//------------------------------// // The Shadowed Nightmare, pt. 2 // Story: The Shadowed Nightmare // by Night_Shine //------------------------------// Twilight Sparkle levitated Spike onto his bed, pulling the sheets over the dragon’s tiny body. It had been a big day, and the baby dragon needed his sleep. Although…strangely…Twilight couldn’t seem to remember anything that happened today. Not a single event. Maybe she was just too tired right now. Laying her small worries aside, Twilight lay down in her bed, very weary from whatever it was she did earlier. She pulled the covers over herself with her horn, and closed her eyes for a long, comfortable sleep. Knock-knock. She heard somepony knocking at the door, and for some unexplainable reason, her heartbeat quickened at the sound. Twilight sighed irritably. “Who would want to check out a book at this hour?” She slid out of her bed and trotted over to the front door, annoyed that somepony had woken her up right as she was about to go to sleep. Knock-knock. Whoever this pony was, they sure were impatient. The pony continued knocking, over and over, in a very strange pattern. They would knock twice, and then wait for a short time, then knock again. Almost like…a heartbeat… “Who is it?” Twilight asked, not really sure what to expect. The knocking stopped, but the pulse-like beat did not. Bum-bum. “Somepony whom you cannot escape.” came the reply. The voice was muffled, as if whoever said it was wearing some kind of mask. Its quality was very deep and growling, but had an echoey quality to it that reverberated in Twilight’s mind. Bum-bum. Suddenly a small note floated down from above Twilight. As she looked up at it, it fluttered down and landed on her nose. She levitated it in front of her face and began to read, curious as to where it could have come from. Bum-bum. Twilight Sparkle Do not open your front door You are currently inside of a nightmare and the Shadow is at your door He will attempt to scare you into waking up and being separated from your friends so you are more vulnerable Sneak out of the back window and find your friends as quickly as possible Get to them before the Shadow does -Night Shine PS: Do you need proof you are in a nightmare? If so, answer this question: How did you get here? Bum-bum. Twilight’s heart beat faster. Her logical mind tried desperately to search for any other explanation. How did she get here? She couldn’t remember anything she had done before tucking Spike into bed. Was Spike even real? Was anything even real, or only a creation and figment of her mind? Bum-bum. Was it just her imagination…or was the tempo of the continual pulse-like noise getting faster and faster? Twilight looked around for something, anything she could do that did not involve opening the door to the pony outside, the…“Shadow”. Her gaze drifted to the window and a crazy idea formulated in her head. Then she stopped and really thought for a moment. Was she really going to jump out of her own house in the middle of the night? Would that really be a good idea? Bum-bum. Yes, she was, and yes, it would. Twilight made up her mind and, heart racing, thrust open the window with her magic and made a running leap out the window. Bum-bum. Bum-bum. Bum-bum. Bum-bum- Twilight sailed through the air for a second, two, then came crashing down to earth in a large bush outside of her window. She sat up, dazed, almost not believing what she just did. Popping her head out of the bush, Twilight scanned the area for somewhere to run to get away from the nightmare pony, at least for now, to form a plan. Spotting the closest building, she made a dash for it and ran for a safe spot where she could hide behind it, the wind whistling through her mane. She did not dare to look back until she arrived behind the building, panting and out of breath. Twilight Sparkle turned around to see the Shadow standing at her door. His bright red eyes, all that she remembered of him from the last time she had seen him, were staring directly at her. Watching. Waiting. She stared back, and took in all that she saw. The mirrored chrome he appeared to be wearing on his back, face and legs glinted harshly in the moonlight. His left hoof was raised, leaning on the door, but then he slowly slid it out in front of his face as if he was holding something he wanted Twilight to see. Still glaring and not blinking, an audible click echoed across the space between them as the Shadow unsheathed four sharp narrow spikes from the inside of his hoof. Bum-bum. Twilight turned and pushed her back against the wall, trying to process the horror she just saw. Calm down, Twilight, she told herself. He is just trying to scare you. Are you going to let him? To get her mind off of the subject, she forced herself to think of a plan of action, but before she could, something above her head caught her eye. It was another note from Night Shine. The note fluttered down, and Twilight ripped it out of the air and shoved it in front of her face. Twilight Sparkle What do you fear most My friends abandoning me, she filled in subconsciously. The Shadow will attempt to use it to scare you into submission Do not let him get to you, or any of your friends, through fear You must find whatever you believe in the most, and use the power you believe it has to defeat him -Night Shine Okay. Find the Elements of Harmony, as usual, and use them to defeat the Shadow, but that could wait until she found all of her friends. So, if I were a pony trying to get to all of us through fear, who would I go for first? Twilight pondered. Somepony who is unusually susceptible to fear, who is overly shy around ponies she doesn’t know, and is “scared of her own shadow”…Fluttershy! The Shadow would definitely try to scare Fluttershy first. Twilight Sparkle took a deep breath, and then took off running again for Fluttershy’s cottage. She must help her friend in beating the Shadow at his twisted fear-game. She just hoped she wouldn’t be too late… *** Fluttershy was trapped, flying in open air, in a place she had only seen from afar, and never expected to be inside. She was in the center of the Cloudsdale Coliseum. She looked with horror at everypony in the crowd. There were hundreds of pegasi in the crowd, watching her expectantly. Fluttershy stared frantically around the crowd for her friends, for anypony she knew, but she did not recognize a single face in the crowd. She curled up in a ball and squeezed her eyes shut, hovering in midair. Why were all of the ponies looking at her?! Why did they look like they were waiting for something? What did they want? Fluttershy opened her eye just a peek, but then immediately closed it. They were all watching her…she began to cry. It was all too much, just too much. She