//------------------------------// // Chapter 15 // Story: Welcome To Ponyville High // by xxGamer101xx //------------------------------// Inside Canterlot Castle sat a woman dressed in a long white dress. On her summer colored hair sat a tiara with a sun etched on the front. Royal guards lined the room and waited near the main entrance, encumbered with golden armor and shields depicting the mark of their ruler. They stood poised and ready to take on whatever came through the great doors. “Princess Celestia,” one of her guards spoke up. “Are you sure that she is coming?” “Yes,” Celestia calmly answered. “She should be here at any moment.” “What does she want from you?” Celestia only shook her head. “To settle what I should have long ago.” She stood up as a figure appeared in the middle of the throne room. The guards raised their spears, a womanly laugh echoing throughout the chamber. “I see that you're doing well, sister,” Nightmare Moon mocked as she laughed harder and harder with every word that she said. Celestia glared at the apparition. “How did you escape?” “Does it matter?” Nightmare smiled as she approached her sister. The guards raised their spears as she got closer and closer. Princess Celestia raised her hand and looked at her sister intently. “What games are you trying to play?” “Games? Dear sister, do you take me for a child?” “No,” Celestia firmly retorted, “But attempting to bring eternal night does things to trust.” “Is this anyway to treat your dear sister?” she laughed in response. A chill crawled up Celestia’s spine at the playfulness the woman before her displayed. “You are no sister of mine.” She stepped down the steps some and offered a less hostile expression. “Why are you doing this?” Nightmare Moon only offered her smile in response. “Well since you asked so nicely, I will tell you.” With a flash the guards that once stood with their spears held high, were now on the ground with eyes closed. Celestia looked at Nightmare Moon with a shocked expression on her face, “Why did it come to this?” “Why?” shouted Nightmare Moon as her eyes began to glow. She then pointed at Celestia and her voice grew with anger. “All these years I had to live in your shadow! They basked in your light and not once did I feel their love! Well that time is no more dear sister. If they will not love my night, they will fear its power!” “We made a promise to protect our subjects, Luna!” Celestia shouted, plea in her voice. “Fight this! This isn’t who you are, Luna!” “No matter how many times you call me that, it won’t change a thing.” shouted Nightmare Moon. “Luna is gone. She was weak. I have the strength to succeed where she failed.” “Do you?” Celestia questioned, taking on her more stern demeanor. “We may live for millennia, but we have weaknesses just as any other.” Nightmare Moon only laughed in response. “You would do well to remember I am not the petty excuse for a princess your sister was. You will bow to my power.” Even in the face of danger, Celestia’s voice was still calm as she tried her best to still reason with her. “Don’t make me harm you, Luna,” Celestia warned, clenching her fists as Nightmare approached. A smile formed on the Nightmare’s face as she snickered. “It was a refreshing joke to your pitiful attempt at reviving the Elements.” “I did no such thing,” she responded. Celestia thought quickly about what this devil was talking about. It very well could have been a trick. But if she wasn’t lying… then there were people who had gone for the Elements. “It was foolish on their part,” laughed Nightmare. She then gave her sister a sinister smile. “They will pay for your mistakes.” “What do you mean?” asked Celestia, worry now in her voice. “What have you done?” Nightmare Moon’s voice boomed as her eyes began to glow white. “Enough talk! I have waited 1,000 for this moment, and I won’t delay it any longer!” “Luna… I won’t fight you… I won’t fight my only sister.” Nightmare scoffed softly before her eyes narrowed in and her face scrunched up into a snarl. “I have no sister.” *** Twilight felt someone’s gaze bearing down on her, but she could only stumble around in the dark. She bumped into someone, and when she looked she found her mentor glaring down at her. She’d never seen her give such a disgusted scowl. “Twilight Sparkle,” called out Celestia, barely looking to the young girl. “You have failed your test.” Twilight felt her voice hitch and tears come flooding out as she fell to her knees. “I’m sorry Princess,” she whispered as she wiped the stream of tears. “As punishment, I’m sending you back to magic kindergarten.” “No!” Twilight exclaimed, begging at the princess’s feet. “Please Princess, give me a second chance!” Celestia only shook her head and frowned down at Twilight. “I expected so much better. Especially from you.” “You can still expect more from me!” cried Twilight as she looked up to her irritated mentor. “Please, just give me another chance.” “I’m afraid I can’t do that,” replied the Princess. “I