Nightmares

by unoservix

Chapter 05: Trust Me

Nightmares
———

Chapter 5: Trust Me

———

Nurse Redheart decided to dispense with the questions entirely once Twilight and her friends explained that the battered blue unicorn they'd brought with them had been found in the Everfree Forest. The damage made them all cringe, especially Fluttershy—four broken ribs, a few hairline fractures, some muscle sprains, some burns, and a concussion for the ages—but after being smacked around by an Ursa Minor, the Great and Powerful Trixie was lucky to still be in one Great and Powerful piece. So maybe that would settle her down when she inevitably woke up and got mad.

Or it would just make her angrier. Twilight couldn't tell which.

Now the work was left to an ancient unicorn healing spell, meant to do the hardest work of mending broken bones. It also conveniently left Trixie nice and unconscious, which was good, because they had to move her over to the library and Twilight did not really want to deal with that while also dealing with a waking and very angry unicorn.

So they had Trixie in a hastily-prepared bed upstairs, sound asleep, letting the spell heal the worst of the damage to her body. It had fallen to Spike to make sure she didn't do anything stupid up there, much to his displeasure, and Fluttershy had promised to come by as often as possible to help tend to Trixie's injuries. That was also good, because Twilight's medical knowledge extended only to the healing spell and she had little to no bedside manner, and testing it out on a subject like Trixie was probably not a good idea.

Applejack slumped down in front of the main table and wiped her brow. "That gal's heavier than she looks, ah'll tell you what," she sighed. "What's she been eatin' out there anyways? Pinecones?"

"So what if she wakes up?" Rainbow Dash asked, with an awkward glance towards the ceiling. "She's not gonna be happy to see you."

"She has four broken ribs and a bunch of other problems," Twilight scoffed. "Even if she wanted to, all she could do is lie on the floor and moan in pain. Spike and I will be fine."

"That's what ya said when ya went off to the Everfree Forest and ran into her in the first place," Applejack spoke up.

"Well she was up and on her feet and fully functional back then."

"And yet it took an Ursa to bring her down," piped up Rarity. "Are you sure you don't want one of us to stay here and help corral her in case she wakes up and turns violent?"

"Girls, please," Twilight laughed, "between us and the Ursa, we beat the stuffing out of her. And I can always cast the suppression spell again if need be. We'll be okay."

None of her friends looked convinced. Pinkie Pie bounced back up anyways. "Well!" she said. "I don't know about you girls but once she wakes up I say we throw a party in honor of our newest bestest friend ever!"

Rainbow, Applejack, and Rarity shared a skeptical look. "Newest, bestest friend ever?" Rainbow deadpanned.

"Uh, sugarcube, ya do remember Trixie, right?" asked Applejack. "Loud, arrogant, mite too full of 'erself—"

"—turned my mane green!" added an outraged Rarity.

"—and made me look stupid in front of everypony!" cried Rainbow.

Twilight buried her face in her hooves. "Girls, really, I know she was a jerk to everyone but this is all going to be pretty much impossible if you guys can't at least try to get along with her."

Rainbow crossed her arms defiantly. "I can not stomp her head in," she said, "but that's about all I can promise." She glared up at the ceiling again. "Especially if she's got an evil psycho killer mode."

Rarity fidgeted for a moment. "I will, of course, be the very picture of dignity and grace, but I must confess, I rather expect her to be...abrasive."

"An' ah'm with Rainbow," Applejack said flatly. "If she steps outta line ah'll buck her straight in the teeth."

"Well that's not very nice!"

All eyes turned towards Pinkie, who was standing on her head and balancing a book on the tip of her back hoof.

"Um, Pinkie, what are you—" Rainbow started.

"I mean, yeah, so Trixie was a great big meaniepants when she was doing her magic show, and she turned Rarity's mane green and everything, but still!" Pinkie whirled around right side up and caught the book in her tail. "We're all jerks sometimes too! Right Twilight?"

Twilight blinked. "Um...?"

"Like that time you tried to create a friendship problem to tell the princess about!" Pinkie chirped.

Twilight blushed and pawed at the floor. "Oh, right, that."

"Or when Applejack broke the Pinkie Pie Promise she made to me!"

"A-Ah thought you got over that already!" Applejack protested.

"Or all the times Rarity gets into fights with her sister or whatever over her fashion stuff!"