tried to move her wings to get her out of there, to go anywhere else, but they were paralyzed in a rhythm she couldn’t control. Well, thought Fluttershy, if I’m going to get out of here I’m going to have to find a way out. She forced herself to open her eyes. When she did, she discovered that she was staring at two bright red dots in the crowd, a pair of eyes belonging to a unicorn she recognized all too well. Bum-bum. What was he doing here? How was he even there in the audience? Was he there before? Fluttershy found herself breathing harder and harder, her heart beating faster and faster. Was he going to cause the entire stadium to go up in flames? Was he going to try and attack her like last time? Bum-bum. A chant was rising through the crowd; everypony was yelling something at Fluttershy: “Fluttershy! Fluttershy! Fluttershy can hardly fly!” Bum-bum. Bum-bum. She was seized by an uncontrollable spasm as the true horror of what they were saying grasped her. The song which tormented her throughout her childhood took full control of her mind and Fluttershy began crying in earnest, flopping her head down and sniffling and sobbing so that even if she wanted to say something, she couldn’t. Bum-bum. Bum-bum. Her body became paralyzed and her vision was blocked by tears. Her mind was made incapable of thinking about anything besides all of the hard and sad times in her life, all of the times she had embarrassed her friends, all of the times she had failed them. Bum-bum. Bum-bum. A voice echoed throughout the entire stadium, and although she couldn’t tell where it was coming from, she knew it was that red-eyed pony. The voice was deep and gravelly, and muffled—probably because the pony was speaking from behind a mask. It had a sleepy, monotonous quality to it, and yet it that somehow managed to make it even creepier. “What’s wrong, Fluttershy? Miss your wake-up call?” Bum-bum. Wait…wake-up call? She was asleep? Was this a dream? Or…a nightmare?!… Suddenly Fluttershy regained control of her wings, and realized that the red-eyed pony had been magically controlling them the entire time. But…why would he release me now? Then…she understood. Bum-bum. He expected her to fall. To simply stop flying and leave this nightmare behind! Bum-bum. Bum-bum. Bum-bum. Bum-bum- And the worst part was...she wanted to. Fluttershy could imagine just falling and— “FLUTTERSHY!” At the sound of Twilight’s voice Fluttershy’s fear melted. Her heartbeat slowed and no longer pounded like a drum in her ears. She looked back at the crowd and saw her purple-coated friend burst through what seemed like thin air. Fluttershy looked back, nervous that the red-eyed pony might try to stop Twilight, but he had vanished. The crowd of various stranger ponies was leaving, all of them turning their heads away and chatting as if the show they had come to watch at Cloudsdale Coliseum was over. After a minute or two of these ponies all leaving the coliseum calmly and collectively, only Twilight remained. Fluttershy glided over to Twilight, hesitant, afraid. She was as tongue-tied as the moment that she met her friend. Twilight stepped forward, and then embraced Fluttershy in a tight hug. Fluttershy began to cry again, softly this time, and she heard Twilight whisper into her ear, “Fluttershy? It’s time to go home now.” *** The next thing she knew, Fluttershy lying on the rug in her cottage. It was the middle of the night, the fire was crackling cozily in the fireplace, and Twilight was standing over her, the look in her eyes one of concern. Fluttershy sat up. “Um…Twilight?” Fluttershy began. Twilight looked down at Fluttershy, still wondering what had just happened. There was a portal in the place where Fluttershy was now sitting, a portal leading to the Cloudsdale Coliseum, where Twilight had jumped in and seen Fluttershy in the center. Knowing how Fluttershy reacted to just the smallest amount of unwanted attention, she knew what Fluttershy must be feeling, and that she needed to help. “Thanks.” “No problem, Fluttershy,” Twilight said, “But now we need to go help the others.” Twilight sat down and thought for a moment. Who would the Shadow go for next? If she didn’t guess correctly, she might not make it in time and whichever friend he went for might wake up. And if anypony woke up from this dream, they couldn’t use the Elements of Harmony on the Shadow, so he wouldn’t feel threatened enough to stop messing with all of their dreams. This entire misadventure could become in vain if she did not choose wisely. Her choice was made much simpler by a note that popped out of thin air right above Twilight. She floated it with her horn, knowing what it would say. Written on the note was a single word before the customary signature: RARITY -Night Shine Twilight called back to Fluttershy, whom she had stepped away from to read the note, “We need to help Rarity. Hurry!” Fluttershy nodded and followed Twilight out the door, who was racing at a full gallop to Rarity’s boutique. *** Rarity sewed on the finishing touch to the beautiful dress she was working on. “Aha! Perfect!” she exclaimed. And it really was perfect. Sweetie Belle was just going to love it! Not that she really had any need for it, being just a filly and all. But the dress was still a work of beauty, one that would look absolutely gorgeous on Sweetie Belle! Rarity had designed it specifically to work with her mane color; with intricate swirls of pink on a light purple background. Not only did it match her mane, but also she used some of her rare golden silk to embroider the Cutie Mark Crusader logo in the center of the dress, the deep blue shield with a golden pony rearing in the middle. The dress really was a piece of art. Rarity paced back and forth in her room, waiting for Sweetie Belle to return. The gift sitting there on her shelf made her feel secretly both excited and nervous. It was Sweetie Belle’s birthday, after all, and Rarity was her big sister. She hoped that Sweetie would like her present… Suddenly a noise was heard from downstairs. Rarity stopped and strained her ears, listening intensely. It was the sound of a pony walking in the front door of her boutique, and with the sound Rarity’s heart began to beat faster in anticipation. Bum-bum. The sound of somepony trotting up the stairs echoed through the hall as Rarity readied her gift to be presented. Rarity knew she should be excited for Sweetie to receive the present Rarity spent hours on…but…something just didn’t feel quite right. Bum-bum. Sweetie stepped into the room. Rarity took a deep breath and cried, “Happy birthday little sister! Come over here and open your present!” Rarity put on a big, cheesy grin. Sweetie Belle completely ignored Rarity’s loud greeting and levitated the