Nightmares

by unoservix

Chapter 10: The Best Medicine

Chapter 10: The Best Medicine

Twilight Sparkle was endlessly thankful that she was the first one to wake up, after a very uncomfortable night's sleep that left her sore all over. On the other hoof, despite all the painful stiffness in her neck, if she'd made Trixie feel a bit better it was worth the discomfort.
But then, that was the problem: how would she know if she made Trixie feel better? She glanced back at the sleeping unicorn and felt a surge of frustration. No metrics meant no way of measuring progress, and no way of measuring progress meant no way of knowing when—or if—this would ever end. And since Nightmare Storm had come back last night, well, apparently they weren't done yet. And if she could come back once, she could come back again—and Luna's patience was already wearing thin. Not to mention that of her friends.
She sighed and looked out the window, where the sun had just cleared the horizon and the morning sky was a brilliant blue, streaked with pink and orange clouds. Her friends were another issue entirely. Fluttershy had infinite patience for Trixie's crabby temperament and nothing ever seemed to get Pinkie down, but even Twilight could see that Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Applejack were at wits' end over all this. And Twilight couldn't really blame them. Especially Rainbow Dash. After all, the purple unicorn was keenly aware that the creature residing inside this tempestuous, lonely pony thirsted for her blood, and any wrong step might be her last.
But it had not been possible to keep that in mind last night, when Nightmare Storm had disappeared and the only thing in front of her was a sobbing, lonesome pony who'd just found out her parents had died. If Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Applejack could have seen that, maybe they wouldn't be so hostile to the idea of trying to save her—to make friends with her, to just cut out the evil part and throw that away alone.
Twilight spent the early morning in a haze that slightly abated in the warm atmosphere of the shower, and then came back when she tried to make herself breakfast and wound up turning her toast into something Sweetie Belle might have created. Eventually Spike woke up and made actually edible breakfast for everyone, and Twilight decided to take Trixie's food upstairs herself, rather than delegate it to the baby dragon.
Trixie was awake by the time Twilight set the tray down on the nightstand, and Twilight tried not to squirm too much under her inscrutable gaze.
"Are you feeling better, Trixie?" Twilight asked.
Trixie fidgeted and glanced away. "I suppose." Twilight smiled and decided to leave it at that, until the blue unicorn cleared her throat and caught her attention. "Um...I, uh, I just wanted to thank you, for going to Canterlot and finding out what happened to my parents." She cast her eyes towards the floor, and Twilight's heart threatened to break again at how sad she looked. "Even if the answer wasn't a happy one."
Twilight struggled for words. "I-It wasn't a big deal, really," she said with a nervous smile. "I do research like that all the time, so, you know..."
"Well, you also stood up to a princess to protect me," Trixie added, with a more skeptical look crossing over her features, and Twilight felt her heart rate begin to speed up. "So I guess you can't be all that bad."
Twilight blushed. "I-I guess not..."
"Anyways," Trixie looked back at Twilight again, and this time a small smile wormed its way onto her face, "thank you."
They went their separate ways and said no more about it that day, and Twilight decided to save the questioning about Seesaw for later. Besides, she had questions of her own to worry about now—like why her heart sped up at the sight of Trixie's tentative smile and why her face got so red at the thought.
But she lived in a library, and she had books for that. And books always had answers.

Whenever something went rampaging through Ponyville, it meant that stuff was going to have to get rebuilt. Something rampaged through Ponyville quite a lot—whether it was Ursa Minors or parasprites or Cutie Mark Crusaders—and that meant stuff was getting rebuilt a lot. And that made Applejack the local guru for reconstruction. It was no big deal; something was wrecking the barn so often that putting it back together was starting to become a habit. And at least she was able to make herself useful.
But rebuilding the stuff that the latest rampaging monster had destroyed meant meeting the other ponies in town, and it meant gossip, and today? Today it meant meeting that gigantic walking pile of muscle named Barbell.
Applejack didn't like to think poorly of anypony, really, but something about the wordless Barbell rubbed her the wrong way. The gruff way he dealt with everyone else, the strange, suspicious look in his eye at every pony he met, the way he only said as much as he absolutely had to...it all made Applejack feel weird inside. And no pony who was honest with herself was going to ignore that.
The earth pony watched tiredly as Thunder Lane tried to finish replacing the shingles on a roof that had been stripped clean by a magical blast from Trixie's angry alter-ego. Of course, Thunder Lane's partner in this task was none other than Derpy, so Applejack suspected she would be prying off shingles glued to someone's flank before the afternoon was done. But maybe Thunder Lane could keep it all under control.
Applejack heaved a sigh. Everything had turned crazy lately, and if everything else turned crazy, she felt responsible for keeping herself sane and sensible. Her friends would need that. So what did it mean when the responsible, sane, sensible one started having doubts?

She never said anything about it, because if she did then her friends would worry—and the last thing she wanted was for her friends to worry—but deep inside, Fluttershy was getting concerned.
It wasn't really about Trixie. To be honest, Trixie was lucky to still be in one piece after suffering the full wrath of Princess Luna's power. As she poured out feed for the chickens, Fluttershy cringed at the very thought of all that frightening, angry violence. At least Twilight's spell had fixed most of the damage, and as for everything else, well, bed rest was pretty much the only thing left to try. Trixie was getting better, but the Nightmare was still there. Twilight had guessed that it had waited until the opportunity to come back to the surface and then used a healing spell to get moving again—but now it had been beaten down by Trixie herself.
And that was what had Fluttershy worried. The incarnation of kindness concerned herself with not just ailments of the body, but with whatever caused pain and suffering to others. Usually all she could really do was offer a shoulder to cry on—but often, that was just what the other pony needed the most. And although the very thought of ever navigating those shifting waters herself made her blush, she certainly knew all too well how painful matters of the heart could be.
And that's where the worry came in. She'd seen the flash in Twilight's eyes when she stood up to Princess Luna to protect Trixie and heard the steel in her voice. But Twilight was, well, Twilight, and Fluttershy couldn't shake the fear that she didn't realize what she was getting herself into.
Yet at least if it all worked out, Twilight would be happy. And they would have a new friend—even if Trixie didn't feel particularly interested in making friends. Everything would work out, it was just a matter of getting there.
And in the meantime, the Element of Kindness would be there to offer all the compassion and care that everyone needed.

