I do not own the Rise of the Guardians characters; this was written just for myself, really, no monies will be made on it. Thank you, and I hope you enjoy this little snippet.
Jack floated quietly on a gentle breeze through the winter night. Darkness masked the landscape below, with the new moon blocked by clouds. He knew the way to his destination without needing to watch where he was going though. He was heading for the Pole for a visit with the other Guardians. It was something they had agreed upon shortly after defeating Pitch. Without an active danger threatening the children of the world, Jack was back to his routine of "snow balls and fun times". The addition of a regular visit was a welcome one in his life. It felt good to finally be wanted.
A dark wind blew passed him suddenly, sending him tumbling off course. He steadied himself in the air and looked around, "What was that?" He could barely make out movement, streaking through the clouds. A black shape swept by with a shrill scream, causing him to roll through the air again. This time, it turned more slowly and Jack could make out an equine shape. "A nightmare?" But Pitch was gone, his strength should be lost for centuries.
Changing position, he pointed his staff as the beast approached again. He blasted it with ice and it whirled away, wings on its back flapping madly. It shuddered in the air, shaking the frost from its body. The dark Pegasus hovered, blind eyes searching for its quarry. Soon, it turned enough to face Jack and screamed again, baring fangs at the boy. He tried to shoot it with ice again and the attack was brushed away with a shake of the mare's head. This one was stronger than the other fearlings Jack had encountered before. Without another option, Jack turned and ran, making a beeline for the Pole and Santa's Workshop. The black beast let out a bone chilling cry and took up pursuit, hot on his heels.
Jack could make out the lights of the workshop ahead of him; he sent a wind ahead of him to unlatch a window and put on an extra burst of speed. Darting through it, he slammed it shut and re-latched it. Jack turned toward the room with a sigh, leaning against the window for a moment. He looked up and saw Bunny, Tooth, and North staring at him with confused expressions. "Jack?" Tooth hovered toward him, "What's wrong?"
"I think Pitch might be back."
"What? No way, mate, that's impossible!" Bunny exclaimed.
Jack chuckled tiredly, "Tell that to the fearling that just chased me here." He took a step away from the window when he saw Tooth's eyes widen in surprise as she looked out the window behind him. Then the window exploded as the dark horse crashed through. It tumbled across the floor as everyone jumped back. Bunny and North grabbed their weapons as everyone slipped into defensive stances.
They could see this beast was different from Pitch's other creatures. It was flesh rather than the black fear sand. As it hoisted itself to its hooves, blood dripped from its muzzle, the skin scraped away from its forehead to its nostrils. Its eyes were a milky white-blue of a blind animal. If it were a real horse, it would be in desperate need for food, with ribs and hips starkly visible on its emaciated body. Rain rot marred its haunches. Its wings looked like they had once been feathered but they were falling away, revealing bat-like wings of a demon. Nightmare was an apt name for this terrifying vision of a horse. Finding its feet, the mare whinnied shrilly, rearing rampart in the center of the room. Ears flicked around rapidly as the monster settled back onto all fours. Behind it, Jack shifted his stance, stepping onto some of the cracked glass. One ear immediately turned toward the small sound and the winged horse kicked out. Only Jack's lightning fast reflexes saved his head from its hooves.
That attack acted like a signal and the four Guardians attacked at once. Even with all four attacking in harmony, it seemed impossible to land blows on the Pegasus. Luckily for them, the beast wasn't landing any of its own, either. It was relying on sound for their locations. The dwarves had the good sense to stay out of the way, scrambling for hiding places as soon as the fight started. The yetis quickly learned to leave the fighting to the Guardians, they were too heavy footed and the mare would quickly knock them from the fray.
This was the chaos that the Sandman flew into. It didn't take more than a glance to see what was going on. Sandy's eyes widened in surprise, never would he have expected to see such a spectacle.
"Sandy, come give us a hand, mate!" Bunny hollered. "This beast is mighty feisty!"
Sandy called up his sands, then to everyone's surprise, his whips flew out to entangle everyone. He flew down and grabbed Jack's wrist, yanking him forward.
"What? Woah!" Jack cried as Sandy pulled him off his feet. "Sandy! No! Stop it!" The Sandman was dragging him right toward the black horse. Jack tried to pull back, but Sandy was surprisingly strong. With a final jerk, Sandy pressed Jack's hand against the beast's forehead and it immediately stilled. ( . . . erfit. False shades. Destroyers! How dare he! I'll . . .) Jack could hear the angry commentary in his head. "Wait. Why? Sandy?" He looked to his friend, clearly confused. "You know this thing?"
Sandy nodded, patting its shoulder. Above his head, an image of him and the horse walking together formed.
"You converse with one of Pitch's minions?" North exclaimed. Sandy shook his head vehemently, the horse wasn't Pitch's. Sandy turned back to Jack and gestured to the horse, making a sand shape of a face with a moving mouth.
