Chapter Two: Nightmarish Being
XXX
The moment Flutters and I returned home, it turns out Mac and her were dating but got separated during the overthrowing of Celestia, and Mac wouldn't stop thanking me for bringing his fillyfriend back to him. I was glad, and after a long conversation before bed I got to know Flutters really well.
She told me all she knew about the Elements and her friends which were the ponies of power, the ones who tried to defend against Nightmare Moon but failed because of the stronger power the night queen held, scattering or perishing. Flutters refused to think of her friends as dead, but if it was a possibility… we were all bucked.
That night however… I had a dream about the fate of Equestria. And Applejack.
XXX
Amber eyes opened, belonging to the brown and white Earth stallion Hector Haybale, who stood shakily and saw a horrifying sight around him. The beautiful town of Ponyville, his birthplace, was in ruin. Flames licked the sky, the houses fuel, screams echoing all around only to fall silent a moment later.
A wave of panic hit him. This couldn't be real. He smelt the scent of smoke and death all around him, and instantly started running for Sweet Apple Acres in fear for his love's life. When he got there, found the whole of the farm in chaos, trees burning and buildings decrepit.
Tears filled his eyes as he ran through the ashes and scorching heat to try and find Applejack. No such luck befell the Earth stallion, and he ran to find water to put out the fire, but the pump wouldn't work; it was melted and stuck from the heat. He bucked it and water sprayed out, and for a moment he felt joy…
…until the water stopped a second later.
He cried out in frustration, running to the house to try and break down the door but stumbling back once the house went up in flames further. The flames must have reached the gas-line, he thought in horror. The explosion singed his fur, and he fell back onto the dry cracking ground from impact.
"No… Applejack…" Hector whimpered sadly, feeling his heart ache. Then he heard a voice calling his name. It was feminine, and had such an accent that it made Hector sound like 'Hec-ter'. Then the farm reset; the flames disappeared and a mare stood beside him.
He turned and saw it was none other than his love, his sweetheart Applejack standing beside him with a look of utter beauty upon her orange coated face. The very second Hector saw her, he hugged her tightly, sobbing into her shoulder about how much he missed her and worried about her. She gently patted his back "S'alright hon, just a nightmare."
Hector smiled and kissed Applejack's cheek, their eyes locked. "Where'd you go? Are you ok? Are you still alive? How could you not tell me you had an Element? Where is it now? Where are you now? Are you-" the orange and white Earth stallion rattled off, being silenced by his marefriend's hoof placed over his lips.
"Shh darlin', I can't answer them now. You need to wake up," the apple farmer said in her southern accent that the stallion found sexy. But her words shocked Hector. "No… this can't be a dream! You have to be real! No! I can't go on like this! It's been two years since I've last felt your touch! We never even… got the chance to…"
And as suddenly as he had fallen asleep he was awake, and as he sat up his forehead collided with another who stumbled back wincing. It was Mac, who had been trying to shake his friend awake during his nightmare. "Ow, darnit Hector! Your head-butts could shatter stone, oh wait, they do" the cardinal farmer groaned, nursing his forehead.
Hector sat up, brushing sweat from his brow and neatening his tussled jet black mane. Fluttershy sat by her cot – situated by Mac's – watching in fear, as she had been startled awake by her friend's nightmare. "Sorry guys, I had a dream about AJ again. I can't forget her, I just… can't…" he murmured, realising what time it was.
It was ten minutes past work time; he was late. He grabbed the brown Stetson AJ had left behind in the chaos of the overthrowing, rushing outside with a hurried Mac in tow who had kissed his marefriend goodbye. She was an urchin; she wasn't registered with Nightmare Moon and didn't have to work.
Hector and Mac however, did. They were both registered and had to work every day, spare for Saturday when they could rest their bones and relax and catch up on missed sleep. "Why… didn't you wake me up Mac?" Hector asked, running up the dirt path to the fields where he retrieved his halter and stood by the trees.
The red stallion shrugged "The ponies who normally announce the time have been changed, and I think even they forget what time it is. It's always night; that happens from time to time." Hector nodded to himself, smelling the Stetson one last time before whispering encouraging words to the apple trees that began to flower.
