Keep her away from me! (Patreon)

 Luna prepared to enter the Dream Realm in my Equestria dreamscape. It would've been nice to visit her student Applebloom, but tonight her destination was a far less enjoyable. Diving into the realm she headed for a particular pony's dream fabric. 

  Lucky Card flopped down on the cot in prison cell and stared up in the ceiling. The last few days had been a nonstop series of interviews and interrogation sessions. Slowly they'd been extracting from him everything he knew about the Manehattan criminal world. Well almost everything. 

  He still had a couple angles that still might succeed in getting his sentence reduced to a bearable few years in prison. It wouldn't be the first time he'd been sent to prison, but that didn't mean he wanted to make it a long term affair. But for them to work they needed to remain his secret.

  
  The unicorn rolled over on right side and stared at the far wall of his cell. Without thinking he reached up and rubbed the inhibitor ring attached to his horn. It had been a part of his existence since that damn Scale Bearer had slapped it on his horn in Manehattan. For a unicorn it was like suddenly being paralyzed, for the horn was so intertwined with how a unicorn perceived and manipulated the world around them.  

 
  The clock down the hall began chiming midnight as its bells started ringing out the hour the stallion closed his eyes.  

 
  "I see you've finally arrived in my realm." Said a cold, feminine voice. 

      
  Lucky's eyes snapped open. His cell and the cot he'd been laying on had vanished. He found himself atop a small, flat surface of icy cold stone. Scrambling quickly to his hooves the stallion looked around. In all directions he could only see vast mountains vanishing into the dim evening light and great clouds that rumbled and flashed with occasional lightning. A bitterly cold wind buffeted the stallion as he scanned the surroundings. Rising in the east was a waxing crescent moon. 

  
  He quickly discovered standing upon the flattened peak of what appeared to be the tallest mountain in sight. On all sides sheer cliffs of icy stone plunged down into the inky darkness. 

  "You can search all you want, but you will find no way to escape. Not from this peak, or this dream. For you are now in my dream fabric, and here my will governs all! You will only wake from this dream when I let you!" 

  Spinning around Lucky Card saw Princess Luna floating above. She was sheathed in plate armor of jagged, blued steel . Her eyes were as cold the mountain winds. 

  "Why are doing this? Why do feel compelled to inflict this upon me?! I'm cooperating with your damn investigation!" Cried out the stallion. His teeth were starting to chatter from the cold that was seeping into his bones. 

  
  "Yes you are." Replied the Defender of Dreams. "In fact you seem to be a bit too cooperative if you ask me." 

     "I'm only cooperating b,b,because your sister made, made it very clear I had no choice!" 

  Luna appeared to casually examine the polish on one of her front war boots. "This true. But I have reviewed your depositions so far and my sister and I believe that you are still withhold information. We believe you have resources that you've not yet tapped, and you plan to at some point in the future." 

  The Prussian blue alicorn looked down at him with disdain. "As far as your discomfort goes, this is only a dream. Unlike the living nightmare you and your Association inflicted on those ponies trapped in that club! I have been assigned the task of helping them try to piece together their lives again. So spare me your complaints!" 

  A gust of wind almost knocked Lucky Card off his hooves. He could feel ice starting to form on his mane and tail. Staggering to remain upright from the buffeting wind and the uncontrollable shaking that was starting to rack his body he looked up at princess again. It was getting hard focus on her as the tears coming his eyes were becoming frosty icicles. Then he saw her.

 
  Floating behind and slightly above the Princess was a filly. The buttercream yellow earth pony was motionless and silent. Most of her face was hidden in the shadows that her deep rose red bangs created. But the stallion knew she was staring at him. The bright red bow in her mane flapped and moved like a trapped, frightened animal in the stiff breeze. 

  
  Then she noticed his stare and grin slowly spread across her face. It was twisted, malevolent thing. It was the look he'd seen on some the special customers who'd visited his club. After a couple of seconds she spoke. Luna was speaking as well but princess's voice vanished on the wind; however the little filly's words seemed to form within the stallion's mind.

   
  "Interesting." Purred the filly. "Ya weren't suppose ta seen me but ya have. Gonna have ta do something about that." Then she giggled. "But I can still use this ta my advantage."

 
  Suddenly the stallion felt a wave of sheer terror wash over him. He staggered and fell to the ground. "I'll, I'll tell you anything! Anything y, y, you want your Highness just keep her away from me! Please!" He screamed.

 
  Luna was in the middle of a sentence. She stopped and looked at the stallion. "What do you mean keep her away?" She looked around and saw nopony. She glanced back at Lucky Card with a look of obvious confusion. 

  
  "Oh no, no, no!" Said the filly in Lucky's mind. She giggled. "Can't have ya doing that! Let's deal with ya now!"

 
  Lucky suddenly felt as if something growing inside his head. As it did the pressure and pain became unbearable.

    
  "Princess save me!" Screamed the stallion. Then he vanished from Luna's sight and her dream fabric. Quickly Luna attempted reestablished a connection with Lucky Card's dream fabric only to find it not there. That wasn't possible; the only way his dream fabric could've disappear is if... 

  "Shit!" The alicorn quickly dove back into the waking world.

   
  Fire Lance was doing sitting in guard break room in palace stockade doing every guard pony's least favorite thing. The daily status report. It was tedious, redundant, and long procedure that filled shelf after shelf with their presence. They only seemed to be good for was feeding the local population of silverfish.

   
  He'd just finished it and was about to place the binder back on the shelf when a bloodcurdling scream echoed throughout the stockade. Dropping the binder he galloped out of the room. He could already hear other guard ponies converging on the location.

   
  "What in Tartarus was that!" Yelled Dancing Rain. 

  
  "It came from Cell 25!"  Said another voice.   

  "Oh Sun and Moon!" Screamed Merry Hills followed by the sound of her vomiting.   

  "Get a doctor down here now!" Dancing Rain's voice boomed off the stone walls of the stockade. 

     As Fire Lance came around the corner he saw three guard ponies staring at horror into the cell. Dancing Rain was frantically searching for the right key on his ring to open the cell. He was still searching when there was brilliant flash light. Materializing there in front of the cell was Princess Luna. Pushing the stallion aside she reached out with her levitation and wrenched the cell door open. Then she stormed into the cell. 

  
  Lucky Card's body was laying on the cot in the cell. The unicorn's horn had exploded leaving a large gaping hole in his skull. Blood and nerve tissue were splattered on the nearby walls. Scattered on the floor of the cells were the smoldering remains of the inhibitor ring that Lucky had been wearing. His face was twisted up in a look of sheer terror and agony. The veins in his eyes had burst and blood flowed from the mouth and nose of the body. 

  Luna looked at body for second then stomped her right front hoof in frustration. The dressed stone floor beneath it shattered. 

  
  "DAMN IT!" Boomed the princess. 

 To be continued.