see now that I expected too much.” Twilight felt herself being thrown backwards as her surroundings began changing. She looked around again and saw that she was in a room full of small children. They all started to point at her and laughed, their voices echoing all around her. Twilight sat down and curled her legs in close, hugging them tightly with her arms. “No… no, no,no,” she said to herself, the laughter growing louder and louder. “This can’t be real. This can’t be happening.” “I can’t believe she’s still in Magic Kindergarden!” she heard one of the children laugh. “She must be super stupid!” Twilight buried her head in her arms, her sleeves dampening from the crying. “Please oh please. Wake me up from this nightmare.” “I mean she’s how old and she’s still here?” “Wait… Nightmare.” Twilight picked her head up, the laughing slowly drowning out. “This is a nightmare… she must be trapping us here to stop us.” Wiping her eyes clean, she rose up from the wall and began to run as far from the room as possible. As she ran, reality began altering around her once more. Soon, she found herself coming up to an altar. Shining Armor and Cadence stood across from each other, both giving the same stern look as Princess Celestia. He was wearing a tuxedo and Cadence was wearing a wedding gown, and off to the sides her friends were wearing their own dresses. “Twilight!” said Shining with an angry expression on his face. “I can’t believe what you just said! You know what, just forget about this wedding completely. I don’t you anywhere near it.” “I can’t believe I was looking forward to having you as a sister,” Cadence sneered as she turned her eyes away. Part of Twilight wanted to cry, but the rational part was reminding her that none of this was real. She ignored their comments and began to run past them. She ignored their hate-filled words and kept going, distancing herself as much as possible. When she ran out of breath, she finally decided to slow down. “Okay,” she panted heavily. “If this is a dream, I must be asleep somewhere. I just need to wake myself up.” She smirked to herself as a thought began to cross her mind. Clearing her throat, she started forcing out coughs. As she coughed and coughed, the odd environment around her began to blur around her and deteriorate. A choked gasp escaped her as she jolted up from the ground. She was out of the nightmare, but as she glanced around she could see her friends were still caught in theirs. “Come on, girls. You can do this. They’re just bad dreams.” She looked beside her and saw Pinkie tossing and turning. She touched her shoulder and gingerly tried to shake her from the nightmares. *** “Would you like some more tea, Madame LeFlour?” Pinkie asked a sack of flour, her eye twitching as she poured imaginary tea. Snickering to herself, she stood up and went around the table and behind the bag. She grabbed the sack of flour and said with her best French accent, “Oui.” “What about you, Mr. Radish?” The bucket of radishes didn’t seem to want anymore tea. “That’s fine. You don’t have to talk to me.” Her lips twitched as she she muttered to herself, “I’m used to it by now.” She looked and saw a pile of rocks and asked again if they wanted tea. Pinkie laughed more as she looked at her reflection from the solid metal teapot. Her normally curly pink hair was now straight and covered one of her dark blue eyes. She twitched again as she dropped the teapot, looking down with a frown at the smashed ceramic. “Who needs tea anyway?” she cackled again, flopping down in the center of the tea party. She rose up again and began to speak in the voice of her new friends. “You don’t need those phonies that you called friends,” said Rocky. “Oui,” replied Madame LeFlour. “You are better off.” “They were holding you back,” shouted Mr. Radish. Pinkie began to laugh more erratically, but it died down as she heard a voice that wasn’t any of hers. “Pinkie,” the voice said. Pinkie smiled, since it sounded like her friend Twilight. Probably there to tell her she was a nuisance. Only… she never did. She wanted her to wake up. Her voice was soft and sincere… nothing like she thought her friends would act. Her party guests began to disappear one by one, replaced by the family of friends she’d made. Twilight held her hand out to her, and she took it in hers. Pinkie yelped and shot up from her prone position, grabbing at her head frantically. She gave a sigh of relief as she realized her hair was still curly. She looked at Twilight and pulled her into a tight hug. “Oh, Twilight!” said Pinkie, “I had the weirdest dream! I had a dream that none of you girls ever liked being around me.” “Don’t be silly, Pinkie,” Twilight assured her with a smile. “Why would we ever stop hanging out with you? You’re our friend, Pinkie.” Pinkie laughed. “Aww. Thanks, Twilight. Did the rest of you girls have the same strange dream as me?” “Well… sorta,” muttered Twilight. She pulled away from the hug and moved towards Rarity, who was muttering