The sounds of nature were reverberating throughout the hills as they gently rolled into the horizon. The colors of the environment were slightly more vivid than usual, the light green of the grass popped out, the blues of the sky seemed brighter than possible. The sun was creeping over the horizon in the distance, bringing with it unnaturally bright reds, oranges and yellows. I did a three hundred and sixty degree turn to take in the landscape, and all I could see were rolling hills in all directions. As I started to walk towards the sun, the landscape in the far distance slowly started to lose its color, as darkness began to encroach upon the land. I stopped walking, and the distant horizon continued to slowly be engulfed by what now appeared to be a shadow that was quickly traveling in my direction.

I turned around and began running away as the landscape slowly turned into a forest. I took a quick glance over my shoulder and the shadow appeared to be gaining on me, although I couldn’t tell just how far away it was. For some reason, I knew that its goal was me. I continued running as the colors in the forest around me slowly started to lose their sharpness and the trees began to rapidly die, the leaves simply disappearing as the time ran by. As the color and life continued to be leeched out from my surroundings, I stopped and turned towards the shadow. I couldn’t tell exactly what it was, as its form was like that of a fog. Rather quickly all the color and life had been removed from my surrounding, and a small mass of the fog had extended itself towards me, reaching for my throat. For some reason I was rooted to the ground, fear coursing throughout my body. It was mere inches away from my skin when –

Blaring trumpets woke me as my alarm went off, and I immediately bolted up into a sitting position as I moved a hand to my chest, the thumping of my heart threatening to remove itself from my rib cage. I started to calm myself down, somewhat annoyed at the nightmare I had. They had started a few months ago, and almost every night I went to sleep I would wake up in that landscape. At first it seemed completely harmless, as I would simply walk around and nothing would happen. It didn’t take long for the shadow to appear, and each night it seemed to get closer and closer. The forest was also a somewhat new addition to the dreamscape, having only appeared two weeks prior. About that time I had also started waking up each time with my heart trying to send me to an early grave.

Another odd thing was that there was no basis or meaning behind this nightmare that I had been able to figure out. The last recurring nightmares that I had experienced had a definite basis in life, to make a long story short it is a bad idea for a skittish young kid to play Resident Evil late at night on a full moon with all the lights out. That mansion gave my imagination fuel for years! This one though still had me stumped, and I had even gone so far as to see a professional about it after the first two months. They had been stumped as well, and I ended up out a couple hundred dollars.

Now that my heart had calmed down to the level of "slight panic", I got out of bed and began to go through my morning routine. It was the end of the work week today for me, something that I always looked forwards to. A quick stop in the bathroom led me to clear the gunk out of my hazel eyes and get the mess of black hair on my head under control. I continued through the monotonous motions of the morning and it wasn’t too much longer until I found myself headed out the door for my car, undertaking the short drive to the office so that I could start the day.

I was probably going to spend the majority of my day looking through ledgers, expense reports, receipts and the like and trying to figure out where some missing money was at. Accounting was a rather varied field as I had quickly discovered when I took interest in it, and being of the mind that I would rather gouge out my eyes with a hot poker rather than deal with personal taxes, I found myself a troubleshooter of sorts for companies. The job itself, although very tedious in its nature, was rather easy for me to do, mostly due to my minor OCD and love for numbers. The fact that I was paid rather well definitely didn't hinder my good opinion of the career field I had chosen.

I managed to catch a rather lucky break while working, having discovered exactly how and where some money was being siphoned off from the company who had hired me. In doing so, I found myself done for the day rather early, which is why I found myself at home kicked back on the couch with a good book in hand at only one in the afternoon. I read for an hour or two as I slowly found myself becoming rather lethargic, I had a habit of taking a small nap in the afternoon. Using a bookmark to hold my place in my novel, I set it down and moved to close all the blinds in the room and set an alarm before laying back down on the couch. Closing my eyes, I quickly began drifting off to the quiet ticking of the second hand of the clock hanging on the wall.