dress over to her, holding it in the air and examining it. Wait a minute, Rarity thought. Sweetie Belle hasn’t mastered levitation magic yet. Bum-bum. Still deciding to act happy for her little sister, Rarity asked, “Well? Do you love it?” Sweetie Belle let the dress drop and fall into a heap on the floor. “No.” Bum-bum. “Excuse me, dear?” asked Rarity, her pulse quickening as her mind began to grasp what Sweetie just said to her. Sweetie Belle turned around and looked Rarity in the eye. Her eyes were bright, glowing red, and seemed to be staring directly into Rarity’s soul. “I said, no.” Bum-bum. Sweetie Belle did not move, nor blink, nor even shift her weight as she said, “I hate this. This is one of the worst creations you have ever made. Of course, that is assuming what you make even deserve to be called ‘creations’. Honestly they are more like different arrangements of garbage passed off as ‘art’.” Bum-bum. Bum-bum. “The dress is almost as ugly and misshapen as you are. The only reason that I would even dream of wearing this in public is to show the snobbish, pathetic ‘fashion’ ponies whose opinions you value so much exactly how terrible you are at creating dresses.” Bum-bum. Bum-bum. Bum-bum. Rarity tried to take in what her own sister was uttering, but could not even comprehend it. Sweetie Belle began to advance towards Rarity as she spoke, glaring her down harder than Fluttershy ever could. Rarity retreated nervously, wishing more than anything to know why her sister was acting like this. “And what’s more, this dress is just another example of why I cannot stand to have you as a sister. You expect everypony to be at your beck and call, obeying your every command, and then somehow twist your mind to think you require gratitude for your filthy pieces of trash that you shove on me with the mislabel of a ‘present’.” Bum-bum. Bum-bum. Bum-bum. Bum-bum- Tears began to swell in Rarity’s eyes. She had never heard Sweetie say anything like this before, not even when they had gotten in their worst fights. Why would her poor little sister do this to her?! All of a sudden Rarity heard a crashing sound from outside the window. She turned away from her sister and looked out to see Twilight Sparkle ramming into a black magic shield surrounding her house. Twilight glanced up and saw Rarity looking back at her. She yelled something at Rarity, but Rarity couldn’t hear it. The shield around her house must also block out sound. Sure now what she must do, Rarity whirled around and looked Sweetie Belle in the eye. She knew that Sweetie could not have possibly made that shield; it must be in an impostor. “YOU ARE NOT MY SISTER!” Rarity screamed and put all of her magic into one solid blast which she hurled at Sweetie Belle. Sweetie did not react, but simply stood there. The magic washed over and peeled away the disguise of a dark blue pony with those same bright red eyes. He glared at her, then dissipated into black smoke and faded away. *** Twilight charged into the black shield one last time, but just like the other times, she bounced against the black magic and the shock was simply absorbed. She trotted in place, worked up and full of nervous energy. Rarity had seen her inside the house, but then turned back and there was a blue flash inside. What had happened to her? Did the Shadow manage to wake up Rarity with her fear, whatever it was? The black shield suddenly evaporated into thin air and Twilight rushed through the front door, throwing herself up the stairs. She ran over to Rarity’s room, where she paused outside the door. She heard crying inside. Slowly Twilight opened the door with her hoof, which creaked as it slid open. Rarity was inside, lying on the floor, crying just as Fluttershy was. Twilight walked over to her friend and lied down next to her, putting her hoof around her shoulder. Rarity turned to her and put her head in Twilight’s neck, still crying and sobbing. Fluttershy walked through the door but stayed in the frame, standing awkwardly, not wanting to say anything. A note floated down from the ceiling, and Twilight gave it just a glance before standing up tall. “Come on everypony. We need to help Applejack.” *** Applejack jerked upright suddenly. She was sitting in the middle of the Apple family orchard, watching the wind rustle the trees. It was the middle of the night and the sky was clear, but something about the brisk atmosphere seemed out of place. The breeze whistled ominously by Applejack as she tried to figure out what was wrong. She couldn’t quite remember how she got here, but that could be explained if she just thought about it for a minute or two—maybe she got hit by a falling apple or two. No, something else was wrong; something was missing. Looking up at the sky, Applejack suddenly realized what was wrong. On a clear night like this, there should have been hundreds of stars dotted all across the sky, with the moon shining brightly across the orchard. The sky was completely empty, devoid of all and any light. Applejack pressed her eyes shut, trying harder than ever to remember how she got here. Was it Applebuck season? No, she couldn’t even remember, but by glancing up she saw all of the apples still on their trees. Why wasn’t she asleep in her bed? What had she been doing out on the farm this late without anypony else with her? Why would the sky be empty if there was not even a wisp of a cloud? Nothing made sense. But then Applejack heard a sound that made her forget everything she just thought about. She heard the sound of her little sister screaming in terror. Bum-bum. Applejack’s eyes snapped wide open and awake. She whirled around to try and locate the source of the sound. It was coming from their farmhouse, which was just over the next ridge. She could see it standing there, obliviously still and silent, but there was no doubt in Applejack’s mind that it was where she heard the scream. “APPLEJACK! HELP!” shrieked the voice of Apple Bloom, from their ignorantly peaceful home over the ridge. Bum-bum. Applejack reared up and raced as fast as she could toward the ridge. She could hear her heartbeat pounding in her ears syncing with the pounding of her hooves on the dirt road. Beginning to sweat, her breaths were coming faster and faster, shallower and shallower. Applejack had never run this fast in her life, never been driven to this level of desperation and fear. Bum-bum. The house stood ahead of her, mocking her with its silence, taunting her with its tranquility. As every second passed with agonizing sluggishness, the house seemed to be staring at Applejack, smirking at her, laughing at her pathetic attempt to reach it, to save her sister. Bum-bum. The apple trees flew by on either side of Applejack, but she barely noticed them. All