We followed Fluttershy and her little bunny to a small cottage near the outskirts of town. It was filled! With animals… otters… birds… much like the Canterlot garden. "Where are the bags Angel?" Fluttershy asked in a low tone and he pointed towards a familiar sight next to the front door…
"It… can't be…" I said with wide eyes.
"Do you know what they are?" Twilight asked.
"Hell yeah I do! Woo!" I ran over to the bags and took one down and zipping it open… I just couldn't believe it! "Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah!" I said as I went through the stuff.
"What's in the bag?" I heard Rainbow ask.
"This is the stuff I had with me at the base I was stationed at!" I said with happiness. "It's still has everything I ever had in it!" pulling out the things my smile grew bigger and bigger until it couldn't get bigger. Pulling out my two extra weapons a Kimber Custom and a Desert Eagle. Both having 3 mags for every magazine size along with having one of the largest sizes inside of both guns already meaning… 10 mags for both weapons! And I even had the holsters!
Then pulling out many small scrapbooks that I had continued to make since my parents died and luckily they were in the same condition. I also had my phone and charger in one but I mainly only used that for emergencies. My iPod which I realized was at half charge and luckily I still had the ear buds and charger.
Then some of my favorite books that I brought to the base to read on my downtime. Several personal pictures I had of me and my team of night outings… "Everything is here…" I said with a tear going down my eye. But then I whipped my head to the other bags… "But whose bags are those?" I then muttered.
"Is it… safe to come over?" Twilight asked and I nodded as she walked over. Immediately putting the holsters onto my belt and putting the weapons into said holsters I grabbed one of the smallest mags for both and put them into my front pockets on the side the weapon was on. Desert Eagle on right and Kimber on left.
Standing up I then walked over to the other bags and realized that these ones had no names on them. Taking the first one and bringing it over to the other bag I opened it and begun to search through it. Just some minor stuff… flashlights with batteries… 3 big, 2 medium, and 4 pocket sized. Several knifes including a combat knife which I immediately put into my back pocket. Cigarettes which I am never touching again… several med kits… and finally ammo for my Colt? Whose bag was this?
Closing the bag I grabbed one of the last remaining two and opened it to find clothes… clothes… and even more clothes… some were to small and to large but the rest were my size from what I could tell. Folding them up and putting them away I closed that up as well as I grabbed the very last bag, well wasn't even a bad more like a gun case for a large rifle.… and I opened it. Inside was a beauty…
A United States… M2010 Enhanced Sniper Rifle… in all its beauty it was resting in the foam with a mag in it as well as a belt below it and 4 other mags in holders on the belt… and along the side were a total of 10 .300 Winchester magnum rounds pointing towards the middle on both sides… "Luke… what… is that?" Lightcrest asked.
"meet… one of the weapons used by my army's snipers… the M2010… the Enhanced Sniper Rifle… bolt action to eject fired shells which takes 5 bullet capacity mags… and with what's here… each of the mags is already filled except for the one currently in the rifle meaning I have a total of 40 bullets with this…" I said closing the case and locking it back up. "You… I'm going to save for when I really need you."
"What is all of this?" Pinkie asked as she stuck her head in an empty bag and lifted it… as the bag stayed on top of her head preventing her from seeing.,
"All of this is from my world. The first bag I opened was what had my belongings in it. All of these are from a unfortunate cadet that just lost his stuff." I said as I begun to gather the bags and put them to the side… that was until I spotted Twilight with one of my scrapbooks in her magic which caused me to snap a little. "Be careful with that!" I yelled yanking it out of her magic surprised her. "These are quite special to me. My parents started making these when I was born and when they died I begun to fill them with my own memories. Only special ones though." I said putting it into its bag before closing it. "Sorry for snapping though… I'm just happy they are now safe and sound."
"Twilight gets that way sometimes with some of her favorite books at the library." Rainbow said with a sneer as Twilight blushed before glaring at Rainbow. "What?"
"Well everypony ah got ta get home before Applebloom gets home from school." Applejack said as she waved goodbye and trotted off.
"Yeah I got to go practice my awesome skills to become a Wonderbolt!" she zoomed away leaving behind a trail of rainbow. Fluttershy immediately went into her college while Rarity ran off to her home to wait for a foal named Sweetie belle and lastly Pinkie Pie… just disappeared… just what is up with her and defying physics?!
But that just left me with Lightcrest and Twilight. The day went by to fast in my opinion but that's just me… "So Twilight want to help me bring my stuff home?" I asked her.