in her sleep. “Now, help me wake them up.” Pinkie smiled in response as she went towards Fluttershy and began to shake her awake. “Okie Dokie Lokie!” *** Her parents told her that they were going on another one of their week long vacations. As usual, Rarity was in charge of caring for her younger sister. She locked herself in her room and began to sew fabric together to make a dress. She didn't have a reason to make said dress, she just wanted to get her mind off things. Rarity sighed in frustration as she sat alone in her bedroom. She began to start up her sewing machine as she shook those thoughts away from her mind. Moments had passed and she stopped her sewing. She drew her hands to her face and noticed that it was stained with tears. With a quick wipe, she went back to making her dress. “It isn’t fair,” she muttered as she rose from her seat. “They get to leave for all these vacations and Sweetie and I are always stuck home alone.” She stopped for a moment and rolled her eyes. “This isn’t much of a nightmare, now is it? Just a reminder of how selfish my parents truly are.” Her surroundings around her began to change. She was now comparing fabric together and occasionally glancing over to an aloof Rainbow Dash. She was leaning against the wall and staring at nothing in particular, until she noticed Rarity waiting for her. “What?” Rarity gestured to the dress. “Aren’t you going to ask me to change something?” “No.” “Do you not like the dress?” “The dress is fine it's just….” “Do you not like the color?” “The color is fine just….” “Just what?" Rainbow shrugged as she looked at the dress. “Just make it… like, cooler. It needs to be at least 20% cooler.” After giving her opinion, she walked out of the room. Rarity dropped the fabric that she was holding as her eye twitched. “That doesn’t help me with your dress, Rainbow Dash!” The world around her began to change again as she sewed a different fabric to make a dress. Each of her friends would pop in and demand a request to be done with the dress. Twilight wanted Orion's belt decorating the hem, Pinkie wanted balloons and candy to be stitched on, Fluttershy wanted an entirely different style, Applejack wanted galoshes in case it rained. Oh, and Rainbow’s request to make it 20% didn't seem to help at all. Rarity looked to her side and saw a dress template she hadn’t even started. A door then opened wide before Sweetie Belle could be heard shouting. “Rarity!” her sister called. “Did you remember that you volunteered to make the costumes for the school play?” Rarity smiled to herself. “Of course I remembered, Sweetie. Why do you ask?” “Well… the play is tomorrow and you haven’t even started!” Rarity's eyes jolted open as she rose up, muttering about never wanting to make dresses again. She looked at Twilight, pulling her close she desperately declared, “Never again!” “Never again…. what?” blinked Twilight as she shook Rarity again. “Are you up or still sleeping?” Rarity looked around a bit, then glanced back to Twilight. “Never again.” “O-kay?” murmured Twilight as she pulled herself and Rarity up. “I have no idea what you're talking about.” “I had to make so many dresses… so little time… never again.” “Oh…” said Twilight as she walked towards Applejack who was still sleeping, “That’s what you meant.” *** Fluttershy sat in the middle of a field of flowers. As she picked each flower and hummed along with the birds, she saw a bunny running through the field. As the bunny scurried past her, Fluttershy got up and went after it. She stopped herself when she approached the entrance of the woods. “Angel Bunny!” Fluttershy weakly called out, but no response came. Fluttershy looked back up to the woods and slowly entered. With each step Fluttershy took, she pulled her arms closer to her chest. She whimpered and ducked her head whenever a tree branch would rustle, or when an owl would hoot. She gave a panicked scream when she heard footsteps behind her. She stood frozen in fear as the steps came closer and closer. A figure came of the shadows and greeted Fluttershy with a grin. The man had silver and black hair, and wore a brown suit with mismatched sleeves. One pant leg was green while the other was brown. “Long time no see, Fluttershy,” the man smiled. Fluttershy backed away from him and stammered out, “W-w-who are you?” He frowned… jokingly? “You don’t remember me? And I thought we were friends.” Fluttershy softly replied, “I-I’m sorry… I don’t know who you are, mister.” The man laughed. “Well since I am such a good friend, I should warn you. Don’t believe what the others are saying. None of it is true.” “Um… okay.” “Well I’ll be leaving you now Fluttershy, but remember my words. Don’t believe a word anyone says, none of it is true.” As Fluttershy opened her mouth to say something, the man went away, and the forest around began to fade away. Her eyes were now open as Pinkie was still shaking her. Fluttershy rose up from the ground and looked around, realizing they were still in the