of her concentration was on the house ahead, and her poor, scared sister inside. What happened to her? Did somepony break in? Did she get herself stuck in some of the apple pressing equipment? Bum-bum. Her heartbeat quickened as she pushed these thoughts from her head, trying to keep focused on something, anything else. And then…she found something else to focus on. The apple trees she had passed were the same ones she had been passing for the last two minutes. Bum-bum. Bum-bum. With horror, she stared down at her hooves to see that she was slowly sinking into the ground. They were moving, at the pace of a fast sprint, but they passed right through the ground as if it was an illusion. Applejack whipped her head back up and saw the trees flying by her, the same as before, but they were just an illusion. The road was an illusion, everything was an illusion; her life was an illusion. “AAAPPLLEEJJAAACCKK!!!!” Bum-bum. Bum-bum. Bum-bum. Bum-bum. The voice of Apple Bloom drove a nail into Applejack’s heart, shoved a hot iron into her soul. Her sister’s voice was in pain. In terrible, terrible pain. She just couldn’t take it, it was all too much. Applejack squeezed her eyes shut and stopped running. She dropped herself onto the ground, trying to ignore the dizzying illusions that surrounded her. She felt the desperation begin to crumble the solid rock of her mind as the Apple Bloom’s helpless, panicked voice reverberated in her head, again and again. “You can’t save her.” uttered a voice behind Applejack. The voice was deep and grating, and spoke almost as if to try and calm down Applejack through sympathy. The effect, however, was the complete opposite. Her pulse doubled and she made one desperate final attempt at the house. Bum-bum. Bum-bum. Bum-bum. Bum-bum- Her eyes were pushed tightly closed, her hooves pounding harder and harder against the hard nothingness beneath her, her heart beating faster and faster- “Applejack! Applejack, are you all right?” Bum…bum. Bum…bum. The concerned voice of Twilight Sparkle reached her ears, a soothing melody that calmed her out of her stupor. Applejack blinked, hard. The trees were still, the night breeze flowing through them. The stars were twinkling overhead in the sky, and the moon was shining over the night. She was standing right in front of the house that she had been attempting to reach all that time. “Um…are you okay?” asked Fluttershy softly from behind her. Applejack knew there was something she had to see before she greeted her friends. She walked over to the front door of the house and bucked open the door only to be met by an all-consuming darkness. The only thing visible in the darkness was a pair of bright red eyes. Twilight came up behind Applejack, and her horn began to glow as she readied a simple spell to light the room. All of a sudden the main room was flooded with light. Apple Bloom was nowhere to be seen, but standing still in the center of the room was a dark blue pony wearing some kind of mirrored coat that glared in the light from Twilight’s horn. Applejack blinked, and the pony was gone, faded away like a shadow in the afternoon sun. *** Several miles away, Rainbow Dash was more excited than she had ever been in her life. The time had finally come for her to audition for the Wonderbolts! She could barely keep her hooves still as she waited in the long, single-file line of ponies inside the Cloudsdale Coliseum lobby. All of the pegasi were being sent out one at a time to perform a test in front of all the Wonderbolts, who would be judging the candidates to see if they had what it takes. Talk about nerve-wracking. Rainbow’s heartbeat sped up just thinking about it. What would she do? Obviously another Sonic Rainboom would be the best bet to win them over, but she wasn’t sure if she could muster up the speed to do it. She had accomplished one at the Canterlot wedding six months ago, but that was after days of rigorous practice and training. Rainbow couldn’t remember how long she had trained for this audition, but she was sure it wasn’t enough. She looked up. Only two ponies were ahead of her in line. “NEXT!” called a voice from outside. The pegasus at the front of the line gulped, and flew outside. That made Rainbow second in line to perform in front of the Wonderbolts! Then Rainbow noticed something odd. The pony in front of her in line, a dark blue colt with some weird shiny outfit on, didn’t have wings. He was a unicorn. Rainbow stifled a laugh. How did this pony think they could try out for the Wonderbolts if they couldn’t even fly? “Um, excuse me?” she asked the pony, barely suppressing the laughter in her voice. “How can you try out for the Wonderbolts if you don’t have wings?” The pony whipped around and glared at her with his bright red, glowing eyes, his mouth hidden behind a shining metal mask. Rainbow shrunk back as the pony stared at her with a malicious gleam in his eyes, not blinking once. She stopped laughing. The unicorn’s face remained stoic behind his metal mask as he said, “Because I stole yours.” Bum-bum. Rainbow was confused for a second. “Um…what? How could you steal my wings? They’re right…” she trailed off as she looked back over her shoulder to make sure her wings were still there. They were not. Bum-bum. “Missing these?” asked the grating voice of the unicorn. She gasped. What she had previously thought to be a part of his weird chrome outfit was actually a sheet of cloth covering…her wings, her beautiful wings, which were now somehow attached to the unicorn’s back. Rainbow began to feel cold fear crawling up her spine like a cluster of spiders and into her mind. Bum-bum. “NEXT!” shouts the voice from outside, jolting her out of her panicked stupor. The unicorn remained standing and staring at her for one final moment, and said, “Hate to leave you, but I have an appointment with the Wonderbolts. Good luck on your audition.” The dark pony shot out the door, managing an expert takeoff on his stolen wings. Good luck on your audition… Bum-bum. Rainbow Dash sat down, trying to contain the terror that was rampaging throughout her mind. How could she audition for the Wonderbolts without wings?! The mare outside would call her name, and she would come out and see all of the Wonderbolts laughing at her. They wouldn’t remember her. They would only see her bare back and burst into laughing, remembering her forever as the earth pony who tried to join the best fliers in Equestria. Bum-bum. She would never get her wings back. That unicorn—no, alicorn now—pony she saw would leave here and never return. He would just take her wings and go. Plus, even if he stayed, how could she possibly prove that those were her wings?! Not even Rainbow’s friends would believe her. Her friends, who had