"That's not even possible," Trixie said, front legs crossed, nose in the air. "I refuse to believe it."
At the bedside with the magic book levitating in front of her, Twilight Sparkle smiled sheepishly. "Well, I'm telling you, it happened. Fluttershy told off the dragon just by yelling at it. It was surreal."
"You're telling me that Fluttershy, meek and mild little Fluttershy, the same Fluttershy who will fluff my pillow to the point of insubstantiality, faced down a fully-grown young adult fire drake whose slumber you had repeatedly interrupted, and not only lived to tell the tale, but successfully made it go away." Trixie rolled her eyes. "Like I believe that."
"Suit yourself," Twilight answered with a shrug. "Ooh, but there's also the time Pinkie went insane—oh, but she should be the one to tell you that one."
"The time Pinkie went insane."
"Yeah. She does the voices and everything. It's amazing!"
Trixie stared back at an overly eager Twilight for a moment. "Have you ever considered that your friends are all insane?"
"Considered, hypothesized, tested, documented, and conclusively affirmed," Twilight said. "I wouldn't have them any other way." She turned around to put her spell book back on the desk. "It's not just the Elements of Harmony, y'know. And it's not just the fact that there's all this magic bound up in friendship. It's so great to know that whenever things go wrong, whenever I feel bad, I've got friends who I know will help me out."
"Help you out, huh," Trixie muttered. "And I suppose you always get along?"
Twilight came to a stop with a frown. "Well...no, not always."
"Not always?"
"At my brother's wedding," she explained, "I knew there was something strange about Princess Cadence, but no one else believed me." She shook her head and her smile returned. "But eventually I found out the truth, and they were with me when it counted most. I'd be nothing without them."
Trixie glared out the window. "Naturally I had to get stuck with someone too nice to hate."
Twilight blinked. "E-Excuse me?"
"You heard me," Trixie grumbled. "Just my luck that you're so nice and friendly and interested in helping me."
Silence descended over them both and Twilight slinked away without a word on her lips, and with a million thoughts in her head.

The sun was high in the sky as Pinkie Pie bounced her way down the street, looking for fun. And that was easy, because there was fun everywhere as long as you knew where to look.
For example, there were those two unicorn brothers that had just moved to Ponyville, Castor and Pollux. They were hilarious! They'd gotten into a fight just this morning over Castor's healing amulets or whatever, and although Pinkie hadn't exactly been able to follow what Castor was actually talking about and none of Pollux's insults had really made any sense, it was still pretty funny. The looks on their faces were just priceless!
And so it was as she bounced down the street and giggled at the memory. It was sort of like how Applejack and Rainbow Dash fought all the time, except at the end of it all Applejack and Rainbow Dash were still friends, but Castor and Pollux apparently just kind of hated each other, so maybe it wasn't really like how Applejack and Rainbow Dash fought all the time at all, but anyways—
She stopped as she caught sight of the two brothers down the street, almost lost in the shuffle of Ponyville's busy marketplace. Castor was showing something off—and upon a closer look, it looked like that hemp health drink thing he'd been so proud of. Pinkie had tried it once and it was horrible but she managed to drink enough of it to make him happy and then went back home and shoveled an entire gallon of ice cream into her mouth to get rid of the taste. He was showing the stuff off to another pony, Flitter by the looks of it, and she seemed fairly disinterested. That was probably a good thing. No good could come from actually drinking that slop.
But then, unnoticed by Flitter as Castor prattled on, the side of her saddlebag lifted up just enough for a bag of bits to come floating out. Pinkie blinked in disbelief—and then caught sight of the red hide of Pollux, hidden behind a wooden stand, as he lifted the coin purse over with a deft puff of magic. He quietly picked it out of the air and ducked down back behind the stand, and then crept away behind Flitter's back.
"Hey," Pinkie started, a frown growing on her lips, "that's not nice! That's not nice at all!"
Castor made an excuse and disappeared around a corner, and so Flitter shrugged and continued on her way. Pinkie started forward, but the crowd around her kept her away, and by the time she had room to squeeze through, Flitter and the brothers—and the bag of bits—were long gone.
Pinkie stopped where she was and sat down. If she was gonna steal something, that was actually a clever way to do it—have one pony distract someone and the other pony does all the stealing. Genius, even! But Pinkie Pie wasn't going to go stealing. She'd had that happen before, when her friends stole bits of the Marzipan Mascarpone Meringue Madness on the train to Canterlot, and that hadn't been fun, and only her culinary genius had saved the day.
And yet why were Castor and Pollux doing that?
Pinkie produced her hat and bubbly pipe from parts unknown. This was a mystery. And it would be solved! Justice would be done! Bits would be recovered! This case would be solved by the greatest sleuth-mind of all Equestria...Twilight Sparkle!
Pinkie hopped off towards the library.

