly.

“Is that so?” The unicorn said. He sat there, contemplating something, before his horn flashed, and Luna suddenly found herself unable to move, a pressure pushing down on her head. “Hmmm…” The pony said, leaning in close to her head. “Interesting… no one has ever been able to resist me before.”

“You’re… not the first one who has… tried this on me.” She grunted out, talking just distracted her and allowed whoever this pony was to get deeper.

They simply stood there for minutes, glaring at each other, before the Stallion backed off. “How is it you are resisting me? I am the strongest in the world in my field, no one has ever been able to stop me. Except… you.”

Luna grinned. “I am the ruler of the night, I thrive in the dream world. Dealing with the subconscious is a simple matter for someone like me. Maybe you shouldn’t be using mind spells on the one who invented them.”

He was silent for a while, before grinning. “Well, well, well. I thought I was the most talented pony in the world with matters of the inner mind. Turns out, i'm second best.”

‘You sound happy.” Luna narrowed her eyes.

“Why yes, I should be. For all my life, I could get any information out of anyone. Pony, Griffon, Dragon, Changeling, didn’t matter. If it had a brain, I could break it.” He smiled evilly and stood up, slowly walking around her chair.

“I was born in Las Pegasus. From an early age I had these powers. I drove my school teacher to madness with my constant meddling with her mind. My parents…” He chuckled. “They never loved me. So I left. Wandering Equestria when I was only eleven years old. Then, I was picked up by these fine gentlecolts you’ve seen during your time here.” At this point he had made a full revolution, now standing in front of her again. “They offered me something no one else could. A challenge.” He leaned on his chair. “No matter how hard I tried, I had never found anyone who could even remotely resist my powers in Equestria, until I came here. And now, I have met my match.” He sat back down, smirking.

“You will get no sympathy out of me.” Luna said. He shrugged. “Thats a shame.”

Luna sighed and laid back on her chair. “Look, I get it, you're the stereotypical physic madpony who wants to take over the world because it's wronged you, blah, blah, blah.” She groaned. “I’ve been having a pretty bad day so far. So just do what you're going to do and get it over with.”

He leaned back in his chair and stared silently at her for a minute.

“Why did you truly come here?” He asked.

Luna was unsure how to answer. He continued. “Because, I say that your explanation that the distortion in the magic field attracted you is bullshit. So, what could have attracted you? Oh yes…” The doors burst open, and two guard wearing what appeared to be thick body armor dragged Vessel into the room. He grinned. “Thank you. Now leave us.”

“S-Sir?” One of the soldiers asked, his voice muffled by the helmet. “You sure sir? This one put up quite a fight when we grabbed her, and-”

“Leave.” He ordered again, the two soldiers glancing at each other before dropping Vessel and exiting the room. “Damn Horses, have no respect for other races authority…” He mumbled to himself.

Luna raised an eyebrow. Horses. There was that word again.

Vessel slowly struggled to her feet, a pained expression on her face. “Hello Vessel, remember me?” He said, towering over the filly. Apparently she did, as she trembled as he grinned at her. “How’s you and your little roommate doing?”

No response.

He sighed and shook his head. “Pitiful. Your a disgrace.” He watched her for a moment, before suddenly bringing his hoof up and swinging it at her, in an apparent attempt to hit her. Vessel gasped and seemed to try and cover her face, but the swing never made contact.

“Hello Doctor.” Nightmare flashed her most evil and menacing of grins, her eyes glowing white with fury as she held the doctors hoof in her own. “It seems that you forgot to cast your little protection spell while you were dealing with my friend over there. Too bad.” There was a sickening crunch sound as his leg broke, and then Nightmare unleashed on him.

He was flung across the room, out of her sight, sending him crashing into the far wall. He attempted to get up, only for Nightmare to kick him back down again, repeatedly pounding her hooves into his face and chest.

Luna couldn’t tell, but she swore she could see Vessel smiling.

“Any last words you monster?” They were back within her line of sight, Nightmare having him pinned up against a wall, lifted off his hooves. From what Luna could see, it looked like at least a few bones were broken, there were multiple bruises covering his body, and yet he was still smiling.

“You call me the monster, yet you seem to forget who you are, Nightmare Moon.” He laughed. “The mare in the moon, the evil pony who wanted to cover all of Equestria in darkness.”  

“I know who I am.” She tightened her grip on his throat. “But I didn’t play with people's minds and caused people to go insane.”

“Go on, kill me.” He challenged. “Do it, end my life. There is nothing for me here.” He looked her straight in the eye.

Nightmare seemed to hesitate. He smile became wider. “You can’t do it, can you?” Nightmare hung her head. “You don’t have the will to look me right in the eye as you kill me, you don’t have the will to kill anyone! How sad, the embodiment of darkness, scared of a little blood!”