The scent of apple blossoms only reminded him of Applejack, and he had to dry his amber eyes more than once, seeing little green baby apples starting to form. "Applejack would've loved to see me grow these trees, she always did" Hector murmured to himself, moving on to the carrots which grew into little seedlings at the drop of a hat, then the tomatoes and potatoes.
After they were done, they walked back to the house, but stopped then a loud bell chime echoed through Ponyville. Both stallions sighed half in fear. That was Nightmare Moon's summoning bell; she wished for all the residents of the small town to gather in town hall for a meeting. Celestia knows what it was about.
Everypony filed into the hall where the citizens had first laid eyes upon the midnight monstrosity years ago, sitting down in seats as bat-pony guards kept everypony in line. The curtains of the balcony high up in the room were drawn and there stood the several foot tall alicorn Nightmare Moon, glaring at each of her subjects in turn before speaking.
"Greetings my fair subjects, 'tis I, your mighty leader" her voice boomed across the room "I have called this meeting to discuss an important matter concerning my rule over you all. The Elements of Harmony are long gone, and I have made sure they shall stay that way. They are dangerous, and they were the reason all along of why our fair land was threatened so often."
Ponies spoke quietly amongst themselves, the chitter silenced by a loud "ENOUGH" from Nightmare Moon who began to speak thusly. "Their power drew the dangerous creatures to us, ancient magic it t'was. My sister thought six mere ponies could control them, and was so foolish indeed. T'is why she is on the moon now, her horn broken so she may not return for many years. Then I shall simply defeat her again.
"The six ponies you once knew have all disbanded, some even killed during my overthrowing for many reasons. The blast of my magic could have disintegrated them, falling rubble of buildings could have crushed them, or even they could have been trampled in the stampede of frightened ponies.
"Rest assured my dear ponies, I shall let nothing harm you. Resume your lives, t'is all" the nightmarish monstrosity declaired, glaring at all her subjects in turn, her turquoise eyes locking with amber ones back in the crowd. Hector felt the burning chill of her eyes in his gut, freezing him in place as those once beautiful orbs belonging to Princess Luna now reached into his psyche, looking for something.
It startled everypony, especially the stallion she had locked eyes with, when she disappeared in a puff of blueish sparkling smoke, the guards filing everypony out to resume their lives as if they hadn't just been threatened / uplifted and assured by their usurped leader. If she could be called a leader.
Hector was the last to leave, all the denizens of Ponyville frightened and urging to leave, and he was far too paranoid now to want to be trampled like Nightmare Moon had said ponies had been. Had… had Applejack been trampled? Or crushed by rubble? Had she been disintegrated into mere nothing by magic? Tears formed in his eyes, and he bucked the thought immediately.
The image of his trampled, crushed or disintegrated love would not settle well.
Once everypony was out of the hall, spare for Hector, the doors closed before him with a loud BANG and he did the quickest 180 he'd ever done to find none other than Nightmare Moon before him. No guards stood at her side, yet she was powerful enough to not need them when facing only a few ponies.
He immediately bowed, fearful of the mare before him. She seemed more akin to a monster than a delicate and beautiful mare. Her eyes were cold as she looked down on him, not glaring this time. "Stand," she commanded, and he obeyed. With a shift of her unnaturally bat-like wings, she spoke. "You. You stand out, yet you are as mundane as dirt or a cloud."
She made no move to assure him she meant no offence and spoke. "You hold a… power, an energy I've not seen since before I triumphed over my sister in battle. This magic is rare, and fewer ponies poses it. What is your job, civilian?" she asked sternly, as a teacher would when reprimanding a truant student.
Hector swallowed the lump of fear in his throat, finding his voice. "I work as a farmer, your highness."
She nodded "As did the last pony to wield such inner magical energy, but alas, I fear she may have passed in the battle or fled. I cannot sense her life-force in my fair land, and know she is no longer a threat to my rule. You however, are right before me, and this energy is rarer than rare… making you a threat to my rule."