"I beg your pardon?!" Rarity huffed.

"Or the time Rainbow Dash was being a super duper great big jerk about being a hero and we had to do the Mare-Do-Well routine to make her stop!"

Rainbow scowled and her ears went flat. "I'm still not over that, by the way."

"Or the time when Fluttershy turned into a vicious, spiteful harpy who reveled in the pain of her friends!"

Fluttershy frowned. "That was Discord's fault."

"No, the other time!"

"O-Oh." She promptly hunkered down on the floor. "D-Did I not say I was sorry enough? I'm sorry! I just—"

"And then there's me!" Pinkie cried, and balanced herself on her fluffy, poofy tail. "I mean, gosh, I'm just insane in the membrane, y'know? Like you just wind me up and pull the string and let me go and I'll never shut up!"

"Are you going somewhere with this, Pinkie?" Twilight asked irritably.

"The point is," Pinkie hopped into the air and then balanced on the tip of her mane, and Twilight decided not to inquire into how that was physically possible, "we're all great big jerks sometimes, just like Trixie! But we're all friends and we all love each other anyways 'cuz we're not always great big jerks!" She pointed at all her friends with dizzying speed. "Rainbow Dash is super brave and loyal and Rarity is always making us beautiful clothes and Applejack is always there to help and Fluttershy is like the sweetest pony ever and Twilight is super duper smart! And we're all still friends even though sometimes we're mean and stupid to each other! So!" She turned herself around again and balanced on one back hoof. "We should totally try it with Trixie! And then she can be our friend too! And having more friends is always worth it!"

Twilight and her friends shared an awkward look. "That was actually one of the more sensible rants she's gone on," Twilight said thoughtfully.

"U-Um, I'm with Pinkie," Fluttershy spoke up. "We should try to be her friend."

"Yay! Fluttershy's with me!"

Applejack and Rarity shared a concerned glance. "Well," Rarity said, "of course we'll try to get along with her, but you must understand, darling, that she will be very, ah, shall we say, difficult. And, well—"

"Since she's all crazy," Applejack added, "we're gonna worry no matter what ya say."

Twilight smiled. "I guess you wouldn't be my friends if you didn't."

"But if she does do something," Rainbow put in, "I'll put her back down and I don't care how many of her bones I have to break to do it."

"Violence aside," Rarity said, with a disgusted look towards Rainbow, "that goes without saying."

Twilight sighed, ears flat. That was probably the best she could hope for from her friends. "Well as long as you guys give peace a chance before you try to kill her..."

"Wait!" Pinkie cried, and all eyes turned back towards her, where this time she was balancing on her nose. "What if Trixie is actually a really nice pony underneath her chitinous exoskeleton of jerkitude?"

"That's what I'm hoping for!" Twilight said. "I mean, there's got to be reasons why she turned out this way, and if we try to understand them—"

"Yeah, yeah, heard it already," Rainbow grumbled. "No parents, orphanages, no friends, whatever. So what? You didn't have friends and you didn't turn out to be a giant tool."

Twilight arched an eyebrow. "Gee, thanks." She looked around at her friends one more time. "Look, I know Trixie didn't treat you well, but her life is literally in our hooves now. If we don't get that Nightmare out of her, we'll have to use the Elements on her. And none of us want to do that, right?" They all awkwardly shook their heads. "Then we have to be nice to her, and we have to be patient, and we have to be her friends. She needs us right now, even if she doesn't know it. And we know what friendship can do, right?"

Rainbow quirked an eyebrow. "Last time, I seem to remember the magic of friendship being a big giant beam of light that we shot at the bad guy."

"Well, not this time." Twilight put her hoof in the air. "I need your help, girls. Are you all with me?"

"Ooh, me! Me!" Pinkie bounced over and threw in her hoof.

"M-Me too," Fluttershy added.

"Of course we are, darling."

"Sure thing, sugarcube."

Rainbow sighed and put in her hoof as well. "Yeah, yeah."

Twilight's smile shone like the sun and she threw her arms around them all. "I'm so glad I can count on you!"

———

Two days passed blessedly uneventfully, and by midmorning of the third day Twilight Sparkle was already uncoiling her cramping muscles from another long study session. Her library had unfortunately little to say about Nightmares or sleeping boastful obnoxious blue unicorn magicians, but that didn't mean she couldn't get anything else done.