She stood their silently for a moment. Then she smiled a sad smile. “You should have done your homework. I kill for Mobius and his gang all the time. I don’t like killing, but he forces me too. However…” She growled. “I really, really, hate you. So I can make an exception.” She raised her hoof.

Suddenly, Nightmare froze, as did Vessel when a knife pressed against her throat, held their by the doctors magic. There was a flash, and he teleported next to Vessel. “You were saying?” He sneered.

Nightmare silently glared at him.

His horn flashed again, a green light surrounding his body. “I must give you some praise, for noticing that I had forgot to cast my shield, a simple mistake that I paid the price for, and almost beating the life out of me. It was entertaining. Now, where was I.. oh yes!” He returned to his spot in the center of the room, half limping, half walking.

“You're not going to get medical attention for your injuries?” Luna asked, speaking for the first time since Nightmare had entered the room.  

“And leave the two of you together?” He chuckled. “These injuries are merely painful, but not fatal. Your little friend has done much worse to me before.”

Luna gave a questioning glance to Nightmare, who shrugged.

“Now, as I was saying before I was rudely interrupted…” He began to say, but then their was a buzz, and he stopped.

He huffed. “Yes?”

“Sir, command needs you. There is an emergency.” A voice said over the intercom.

“What's the problem?” He asked.

“Some guards have broken out, and they are calling all important personnel to the command center at once.”

He sighed. “Alright, send some soldiers to escort these two back to their cells.”

“Affirmative.” The soldier said, and then the line went dead. He turned to the two of them. “Well Princess, it seems your loyal guards are giving us some trouble. We shall continue at another time.” He walked over to the door, and Nightmare walked up to her.

“I'm sorry, I tried.” She whispered to her. “You did your best.” She responded. “So what's your deal with him?”

She sighed. “He was the one who first did experiments on me when I first arrived here. I don’t know specifically what they were looking for with me, but he was the one who killed my first two Vessels. He has caused me quite a lot of pain, and…” She couldn’t continue, and instead just looked at the ground. “Lets just say that I would rather be sealed in the moon again then have to go through another minute of torture from him.”

“That bad huh?” Nightmare nodded. Luna looked behind her and smiled. “Well, looks like you're not going to have to deal with him anymore.”

“What?” She spun around, where she was greeted with the sight of her tormenter slowly backing away from one of Luna’s royal guard, clad in full body armor, pointing a gun right at him.

“I did say some prisoners had escaped.” Divine Wind said, pushing him back to the wall. “You make one move and you get your head blown off, is that clear?” He nodded.

“Corpral Nightfleet, good to see you!” Luna smiled as six more royal guard entered the room.

“The feeling is mutual, Princess.” Nightfleet said, beginning to release her.

“Geez, what did you two do to this guy? He looks like he can barely breathe, much less stand up.” One of her guard remarked, noting the state of their interrogator, who, for the first time, actually looked scared.

“Oh, nothing but some payback.” Nightmare approached the trembling stallion, the three rifle-armed guards surrounding him backing away.

“You know, I never got your name.” She said, towering over him, her eyes glowing white again.

“L-Light Horn.” He stammered, backing up against the wall.

“Well, LIGHT HORN, I believe I have already made my feelings toward you very clear. I would pound your smug face into this wall right now if I could, but were on a tight schedule, so listen up, and listen well. I have a very specific set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for ponies like you. And if I hear of you ever using your powers to torment another pony again, I will personally find you, and make your both sleeping and waking life a living hell. You understand?” Light Horn frantically nodded. “I’m glad we understand each other.” She turned to the ponies watching them. “Let's move.”

“Alright, you heard her, let's get out of this hell hole!” Nightfleet said. “It will only be a few minutes before they’ve noticed our escape, so we need to move fast!”

“Yes sir!” The soldiers threw up a salute, and entered the brightly lit hallway, where the rest of the squad was waiting.

“Here, you might want this.” Nightfleet tossed her one of the unused rifles. “You know how to fire one, right?”

“I think so, but these look a lot different than the ones back in Canterlot.” Luna said, examining it as they followed the squad of guards down the hall.

“Same basic principle, but this time, after you’ve fired, you don’t need to individually reload a single bullet. Instead, you got twelve shots in this one thing.” She said, gesturing to the magazine. “And when you're out, you simply pop it out and put in a new one.”

“Interesting…” Was all Luna had to say, before their was a shout and she looked up to find the guards surrounding somepony who had apparently turned the corner right into them.

“On the ground!” Someone yelled, and the pony quickly obeyed.  

“Hey, look what he had on him!” Hard Wind held up a ring of keys. “Should we go-ahead with Step Two?”

“Step Two? What’s that?” Nightmare asked, who had been hanging back with Vessel.

“Oh, we took your plan for a escape attempt, and shortened it to eight steps.” Luna explained.

“What was Step One?” Nightmare asked, raising an eyebrow.

Luna grinned. “Step One: Secure the Keys!”