Again, the dream returned in it's full force like the bad habit it was. This time though things seemed to be slightly different. For starters, I had never experienced it during my afternoon naps. Of a slightly larger concern to my mind though was that this time, the typical sounds of nature I usually heard were not present. Even the air felt still and heavy, holding me in place even before the fog began its march across the dreamscape. I was literally trapped in my mind within my mind this time around. The fog still took it's time in arriving as I awaited whatever this nightmare had in store for me.

I quickly found myself in the same situation of the previous dream, with the "arm" of the fog at the spot where I had last awoken from this nightmare previously. I kept willing myself to wake up, but the arm continued forward and then roughly wrapped around my neck. As it made contact, a chill went through my body, as the fog was extremely cold to the touch.

"Finally..." a voice began, in a deep and somewhat raspy voice. I wasn't very sure of the gender of the speaker, however it wasn't the foremost thought on my mind at the time. "It has taken too long to build up the required power, but now you shall be mine, and I shall take what is rightfully mine! Prepare to submit to me weakling!" With that said, it began to do something.

As I stood there, helpless in my nightmare, I could feel the chill spreading outwards from my neck at a slow but continuous pace. The darkness bore down upon me heavily as I started to lose the sensations I had as I was slowly consumed by this darkness. Although I was in a dream, my vision began to swim and become blurry, and I started to lose consciousness, however impossible that seemed. The last thing I recall was a voice breaking through the dark with pinpricks of light searing through the darkness.

Princess Luna, Ruler of the Night Sky and everything contained within it, let out a long sigh as she slowly dropped the weight from the grasp of her magic, ready to take a slight break. Ever since being freed from the entity that had called itself Nightmare Moon almost two years ago, she had slowly been working to adapt to the new times. On top of having to learn "New Equestrian" as she saw it, she also had to rebuild her magic limits and attempt to erase the stigma that had arisen during her thousand year banishment as "The Mare in the Moon". Even after the first Nightmare Night where Twilight Sparkle had stepped in and helped her out for the night, many ponies still held their reservations.

All of those matters weighed heavily upon her, the thoughts on her mind as she was in the middle of a ritual to increase her magic. When the Elements of Harmony had freed her, it had essentially "reset" her, both physically and magically. She had lost much of her physical size and her magic hadn't been this weak since she was a small filly growing up with her sister Celestia all those years ago. She had just finished the endurance portion, having held up a weight of one hundred pounds for a period of thirty minutes while performing simple tasks designed to test her concentration. She was finally approaching the point where the weight would remain perfectly still throughout the whole duration, meaning she would soon need to increase the weight again. This, followed with an exercise that tested her limits by levitating multiple objects of varying sizes, shapes, and weights helped to increase her magical capacity. It was a very slow process, but it was the only safe approach that she was aware of.

Luna looked outside, the full moon was coming closer to the horizon, ready to be set soon and herald the arrival of the sun and another day. She turned her attention towards the dozen objects in front of her and let out another sigh, then concentrated as a navy blue glow began to envelop her horn. A few seconds later, one object became outlined in the same color, then another, and she continued this until all dozen objects had the glow of her magic surrounding them. Just as she began the process of bringing them all into the air, she felt a slight pressure that immediately sent shivers down her spine.

All of the objects fell to her desk with a multitude of clattering, thumping and banging as she immediately began panicking. Luna hadn't felt this presence in a little over two years, and after a thousand under it's influence, she was scared to her very soul. Luna recalled the teleportation spell and immediately began to gather the magic for it. She closed her eyes and pictured the throne room in her mind where she knew Celestia would be preparing for another day of Court and other various functions, and without a sound she disappeared from her room.