She trotted over to the window and stretched in the warmth of the sun. Ponyville had already woken up hours ago and down below she could see Applejack with her cart, doing brisk business despite Apple Bloom's cutie mark-seeking presence. And off to the side in front of a house, she could see Derpy shoving letters into somepony's mailbox. Hopefully they were the right letters. And the right mailbox. With Derpy, the mail always eventually found its way to the right pony, but the path it took to get there was always uncertain.

Twilight glanced towards the stairs, where downstairs Spike was either dusting the shelves like he was supposed to be doing, or raiding the cookie jar again like he wasn't. Having a direct line to Princess Celestia, albeit through Spike's respiratory system, was certainly convenient; on the other hoof, like everyone else in Ponyville, she had to rely on the local mail carrier—this time for a quick apologetic note to Zecora for not showing up for their Moonbell hunt, and a note sent off to Canterlot for a certain pegasus named Seesaw.

That one had been diplomatic, at least. All he needed to know right now was that the Great and Powerful Trixie had taken ill and was staying in Ponyville to recover before she hit the road again. Which was technically true. Anyway, it wasn't really lying if you told the truth but just left certain parts out, right? And besides, she was the Element of Magic. Honesty was Applejack's job.

Perhaps the knowledge that she had fans—or, well, a fan—anxiously awaiting her triumphant return to show business would help speed along Trixie's recovery. At the very least it would get her out of Ponyville, and that was probably the best thing possible—before some fight erupted with her friends or something. But until then, she was still asleep as the spell worked its magic. There was no telling how long it would take, although bones tended to take longer to fix than flesh, but hopefully she would wake up soon. The anticipation was starting to drive her nuts.

Twilight trotted back to her desk and plopped herself down in front of a stack of loose papers. What was going to happen when Trixie woke up anyways? She sorely hoped the blue magician's response would be one of gratitude—both for rescuing her from the Ursa and for deciding not to just incinerate her with the Elements of Harmony—and cooperation in getting rid of the thing. But that was probably not going to happen. If all else failed, there was that box in the basement and its few, dusty contents might make an adequate token of goodwill.

She idly lifted over one of her magic books and gazed over its embossed leather cover. No one in Ponyville was ever going to show as much interest in magical theory as she did, but having someone around to talk about practical magic with wouldn't be so bad. Rarity knew a bit about illusions and the other unicorns in town were all skilled enough at the basics, but Twilight's passions ran much deeper. Maybe somepony who depended on magic for a living would understand her interest. Or maybe—

Her thoughts came screeching to a halt as Spike waved a hand in front of her face. "Hey Twi, she's waking up."

"Wha—she is?! And I was all zoned out for it?"

"Yeah, you do that a lot."

They rushed over to the bedside and Twilight put on a smile as Trixie struggled to life, cracking her eyes open. She caught sight of Twilight; her bloodshot eyes went wide.

"Hi Trixie," Twilight started—

The next thing she knew, she and Spike were sprawled against the wall on the opposite end of the room—and a cloud of smoke had billowed up around Trixie.

"You?!" screamed the all-too-familiar voice of Nightmare Storm. "You dare show your face before me again?!"

"Well this is going just swell," Spike grunted.

"Trixie! Calm down!" Twilight exclaimed, and got back to her feet. "You can't—"

The smoke burst apart and Nightmare Storm gingerly stepped onto the floor—and immediately her back legs buckled and she crumpled to a heap. "What have you done to me?!" she bellowed.

"Actually that was the Ursa that did that to you," Spike spoke up.

"Not helping, Spike!" Twilight cried, and promptly shoved him back against the wall. "Trixie, listen to me! You're really hurt and you can't go doing that and—"

"Silence!" Nightmare Storm roared, and fired a pulsing blast of magic. Twilight threw herself to the floor and let the beam sear overhead out the window. "I will not be mocked by the likes of you!" She struggled to get back up again, and her legs gave way and sent her back to the floor. "I will not be humiliated—"

Nightmare Storm yelped in surprise as something went sailing back through the window—and Twilight blinked as Applejack landed with a thump, threw herself forward, and promptly put Nightmare Storm in a headlock.

"Let go of me!" screamed the black unicorn. "Let go—"

"Twi, magic!" Applejack shouted.