Clearing clouds from the sky was always a good way to work off stress. There was nothing quite like flying around at full throttle, punching and kicking things, and watching them break apart and vanish from the sheer power of your blows. Granted, they were clouds and you could break them up by sneezing if you really wanted to, but that sort of thing never really occurred to Rainbow Dash as she zoomed around the sky breaking up little storms before they turned big and ruined somepony's picnic or whatever.
Unfortunately, cloud-clearing didn't really take a whole lot of thought, so as she swept through the sky and broke up the formations, Rainbow Dash had nothing to distract her from her thoughts. And that was awful.
She'd risked going to the library this morning, and made it through her visit without an encounter with the Great and Powerful Trixie. The excuse she gave was to pick up another Daring Do book, but the real reason she went was to find out how Twilight's trip to Canterlot went. What Spike told her instead still had her blood boiling. Some other Nightmare, the one the princesses were so worried about, had led Twilight into an alley and tried to kill her. Luna had showed up to scare them all off, but the thought that now her friends had someone else trying to hurt them was almost more than she could bear. It had just about activated some weird maternal instinct in her heart, to constantly watch over her friends in case monsters and villains came to get them too.
But even worse, there was nothing she could do about it. The other Nightmare's whereabouts were a mystery, and as for the first one, well, Twilight was determined that no one would see Trixie. She was in the middle of some Trixie-related research when Rainbow had shown up, which was why it was Spike who had broken the news—and then shooed her off before she could get in the way. And that whole little episode, the feeling of total helplessness, of having to just sit here and watch events unfold, hoping and praying that her friends would be alright...well, it was all Rainbow Dash could do not to just fly face-first into a mountainside and hope when she woke up it would all be over.
Because, after all, Rainbow Dash, Element of Loyalty, couldn't do that. Applejack was right. Sooner or later her friends were going to need her. She just wished she knew what it was they were going to need her for.
Rainbow blinked in surprise as she caught sight of another pony darting among all the clouds and shearing off pieces. Up above, Whiplash was running tight circles around one of the great big altocumulus clouds—yes, it was sort of egghead-y to know the proper scientific names for clouds, but Rainbow Dash had the excuse of needing to know this stuff for her day job, so it wasn't lame—with a mile-wide grin on her face.
Rainbow licked her lips, reared back, and launched herself up into the middle of the cloud at top speed. It blew apart in a huge expanding ring that sent Whiplash tumbling back. Rainbow pulled up and landed on one of the smaller clouds with a grin; Whiplash shook her head, caught sight of Rainbow, and rushed over.
"Rainbow Dash! I didn't know you could do that!" she cried.
"Ha! There's nothin' the Dash can't do!" Rainbow answered, with a flap of her wings. "So what's up, Whiplash? Didn't see you here the past couple days."
Whiplash suddenly got very, very nervous; Rainbow frowned at the sight. "Oh, uh, had to go back to Canterlot for somethin', you know, personal stuff."
"Personal stuff," Rainbow said with a leer.
"I-It's not like that!" Whiplash added, her face turning bright red.
"Oh? What's it not like, huh?"
"Well...w-whatever it is you're thinking of!"
"Really! And what is it that I'm thinking of?"
Rainbow lost her composure and collapsed in a fit of giggles. If she kept this up poor Whiplash's face was going to explode.
"So," she said, wiping away a tear, "Canterlot, huh?" She felt her smile begin to falter, as memories trickled back of what else had happened in Canterlot. Even teasing other ponies wasn't providing the boundless joy it used to; this whole thing with Twilight and Trixie needed to end, and soon, or else Rainbow Dash would simply go completely nuts. "So what were you doing in Canterlot?"
Whiplash frowned and looked down towards the ground. "Err...I don't really want to talk about it."
"You sure? Talking about it might help."
"I'm sure."
Rainbow stared at Whiplash for a long, thoughtful moment. Even if she wasn't all that close to Whiplash, the last thing she needed was another friend with weird emotional problems that Rainbow couldn't solve.
After all, nothing was worse than watching a friend have a problem you couldn't solve. You couldn't do anything. All you could do was sit and watch and hope for the best. And not helping your friends when they had problems...well, that just felt disloyal.

"...and then she said that I'm too nice to hate!" wailed Twilight Sparkle, armed as she was with a smoothie and slumped on a park bench with Applejack at her side and Rainbow Dash lounging on a low-hanging cloud. "I can't figure it out! Why does she say these things to me?!"
Applejack glanced up at Rainbow Dash. "Probably 'cuz she means it, sugarcube."
"But what does that mean?!" cried Twilight.
Applejack and Rainbow Dash shared another weary look. "Well," Rainbow said with a cough, "I'm not really in the let's-make-friends-with-Trixie camp here, but isn't this, like, a good thing? I thought the whole point of all this was to make her stop hating you." She idly peeled off part of the cloud and started toying with it with her hoof. "And the sooner we get that over with, the sooner she can leave and the sooner everything will go back to normal."
Twilight groaned and bonked her head against the bench.
"Blunt force trauma ain't gonna help ya much, Twi," warned Applejack.
"Nothing else seems to be working," the purple unicorn moaned.
"Twilight, seriously, what the hay?" Rainbow said, and sat up on her cloud. "I thought this was supposed to be, you know, progress. I mean, weren't we trying to get her to stop hating you so it would kill the Nightmare and she could leave?"
Twilight whimpered. "I know," she said, "but...well, but what if she stayed?"
"In the town where ya turned her into a laughingstock overnight?" Applejack asked.
"We've forgiven worse," Twilight said.
"Why would she even want to stay here?" Rainbow Dash sputtered. "Really, what do we have to offer her? Isn't it, like, her job to go wandering around the world putting on shows and ticking off other ponies?"
"But she wouldn't be in this mess if she had friends who looked out for her," Twilight protested, "and I know we could do that."
The pegasus and earth pony shared another look, and this time Rainbow cringed. "Listen, sugarcube," Applejack said, "ah just don't think Trixie's gonna wanna have much to do with us, anymore than we wanna have anythin' to do with her. If she ain't hatin' you anymore, then great, but she don't seem like the kinda pony we'd be friends with."
Twilight blew a lock of her mane out of her face. "If you knew her like I did, you wouldn't be saying that."
Applejack and Rainbow Dash shared one more incredulous look. "If you say so, sugarcube."