Princess Celestia, Ruler of the Day, was currently in the throne room discussing the itinerary for the day with her nephew and Captain of the Royal Guard, a unicorn by the name of Shining Armor. It was a very dull process, but in the extremely rare instance that something should arise it would let them be ready to react to it. Celestia also found it got her in the mood for the Day Court, as it was typically just as boring, having to spend a few hours listening to mostly trivial complaints and issues from ponies that really didn't need her help to settle their issues. However, in order to maintain her image she wanted to present to Equestria, she had to at least listen to all of her subjects that wanted to come before her.

Celestia and Shining were about to wrap up their meeting as they were interrupted by Luna's arrival into the throne room. Celestia immediately knew that something was wrong, as Luna still hadn't built up her reserves enough to teleport without leaving herself immensely exhausted, as was evident by the fact that Luna was now collapsed on the floor panting slightly. Not only that, but Celestia had caught her sisters eyes for a brief moment and had seen both fear and terror in her eyes of a level that was nearly unimaginable. She immediately rushed to Luna's side and began to help her up.

"Luna, what is it? Is it..." Celestia got out as she finally brought Luna to her hooves. The entity that had possessed and robbed her of her sister for a millennia had gone by the name of Nightmare Moon, and it was the only thing that could bring Luna to this level of fear Celestia reasoned.

"Yes sister... It's presence is nearby, a-and building in strength. What do I do?" Luna unfortunately confirmed Celestia's thoughts. Luna herself was still in a state of near panic as she was being supported by Celestia.

"Fear not Luna, we shall deal with it, you have nothing to fear, I promise." She was speaking in her most calming manner possible in an effort to at least reduce the level of panic Luna was experiencing at the moment. "Captain. Put the guard on high alert, then go to my study and bring back the scroll with the blue ribbon, you'll find it in the top left drawer of my desk. While you're doing that I'll inform the Elements to assemble at your sisters for retrieval. We need to stop whatever this is as quickly as possible."

"Yes Celestia, I'll be back momentarily." Shining gave her a quick salute before a glow enveloped his horn and he disappeared to carry out Celestia's orders. Celestia had a hoof around Luna, bringing her panic down as much as she could as she levitated a piece of parchment and a quill to herself and began to write out a letter.

Twilight Sparkle,

Something is occurring at the castle that requires the immediate attention of all of the Elements. Please gather at the library, I will be sending Spike a scroll with a new spell for you that will allow you and your friends to teleport directly to Canterlot. Please come to my study when you teleport in, and do not delay, time is of the essence!

Celestia

Setting the quill back down, Celestia rolled the parchment up and then sealed it with her magic before closing her eyes and focusing on her pupil. With but a thought, the letter disappeared as it was magically teleported to Twilight. With that done, she brought her attention back to Luna, who seemed to have finally calmed down.

Just as Celestia was about to ask Luna something, she was interrupted by Shining teleporting into the throne room while holding the scroll Celestia had sent him to retrieve with his magic. Celestia took the scroll from him and quickly repeated the process with the letter, sending it off on its way to her pupil as well.

"Luna, just remember, everything will turn out just fine. Twilight and the bearers should be here soon, then we can find and face it whenever it appears again. We will not let it take you, never again." Luna looked up at her sister as she began speaking, glad for the comforting words. "We should go ahead and walk to my study, that is where Twilight should teleport to.

Just as the trio began to make their way out of the throne room to await Twilight's arrival, Luna immediately began to panic again as even Celestia felt the magic permeate the air around them. With a sudden pop, something appeared from midair and landed right in front of them. It appeared to be a hairless ape or monkey at first glance to Celestia and Shining, but Luna knew exactly what it was.

"H-human." Luna nearly whispered in a voice of pure disbelief and shock as fragmented memories began to flood her mind. She thought back to her time on her moon with the Nightmare. It liked to search the stars for planets to observe for when it would take a break from its plans of revenge against the Princess of the Sun. Its attention would settle on a world for a time until it grew bored of the planet and the inhabitants, then it would seek out a new planet to draw its attention.

