Heading back into town, Rainbow took an educated guess that Twilight was probably going to be up too; three of their tightly knit friendship group had been tormented by bad dreams, but nopony else seemed to have been affected. She also guessed that if she had gone to Sugarcube Corner or Carousel Boutique she would have heard similar tales, each nightmare having been tailored to the specific fears of the dreamer.
The grand old oak tree that had stood for only Celestia knew how many years came into view; a tree that now accommodated a library, for pony’s sake. However, this was where her egghead friend lived, so that made it OK; not totally cool, but OK.
She landed just short of the doorstep and stepped forward to knock on the bright red door. She heard the response of her knock echo inside only briefly before one side of the door creaked open on its rusty hinges. A bleary eyed unicorn peered tentatively round, shielding her eyes from the light.
“Hi Twi” greeted the cyan blue visitor, “Thought you might be up.”
“Yes, Rainbow” replied the voice belonging to somepony who really did not want to be awake, “This is not a time of day I particularly enjoy, so please do come in so I can close it out again.”
“OK Twi” said Rainbow with a smile, “Bad dreams, huh?”
Twilight pivoted sharply like she was stood on a button to face her friend, staring fiercely into her eyes, “How did you know?”
“We all had them, Twi.”
“What?” she gasped, “All of Ponyville?”
“Nah; me, Fluttershy, AJ and you, and I expect Rarity and Pinkie too.”
“All the Bearers” observed Twilight grimly.
“Hey” said Rainbow, “You’re right – I hadn’t looked at it that way.”
“Looks like I’ve got a busy day ahead” said Twilight to herself, then to her friend, “Rainbow, I want you to check in with Rarity and Pinkie just to confirm our suspicions. If we’re right, would you round them up and bring them all here, please.”
The blue pegasus saluted smartly and let herself out, leaving Twilight to stare at the fading multicoloured trail as thoughts began to crystalise in her mind. Suddenly, she was wide awake.
Five rather tired looking ponies came in to the library to be greeted by a large pile of books on a table that completely hid the face of the researcher from view. The only clues as to who that pony was were the facts that lilac legs kept crossing, uncrossing and sometimes even stamping underneath the table and an incessant muttering in a very familiar voice punctuated by an occasional “Oo – ooh” sound that simply epitomised frustration.
“Hey Twi” announced Rainbow, “The gang’s all here. It’s just like we thought.”
The irritable drumming of the lilac hooves on the floor stopped abruptly and a face suddenly peered out from behind the books that appeared to have been arranged more for the purposes of fortification than for study.
“It sounds like we all had bad dreams last night” Twilight began.
A look across her friends showed this to be the case. She fully expected Rarity to complain along the lines that it had been ‘the worst possible thing’, but even she had been shocked into silence, which must have been bad.
“OK” said Twilight, “Some of us are clearly pretty distressed, so maybe it’ll help if we all get it off our chests?”
Fluttershy was too upset to retell her story, so she lay down and put her forehooves over her ears while Rainbow told both her story and her own. Once it was over, the friends all gave the timid pegasus a hug and told her she was very brave. Rainbow would have interrupted to say “Hey, I died!”, but didn’t want to detract from the support that her friend clearly needed even more than herself.
It was harrowing not only for the victim of the dream to recount the events as they were all so personal, but also for the others as they saw their friends pain as they retold each story in turn.
Pinkie Pie’s mane hung straight and limp as she recounted her dream in which she had thrown a party and nopony had been happy, so she threw a ‘sorry you weren’t happy at my last party, but this will definitely make it up to you’ party, but that hadn’t made things any better despite all her hard work. Finally she had made cakes and one by one everypony who ate them died leaving her on her own at a party where there was nopony left to enjoy it with, and so she had sadly eaten one of the cakes to be with her friends again. As she finished, her eyes let forth like two taps left on and there wasn’t a dry eye among her friends either.
Applejack retold her story next, followed by Rarity who fared little better as she told of Sweetie Belle’s abduction, with her release only capable of being bought by Rarity making an impossible number of dresses. Apparently, the seamstress had been given added incentive to complete her task by being forced to listen as her sister screamed under all manner of horrible things that she refused to speak of, but which only got worse the longer she took. Just as in Applejack’s dream, her task had been impossible. As her storytelling shuddered to a dreadful stop, the group gathered round to give her support too.
Twilight sighed; she could put off her story no longer and was clearly expected to follow suit. She spoke about her dream in which she had been tied to a chair and forced to watch as all her friends and family tore the pages out of all her books one by one and burned them on a bonfire after which they did something truly horrible to Spike. Although she was the most analytical member among her friends, even she felt her mouth go dry and heard her voice crack as she approached the end of the story and couldn’t quite finish it before she broke down in tears.