Progress. Progress was a thing that was measured. Measurement required a standard with which to compare the thing you were measuring. Measuring things required being able to see them, metaphorically if not literally.
Twilight Sparkle could not see into Trixie's mind, and that meant no measurement, and that meant she was about one more setback away from a helpless paroxysm of gnawing on pens and screaming futilely at the ceiling. The last time she'd done that, it had been during advance-planning for Winter Wrap Up, and she'd started gnawing on her quills instead of pens, and that meant she spent the rest of the day picking bits of feather out of her teeth.
Determined not to go through that humiliation again, she took a long, deep breath and sat down to think. Trixie had immediately clammed up once Twilight asked her about a chestnut-colored pegasus pony named Seesaw, and no amount of prodding and cajoling had gotten through to her. It was infinitely frustrating, because after the night when she came home from Canterlot, she thought she'd finally started earning Trixie's trust. And that was what she wanted the most. If Trixie trusted her now—and why wouldn't she, after Twilight had gone to such lengths to find out what happened to her parents and protect her from harm?—then surely answering a few questions about this other evil monster that had tried to kill her wasn't too much to ask.
Twilight cringed at the thought as she realized that Nightmare Inferno was yet another demonic presence trying to kill her. This past month had seen her make some very hazardous acquaintances. And then there was the news Pinkie had brought about what she sure thought looked like those two unicorn brothers, Castor and Pollux, pickpocketing someone. Twilight didn't want to get too paranoid, but that certainly didn't sound good.
She bonked her head on the table. Why did this have to be so difficult? Protecting herself, fine, that was easy, she knew how to teleport and she was surrounded by her friends, and if all else failed the princesses would be around to get rid of Inferno. But Trixie was a totally different beast, and her friends couldn't help her here. What was she supposed to do now?
"So is this supposed to be helping," Spike's skeptical voice chimed in, and she bolted upright, "or what?"
"S-Spike! What are you doing here?"
Spike, armed with a broom, stared back at her. Twilight immediately blushed.
"Oh. Right."
"Yeah, I'm not gonna lie, Twilight, you've been pretty loopy lately." He set the broom aside and an edge of concern appeared in his face. "Ever since you got back from Canterlot, actually. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine! I told you, nopony ever hurt me—"
"I'm not talking about that." Spike gestured towards the stairs. "I mean, I'll be honest, I have never, ever seen you actually defy a princess. Even if it's Luna. I never thought you'd do something like that." Twilight's ears went flat at the thought. "Which is something I've been meaning to ask you about, actually. This whole thing with Trixie. You seem, like, really worked up about it, way more than you'd expect. Like Trixie means a lot more to you than just doing the right thing." He put a hand on Twilight's shoulder. "So, yeah. What's going on here? Are you okay?"
Twilight almost didn't hear him. "Y-Yes, I'm okay, Spike."
Spike looked utterly unconvinced. "If you want to talk about it—"
"I'm fine, okay? Nothing's wrong!" She turned away and huffed, and that left Spike only to sigh, pick up his broom, and amble off.
And that, in turn, left Twilight to sit there in something approaching frothing panic. It was now finally starting to sink in that she really had in fact defied one of the princesses of Equestria to save Trixie's life. Standing up against Luna was not much different from standing up against Celestia—and she couldn't even imagine herself doing that. But Celestia would not have hesitated to destroy a threat to her kingdom—and that meant if Celestia had been there instead of Luna, it would have been her beloved mentor she would have defied.
Her stomach churned at the very thought. It didn't even make sense why she'd feel this way. It wasn't as though they were close; it wasn't even as though they knew each other that well. She wanted someone who would share her interests, someone she felt she could share her life with, and her friends didn't quite fit the bill in that closest of regards—but this? This had come out of nowhere.
She glanced back up at the stairs. Fluttershy had told her that she needed to be Trixie's friend. And she was, even if Trixie didn't understand that yet. She hadn't had many opportunities to prove it—but when it counted, she had proved her sincerity in spades.
So what did it mean if you started to think about being more?

It was a well-kept secret that Pinkie Pie was actually pretty smart. Not super-duper-ultra smart like Twilight, but still, she was no dummy! She didn't mind if other ponies thought she was kind of loopy, because that seemed to make them laugh and she loved making other ponies laugh, but when she really had to, she could figure stuff out just like Rarity or Applejack or Twilight. After all, being smart had benefits, like being able to throw better parties! Or pull better pranks! Or throw better parties for pulling better pranks! Or baking better stuff! Like cakes and cupcakes and muffins and cookies and—
Anyways, the bounce she normally had in her step was a bit subdued as she made her way upstairs to Trixie's bedside. Twilight broke the sad news to her friends about Trixie's parents just after getting back from Canterlot, after that crazy night with Nightmare Meaniepants and Luna and they all started fighting and it was most decidedly unfriendly. And after that Twilight had just gotten weird, all jumpy and tense and crazy, like she had something totally wacky going on inside her noggin or something.
But while Twilight was crazy, Trixie was still sad. And with good reason! Just because she'd moved away didn't mean Pinkie Pie didn't still love her parents and miss them very much, even if the rock farm was so boring she couldn't possibly survive there. The thought of them not being around anymore...well, that wasn't really worth thinking about.
So instead she quietly stepped across the floor. Trixie was awake, staring at the wall, and didn't even glare when she saw Pinkie coming. That wasn't a good sign. If Trixie was too sad to be grouchy then something was really wrong.
"You're not bouncing around like a spring," the blue unicorn said, and Pinkie felt a little relieved as Trixie started to look characteristically annoyed again. "What's gotten into you?"
"Oh, well, I just heard about your parents," Pinkie answered, and the annoyance seemed to seep out of Trixie's face as she cast her eyes towards the floor, "and I wanted to, y'know, see how you're doing."
Trixie put on a distrustful face again. "Perfectly fine."
"Silly filly! Auntie Pinkie Pie will fix you up!" And from parts unknown Pinkie produced a great big pile of cupcakes and heaved them onto the bed.
Trixie stared in disbelief. "Wha—how—where—did you—but—"
"Cupcakes make everything better!" Pinkie exclaimed. "Well, except for all the things they don't make better, like toothaches or debt collection or something. Unless you could pay back debts in cupcakes! Omigosh! That would be amazing! I should tell Princess Celestia about this!"
"I, uh—"
"Anyways, how do you feel now? Are you still sad?"
Trixie stared down at her small mountain of cupcakes. "N-Now I'm confused."
"But you're not sad anymore! Yay!" Pinkie hopped into the air and set off an explosion of confetti, and Trixie watched in utter bafflement and mild fear as a rain of colored paper washed over her.
"Um, I—"
"Anyways," Pinkie continued, "how would you like a party?"
Trixie blinked and then glanced down at her legs under the covers. "A party."
"A party! It's my specialty, y'know! We'll get the whole town in here and you can strut your stuff, metaphorically speaking, and start over with everypony! It'll be great! And it'll be totally fun! We'll have cake and muffins and punch and cupcakes and I'll bring Gummy and—"
"Wait, you want the whole town coming in here to see me?"
Pinkie flopped down on the bed next to Trixie and ignored the way she yelped in surprise. "Oh, Trixie, don't be silly. You and Twilight can't just hunker down in here and be boring and broody together!"
Trixie's eyes went wide. "E-Excuse me?!"
"You're a showmare, after all, and showmares can't just sit and pout! You gotta be out in front of everypony, getting attention, doing stuff, being the star!"
Trixie sputtered angrily for a moment. "In case you didn't notice, my act consists of magic, which I can't do," she shoved Pinkie off the bed, "so if you would kindly excuse me—"
"Well either way I'm definitely throwing a party for Twilight," Pinkie said, "'cuz I dunno if you've noticed but if there's anypony in Ponyville other than you who needs a party right now, it's Twilight."
"Wha—what about her?"
"'cuz I mean she's at least as depressed and bummed out and loopy about everything as you are! And she was totally super-sad to have to come back from Canterlot and break the bad news to you! And she stood up to a princess to save you, which is, I mean, like, wow, that's hardcore! So she's all kinds of crazy right now and the only Pinkie Pie-approved treatment for that level of craziness is a party."
Trixie stared back.
"So anyways," Pinkie got back to her hooves with a mile-wide grin, "we're still gonna have a party somewhere around here for her, and if you wanna come, we'll find a way to get you there. 'kay? 'kay! See ya there!"
Pinkie bounced off and left Trixie behind in a state of complete befuddlement.