Twilight darted forward and lit up her horn. This time the suppression spell was a bit easier; Nightmare Storm howled and thrashed, but the pulsing light enveloped her and Applejack backed away to let the spell do its work—and a moment later, gasping for breath with naked terror in her eyes, there was a bedraggled and battered Trixie.

"Well," huffed Applejack, "that was fun."

Trixie's eyes darted around, fear mixing with anger. "Where am I?!" she demanded. Her eyes locked on Twilight and the anger surged to the surface, but this time the Nightmare did not. "You! What are you—where—how am I—?!" She stopped short as Applejack slammed a hoof down on the floor just in front of her face.

"Shut it."

"Ahem." Twilight nudged Applejack aside. "Hi Trixie. Um, I don't know how to tell you this diplomatically, so I'm just gonna say it up front, but—"

"How dare you show your face in front of me!" Trixie snarled. "After what you did to me?! After humiliating me in front of a whole town?! And now look at me! What have you done to me?! I—"

"And just what the hay is going on here!?"

Spike yelped in surprise and Twilight cringed as Rainbow Dash came crashing in through the window, wings spread and ready for battle. The door burst open and Rarity and Pinkie came tumbling in next, followed by Fluttershy, drifting after them nervously. "Darling, we saw a flash of light, are you—" Rarity stopped short at the sight of Trixie on the floor.

Twilight turned her eyes back towards the blue unicorn and saw nothing but fear in her eyes. "It's okay, girls," she said, "it's under control—"

"Figures!" Rainbow snapped. "First thing the ungrateful nitwit does is attack you!"

"That was definitely not a friendship-y kind of thing to do!" Pinkie agreed with a sage nod.

"L-Let's just get you back into bed," Fluttershy stammered, and started moving over towards Trixie—until Rainbow blocked her path with a wing.

"No, she's still dangerous!"

"No she's not!" Twilight wailed. "I just cast the suppression spell on her—"

"Yeah, fat lotta good that did," snorted Applejack.

"Girls, please!" Twilight groaned, and pointed at Trixie—hunkered on the floor, grasping her legs in pain, scared out of her wits. "I will handle this, okay? I just cast the suppression spell and it's obviously working and you're not helping at all here so just leave this to me, alright?"

Twilight's glare said everything else that needed to be said. "Alright, darling," Rarity said with a shifty glance towards Trixie, "but we'll still come running if another fight breaks out."

"Yeah, ah'll still be down in the street with the cart," Applejack said, and glowered down at the blue unicorn, "so just gimme a holler if she needs to be tucked in."

Rainbow Dash bristled. "She still tried to attack you!"

Pinkie wordlessly grabbed Rainbow by the tail and went bouncing back down the stairs. Twilight sighed as Fluttershy finished putting Trixie back in bed and then quietly shuffled out.

"So," she said, and looked back towards the blue unicorn, "let's try this again."

Trixie's eyes darted distrustfully between Twilight and a very awkward-looking Spike. "What am I doing here? What happened? Why can't I walk?"

"Look," Twilight said, "you've got this monster inside you called a Nightmare, and it just took control of you and tried to kill me. I know you're angry at me because you think I humiliated you—"

"Because you did humiliate me," Trixie growled.

"...sure...well, anyways, now all that hatred has come to life and it's corrupted you—"

"It has not corrupted me!" Trixie snapped. "It's my power! Mine! How dare you!"

"Well if that's how you feel," Spike shot back, "I guess we can just fire up the Elements of Harmony and fry you right now!"

"Spike!" Twilight exclaimed; Trixie blinked at him in disbelief.

"Wh-what is he talking about...?"

"Alright, it's like this," Twilight said, rubbing her temple with one of her hooves. "That power you mentioned comes from a Nightmare. It's a creature that feeds off of hatred and anger. It makes you dangerous, and Princess Celestia herself said that if you don't let go of all that hatred, we'll have to use the Elements of Harmony," she frowned, "and if we do, you won't survive."

Trixie's eyes flashed with defiance, but Twilight and Spike could both see the fear underneath. "How dare you threaten me?!"

"Threaten you?" echoed Twilight with a glare. "I'm the one who saved you!" She pointed at the stairs. "My friends all wanted to use the Elements and kill you, because you're so dangerous and because you want to kill me! And we could've left you alone to that Ursa," Trixie flinched at the name, "but instead Fluttershy told it off and we took you here, we took care of you, I cast a healing spell on you, and now we're trying to save you! Okay?!"