It was horrible. Each of the friends had been forced to live through losing something very dear to them and their only strength was the bond they shared with each other.
“Right girls” said Twilight having composed herself, “This must have something to do with us as a group. The common denominator as I see it is that we are all Bearers of the Elements of Harmony, and the fact that we have been singled out for attack suggests that somepony may be planning something that relies on us working together. As such I must warn the Princesses to be on their guard.
“Can you send them a message?” asked Applejack.
“No” said Twilight sadly, “Spike isn’t here right now. He had his leg bitten by a monster book and is in hospital …”
“The what now …?”
“Oh, it’s a book that’s protected by a spell that gives it stumpy little legs and sharp teeth. You’ve got to know the counterspell to be able to approach it safely.”
“And I’m guessing he didn’t?”
“No. He was very kindly tidying up a part of the library that I had told him was off limits” said Twilight bashfully, “I guess I could have warned him a bit better.”
“Want me to go, Twi?” asked Rainbow.
“No, I’ll tell the Mayor and she can send word to the Princesses. Help yourselves to some breakfast, and when I come back we can get down to business.”
Half an hour later, Twilight came back and turned the OPEN sign on the front of the library around, closing the door behind her. Applejack and Pinkie had rustled up an appetising smelling breakfast in her absence and all the ponies were feeling a lot better after their cathartic outpourings, some already tucking in to seconds of cinnamon apple pancakes, apple crisps and hot cups of tea.
“Hey, that smells good” said Twilight, suddenly appreciating just how hungry she was too, “Any left over for me?”
“Sure thing, Twi” came an unmistakeable country accent from the kitchen.
She expected to hear a cheerful ‘yes indeedly!’ from Pinkie, but a quick look showed that her mane was still hanging limp and lifeless; it was clearly only her devotion to the others in the group that was giving her any purpose at all at the moment. There was no doubting that the nightmares had been frightening, and all too realistic, so she resolved to do her best and find a solution before they turned in for bed that night, for all their sakes.
Twilight explained to the others over a hurried breakfast that she had seen the Mayor and a message notifying the Princesses was on its way. When the last crumbs had been scraped off her plate, she rose with a businesslike look on her face.
“Right girls” she said commandingly, “Let’s do this.”
She led them up from the kitchen to the display cabinet at the side of her stairs, levitating the cover in her magic and placing it down on the ground.
“Oh yeah!” said Rainbow enthusiastically, reaching in for her necklace.
One by one they reclaimed their Elements as Twilight went to her table and recovered an open book before returning to claim her tiara.
“OK, now form a circle” she said, taking up her position at the north point on its circumference and tucking her hindlegs underneath her, book open in front of her. The others knew their positions; Pinkie in the south flanked by Fluttershy and Rarity, while Rainbow and Applejack moved closer to Twilight, all six equally spaced.
They commenced their meditation, focusing their energy into the circle where it formed a white ball, growing brighter as the magical power built within it. Twilight uttered some words, finally repeating a chant over and over, summoning the ball of magical energy inch by inch over towards the north point where it finally subsumed her. As soon as Twilight was completely engulfed within the ball of magic, the streams of energy from the other Elements stopped. All friends remained in respectful meditative silence, none daring to break the magical concentration of the circle in case they endangered their friend, the Bearer of the Element of Magic, and compromised her important mission.
Once surrounded by her Element of Magic, Twilight was transported to an ethereal realm that looked like where she was in reality, but very faded and she was free to move around as she pleased; through walls, through ponies and even levitate into the air as if gravity only applied if she chose it to.
The remains of a light blue trail extending from the Golden Oak library was the only feature different in this domain. Her brow furrowed and then she set off to follow it. As the levitation carried her above Ponyville, she could start to see similar light blue trails extending down to the ground. She didn’t need to count them to know there were five and where they were all aimed.
The trails arced high into the sky and then started descending into the Everfree, plunging ever more steeply towards, well, nothing but forest as far as she could see. Suddenly, she spied the trails leading to a clearing and a little building with a striped roof … and stars painted on it … and there was a chimney with a pointed hat on it – TRIXIE!”
She had seen all she needed to see and could now report back to her friends and sort this showpony out, once and for all!
Twilight began to slow her descent, but felt no change. She tried again, harder this time, but still no difference. It was like she was being drawn down into the caravan itself – the source of the malevolent magic.
She slid effortlessly through the roof without even a hint of resistance and found herself dropped into a chair where her forelegs and hindlegs were immediately restrained. In front of her was Trixie; not an ethereal representation as her friends had been, but a solid a menacing looking form wearing an evil grin, her bright red eyes pulsating with magical energy.