"Isn't only one of these bags yours?" she asked looking at them.
"Yep! But their mine now!" I said grabbing my bag plus the weapon case. Using her magic she placed the small and medium sized bag on her back. We made the journey to the house and dropped the stuff off. Finding a note saying Dracul went out to hunt, hopefully away from Fluttershy's, and Luna was going to do some more of her freaky dream stuff to find out why many foals are getting drastic nightmares. Lightcrest decided to stay behind while I followed Twilight to the library but once we got in… I was hit on the head by a pan causing me to grab the top of my head in pain… "Spike!" I looked at the one who hit me to find a small dragon, guessing he's still in the baby stage, threateningly holding a frying pan with his claws as he stood on a ladder.
"Who are you!" he yelled.
"Spike… he's a friend… as well as a captain of the royal guard." She added for quick measure as his eyes widened and he gave a sheepish laugh. Dropping the frying pan he slowly got down the ladder… picked the pan back up… and ran up the stairs into a room. "Huh… sometimes I wonder what goes on in that little head of his… but follow me." She brought me over to a door which lead down stairs into the basement. As we reached the bottom I realized there were notes everywhere as well as a worn down map in the middle on the floor.
"When I heard you had… dark magic I suspected that you might be the cause of all the sudden crime that's been going on everywhere." She said lifting a newspaper to my eye level as it read about several murders in Manehatten about a week ago plus a Foalnapping taking place in Dodge City. "The Princess asked me to look into these things… and yet I can find nothing in common…" that's because you are missing something that only I know about so far… the council as I was told was also looking into these events but can't connect it to anything.
"Is there any way to send a scroll or something to Celestia?" I asked her.
"Um… yeah. Spikes fire is able to send it directly to her." She said. "Do you need him to write anything?"
"I'll write it myself thank you very much." She levitated over a quill and a scroll as I began my message.
Dear Celestia…
I need you to pass a message onto the council mage. The message is… I know what everything is connected to. He will know what it means and knowing him he will teleport to where the scroll came from.
From Luke Damson
Handing it to Twilight she walked up the stairs as I begun to look at all the information. She has about the same amount of information as the council mage… don't ask why I call him that it just sounds cool… 10 minutes later there was a screech of shock and then 5 minutes later came down Twilight and the council mage. "I'm listening." He stated.
"Um… Luke…" I looked at Twilight.
"Yes?" I asked with a smile.
"Why is a member of the council… here?" she asked.
"Because I figured its finally time to give you both some info about what's been going on." I said walking over to the biggest section filled with information. "But let's make this a game. What do all of these have in common?" I asked motioning towards the event list she made of when each major event and minor event occurred.
"When they occurred?" Twilight suggested as they both walked over to take a look at it. I mentally face palmed.
"Look closer." They looked at the dates.
"Ah… the time frame shows that in the beginning minor events outweighed the major… but as time went on the major events were more often than minor events." I snapped my fingers.
"Gotcha. But my information is connected to the timeline." I said looking at the event at the top. Random ponies yelling their bad thoughts against other races and nobles plus other families. "What does the top event correspond with the timeline." I stated. They looked and pondered as their two minds worked before looking at me. "3… days…" I said putting a finger up for both words.
"3 days? What does that have to do with anything?" the council mage asked as I face palmed in real life this time.
"Both you and twilight should know… it's basically an important part of my history here." I said as the council mages eyes widened and I nodded. Guessing what he was thinking.
"I'm still stumped… what is it?"
"three days before the first event… was when I came to Equestria…" her eyes widened as she started moving around everywhere and started to move small things of different colored rope to different areas but they all lead to one thing… a picture of me… which is creepy making me think of how the hell she got it…
"It… all adds up." The council mage said as he and twilight backed up to look at everything.
"But… there is one thing always on my mind… my magic isn't the cause of all of this."
"You told me that your magic wasn't seeping out of your body at all this morning. So I put that out of my mind when thinking of this." She said pointing a hoof to a note above my head with the word magic crossed off.
"I know that… but after seeing all of this even the both of you have to agree…" I said turning to them. "That whatever is happening… is connected to me coming here… I mean come on! Everything was fine and dandy before but when I got here 3 days later many bad things start to happen in Equestria!" I said.
"Mrs. Sparkle." The mage said to Twilight as she looked at him. "Will you allow me to bring all of what me and the council have gathered here to connect what we have to what you have gathered?" She nodded. "Thank you. And you…" he said looking at me. "How long have you known about this?"