loved her for the awesome pegasus who can do the sweet aerial tricks, would abandon her in disgust upon seeing her wings and talent gone. Bum-bum. Rainbow Dash looked up, trying to come up with a plan. Twilight always had a plan. She needed to get out, quickly, before anypony saw her wings gone. Had anypony behind her seen her without wings? When did she lose them? How did that red-eyed pony take her wings? Could she ever get them back?! “NEXT!” Bum-bum. At the sound of the mare’s voice, Rainbow Dash jolted. Her eyes darted around the room, looking for some way, any way to escape. They eventually settled on the open window in the corner of the room. She knew what she had to do if she was to avoid ruining her entire life’s hard-earned reputation in front of all of her heroes. But…she hesitated. Was it really necessary to jump out the window just to avoid embarrassment? “Next contestant, are you coming?” asked the mare’s voice outside. Bum-bum. Rainbow made up her mind. She ran to the window, her legs pumping at a full gallop, her heart beating faster and faster as everypony in the room stared at her. Two feet from the window, Rainbow slammed her back legs against the floor and stretched her shoulders as high and flat as she could. Squeezing her eyes shut, she braced for the inevitable impact with the wall. The impact didn’t come, and an unnerving lurch seized Rainbow’s stomach as she soared through the air out of the open window. Sighing with relief, she went to extend her wings and then calmly fly back to her home on the other side of Cloudsdale to recover from the stressful events of the day. But there was one minor problem with that. Her wings had been stolen. Bum-bum. Bum-bum. Rainbow, expecting to slow down to a controlled glide, was shocked by the sudden increase in her speed. She opened her eyes to take in dozens of clouds flying past her at dizzying speeds, shooting diagonally across her field of vision. Feeling sick and lightheaded, she watched with horror the landscape below her growing at an alarming rate. Bum-bum. Bum-bum. Bum-bum. Bum-bum. Finally the reality of what was happening hit Rainbow full in the face. She shrieked like a young filly, screaming for help as she descended more and more rapidly towards her impending death. The spiky trees below grew from dots to circles to small cones as she closed the distance toward her doom. Bum-bum, bum-bum, bum-bum. bum-bum- Her pulse speeding up faster and faster, the clouds flying by faster and faster, she squeezed her eyes shut as hard as she could, knowing her death would be painless, not having the courage to face death when it hit her full on in the OOF With a loud grunt caused by the air being forced from her lungs, Rainbow Dash crashed safely into Fluttershy’s waiting hooves. They began to fall again, but not for long before both were caught in Twilight Sparkle’s levitation spell and lowered safely, lowered gently to the ground. Bum…bum. Bum…bum. Her heartbeat slowed to normal as Rainbow looked around at the worried faces of her friends. It was okay now. Her friends were here, they had saved her life, and they just needed to know that she was okay. “Um…hey guys. Thanks for saving me.” Fluttershy ran up and smothered Rainbow Dash in a hug, joined promptly by all of her other friends. Suddenly Rainbow noticed something wrong. “Where’s Pinkie Pie?” *** Pinkie Pie awoke to find herself in a very familiar place. The grass was sickly green, the hedges were tall and surrounded her on all sides, and hundreds of colorful balloons were tied by string to pink tables all around her. Discord’s balloon garden. “Ooh, cool, I remember this place. That table next to the wall is hiding the exit. That greenish balloon had Discord’s head in it. And that mud puddle was where I tripped and fell on my face!” Pinkie laughed a bit at the memory. She looked around to see absolutely nothing happening. The balloons were still, the sun was motionless in the afternoon sky, and there wasn’t even a breeze to be heard. It was as if the moment was frozen in time. Pinkie bounced past a few of the tables, looking for any other pony that might be here. “Hm, I wonder how I got here. Is the same thing happening as last time? It doesn’t feel the same. Is Discord back? Oh, cool, is there going to be chocolate rain again?” “No.” Bum-bum. A deep, scary voice echoed through the balloon garden. Locating the source of the single word, Pinkie whirled around to be staring into the face of one of the weirdest ponies she had ever seen. His eyes were a shiny red, and he was wearing some kind of sparkly metal costume. “Oh hi! I didn’t see you there. My name is Pinkie Pie. What’s yours?” The pony continued staring for a moment before responding, “I am the Shadow that lurks in your mind.” That’s a cool costume you’re wearing. Why are you wearing a costume? Are you some kind of superhero?! I was a superhero once. It was really fun…” The Shadow just stood there and absorbed Pinkie’s babbling; he was puzzled and confused. Why wasn’t she afraid? How could she not recoil at his grotesque appearance? Did she not fear him? “…and by the way, how did you make that really loud heartbeat drum sound? I don’t see a drum. Can you use magic to make a fake drum beat? That’s so cool!...” Pinkie suddenly stopped. Her tail began twitching like mad, and she grabbed it with her hooves, vibrating up and down on the ground. She looked up into the blinding sun to see loads of dark shapes falling toward her at an alarming rate. One fell right next to her and burst with an ear-splitting SNAP. It was a huge boulder. An avalanche of huge boulders were falling from the sky. Pinkie fell over and cracked up into laughter, rolling this way and that on the ground. She did look up occasionally to see that she wouldn’t get smushed by a big mean rock, but even that was a challenge when there were falling rockscoming out of the sky. How in Equestria does that even happen? Does that even work somehow? Maybe Twilight would have an explanation. Speaking of which… “Hey Shadow, have you seen my friend Twilight anywhere around here? She’s a purple unicorn mare who’s really good at magic, I don’t know if you know her…” The rocks stopped falling. Again, the Shadow stood and stared at the specimen before her. It dared laugh at her? It dared LAUGH at her? Of all the mockery, of all the torture, it LAUGHS at his powers?! He shall show this Pinkie Pie that the Shadow cannot be laughed off, that The Shadow is a force to be reckoned with, that HE is in control. All of a sudden Pinkie Pie’s field of vision began to spin at nauseating speeds and she tried to find her balance by couldn’t. The world was spinning; she couldn’t see anything besides flashes of green and pink, little by little turning into