Trixie looked back and forth between Twilight and Spike, flabbergasted.

"Now, look," Twilight said with a heavy sigh, "I know you think I was out to embarrass you the last time you were here. But I really wasn't. It wasn't even really your fault the Ursa showed up—"

"—even though it was," Spike coughed, and Twilight promptly swatted him upside the head.

"Not now, Spike," she growled, and turned back towards Trixie. "Anyway, all I was trying to do was stop the Ursa from, you know, destroying Ponyville. And if it made you look bad in the process, I'm sorry. But now you've got bigger problems, and I'm trying to help. But I can't do that if you don't cooperate—and if you don't cooperate, we have to drag out the Elements." She narrowed her eyes. "You remember what they did to Nightmare Moon and Discord? None of us want that to happen."

Trixie's eyes flickered with hatred. "Of course you would say that," she sneered. "As if you have any idea what I went through out there." She waved a hoof contemptuously. "Bad enough I get run out of town by the likes of you and get humiliated and lose everything I own. Then what do I discover? She's the personal student of Princess Celestia. She's got an Element of Harmony. Her brother's Captain of the Guard and married to a bloody princess. She saved the world from Nightmare Moon and Discord. Aren't you just special?" She turned her eyes towards the wall. "Go away. I don't want your help."

Spike rolled his eyes. "It's that or the Elements."

"I said go away!"

Trixie turned again, eyes flashing furiously—but then she blinked in surprise and looked up towards her horn. She screwed her eyes shut in concentration—but nothing happened.

"My magic!" she gasped, and the anger rushed back up to the surface. "What have you done with my magic?!"

Twilight and Spike shared a confused look. "What do you mean?" Twilight asked.

"I can't use magic!" Trixie ground her teeth in fury. "What did you do?!"

"Why would you not be able to use magic...?" Twilight wondered—until Spike took his turn to smack her upside the head.

"Nerd out later, Twi, crisis now."

"Right, right! Trixie, only the princess can take away a unicorn's magic—"

"Why can't I use my magic?!" Trixie screamed, and Twilight winced at the sight of tears forming in her eyes. "Did you have to take one more thing from me?!" She turned over and hissed in pain as her legs shifted. "Get away from me!"

"Trixie..."

Trixie was silent. Twilight and Spike shared an uneasy look. This was going to be much harder than they thought.

———

By nightfall, they had at least managed to coax Trixie into eating a little—not that she was actually talking to them, but the salad they'd left for her was gone when Spike collected the dishes, so unless she was stashing lettuce under her blanket or something that was probably a very tiny baby step in the right direction. Maybe.

Twilight sighed and glanced across the room, where Trixie was as curled up as her injured legs would let her, sound asleep and exuding righteous indignation. At least she was asleep. Twilight looked back at her research, and the half-eaten sandwich Spike had made for her. She had in all honesty not expected that Trixie's magic would be impaired by this Nightmare, and nothing so far in her studies of magical illnesses and maladies was turning anything up. It was another thing to ask the princess about, and she'd already had Spike send off a letter, but there was no response yet.

Either way, those tears in Trixie's eyes when she realized that she was blocked from her magic were haunting all the same. Princess Celestia's words came back, about seeing things from Trixie's perspective. Twilight shuddered to think what life would be like for herself if she had no magic—cut off from her greatest passion, locked away from the knowledge she had pursued all her life.

She looked back at Trixie again, thought of the tears in her eyes, and dove into the books one more time. Maybe there was something she'd overlooked.

———

Comments

[Phaoray]

Good chapter, I am curious to see how all of this turns out. It also makes me curious to see Trixie's responses to Twilight and the others as this progresses. : )

[ForSpite]

Pinkie's speech was wonderful.

"No, the other time."

[carlos_pony]

Poor Trixie, well, and poor Twilight having to deal with her in that mood.
Cant wait for the next chapter.

[RTStephens]

Things went about as well as to be expected. Meaning, everything went wrong!

Twilight's certainly got a lot to deal with. Trixie. Her friends' protectiveness, Spike's comments, lost magic and so on. I couldn't think of a better mare for the job!

I'm liking where things are going and I look forward to more!

[Clouded Mind]

Really enjoying this story so far. Looking forward to the next chapter soon and how Twi deals with Trixie(Here's hoping for Twixie in the future)