Nightmare's attention had been pulled to one planet in particular after the first half of their exile. On this planet a race descended from apes lived and thrived in a world steeped in chaos and destruction, at least to Nightmare's eyes. She took pleasure in watching this world and seeing empires rise and fall over the most trivial of reasons as the local populace tore into each other during various wars and conflicts. Luna had been forced to witness over a thousand years of this worlds development, as the time seemed to flow differently while on the moon. Although Luna was witness to various good in these creatures, she came to develop a deep seated fear at the pure horrors they could commit. From the Dark Ages to the Atomic Bomb, Luna had been witness to it all, and it was one of the things she had locked up in her memories and not even her sister knew about it.

"-na! What is it sister!" Luna was brought back to reality as her sister started shaking her slightly and repeating the same question over and over. Luna brought her eyes to bear on her sister as she took a deep breath to calm herself before speaking.

"Tia... during my time on the moon, Nightmare enjoyed watching other planets to help stave off boredom. One planet held its attention for the better half of our exile though, and that is where this creature comes from... It is known as a 'human', and their capacity for violence... I was forced to watch all their wars Tia. Even their tamest conflicts makes the one that claimed our parents look like a civilized tea time talk! I don't know what Nightmare was thinking, bringing one here though..." Luna paced around the unconscious human on the floor, looking it over and probing it with her magic. "He is clear of Nightmare's presence, although there is a slight taint of it in him."

Celestia was at first taken back from what Luna had said. Equestria had seen its fair share of conflict and war, although thanks to her and Luna's constant work after coming into power after the loss of their parents they had made those conflicts mostly a thing of the past, something to be read about in books only. That a species could do what Luna was claiming astounded her. "If what you say is true Luna, we should move him to a cell and question him once he wakes up. We can decide what to do from there. Shining, please oversee that process, and then inform the staff to prepare rooms for Twilight and her friends. We'll want them nearby and ready in case we have to act."

When I awoke, I had expected to have the typical scenery of my living room greet my eyes, have to calm my heart down, the usual. However, what greeted me left me most confused. It was as if I were still in a dream, although I had all of my senses. I could actually smell the crisp scent of pollen in the air mingled with the dirt of the ground. I felt a slight breeze tickle me as the blades of grass poked the soles of my feet. Everything was too real, as if I were having a lucid dream. However, from what little I had read on them, they were considered a theory at best, impossible at worst. That theory was further shot down as I had no control over my body, although I felt a slight tug coming from somewhere unknown.

As if a rope were tied around me with something pulling on the other end, I found myself moving towards the anchor, one foot in front of the other. The scenery around me remained mostly unchanged, a forest with a canopy that blotted out most of the sunlight beaming from above. This continued for awhile until I realized that I had not seen nor heard a peep of wildlife, which struck me as odd. Also, it seemed that I was not affected by fatigue, as the sun must have been near the horizon by now and yet I was still trekking forward at the same pace that my body had set when I had first felt the invisible pull.

This seemed to continue on for days, the sun and moon blurring into each other as I entered a fugue state during this time. The forest scenery was mostly unchanged, at one point I did pass through a swamp environment, but that lasted for a very brief time. I came out of my fugue state when I saw something that could have been pulled right out of the Middle Ages of Europe. A castle that looked like it had long since been abandoned stood in the middle of the forest, still mostly intact. It was quite the sight to see, as a few towers still rose to a most impressive height, the stone having withstood the trials of time rather well. However, the castle did not stay in view for long as the force continued to exert its influence upon me.

Some time later that day I finally found myself free of the confounded forest, and was passing through what appeared to be an orchard of some sort. This gave way into the outskirts of a town that was completely foreign to me. All of the structures looked to be mostly mid to late nineteenth century design, although the dimensions seemed off, almost as if something else lived here other than humans. However, as I continued on the trek, I still saw not a peep of life even as I passed through what appeared to be a market square with the sun directly overhead. As I came to the edge of this town, I saw a mountain in the distance with a protrusion coming off of it. For some reason, I knew that my destination lay there.