"...an' now Rainbow Dash's all bent outta shape over the whole thing," Applejack grunted, in between hard kicks against a stubborn apple tree whose apples refused to drop, "an' that's just great, 'cuz Pinkie Pie wants to throw a party an' that means we all gotta get together, an' it's just gonna be all weird, y'know?"
Standing off to the side hitched to the big wagon, loaded with buckets of apples, Big Macintosh simply said, "Eeyup."
"An' Rarity still don't know who broke into her shop," Applejack went on, "an' Twi's goin' nuts, an' ah don't even know what's goin' on with Spike, an'," she glowered back at the tree trunk, "an' why won't these dang apples fall down?!"
Big Macintosh cleared his throat. "'cuz they already did."
Applejack stopped, looked up, noticed that all the apples had already fallen into the buckets, and suddenly felt very silly.
"Shoot," she sighed, and slumped to the ground, "guess ah'm goin' crazy too, huh."
"Eeyup."
"You ain't supposed to agree with that!"
Judging by his satisfied little smirk, Big Macintosh was not in the least bit sorry.
"Well, ah dunno," she got back up and started hauling the buckets over to the wagon, "whaddya think ah should do, Big Mac?"
Big Macintosh thoughtfully chewed on his wheat shoot for a moment. "Think yer worryin' too much, AJ. There anythin' you can do 'bout it?"
"Ah don't reckon so," Applejack sighed. "Can't get in Twi's head an' see what's makin' her all weird, an' ah still ain't feelin' too great 'bout Trixie." She glanced off towards Ponyville, eyes fixing on the unmistakable shape of the library. "Ah ain't never seen her say no to a dang princess before. Somethin' weird's goin' on."
Big Macintosh glanced back at her. "Sounds like ya oughta ask Miss Rarity 'bout this instead of me."
"That's what ah was afraid of," Applejack groaned. "She'll never let me hear the end of it, y'know." She put on her best fake dignified Canterlot accent. "Mighty, proud Applejack humiliatingly supplicates the sagacious Rarity for her boundless wisdom."
Big Macintosh snorted. "Big words ain't your thing, AJ."
"Don't ah know it." Applejack cast a sullen gaze over the next set of trees. "Well, we'll finish up over there, eh? Pinkie's plannin' a party sometime soon an' you know how she gets if you don't show up to those."
Big Macintosh shuddered. Not even he was immune to the horrors of the prank-filled revenge that Pinkie Pie had wrought over her birthday party.
They went off together with the wagon, but Applejack kept her thoughts in town, in the library, with her friend. Problems were so much easier when they could just be solved with a good kick. This stuff...well, she was out of her league now.

Twilight Sparkle jolted upright from her book with a squeak of fright as she heard the balcony door creak open and the sound of hooves on the floorboards. Her heart rate slowed down a little once she saw the shimmering ethereal mane of Princess Luna—but only a little.
"Princess Luna!" Twilight cried, and immediately cringed. "Um, about the other night, I didn't mean to—"
"Hush," Luna said. "You followed your heart, Twilight Sparkle, and I cannot fault you for that." She glanced around the room. "Now then, where is this Trixie...?"
Just as immediately, Twilight frowned. "W-Why do you ask?" Another thought occurred to her. "Did one of my friends ask you to come?"
Luna's smile disappeared. "I told you I would return," she said coolly. "Do you believe your closest friends are working against you behind your back?"
A bolt of guilt went racing through Twilight's mind. "N-No..."
"I thought not. Trixie is upstairs?"
"Yes..."
Together they went upstairs to Trixie's bed, and when they got there, they found the blue unicorn asleep—but not sound asleep. Trixie was curled up on one side, her face contorted with pain. Luna frowned, held up a hoof to silence Twilight, and tentatively stepped forward herself under a warm glow from her horn. Trixie flinched, but she didn't seem to wake up.
"Her dreams are afflicted," Luna whispered.
"She's having a nightmare?"
Luna stepped back. "There is a reason why they are called such. They come to torment their hosts as surely as they torment others." She looked over at Twilight. "Dreams are the only realm in which a Nightmare and its host truly hold parity. A bad dream is a sign of conflict between the two."
Twilight looked back at Trixie, confused. "Conflict...?"
"To speak plainly," whispered Luna, "her feelings towards you are in chaos. She is in conflict with this evil shade—which means her feelings about you are at odds with those of the Nightmare."
Twilight felt her heart speed up. "Sh-She doesn't...hate me anymore? She...likes me?"
Princess Luna arched an eyebrow, and when Twilight looked back at her, the princess of the night had a small, knowing smile. "That, I cannot say." Her smile disappeared. "Do not interfere in her dreams in any way. Let them run their course. This is her battle to fight, and you, Twilight Sparkle, cannot intervene."
"O-Okay..."
Luna smiled again and went on her way, leaving Twilight behind to stand by Trixie's side, watching her toss and turn in the depths of her dreams, and desperately wishing she could be in there too.