shades of pitch black and milky gray. Pinkie stood up and looked around. The grass had changed from a vibrant green to a pale, sickly yellow. Gray slabs were jutting out of the ground at freaky angles. She looked up to try and get her bearings, find out where she was and if it was near Ponyville. Nopony was near her, but she couldn’t even tell if they were—the fog was so thick here that Pinkie couldn’t see past her own hooves. “Geez. Why is it so foggy here? How did I even get here?” Pinkie Pie looked in the distance, where she thought she saw something peculiar. It was two bright red dots shining through the fog. She suddenly realized that it was a pair of eyes. “Oh hi, Mr. Shadow! Did you bring me here? Why did you bring me here? Do you have something really cool to show me?” He trotted closer to her, and then all she could see was his dark figure and those glowing red eyes staring at her. The Shadow stopped and stood still for a moment. Those shining eyes seemed to look right past her face and stare into her soul… The atmosphere seems not to affect this one. But, I must be patient. Perhaps if I proceed directly to the spoken form of corruption I can twist her happy dream into a nightmare and wake her up, dooming the Elements’ happiness to die here and now… “Pinkie Pie. Does it scare you to know that you are completely beyond the help of your friends?” Bum-bum. Pinkie stopped, and thought for a moment. Beyond the help of her friends?...Why would her friends not be there for her? And yet as she looked around, she couldn’t see them anywhere. Pinkie and the Shadow were alone in this creepy dead field of fog. The brisk air penetrated Pinkie’s coat and, for the first time that night, she shivered. She had not really noticed the cold up until now, but standing here in one place and waiting for Mr. Shadow to do something, she felt the chill of the night soak her bones. Bum-bum. She nearly felt…frightened. “Does it make you afraid to know that I have broken your friends beyond recognition?” Bum-bum. Broken them? How could he ‘break’ them? It’s not like they are piñatas or anything that can be easily broken. And yet…maybe he meant a different kind of broken. The kind that had happened when Discord had broken their friendship. Had the Shadow done the same to all of her friends? Bum-bum. The Shadow advanced slowly again toward Pinkie, step by step, placing each hoof with purpose and decision onto the ground. As he stepped closer and closer, she began to feel a sensation she had not felt for so long. Fear. Bum-bum. And yet something in Pinkie kept her from the terrifying panic and loss of control brought by the Shadow’s aura. Though the outside of her mind may have fallen to fear, her inner Element of Laughter forced her to open her eyes and stare the Shadow right back in the face. Pinkie smiled. Because she knew, if she did not smile now, she would not smile ever again, for the rest of her life. The Shadow would not let her if she gave him the upper hoof. Then something happened that changed everything. The brisk night breeze fluttered by Pinkie and the Shadow alike, bringing a quiet whistling sound that only made the silence more deafening. The breeze made Pinkie cold, but she didn’t mind. However she saw something that rekindled her laughing spirit. As the breeze passed, the Shadow’s leg trembled. Just a tiny bit. Enough to know that, for some reason, he was on full alert-mode, reacting to the slightest of triggers. He was afraid of her. Pinkie suddenly burst out into laughing, falling onto her back and rolling on the dead grass which tickled her back. The Shadow physically winced and took a step back, not understanding what had led to this outburst. The Shadow was afraid of Pinkie. The Shadow was afraid of Pinkie?! That was the funniest thing she had ever heard. Pinkie Pie didn’t want anypony to be afraid of her; in fact she wanted the complete opposite. She just wanted to be everypony’s friend. Why and how could such a scary pony as this be afraid of her?! It didn’t make sense. The Shadow stood still, a look of fear flashing through his eyes. His cheeks tinged red as it dawned on him that Pinkie realized that only he was afraid of her. How could this have happened?! Why would she do this to him?! As he watched the pony roll around on the ground, GIGGLING and LAUGHING at his suffering, his heart hardened again. The Shadow’s newfound fear was quickly replaced by anger, and he knew that he could not stand the sight of this sick, twisted freak pony for one second longer. He pulled the ground out from under her, dropping her back from whence she came. That was one pony he could stand to never see again. And yet the image of her laughing was burned into his mind, jeering at his suffering, guffawing at his misery and depression. The Shadow swore to himself, then and there, “I will find her again. And I will make her pay. I will show her that this kind of cruelty cannot be tolerated in my presence. She will remember the name SHADOW. And she will never smile again.” *** Twilight Sparkle was beginning to worry that they wouldn’t be able to find Pinkie Pie. After coming to Sugarcube Corner, they had spread out and searched almost the entire town, but to no avail. Where was she? Had the Shadow been able to wake Pinkie of all ponies from this nightmare? Twilight doubted it. She was just about to tell everypony that they needed to widen their search to include the Everfree Forest when something came crashing out of the sky. A pink blob shot out of the blue, ripping holes through all of the clouds, and smacked straight into a returning Rainbow Dash, who immediately fell flat on her face. “PINKIE!” yelled Dash, frustrated. Twilight winced, remembering how sensitive each of them had been upon returning from being tormented by the Shadow. She readied herself to go console the pink pony, but then Pinkie did something totally unexpected and yet totally predictable. She giggled. “Sorry Dashie. I was just meeting this funny new friend Mr. Shadow, and then he dropped me through a hole in the ground to here.” Twilight’s jaw dropped. Pinkie Pie being able to resist the Shadow’s fear was one thing, but…this funny new friend? “He said something about breaking all of you, but I really dunno what he meant by that. You all look fine to me! Anyway, now what do you all want to do? Since this is a dream, I think we should try and have a huge ridiculously unrealistic party with a giant party cannon and-” “As fun as that sounds, Pinkie, we have a job to do. We need to find the Elements of Harmony so we can beat the Shadow and kick him out of our dream so he doesn’t try to make us afraid anymore. I think we should wait for the train for the next ride to Canterlot so we can get to Princess