In the darkness lightning strikes and there before Markus was the comet, but he was no longer on earth and in the darkness Marcus began to make out the shapes of two beings he had never seen before both talked in a tongue that was so alien it would have taken earth's best scientists decades to decipher even a simple sentence. The beings suddenly moved closer but Marcus couldn't move as he found himself paralyzed but he could still feel pain as he was about to discover. One of the strange beings held out a blade that looked like a scalpel Markus tried to scream but his voice wouldn't find him he simply shed tears from the eminence pain as the alien carved into his back in various locations.
After the first alien was done it walked away into the dark void a moment later and another alien had walked out and placed his arm in a vice whispering more of the strange language into his ear the vice then twisted until an audible snap was heard. Suddenly Markus shot up from bed with a blood curdling scream prompting fluttershy to run into the room to see what had made marcus scream so loudly and as soon as she seen he was shaking she knew something had happened
what's wrong!? What happened are you alright!? Markus was shaking as if he had just seen death itself and pulled away from fluttershy out of sheer instinct like she was some kind of predator who had made its way onto his bed. Shhh it's OK your alright, now just calm down and tell me what's wrong. did something scare you? asked Fluttershy as she draped a wing on markus's back giving him a reassuring smile.
Markus was still shaking But he managed a response. I...I don't know I think I just had a night terror but it seemed almost too real, like a memory and ... Marcus struggled to find the right words to describe his ordeal but was unsure how he could.
and what? its OK you can tell me i only want to help you if i can. her soft voice calmed markus and allowed him to speak.
well it was weird I could feel everything, all of the pain of being tortured, nearly to death I might add by beings that were indescribable it was the most terrifying and painful thing that I've ever endured.
Fluttershy's eyes grew big and she became concerned for marcus. That sounds awful, no wonder you woke up screaming. I do have one question though, by night terror do you mean nightmare?
Marcus frowned he didn't like talking about these things. No a night terror is like a nightmare cranked up to eleven, it can be caused by any number of things but there usually very uncommon in adults and your not supposed to remember them in such detail but unfortunately for me I have a photographic memory which means I don't forget the things that I see in my dreams, I can probably tell you every dream I've ever had if I had the time, but I don't.
The timid mare nodded. So would a photographic memory allow you to um... read a book once and memorize it?
markus thought that it might be difficult to explain to someone who wasn't even from earth so he decided to simplify his answers for this and any future questions. well sometimes, it depends on the person and the book, for me I'd have to read the book two times to have it completely down unless the book wasn't very big but I assume when you say book you mean like the ones I have in my backpack.
That reminds me twilight was wondering if she could take a look at some of your books so she can study them along with some of the other items in your bag, she is also what you would call a scholar and was quite curious about some of your bags contents but decided to respect your privacy.
I'll have to think about that, there's some stuff in here that might not be good to spread around your culture such as the two history books. Fluttershy gave a confused look to which Marcus explained what he meant. Let's just say that there are some things that should never be learned, knowledge is powerful and is sometimes dangerous and disastrous. Those physics books are definitely off the table, in fact do you have a fireplace?
oh my, Are you going to burn those two books?
Yes, they could be dangerous in the wrong hands, like I said knowledge can be a dangerous thing.
Twilight would probably be chewing your head off right now if she heard you talking about destroying books but the fireplace is over there just don't tell twilight I let you do this or she'll be really mad at the both of us. Markus then walked over to the fireplace and placed the two books inside, forever destroying their contents, keeping all the other books because they either couldn't cause any harm or were just survival manuals that he packed for his star gazing expedition and some home recipes.
Since I still don't know about the history books I'm going to hold on to them for now and let princess Celestia or princess luna take a look at them to determine if they're dangerous and if they think that they are I will request to have the books destroyed and if not then they can to do with them as they please.
the sky chariot shows up with the others except for rainbow who for obvious reasons decided to just fly up and meet the others when they arrived, Well we better not keep the others waiting let's get going...if that's alright with you.