When Trixie woke up the next morning, Twilight said nothing about Luna's visit. At the very least, she acted as though nothing had happened—and for that, Twilight was happy, because she had too many questions whirling around in her own head as it was.
Yet Trixie was still out of sorts, so Twilight Sparkle was left with only one weapon in the war against depression and misery. But what a potent weapon it was. Few unhappy ponies could withstand the tactical deployment of Pinkie Pie to forcibly brighten their day, whether they really wanted to or not. And as usual, Pinkie's chosen method of assault was a party.
At first she had wanted to cram all of Ponyville into the library. Applejack and Twilight talked her out of expecting the entire population of the town and surrounding environs to actually show up, and then talked her down to just tossing invitations out and whoever showed up would be the guests. And Twilight assiduously talked Pinkie out of much party activity from the Great, the Powerful, and the still-convalescing Trixie.
Pinkie, true to form, had transformed into a pink tornado as she conjured baked goods and prepared for a bash, which left Twilight with little more to do but watch the strange dance of insanity that was her friend and worry. It would be the first time since Nightmare Storm's return that she'd see all her friends together, including the ones who were least happy with this whole situation. Everything was going to be so awkward.
But Pinkie was determined, Trixie was depressed, and Twilight was going nuts. Plus, Spike probably deserved to have some fun; he had put up with all this madness with remarkable coolness.
Twilight guiltily turned her thoughts to Spike as she watched Pinkie hang up streamers. He really was more perceptive than he got credit for, and he'd gone along with all her decisions without the kind of fuss that Rainbow Dash had put up. So what did he think of all this?
"What's wrong, Twilight?" Pinkie asked, and pointedly ignored the way Twilight yelped in surprise.
"Oh, um, nothing, nothing at all—"
"Don't lie to Auntie Pinkie Pie! You are totally hyper ultra bummed and I can tell 'cuz I know when ponies are unhappy because that's my cue to make them anti-unhappy! Now," she plopped down next to Twilight and threw an arm around her, "what's got you all mopey-dopey-lopey?"
Twilight spared her hyperactive friend a cautious glance. Would Pinkie really understand all these jumbled thoughts and feelings? Would she understand where all this affection had come from, even when Twilight didn't—could never have seen it coming, never asked for it, wasn't even sure it was real and not just a fevered imagination run wild?
Pinkie's smile faded. "Twilight? Are you alright?"
"I-I'm fine, Pinkie."
"Are you sure?" She frowned. "'cuz you don't seem fine."
Twilight waved a hoof. "Stress, lack of sleep, dealing with Trixie. I'm okay, Pinkie. I promise."
Pinkie was unconvinced, but her smile flashed back into existence and she promptly shoved a cupcake into Twilight's mouth. "Okey dokey lokey! Back to work!" And with that she hopped back up and dove back into the delicate art of party preparations.
Twilight only cringed. Who really would understand?