Celestia’s castle and try-“ Twilight stopped short as Pinkie’s bubbly voice cut her off. But…I had something to say…I was going to make a plan and….oh wait. So that’s how it feels. “Oh, do you mean these Elements of Harmony?” Her jaw hit the ground and her eyes became wide as dinner plates as she watched Pinkie Pie literally wave her hoof and the Elements just appeared, poof, like that behind her. She zipped over to Pinkie’s side, bowling over Rainbow Dash in the process. “Pinkie, how did you do that?!” Pinkie giggled and responded, “It’s a dream, remember? You can do anything that you believe you can do. Besides, if you’ve been paying attention, it’s not like any of the rules of science have been making sense this entire time. I just fell through the ground and out the sky, silly!” Everypony stood up and walked over to Pinkie, taking their respective Elements. As they placed them on their bodies, a feeling of comfort and determination overtook them. The Shadow was in control before, but now the tables were turned. Rainbow, who had been watching patiently until Twilight ran her over, slipped the Element of Loyalty over her neck. She needed to ask a question. After shooting Twilight an irritated glance, she said, “So are these the real, actual Elements of Harmony? Or did you just use some kind of illusion on us?” “This is a dream, Dashie! Of course they’re not really real. But they will be real if you believe they are!” yelled Pinkie as she slipped the Element of Laughter over her head. “Will they now?” Bum-bum. Another voice had entered the conversation, though from where, Twilight wasn’t sure. The voice of the Shadow had an echoey quality to it that made it near impossible to pinpoint. His black fog was emerging from all sides, surrounding and enclosing the group where they stood. From within the mist strode out the Shadow, his armor gleaming, his eyes glowing with hatred. And yet they did not panic. Instead they returned the Shadow’s stare with one of their own, a stare of determination, a stare of refusal to give up, a stare composed of their sheer force of will. The Shadow stopped in his tracks. “Alright, girls. Let’s show this jerk what a friendship more powerful than fear can do.” Twilight said confidently, stepping into her position as the Elements began to glow. Upon hearing those words, the Shadow burst into absolute panic. They had found the strength that lies in their minds, and now he was going to pay for the torment he had tried to use to twist them. He had lost. Hundreds of ideas bounced around his mind, whizzing by far too fast for him to grab hold of any single one. A desperate last resort came to his mind as he stared down the barrel of the metaphorical gun pointed directly at his face. He must push himself deeper into the mind of the leader, the purple mare he had not yet been able to truly torment, and understand her deepest subconscious fears so that he could work from there and seize back control. The Shadow’s horn all of a sudden flashed red and then turned solid black. It shot out a flat, solid black beam of magic that enveloped Twilight, interrupting the Elements and halting their power-up cycle. Twilight recoiled and tried to buck herself out of the newly forming bubble of black magic around her, but her efforts were futile. The Shadow himself, now appearing to have calmed down, evaporated into black smoke and it combined with the bubble around Twilight. All of her friends, panicking, tried to run to the magical shield holding Twilight captive, but it swiftly rose into the air above them all. Twilight had stopped struggling now and appeared to be asleep, twitching. “TWILIGHT!” yelled Applejack, distressed. A note fluttered out of the air, immediately snatched up and read aloud by Applejack: You can’t help her now She had so save herself, if she is where I think she is… The Shadow took her to the final level of the dream The subconscious of the mind *** Twilight Sparkle awoke slowly and painfully, as if from a trance. She had a massive headache, from what, she couldn’t remember. She couldn’t remember… She opened her eyes to see a room full of nothing. The floor seemed to be made of a cloud-like material that pulsed and rippled when she stepped on it. Where am I? How did I get here? What is this weird place? Looking down, she saw that a large question mark had appeared underneath her. It was spinning, and staring at it made her dizzy. The question mark turned a sickly shade of green. Beginning to feel queasy, Twilight lied down on the soft, fluffy floor and tried to concentrate on thinking about what this place could be. The question mark underneath her stopped spinning, vibrating at different intervals as if struggling with something. She shut her eyes. The cloud seemed to respond to different emotions she felt. But what else was in the room? Twilight opened her eyes again and saw, to her amazement, the air in the room was suddenly filled with sights and smells, images and feelings. She was inside of her own memory. Getting up off the ground, Twilight walked over to one of the odd clouds floating in the air. She put her face up to it, and then suddenly was consumed by embarrassment as her vision was filled with the faces she remembered of the judges for her entrance exam into Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. She snapped her head back, and her emotions reverted back to simple curiosity. Fascinating. “Beautiful, isn’t it?” asked a deep voice Twilight knew well from behind her. The cloud underneath her rippled violently at the new arrival and turned from white into a deep black. New memories began to pop up and appear around her, but these ones were fringed with shades of crimson and gray. She tried to approach one, but was repelled with such an aggressive force that she just stood there stupidly for a moment. The Shadow approached Twilight, levitating a large group of memory clouds with his horn. The clouds were hers, but when the Shadow released them, they shot off like their chain had been broken and mobbed Twilight all at once. She felt herself closing her eyes, and suddenly the images behind her eyelids were flashing faster and faster. Bum-bum. Twilight felt panic. She saw herself running, this way and that, frantically trying to find somepony in the town who had some problem. Her mane and her mind were fraying at the edges, her thoughts consumed by dread at the idea and implications of what would happen to her if her letter to the Princess was tardy. She glanced frantically up at the sun to see two red eyes imprinted on its surface… Bum-bum. Twilight felt depressed. She could see herself, her coat and her heart turned gray, sitting on the ground, hopeless, useless, in despair. Her friends had abandoned her. The