"Talk to it?" Sandy nodded while creating an image of a girl. "It's FEMALE?" Sandy nodded again with a roll of his eyes. The whole time there had been a constant stream of angry ranting in the back of Jack's head. "H-hello?"
The ranting stopped, (Yes? Who are you?)
"My name is Jack Frost. Why'd you attack me?"
(I smelled HIM on you.) She whinnied slightly at the thought and Jack got an impression of a dark man surrounded by beasts with glowing eyes.
"Pitch?!"
(You know him?!) She reared up, baring fangs and losing contact with Jack.
"Hey! Hey! Calm down! We defeated him!" As she returned to the ground, Jack replaced his hand on her forehead, noticing that the skin had healed over and her hair had regrown on her face.
(We? Who is this 'we'?) Sandy floated up and tweaked her ear with an annoyed expression. (The Guardians, huh. Sorry, Sandman, I did not know of this one.) Sandy shrugged in reply. Jack idly wondered how a blind horse could understand Sandy. He sensed amusement from the mare at the thought. (It's because we are cousins in a way, boy.)
"Cousins?"
"Wait. I don't understand." Tooth interrupted. "Jack, you can understand her?"
"Yeah, somehow."
The mare lipped at his sleeve, (It's your age. Children have the most open hearts, so they can hear me the easiest.) Jack relayed her thoughts to the other Guardians.
"So what is this horse?" Bunny hoped forward, still carrying his boomerangs. "What's her deal with Pitch, then, if she's not one of his nightmares?"
(My deal with Pitch is that he makes a mockery of my purpose and distorts it into something even worse than it was already. People are being hurt in the process.) Her ears lay back against her head with the thought. (And as for me, I am a pet of Death himself. I am the NightMare. Not "a", THE NightMare. However, you can call me Mercy."
If anything, the horse's announcement made the Guardians look even more confused. "What does a pet of Death have to do with dreams?" Bunny demanded.
She snorted at him, (Sleep is first cousin to death, rabbit.)
"Bunny."
(Whatever, Leporidae.) She pulled away from Jack and he noticed with surprise that her form had changed, her body was filled out to a healthy looking weight and her wings were fully feathered again. She shook her head and wings to settle her mane and feathers then returned to Jack to continue the conversation.
North finally came forward to join the group. "You need to explain more, Mare. I don't understand why Death has interest in dreams."
(He isn't, not really. I am. I am a death pet, it's true, but I was created to preserve life rather than take it and if failing that, to grant mercy for the innocent and bare justice against the wicked. Nightmares for innocents are meant to breed caution, not terror. My worst dreams are for the wicked who are not yet fated to die.) She seemed to growl at that. (Pitch destroyed that purpose. He wanted everything plunged into darkness and terror. I'm not welcome on a good day simply because of who I am owned by, I don't need some upstart spirit thinking he can tread all over my work and making things worse.)
"He is called the King of Nightmares for a reason, Sheila." Bunny commented.
(Self-appointed king of nightmares, Bunny. It's meaningless to me. And even if someone appointed him, I answer only to my master and the Fates and even your MiM answers to the Fates.) She paused for a moment. (You say you defeated him?)
"Yeah, back in April."
(Where?)
"In a town called Burgess in Pennsylvania."
She nodded. (I thank you for that. I've got a long road ahead of me to repair the damage he did.) Sandy patted her cheek. (I know you've been helping, Sandy, you're too good to a dark beast like me.) She playfully lipped at his hair with a whicker. Then a whistle sounded from outside and Mercy lifted her head with ears pricked. (I'm being summoned. I apologize for attacking you, now that I know your scents, it won't happen again.) She stepped toward the window and crunched glass under her feet. (Sorry about the window too.) She broke into a trot and then leapt from the window, spreading her wings as she drove into the air. She whinnied as she flew away into the dawn.
Seeing Rise of the Guardians with Pitch's "nightmares" demanded I write a rebuttal of sorts, my mare does not like her reputation dragged through the mud, as you can see. Mercy is my own character, well, part of a character for a story that has be evolving for years (not a fanfiction though, it won't end up here when it's done) As far as I know there isn't any really myth involving a death horse like my Mercy here, I would say this version of the NightMare is my own personal mythos that came about from several sources. The first inspiration I can guarantee came from a King's Quest computer game (Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow, I believe). You had to catch the NightMare to take you to the Land of the Dead. She belonged to Death and her primary job was to take souls to the Land of the Dead, if I remember correctly. Granting mercy to innocents came later when I would see good characters in stories die in horrible ways, so I figured if the mare cared, she would spare them the pain of their own death. The sharing of bad dreams came about similarly, where these terrible people would escape death, she would curse them with an eternity of sleepless nights (that bit was pulled from Piers Anthony's Xanth books, as was the excuse for good people getting bad dreams). The change in her image is on purpose, you can't very well collect souls of innocents looking like an evil demon horse, but you can't very well collect the souls of the wicked looking like a sweet pony either, so her looks are effected by both her mood and the souls around her.