Her long horn blazed brightly, and a wave of panic washed over Hector as he realised what the mare before him planned to do to him. "Hector! There you are! Me and- lordy" a male voice said astonished, belonging to Mac who had just run up to the doors and found his friend before Nightmare Moon.
The alicorn immediately ceased her actions, disappearing with a puff of bluish-sparkling smoke, making the adrenaline rushing through Hector's body all the more real and noticeable, sweat staining his brown and white coat. He turned to his honorary brother, sighing in relief "Thank Celestia Mac, she almost killed me."
"Killed you? Why would she do that?"
"She said I had some kind of… magical inner energy or something like that. Said I was a 'threat' to her rule, and that I possessed a similar magic energy that a farmer had who wielded the Elements… APPLEJACK!" Hector realised, slapping a hoof to his face "She wielded an Element… and…"
The shorter Earth stallion fell silent upon remembering her harsh but potentially true words; I cannot sense her life-force in my fair land, and know she is no longer a threat to my rule. "And what? What Hector?" Mac asked, walking with his friend to the house. "And… she said that she couldn't sense Applejack's life-force anymore… meaning…"
"Nnope!" Mac protested, shoving the door open and frightening Fluttershy by accident who had been nursing a small sick bird in her hoof. "I won't accept it! My sister ain't gone! I know she's still out there somewhere, I can feel it in my gut!" he said, sitting on his cot and all but tossing his heavy halter to the floor in anger.
Hector sighed "I know, I won't believe it either Mac. But… things are starting to seem that way…"
A harsh slap was brandished across his cheek from Mac, green eyes watery "Shut up! She's alive! I'll find her myself if I have to! Don't give up on her yet, she never gave up on you, did she? No, she didn't, so why give up now?"
A squeal echoed from the butter yellow Pegasus at the corner of the room, cowering behind an upturned cot for protection. Hector rose to his hooves, staring his friend in the eye "What in blazes was that for?! I never said I gave up on Applejack! I never will! I just said things are STARTING to see that way, not that they actually are!"
Mac quietened, turning his cot back over and laying on it "I'm… I'm sorry."
The night only got quieter from there, and eventually our protagonist fell into a deep sleep… of course dreaming of his love.
XXX
The smell of apples was all round Hector, the beautiful and bountiful Sweet Apple Acres his setting. He felt the soil beneath his hooves, so real, the sun warming his back as he walked into the house and saw just the mare he wanted to see, by the countertop making something. She turned, saw him and smiled.
He ran to her, wrapping her in a warm hug "I missed you so much…"
The farmer nodded "Of course hon, I knew ya would. C'mon, let's go to the fields… I wanna buck some apples!" she said, kissing his cheek and racing off with Hector in tow. They both arrived to the field, and they both sat down and began to talk.
"I heard earlier today that there could possibly be other Elements," Applejack began, sparking Hector's interest. "Funny, Nightmare Moon said I could have the same energy as you – how you control your element. Isn't that funny?"
The farmer chuckled "Yeah, but I wanna know something… have you found any other Elements? Any ponies-a-power?" she asked, Hector nodding. "Yeah, I found Fluttershy. Remember her? I just met her a day ago; she's with us now."
Then as suddenly as the world had come into beautiful being, the beauty vanished and was instead replaced with the burning world from the first nightmare he'd had. He backed away and saw that Applejack, his love, was changing form. Her limbs elongated, fangs grew where dull pony teeth were, eyes shifted from leaf green to turquoise. A sense of dread knocked the Earth stallion in the head.
The nightmarish monstrosity grinned evilly "T'was all I needed to hear."
Hector didn't have the time to react as the dark princess's magic summoned a sword, slicing a wound down his side to draw crimson to dot the dirt below. And as suddenly as he had fallen asleep, Hector woke, this time Mac sat away on his cot, fearful of what he saw.
Hector tried to sit up, feeling a sharp pain in his side. He placed a hoof to the pain, only to reel back and scream at what covered his hoof. Warm and wet and shining like liquid ruby; it was blood. The wound was real.
Then he passed out as suddenly as he woke.