They're EVERYWHERE!

65536: 4

Dream after dream blend into one for Luna. She was expecting the situation but underestimated its magnitude. Changelings here, changeling there, swarms of them everywhere. Other than the hordes of chitinous monsters, the dreams have one more thing in common - Canterlot is ruined and burning in places. The princesses have failed, the ponies so used to peace are on their own.

Nopony is coming to save them, there's no light at the end of the tunnel, no hope.

Roughly a million ponies combined live in lower and upper Canterlot and the vast majority dream only about one thing tonight, and Luna finds herself overwhelmed. Even she, the protector of dreams, has to retreat.

Her form disappears from the sky above Canterlot and the ball of changelings surrounding her descends on the city again.

When she opens her eyes, she finds herself among the crowd of a filled high school auditorium, listening to the stuttering of a colt who is for some reason wearing white boxers.

"Ahhh," she breathes out, "The classic."

She just needs to take a breath, that's all, and then she'll go right back.

***

Sharp Biscuit finds himself in some underground hallway similar to the maintenance tunnels of Canterlot sewers. A quick check reveals he's wearing his light armor as well as the standard Nightguard combat horseshoes.

*Tap tap tap*

The pipes?

He touches the pipes lining the wall next to him. No, they seem solid, nothing is shaking under the pressure of steam.

*Tap tap*

He puts his ear to the warm pipe.

His batpony hearing catches the faintest scratch of something on the floor behind him.

Metal blades slide out of his horseshoes as he turns around to face a pony with scarred and twisted face wearing a brimmed hat and a sweater. Metal claws protrude from his hooves, which he raises and gives Sharp an evil grin.

A grin which suddenly gets significantly wider as the commander of the Nightguard swipes his foreleg at him.

"I never like that movie, Krumare," Sharp smirks, "Too many plot holes. Also, you're a stallion," he lowers his head to look between Krumare's hind legs, "Or are you?"

The nightmarish pony lunges at him with a growl, flailing his bladed forelegs furiously. Of course, bull rushing a soldier trained in close combat works about as well as expected, and Krumare finds himself on the floor, his fetlock hacked off by Sharp's combat blades as the batpony dodges his lunge with a quick pirouette.

Sharp steps on Krumare's back and casually flicks his hat off before ramming his horseshoe blades directly down, severing Krumare's spine. The pony melts like liquid, vanishing into the floor.

"Now, if I recall correctly, this shouldn't be the end of it," Sharp mutters to himself, heading forward through the familiar hallway, "So, either the Nightmare movie was based on a true story, which means all the ponies in it suffered serious concussion beforehoof, or... or the rift somehow connected the real world to the dreamscape."

"RAAARGH- oh buck!" Krumare's raspy voice gets cut off along with his foreleg reaching through the wall to stab Sharp.

"Do you mind? I'm trying to think here," the batpony replies in an annoyed tone, "Seriously, you as a nightmare only work when ponies don't think, have zero combat training, aren't armed, and can't control themselves in a dream."