Twilight Sparkle and her friends found themselves in Celestia's study after using the scroll, fully expecting to have to rush into action and save the day. Because of that, Twilight found it rather odd that Celestia was currently sitting on a sofa with Luna making what had appeared to be small talk before she had interrupted them. "Princess, do you have the Elements? And what is the emergency?" Twilight had many more questions to ask Celestia, but she was cut off by her.

"Hold your questions for a moment Twilight, all will be explained shortly. First off, it is nice to see all of you again, although I wish it were under better circumstances, as there is indeed something odd afoot, however the situation is currently being contained as we speak. Luna had sensed the Nightmare's magic, it seems that you all did not truly destroy it after all. However, it has since dissipated, although not before literally dropping a most unusual creature at our hooves." Celestia used her magic to levitate the individual elements to their respective bearers while speaking. "However, I think it best Luna talk now, she has some understanding of what this creature is."

"When we scanned the creature, we detected some taint of the Nightmare on him, although it does not appear to have taken control or manifested itself in the human. Just in case though, we want all of you ready to use the elements should the need arise." Luna began to speak, and she noticed that when she uttered the word creature Twilight's eyes had gone from confusion to lighting up like a foals on New Hearth's Day. "And Twilight, to answer your inevitable question, the creature is called a human, and it is a bipedal creature that most closely resembles a hairless ape. They are found on a planet very far away from ours, I just wish I knew why the Nightmare brought him over here."

"Human? Another planet? This is such an opportunity to learn about another planet, the culture, who knows what we might be able to use for ourselves! We cou-"

"Now hold yer horses there sugarcube, I'm sure that you'll get yer chance later, but I believe right now we've got something more important to do Twilight." Applejack cut off Twilight before she could get lost in one of her crazy moments, after which it would be near impossible to get her attention to focus on anything else. Twilight looked at the sisters somewhat sheepishly as she kept her mouth closed.

"We thank you Applejack, we need to go down and examine the human. He was unconscious, but as a measure we had Shining Armor take him down into one of the deeper dungeons that hasn't seen any use so that we may both isolate him and contain the knowledge of his arrival. We do not want word getting out about our visitor just yet until we can ascertain why he is here. Please follow us down there, hopefully your help won't be needed." Luna motioned at the door as she and her sister began to walk through the castle towards the lower levels.

Five minutes later saw the eight ponies in an old section of the castle that hadn't seen use in a very long time due to the general peace that Equestria had been privy to. Two royal knights and Shining met the group at the entrance of the cell block as they arrived. "Princesses, the creature has been placed inside the first cell on the left, he is still unconscious. We have a physician coming down as well, although we haven't told him exactly why. We'll be right here in case we're needed." With a quick salute, Shining and the two guards posted in front of the cell block door while Luna and company moved to the cell containing the human.

All six of the elements let out gasps as they saw him laying on two cots that has been hastily drug into the cell while Luna let some of her previous worry resurface. While the others were somewhat occupied, Celestia used her magic to probe at this human's mind, after what Luna had told her about the human races potential for violence, she was not going to let one become a threat to her ponies. What she found, or didn't, startled her to the point that she let out a gasp, immediately catching Luna's attention.

"What is it sister?"

"Luna... I tried looking into it's mind, after what you said I had to. It isn't there. Although his body is perfectly fine and seems to be functioning on a fundamental level, there is no consciousness in the body."

I had finally finished my little spirit trek as I had taken to calling it. Before me lay my body, and as I looked down upon it I started to feel a rather warm and inviting feeling. It was very similar to when you would get under the covers and you couldn't tell where you ended and the bed began, such a comfortable feeling. This feeling continued as what I guessed was my body and mind reintegrating occurred. It was pure and utter bliss, at least for a short time.

All of a sudden, every nerve center in my body started to fire off, causing a very large amount of discomfort all over. It was very much as if I had been sitting on my leg and cutting off the blood flow, although in this instance it was more like an elephant had been sitting on my whole body. As the feelings began to return to me, I let out a slight groan and began to open my eyes. I was in a dimly lit environment, and some sort of cut stone covered three sides of the room. On the fourth side bars passed from the ceiling to the floor with a closed door in the center, alerting me to the fact that I was in a cell.