"To be honest… not long." I stated. "I can't really specify when I figured this out but I'm just glad it's finally off my chest for some reason." I then replied.
"Very well… I will notify the council and begin my work here. My absence will be noted as I work down here."
"Dude… don't you need to eat?"
"I have learned how much substance I need to eat to work. I will be fine." He disappeared in a flash as I turned towards Twilight.
"You going to be alright with him working down here?" I asked her as she nodded. "Alright then. Well I better be off… I got to get home and check on Lightcrest."
"Before you go… maybe we could… hang out sometime?" she said as I turned to look at her.
"That sounds like fun. Plan something and I'll try my best to come." She nodded as I exited the basement and then the library. Giving a sigh of relief I began my journey back to the house… wondering just what is going to happen now… that was until a mist of something came flying at my face as I choked on it a little… before I begun stumbling around and crashed into cart that was moving along and losing my consciousness.
Jolting awake I found myself in the middle of town… the sun high in the sky… but the problem was… where was everyone? Standing up I realized my weapons had been taken I sighed as I thought of the horrors of a pony having my worlds weapons. But those thoughts left as soon as I heard a loud scream… running towards where the scream came from I found a burned down house near the edge of town. Well actually it looked like it was breaking apart from old age but I could see it was burned in many areas.
Approaching the front entrance I made it through the house careful to stay quiet as I reached the second floor… to find a filly cowering in the corner away from a stallion that I quickly knocked out. Approaching the filly I crouched down… but that was when I saw the hollow eyes which caused me to jump back in fear. "Holy shit!" and that was when I realized something… no one around… hollowed eyes… suddenly daytime…
I was in a motherfucking dream…
And that was when I heard a loud screech as I hid against the wall. The filly just laid back down and continued to cry as if nothing happened. "more… feed… fear… must… feed…more… must feed on more fear…" the voice was getting clearer as whoever it was got closer… and that was when I saw it… it looked like it was pulled straight out of a horror movie. Combine it with black fire which danced on its skin as its claws looked bloodied as well as its teeth. "There you are…" the whatever it was approached the hollowed eyed filly. Deciding to not let anything happen to her I jumped to my feet and swooped in. grabbing her as I jumped off the second story and landed in a brush… which turns out had thorns that entered my body.
Fighting back the pain I got up as I begun to run with the filly. "Come back... WITH MY FOOD!" and I pissed that thing off.
Running through the town with that thing following me the entire way. That was until I saw roots rise in front of me which I tripped over. Embracing the filly I took the brunt of the force as I tumbled on the ground as it also pushed the thorns already in me deeper into my skin. Causing even more pain as I stopped rolling. "A human mortal… how… unexpected…" I got to my feet as I held the filly in my arms. "Aren't you a long ways from home…"
"What the fuck are you?" I asked taking a step back as it started to walk around me at a distance in a circle.
"Oh no need for such language human… why… if you give me that filly… I might tell you what you want." The voice of it… just made me want to do it. Shaking my head to get the thoughts out of my head I hugged the filly tighter.
"Why don't you just tell me?" I said moving a little as I noticed a small weight in the back of my pants… my knife!
"Oh… very well… I'm known as a Nightmare. With a capital N… we come in all shapes and sizes… when we latch onto a certain… creature… when it sleeps we feed off of its fear until they… are no longer of use… Then disposing of their imagination so they become… mindless souls."
"Is that what you were going to do with this filly?" I yelled in anger.
"Why of course… it's our way of life to serve our master and give him power… though there are only a few of us we mainly tend to do it with… those that aren't very social. Not like anybody will… miss them."
"But this is just a filly!" I yelled.
"Who's also an orphan… and despised among the orphanage against the owners back…" my eyes widened. "you see… we pick our feasts very… carefully… now I'm getting bored of this… conversation… you have let's say… several seconds… before I decide to feast on you as well…" setting the filly down as she began to cry again I pulled out my curved combat knife, which in fact reminds me of Sam fishers knife in splinter cell, and got into a stance.
"Come and get it you ugly piece of shit!"
Well then… you all didn't think I wasn't going to bring back him in a Dream didn't you all? But the questions remains… did he find the source of what was causing all the crime… was it planned for him to be hit by whatever he breathed in or an accident… and finally… am I boring you all with these questions?
The answer to that question is most likely. Onto the next chapters riddle!
Next Chapters Riddle:
A priceless gem is hard to come by… but not when it's only one of five… maybe it's not that hard to come by…