In memory of Wes Craven.
1939-2015
Princess Luna Adjusted the straps on her armor and prepared herself one final time. It was the dead of night in The Crystal Empire castle she, her sister, and the recently corronated Princess Twilight had been spending the night at. She hadn't told anypony else this, but she had been spending her nights at the castle...fighting something. Something even she could not truly understand, at first she believed that remnants of her persona as Nightmare moon had survived and was causing a series of disturbances in the miasma of her dreams. As she could hear the cries of fillies and colt crying in their sleep from something that she could only feel was pure, raw fear. Luna had gone into the dreams several times as the other princesses slept and she had done her best to scare away the entity that was frightening them...but it was one fateful when she realized it wasn't Nightmare Moon at work. Nightmare Moon only desired power and to rule an eternal night, but even she never did what she saw this...thing do.
It had been one night on the dreamstride when she galloped to heed the cries of a little colt in his bed. The colt dreamed that some horrible monster was after him, chasing him in the depths of the Everfree Forest. Not something uncommon for the little children who have bad dreams to feel. He was a young little tan colt with a sandy mane, still a blank flank but he seemed to be on the verge of his special talent. Maybe he could have been an Ice Cream maker bringing sweet treats to ponies in his village every summer, maybe he could have been Hoofball star that his parents would be sheading tears of joy at a championship, or maybe even a teacher molding the minds of the next generation of ponies for years to come.
He would be none of those things, ever. When princess Luna found the little tan colt in the Dreamstride, she was too late. What she saw this entity do to someone so young, so full of potential, and so innocent. Was enough to sicken and enrage her to wear she had a new set of armor made in her hunt for this beast, which she would slay a thousand times over and send to the darkest depths of Tarrus. For she had found the colt...dead.
He lay in the woods of the dreamstride with his neck chewed open viciously, the colt's blood seeped into the dirt of the Everfree as in reality it was staining the sheets of his bed. The princess's eyes went wide with shock as she stood over him and placed a hoof on his forehead lovingly. Her horn glowing with magic. Though only to comfort the dying soul of the colt and clean him from the state he was in. Whatever had done this had done with savage brutality and no regard for him being so young. Only a creature with no soul of any white light in it, a soul at all, could have done this to a little one. His once vibrant and youthfully hopeful eyes had gone frozen in fear, the expression was not that of a little colt's, his coat had been sticky and matted with the crust of dried blood that had sprayed all over him and the surrounding area, which equated to all over his bed room in the real world. and his muzzle was post mortiumly locked in a shriek of terror. As Luna slammed her hooves into the ground crying and feeling as if she had failed in her duties as the princess of the night, she could swear she heard...laughing, coming from the trees.
Now Luna stood in her armor and it was the night The Element Bearers were visiting the castle, she hadn't the heart to trouble them to help her with this. This was something she had to do on her own. That creature had done something so heinous and repulsive, yet Twilight had dealt with mischievous Demi-Gods, and her when she was still her Nightmare Moon self. Such was not something the little one should ever be troubled with, it would be something she'd destroy on her own. Luna stood in the hallway of the castle, having just finally gotten this creature out of the dream stride, it stood before her a, a creature of its nature could only manifest itself as a swirling mass of darkness, emptiness shrouded in pure evil. Like a cloud of smoke with tentacles and eyes staring at the night princess. "You...You've committed a crime that has left a family to bury their son, you are a despicable thing that must be destroyed, have you any last words?" She said as she raised the lance in her shoulder rig her species used in place of hands to wield weapons. She watched as black bothces dripped onto the tiles, remmants of a wound she infliced with her horn on this wreatched thing. Only one thing was left to do, Luna raised her lance poised to kill...
"Stop THIEF!" Twilight Sparkle shouted as the pony who had stolen her crown, the element of magic, galloped past her with her crown in her side bag. Sunset Shimmer Smiled as she looked into the bag at what she perfecevied to be her birthright. To be a princess beside the great Princess Celestia. Sunset took off as Twilight was hot on her hooves, neither mare knew just what lay ahead for them both. As she ran down the hall to the portal she once used to run away from this world. She didn't see the mass of energy that hitched a ride in her bag. Nor did she pay any mind to seeing Princess Luna, "Princess Luna! Stop her!" Twilight was coming! She used her magic to make her armor be camouflaged as a nightgown, and turned to face the purple mare and do her best to give the illusion she was merely responding to the noise.