The ride to the palace was relatively quiet except for an elated twilight who was just happy because Markus had given her most of the things in his bag that she wanted to study explaining why there were two books that he was going to hold on to.
the purple princess after hearing markus's explanation grabbed the books that she was interested in and put them in her saddle bag excited to go through there contents once back home. Dangerous knowledge huh? Well I can certainly understand that, there are just some things that shouldn't be learned like the forbidden spells Celestia told me about.
markus was glad that she understood about the history books. Exactly twilight there are things that I have to let the princesses look at before I let anyone else mess with them. Markus looked in the bag and was a little surprised to see the fiction novels and sheet music he left in his bag for choir were untouched he was going to ask why she left them when he noticed that they were getting close to the palace. After arriving markus heads through the throne room doors and is happy to see that both of the princesses are present.
Ah so this is the being known as Markus that I've heard so much about from twilight. I am Princess Celestia, Are you enjoying your stay so far.
yes princess I am. Sensing some apprehension in your voice she steps closer
I can see that something is troubling you, is something wrong?
Well it's just this really vivid night terror I had last night I guess I'm still a little shook up. And before you ask no a night terror is not the same as a nightmare it's much much worse, you know how when you have a nightmare you can still get away from what is scaring you well in a night terror you can't move or speak but you can feel pain your nerves go out of wack and make you feel anything happening to you like how I felt the agonizing torture from a being which I didn't recognize. I'm not supposed to remember these types of dreams and there supposed to be rare in adults but I remember it as if it really happened.
Luna looked down towards markus with a frown. Oh my, you poor thing I'm sorry I couldn't find your dream in time to help but if you don't mind I'd like to see this "Night Terror" for myself.
markus was taken aback for a second. What are you talking about? Are You able to read my mind?
Well not exactly I have the unique ability to enter somepony else's dream and in a sense save them from there nightmares.
I don't understand how that's possible nobody on earth has such an ability. Princess I'm going to have to say no, trust me when I say that you don't know what you're getting into from what I understand night terrors don't exist here and I don't want you to get trapped in my head or something.
Celestia gives Markus a slightly annoyed look. Do not underestimate my sister Markus she may not have ever seen one of these night terrors as you call them but she knows what she's doing when it comes to dreams. Another thing is since your awake she won't be directly interacting with your dream just looking into your memories of it.
reluctantly markus agrees. Alright but don't say I didn't warn you. Luna walks over to Markus and places her horn on his head. All of the previous nights visions entered Luna's mind as she saw Markus strapped to a table with an alien being cutting into his back and sides but there was something odd about the carvings on his back drawn in cuts was an owl and on his side's were symbols that when read instantly worried Luna.
The language of the ancient ones...but...but how is this even possible they were wiped out in the great Alicorn war. It was then the being spoke in a tongue that confirmed her suspicions. Cijasofka alyopteq etuyipoafe cutayin. (The seventh is prepared mind wipe will begin immediately.)
The being looked at luna almost as if it could see her but it shook off whatever feeling it had and walked off into the darkness. Luna then looked to Markus who had a mixture of pain and fear in his face as another being came from the darkness and applied a device to his arm and said one word before breaking it. Nofutiacoo (Remember). The dream ended and Luna fell back on her rump with a terrified expression on her face, within her mind an evil force smiled and in a flash of light there was suddenly another alicorn standing next to Luna giving an evil laugh towards the two princesses.
I'm free,after over one thousand years I'm finally free I must say that human really came in handy, I've never seen so much fear mmmm tasty. she said as she licked her lips
after seeing the mare in front of her Celestia became enraged but was still confused. Nightmare moon! I thought you were a part of my sister how did you escape!?
There was so much fear in that humans dream that it gave me the power to break free and now that I am I shall bring ruin to all of your precious equestria and then coat the world in an eternal darkness but first i think ill take up a new name inspired by the very thing that set me free, from now on I shall be called night terror. She laughed evilly as she flew out of the window and towards ponyville. Suddenly outside day turned into night confirming for markus that this world was completely different from his own. what happened next shocked the two princesses, as they looked into the sky they saw that the moon had turned blood red.