castle. “Fluttershy you're up,” smiled Pinkie as she quickly moved towards Rainbow, “Come on and help me wake Dashie up.” As Fluttershy made her way towards Rainbow, a thought started to race through her mind. Who was that strange man in dream? Did they really did know each other? What was he talking about, don’t believe anyone they are all lying. Those questions began to race through her mind and she had no answer. Who was that man and what was he talking about? Why would everyone be lying? *** Applejack looked on in horror as she stood in the center of Sweet Apple Acres. Every single apple tree had rotted away. The trees now looked dead and not a single apple was on the tree. “What do we do now?” asked Apple Bloom. “Ah… ah don’t know,” Applejack replied, still dumbfounded as she stared at the ruins of her family’s farm. Her sister hugged her side. “Ah mean, what’ll happen to us now? What’re we gonna do without the farm?” Applejack put a hand on her sister's shoulder and gave her a reassuring smile as she wiped her eyes quickly. “Don’t you worry none, Apple Bloom. We just gotta stick together. We’ll figure somethin’ out. Right, Big Mac?” “Eeyup,” Big Mac said. “But… something about this seems to be a little off,” mumbled Applejack as she looked at the trees again. “It just happened overnight. Nothing like this is possible.” “Applejack,” said Apple Bloom, her voice beginning to echo. “Did ya say something?” Applejack blinked and looked out to the fading lands. “Nope… nothin’ at all.” *** With a flash, Applejack jolted awake. She blinked several times as she was trying to figure out if this was real or still a dream. Twilight and Rarity sat beside her, both breathing relieved sighs as she sat up. “Applejack, darling, are you alright?” asked Rarity as she helped her up. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” “Ah appreciate yer concern, Rarity.” Applejack said with a sigh. “Don’t you worry none. Ah’m fine.” “Are you sure?” asked Rarity. “Eeyup,” grunted Applejack as she stood up. She looked ahead and noticed that Fluttershy and Pinkie were still trying to wake Rainbow up. “We should make sure she wakes up alright.” “Even in a situation like this, she manages to get sleep,” Rarity giggled softly. *** Rainbow Dash did her best not to cry, but nothing could help her at this point. She couldn’t believe it… her worst dreams had came true. She was rejected by the Wonderbolts. Her dream of flying with the Royal Air Force would never come true. “Oh, Rainbow Dash, sweetie.” she heard her mother’s voice say. “You can’t let this bring you down so much.” Rainbow didn't say anything and shrugged her mother’s hand off her shoulder. She went into her bedroom and slammed the door shut. She then went and laid down in her bed, eyes staring at the Wonderbolts poster she had hanging on the ceiling. Moments passed before she stood up and tore down her poster, ripping it carelessly. After she was done, she went around her room and purged it of anything that had to do with the Wonderbolts. After she threw them in the trash, she went back to her bed and started to cry. “My dreams will never come true,” she mumbled as she buried her face in her hands crying. “I’ll never get to be a Wonderbolt.” ”Please, Rainbow, wake up. You’re gonna be a great Wonderbolt when you’re older. But you have to wake up.” Rainbow lifted her head and quickly looked around the room. “Fluttershy?” As more of her friend’s soothing words made it through to her, her posters began appear on her walls once again. When it was all back to normal, she felt everything go numb. *** Rainbow groaned as she sat up and rubbed her head. She looked around and saw that her friends all waited in anticipation, “Are you okay, Rainbow?” Fluttershy asked softly, holding her friend’s hand. Rainbow rose to her feet and cleared her throat. “I had the worst dream ever.” “What was it about?” “I was rejected by the Wonderbolts,” she mumbled, looking down at her feet. “It was way too weird… and way too real.” “It wasn't, Rainbow,” said Twilight. “It was Nightmare Moon trying to mess with us. All the dreams we had were our worst fears.” “You got that right,” mumbled Rainbow. “Girls, look!” Twilight exclaimed as she ran to the center of the throne room. They all turned to where she was going and saw the Elements. They were no longer petrified orbs, but shining emeralds inside of golden necklaces. Twilight then handed each girl one of the necklaces. "Oh my." mumbled Fluttershy as she looked at the necklace. "I like this one." smiled Pinkie as she held the stone in front of her. "Its all sparkly, I love it!" "Ah aint one for jewelry, but Ah have to ambit. It does look pretty." said Applejack as she held the stone. "Now this necklace looks pretty awesome." smirked Rainbow as she looked at the stone. “Oh my!” remarked Rarity as she examined the stone Twilight gave her. “They’re gorgeous!” “Come on, girls,” said Twilight aloud as she placed the tiara on her crown. “We have to stop Nightmare Moon.”