Now that my body was "awake", I began to prop myself into a sitting position with my left hand, only to have to buckle under my weight after only a second or so. Puzzled, I brought my hand up in front of my eyes and immediately noticed the problem. My arm seemed to have lost all of its muscle, as if it had atrophied on me. Another piece of a puzzle that I was clueless on I suppose. Very carefully using both arms to prop myself up with this time, I managed to finagle my way into a sitting position and moved to prop my back against the wall.

All of a sudden I heard voices coming from somewhere off in the distance, and they seemed to be getting louder. I tried to listen in, but I could only make out the sound of conversation, not the words. I heard a door open, then close a few seconds later and I tried to speak Try being the word of choice here, as all that came out was an almost inaudible cough as my throat decided to bring to my attention that it was dried out, then had been salted and made into jerky. At least now I could understand the voices that had been talking.

"-sciouness is somewhere, but we haven't been able to determine where yet. And I couldn't find mention of it in the archives either, so I have nothing to reference it off of! I still can't believe they kicked me out of the library either!" This voice was most definitely feminine, and if I had been anywhere else it might have been somewhat attractive sounding.

"Relax Twily, you know it was for your own good. Plus, you had started scaring some of the other patrons after the first week of being there. Sides, Luna is actively looking into it, she and maybe her sister are the only ones who could even possibly figure out what spell it was that was used you know. I'm sure they have to be getting close to finding it out, just let them do their business." This voice was male, and apparently the female's name was Twily. What a weird name to have for a- Wait. He said spell. I thought I heard Twily start talking again, but I was a bit too busy with my thoughts. Yes, I had indeed heard the word spell used, and I was guessing that they had been talking about me.

I missed the shadows in the hallway growing ever closer due to my mind still trying to process the fact that a spell, meaning magic, had somehow been involved in bringing me to wherever I now found myself. "Shining, you know I hate it when you're right... And as for the archives, maybe I was a little frustrated..."

"A little frustrated? I think pulling every book off of four bookcases at the same time goes beyond just a little, at least to the average pony. When you get into one of your fits, you-"

"Shining, look, he's awake!" I was shaken from my thoughts by her very loud exclamation and turned my head towards her voice. Standing in front of the cell were two ponies. Make that unicorns. The first one had a coat of what had to be the most vivid shade of lavender I had ever seen in my life, with eyes to match. Her tail and mane were also purple with a stripe of dark pink included. The second one's coat was brilliant white in color, with multiple shade of blue for his tail and mane, from the lightest sky blue to a navy blue. He was also intently looking at me with sky blue eyes as well, along with the lavender mare. And oh, did I mention that they both had horns on their head matching their coat colors?

At this point, my mind was in overdrive. I would think that by this time with what all had happened to me, I would have a rather open mind. I mean, if I can have those reoccurring dreams, followed by a hell of a spirit trek, than how far off are talking ponies? Well, apparently they're still rather far off. I did what first came to mind. I opened my mouth, and a soundless scream came from it. Thanks to my dried up throat, it was more along the lines of a timid squeak though as I also scrambled to put distance between them and me, completely forgetting that I was already in the corner of the room. This caused me to simply lose my balance as my back moved away slightly from the wall and I slid to the side head first, slamming into the headboard and descending into the realm of unconsciousness.

Author's Notes:

Author’s Note: This was my first attempt to enter the pony world, after reading quite a large amount of fanfiction here. It is a mostly crude and unrefined idea as far as stories go, but it was something that captivated me nonetheless. I will be writing on this from time to time when I hit a brick wall in Becoming One With the Night. Hopefully this isn’t too painfully bad to read through, and as always, thanks for taking the time to look at my writings. Also... Perspective changes, cripes!