Princess had abandoned her. The town had abandoned her. Discord was beside her laughing triumphantly, and a single tear dropped from Twilight’s eye and splashed on the ground. The tear splashing made a design of a pair of glaring eyes… Bum-bum. Twilight felt ashamed. She watched herself, paranoid and afraid, shouting accusation after accusation at Zecora, blaming her for Apple Bloom disappearing, blaming her for her horn flopping uselessly on her forehead, blaming her for the pair of bright red eyes watching from outside of the window… “Twilight!” a voice shouted. This voice was different than hers and the Shadow’s. Another memory floated toward her, but this one was…different. Twilight felt strong. She saw her standing alongside all of her friends, the look on their faces one of determination and the will to do what is right. Around their necks hung the Elements of Harmony, amplifying their qualities, drawing out the true source of power in the group’s unbreakable friendship. She opened her eyes to see the Shadow standing right in front of her. His horn was glowing pure black, his eyes were squeezed tightly shut, and several beads of sweat had appeared on his face. The spell swirling around his horn was sucking memory clouds to him, all of her memories tinged with the black of depression, the red of anger, among all of the other negative emotions. Suddenly it dawned on Twilight that some of the Shadow’s memories were also being drawn in by the spell, but he was multi-tasking by filtering out all of his own memories in favor of hers. She could see into his mind and saw the filter: a simple switch. Curious, she flipped the switch. All of the memories now shot away from Twilight and mobbed the Shadow. His concentration broke and he tried to back away from them, but it was too late. The memories were opening up and displaying themselves in front of Twilight’s mind, and she leaned in for a closer look. Twilight felt rage. She looked out of a window, a frozen window, to see the laughing figure of Discord. Her mind zoomed out to see that she was in a house that was frozen and floating upside down, and she saw a blue colt where she had been standing with his horn and ears still intact, but no mane nor tail hung from his body. There was evidence though that there used to be one...Twilight shuddered. She turned around and saw Discord, right up in her face, guffawing his head off. His face was shortly joined by Pinkie Pie’s, and they both laughed at her together… Twilight felt frustrated and depressed. She saw the blue colt again, his ears partially ripped and his horn snapped jaggedly in two, but without his glowing eyes and glaring armor. The colt was standing in a foggy field of dead yellow grass, standing over a patch of field capped by two thick gray rocks. Levitating in the colt’s black magic was a bouquet of black flowers… Twilight felt an evil sort of anticipation within her. She was using a scrying spell, and hundreds of images flashed past her vision, all of them images of her friends as they walked around town, doing their daily business. One imaged lingered for longer than the rest. They all were sitting around a table in the marketplace…laughing… The last thing that Twilight saw before being forcefully ejected from the Shadow’s mind was a small shack on the crest of a hill. The hill overlooked the Everfree Forest, and from within the shack Twilight felt the presence of ancient magic. She peeked in the window to see six stone pedestals. All but one of the pedestals held a polished, shiny black necklace with a gemstone symbol hanging from the center. For some strange reason the necklaces seemed to be calling her name… “Twilight…” “Twilight…” “Twilight! Are you okay?!” Twilight was snapped back to reality by the face of Applejack filling her vision. The face was filled with concern. An enormous feeling of relief washed over Twilight as she stepped back and placed the Element of Magic, which had fallen off as she fell to the ground, on top of her head. She smiled. “I’m fine.” The Shadow was lying on the ground in front of the group, and appeared to be moaning for some reason. His eye opened up only to close again. “Positions, everypony. It’s just about time we all woke up from this nightmare.” The Elements began to glow bright white and Twilight saw the Shadow tense as the light overpowered everything that existed, all of the feelings, places, and memories in the dream realm the Shadow had created… *** Twilight woke up to find herself sitting in the ruins of the Palace of the Royal Pony Sisters. All of her friends were laying next to her, asleep. Rainbow was curled up in a ball, her breathing steady. Pinkie was snoring loudly, but smiling in her sleep. Fluttershy was twitching slightly, but the look of pain on her face that Twilight remembered had gone. She allowed herself a moment to just breathe. Gazing outside, the night sky was clear and the stars were twinkling in Luna’s beautiful night sky. The moon was setting on the horizon—after all of this, it was the dawn of a new day. The nightmare was over. A thought entered her mind, and she remembered that Night Shine was supposed to be here, watching over their dream and helping however he could. But as Twilight looked around, she couldn’t see him anywhere. Where did he go? Also the Shadow was still out there, and had those strange shining black necklaces. What were they, and why did he have them? Why did they have the aura of a “Want it, Need it” spell, even though she could tell they weren’t enchanted by anypony in the last thousand years? There were so many questions she wanted to ask that she was willing to bet Night Shine had an answer to. Then the sound of her friends’ voices as they awoke pushed the small worries out of her mind. None of that mattered as long as they were safe. Fluttershy yawned, and opened her eyes. Confusion immediately crossed her face. “Twilight? All of you? What happened?” Twilight Sparkle walked over to Fluttershy and looked in her eyes. “I can tell you later. For now…let’s just all go home.” ***** ***** Ending Author’s Note Thank you all for reading my first fanfiction. It means a lot to me if you are willing to put up with my ideas and zero writing experience to read the story up until here. I plan on making more (if you’re interested), and the Shadow will be a recurring character for sure. Please let me know if you liked the story and/or legitimately want more by commenting or messaging me. Watch out for the next story that I’m planning to write, The Elements of Disharmony: Necessary Corruption, which I will post on FIMFiction when it’s complete (It will take at least a couple months from now to write, now being 9/20/12). Until then, I guess I’ll see you around, or something.