Night fell and the work for the day was done, and that meant, logically, the only thing left to do was party.
As Pinkie Pie parties went, this one was fairly subdued, in the sense that there were no giant conga lines of ponies and nothing had exploded yet. That was probably at Twilight's command, since this place technically was still a library and Spike didn't want to have to clean things out of the books afterwards. And so, with the moon on the rise and nothing else to do, most of the town had trekked down to the library for yet another Pinkie Pie party.
Rarity watched it all from a little space by the door and sipped on some punch. It was a party and it was still fun even if Pinkie threw parties for everything up to and including the fact that it was Tuesday, but it wasn't all fun and games. After all, Pinkie had confided in her friends that she thought she'd seen Castor and Pollux pickpocketing, and she'd asked her friends to keep an eye out for that and any other shenanigans of a suspicious nature. And so Rarity stayed off on the sidelines of this particular shindig, sipped punch, and watched it all go by. It was good to just watch other ponies sometimes.
And that was especially so when some ponies really needed watching.
Rarity glanced over at Applejack as the brawny farmer quietly sidled up next to her. "See anythin' yet?"
"Not a thing," Rarity whispered back, and she nodded towards the door. "May we talk?"
Together they made their way just outside, where the sounds of the party were muffled by thick walls and the warm light faded into the dark.
"So Applejack," Rarity said quietly, "I don't suppose you've noticed that Twilight is out of sorts these days?"
"Shoot, ah was 'bout to ask you the same thing, Rar'."
"Oh good, then I'm not losing my mind." She glanced back inside awkwardly. "Or, I'm not the only one, at least. I don't think I'd ever have expected Twilight to stand up to a princess over all this. How is she?"
"Dang crazy, if ya ask me," Applejack grumbled. "All moody an' quiet, like she's confused 'bout somethin'."
"Is she now." Rarity frowned. "I've been taking care to avoid Trixie, lest we wind up starting a fight, but I can't help but notice how downright possessive dear Twilight has gotten about her." She looked over at Applejack. "You don't suppose she's falling in love, do you?"
Applejack promptly made a face. "That's gross, Rar'."
"Applejack!"
"What?" She waved a hoof at the library. "Ah mean, why Trixie? Not wantin' to kill her, that's one thing, but takin' a shine to her is a whole 'nother story. 'specially since Trixie's, y'know, a giant jerk who wants to kill her."
Rarity huffed in indignation. "Applejack! I thought we were going to support Twilight."
"Yeah, an' if she goes an' does somethin' stupid, we support her by gettin' her to stop it." Applejack rubbed the side of her head in frustration. "Ah mean, don't ah got a right to be worried? Twi's a big egghead with no social skills, an' Trixie's, well," she shrugged, "Trixie. How's that even gonna work?"
Rarity pouted. Bad enough that Applejack had a point. "Well, all the same, Twilight is going to need our support and friendship either way. It's not as if she'll be dissuaded from her feelings by rational argument or something. Especially since if there's anypony who could rationally argue someone else out of being in love, it's, ironically, Twilight Sparkle."
"That's true," Applejack sighed. "It's just, ah mean, come on, how could our Twi really wanna be with someone like Trixie? Twi's never all boastful an' arrogant like that. She cares 'bout her friends."
"Well, maybe having our dear Twilight's affection will spark a change for the better," Rarity said with a shrug. "And besides," she sighed wistfully, "who are we to so cruelly stomp out the flames of young love, dearest Applejack?"
"The sensible ones who know they're terrible for each other?"
Rarity huffed again. Did Applejack truly have no inner romantic? Some ponies were just impossible. "Well, be that as it may, if they really are terrible for each other, Twilight will just have to discover that for herself. It's not as though we're going to rationally persuade her to see it our way." She frowned thoughtfully. "Besides, what if we're wrong and they really do go well together? Who are we to get in the way of that?" She looked back at Applejack. "I don't know. Do you really think Trixie would harm our dear Twilight?"
Applejack stared back incredulously.
"I mean, besides the whole Nightmare business," Rarity amended.
"Ah dunno," sighed Applejack, "ah never really talked to Trixie all that much. Just clobbered her an' put her back in bed a couple times." She grinned. "Sure is fun, though. Hope she does it again sometime so ah can work off some stress."
"Well," Rarity scoffed, "I would rather think there's potentially a lovely romance blossoming here."
"'Lovely romance' or not, what're we gonna do about it? 'cuz whether or not Trixie's actually a nice pony underneath, ah'm gonna worry 'bout Twi anyways, an' not just 'cuz the Nightmare's still in there."
"That's the hard part," Rarity agreed with a somber sigh. "Since none of us can tell how Trixie feels about the whole thing." She glanced towards the stairs. "Although one should hope she'd be at least a little grateful to Twilight..."
"Man, RD is gonna blow her top when she finds out about this," Applejack groaned. "She's already all worked up over just havin' to sit and let this thing run its course. If Twi an' Trixie are gonna start datin' now or whatever she'll go insane."
Rarity cringed. The idea of a psychotically stressed-out Rainbow Dash was fairly terrifying to consider. "Well, Twilight's awful taste in mares aside, I still vote for being supportive. First love is always difficult, and as her friends, we will have to be there for her to vent and cry and dispense advice. And we can do that, right?" She smiled tentatively at Applejack.
"Ah hope so," sighed Applejack.

Razor Edge had to admit, putting a library inside a giant hollowed-out tree was kind of cool. Someday, after Inferno's promised riches came rolling in, he'd find himself a really big tree and take his share of the loot and have it turned into a mansion. It would be great. Fillies would dig it. Fillies totally dug cool stuff like that.
In the meantime, though, he had a mission, and a stallion with just a pair of hooves and some concentration could work wonders on such pesky things as back door locks. A short little trip through the darkened kitchen yielded his prize, in a set of keys hanging from a series of hooks on the wall. And he'd already seen the one Twilight Sparkle had used to lock the front door; those late-night stakeouts in the bushes had finally paid off.
There it was—and there was a copy, hidden behind a few other keys. It was child's play to quietly pull them off, tuck the copy into his mane, and leave the scene looking completely undisturbed. Even with the original still hanging on its hook.
After all, they needed to pay Miss Sparkle and Miss Trixie a visit tonight. A late-night checkout from the library, one might call it, and a special question or two for the librarian.

As Pinkie Pie had predicted, forgiveness—or more like forgetfulness, maybe—was ultimately the rule in Ponyville. Most of the ponies in town hardly even remembered Trixie's magic show, or the Ursa that followed—Ponyville had all kinds of monsters rampaging in the streets and crises to terrify the population, so a raging Ursa Minor was rather lost in the grand scheme of things—and Trixie seemed to be fairly happy in her chair off to the side, where she dazzled everypony who listened about her amazing adventures across Equestria.
Pinkie had to smile when she boasted of escaping from a dragon's hoard with the gem that formed the brooch of her cloak. Of course, probably most if not all of these stories were completely made up, but she couldn't really begrudge Trixie that. Besides, it wasn't impossible to escape from a dragon's hoard. Just, you know, difficult.
Anyways, the important thing was to make everypony feel better, and that was being achieved one way or another. Twilight was all loopy and it was potentially cute and adorable in the extreme but it was also pretty scary, because once you got onto this turf things could either make you really really happy or really really unhappy, and it was awfully hard to cheer up a pony who was really really unhappy.
But maybe everything would work out for the best! Pinkie Pie always hoped for that. After all, Twilight was super duper smart, so that had to count for something!
Pinkie Pie bounced over to Trixie as soon as she finished up her story about escaping a pack of timber wolves in Galloping Gorge. "So!" she squeaked. "Feeling better yet?"
Trixie stared at her cautiously for a moment. "I suppose."
"Great! Have a cupcake!" She promptly presented a bright blue cupcake from behind her back, and Trixie took a hesitant bite. "So you totally defeated a quarray eel at Galloping Gorge, huh? That is so awesome! You should tell Rainbow Dash, she'll be totally impressed!"
Trixie arched an eyebrow. "Are you making fun of me?"
"Nopey dopey lopey! You tell the best stories, Trixie! And I'm totally super glad to hear you're feeling better now because that means you might even be happy and if you're happy then my mission is complete!"
"Right..."
"Anyways you should totally tell the story about how you escaped from the dragon's hoard again," she said. "It was a doozy!"
Pinkie Pie bounced off into the crowd, leaving Trixie behind, thoroughly bewildered.