"Oh my, Twilight! What in Atherius' name is going on here?" Luna asked Twilight as she looked around for the entity, and was cursing herself for not finishing it sooner.
"That pony! She's stolen my crown, we have to stop her!" Twilight said galloping after the thief, night thieves where one thing, but the destruction of that monster was another. Luna swallowed her pride and followed Twilight in the chase.
It didn't know who this pony was as It sat in her saddle bags, nor did It care, It had felt the dream protector's magic pierce It to the core, and now It was "dying." Its energy had been sapped by her strike and It could feel itself wasting away, but if It could only rest as a shadow in this pony's bag and recover, then It could fight again. To feed on the dreams of sleeping young ponies, then once It got strong enough, those little ponies themselves. Its only drive to spread fear and feed on them; flesh, blood and evenetualy soul. That little colt had been saved by his precious princess just in time, She guided his soul to a better plain of existance and away from Its hunger. Denied by her, It swore vengence on the Princess, but now as It sat beside the crown in Sunset Shimmer's bag, It wanted to sleep..to rest...to...DREAM.
"UH I always hate going through that thing!" Sunset Shimmer said aloud as she landed in front of Canterlot High. It was the dead of night and she had returned with the true Element Of Magic. Sunset got on her feet and took both the crown and a stolen set of keys to the school from her bag. "Now to put this in the school and be princess of the Fall Formal as I always have been." She said this making her way up the stairs to the school building, and we must take our leave of Sunset Shimmer for now. As her story has been told by other hands, interpreted by eyes who have seen and unseen it, and this tale is not a total retelling of the Story of Sunset Shimmer of the rise of Equestrian magic in this world. On the night as she went to switch the fall formal crowns, As three girls who had been once like the entity, a force in Equestria of power and evil, who would have their own downfall and in this rendition of her world redemption and revival. As Crystal Prep slept dreaming of victory in the Friendship games, and (again in this rendition of their mythos) eventual transfer from that School to Canterlot high. The entity made its way silently across the dark city streets. Hiding disguised among the shaodws of the dark night.
Already It could feel that there was no matron of sleep to protect them here, could already feel that there was only so much equestrian magic, but that magic would grow and when it does, It would come back. It needed a place to sleep, to slumber and wait for the time to return and strike fear and terror into the little ones...though that sunset girl was pretty tasty too. her species...it seemed to get more flavor as they shifted into this new form.
The lights shinned on the marquee of the Plaza theather, the white backing with letters that advertised both the blockbusters and the special events for years it had been open, flickered and advertised a special night in the theather. The black block letters meant little to the entity as it blended into the shadow of a patron cast on the cement of the sidewalk as he bought his ticket. A young man with Creamy white skin and turqouse hair as he walked up to the box office As Sham Rock sold tickets on her shift. "One for the screenings of Nightmare On Elm Street and New Nightmare tonight please Sham." He said handing her the seven dollars for the ticket she printed for him and handed with a smile.
"Enjoy the show handsome." She said with girlish giggle and flip of her straw hat.
"I will so long as you stay pretty." He said as he headed to take his seat, unaware of the thing latched onto his shadow. When it finally felt safe under the dark seats of the main auditorium, It finally settled in to watch the strange creatures performace, mlike a pony play...only contained on a single window that showed the whole spectacle from another window as the spectators watched. I will not go into detail the story Wes Craven told with his film New Nightmare or its precursor Nightmare On Elm Street. I trust you have discovered one; the other, or both for yourself. If you have not, then I leave you to see the genius in their makings for yourself in whatever way you can. I will say though that as The Entity watched the story unfold, it took in the way these...other ponies, or whatever they were. Reacting in...horror at what they witnessed. People like to laugh, and to be moved to tears, and even be scared. It noticed that as much as they seemed to like being scared, the thing on the movie screen with those sharp hands, horribly ugly missing chunks of flesh and sadistic joy as it took lives, was making them...afraid. fear, its food! The entity knew just what it would do when the time came to reemerge and the form it would use to fulfill its purpose.