"I notice you haven't talked to Twilight since you got here," Fluttershy said quietly, after she'd found Rainbow Dash sulking in a corner by the stairs. Rainbow glanced back at her diffidently.
"I don't wanna start a fight. Or have to talk to Trixie."
Fluttershy frowned. "Are you still mad about her magic show?"
"No," groaned Rainbow, "jeez, why does everypony think I'm still mad about that? No. It's just..." She waved a hoof futilely at the whole scene before them. "It's all turning different. And it feels like all my friends are drifting away from me. Especially Twilight."
Fluttershy picked out Twilight on the crowd and cringed at the sight of her nervous expression as she stole furtive glances towards Trixie. "Well, you haven't talked much with her lately, have you?"
"Not really."
"I think you should. I'm sure Twilight would love to see you again. She must be lonely and stressed out dealing with all this." Fluttershy smiled tentatively. "You both like those Daring Do books, right? Maybe you could talk about those."
Rainbow stared down at her drink and heaved a sigh. "She's going to want me to make friends with Trixie. She wants all of us to make friends with Trixie. And after everything she's done, well, how am I supposed to just forget all that and move on?"
"Are you sure it's just that?"
Rainbow groaned. "I don't even know. I just know that I don't really want things to change, and if Twilight's gonna try to be friends with that jerk, things are gonna change."
Fluttershy cringed. "'Friends' might be an understatement, actually..."
Both of them were silent for a moment as Rainbow processed that. "Wait, are you serious?" Fluttershy nodded, and Rainbow looked back across the room at Twilight in slack-jawed horror. "No. No way. You have got to be kidding me."
"Oh, Rainbow, Twilight is going to need us to be there for her," Fluttershy went on. "Because, I mean, well, not to be harsh or anything, but—"
"She's Twilight?"
"...well, yes."
Rainbow shook her head. "No. No, you can't be serious. You must be making a mistake. There is no way Twilight is so crazy she's actually got a crush on Trixie. No way."
"Rainbow, I'm not really sure if they'd be good for each other either, but whatever happens, we have to help Twilight as much as possible. And that means we have to try to be friendly and welcoming to Trixie. Can you do that?"
Rainbow looked back and forth between Fluttershy's earnest look and Twilight, nervously stealing glances at Trixie—a thing that suddenly took on a whole new light.
"Everything is changing," she sighed.
"It doesn't have to—"
"No, it will," Rainbow spoke up. "You'll see. She'll want Trixie to be part of our little group, and Trixie will be as much of a jerk as she always is, and it'll tear us apart. It's going to happen. I know it will."
Fluttershy pursed her lips. "Trixie isn't that bad, Rainbow Dash—"
"Really. And what makes her not so bad, huh? She is the one who hated Twilight so much she turned herself into a monster."
"But she doesn't anymore," Fluttershy replied. "She stopped herself, remember?"
Rainbow scowled. "Good for her. I still don't trust her."
"I know." Fluttershy gave her friend a hug. "But Twilight trusts her, and we trust Twilight."
Rainbow kept her eyes fixed on Twilight and blinked away her tears. "She's going to tear us apart, Fluttershy. It's going to happen—"
"No it won't," Fluttershy whispered. "We can only get torn apart if we let ourselves get torn apart. And we're not going to let that happen." She turned Rainbow's head to face her and smiled soothingly. "Right?"
Rainbow sniffled. "I hope so."

It wasn't quite as awkward as Twilight Sparkle had feared, but it wasn't exactly devoid of awkwardness either.
Pinkie Pie's party had, as usual, worked some of that bizarre mystical inexplicable magic that Twilight mildly feared. At least it had made Trixie feel better. She'd quite enjoyed puffing herself up as the greatest adventurer in Equestria since Daring Do, and if Trixie felt better, that was what mattered the most. She'd been so shut down by the news of her parents' deaths that Twilight had actually started to miss her arrogant posturing.
Trixie, as it happened, was back in her bed, toying with the gemstone brooch of her cloak, when Twilight got upstairs. She had the gem in her hoof and stared down at it with a look of regret and somber resignation. She closed her eyes, concentrating—but nothing happened. And it didn't take Twilight's genius to guess she was trying to use her magic—and once again finding it completely unresponsive to her call.
"I guess that'll be our next project," she said quietly, catching Trixie's attention.
Trixie frowned. "I still don't know why it's gone."
"You don't still think I took your magic away, do you?"
"...I guess not." Trixie looked back down at her brooch. "If you protected me from a princess and got your crazy pink friend to throw me a party, I guess you're either playing a really long game of lulling me into a false sense of security, or you genuinely do want to help me." She held the brooch up in the flickering candlelight. "And I don't think you're conniving enough for the former."
Twilight tried not to let it show how her heart soared to hear that. "That's good."
"So what am I supposed to think of you?" Trixie asked. "You're still the one who made me look like a fool."
"I wasn't trying to—"
"Well it's what happened." She crossed her forelegs. "I told everyone I could beat that Ursa, and I didn't, and then you dealt with it. How does that not make me look like a fool?"
Twilight closed her eyes and thought back to the princess's words. "Even the best ponies make mistakes, Trixie."
At that, Trixie scoffed. "And how many of them can afford to make mistakes?"
They both fell silent for a moment. "Well, about your magic," Twilight went on, "I do kind of have a hunch that it's got something to do with the Nightmare. But it would help me a lot if I knew about how you got like this." She frowned. "I met a fellow in Canterlot called Seesaw," Trixie flinched at the name, "a fellow who turned out to be a creature named Nightmare Inferno. And I have a hunch that he helped create Nightmare Storm. But if I'm going to help you get your magic back, Trixie, I need to know what he had to do with you."
"Why ask her," spoke up another voice, and the blood froze in Twilight's veins, "when you can hear it straight from the horse's mouth?"
Twilight and Trixie slowly looked towards the shadows, where there, cloaked in darkness with wings spread and a treacherous smile on his face, stood Seesaw.