//------------------------------// // Nightmares // Story: Pinkie Pie: Dream Fighter // by Waxworks //------------------------------// Pinkie’s eyes flew open and the shark disappeared, but her scream continued. “Ahhhh!” “Pinkie! Calm down, it’s okay!” Mr. Cake’s face appeared in front of her. Pinkie stared, still screaming, until Mrs. Cake appeared as well. Their opposing faces, pudgy and skinny, made her chuckle as she compared their concerned, gormless mouths to the shark’s dangerous jaws. “Sorry. Did I fall asleep in the hallway again?” she said sheepishly. “You did, Pinkie. I know you’re concerned about the twins, but Pumpkin Cake has been fine the past couple of days. I think it’s because of you, if you want to take credit, but you can’t care for them if you’re not caring for yourself,” Mrs. Cake said. She held out a hoof to help Pinkie up, and she took it. “I’m sorry, I just don’t know what’s come over me. I think I’ve been having strange dreams lately.” Pinkie giggled at her hilarious joke. “Well, Pinkie, just don’t scream too hard near the Twin’s room. If you’re going to protect them, at least bring a blanket next time, okay?” Mr. Cake asked. “Will do, Mr. Cake!” Pinkie saluted and bounded off. Today, Pinkie decided she was finally going to go visit Twilight. She needed to take care of this problem before it got too bad. Something was happening, and it was magic. “Or… I just think it’s magic. Maybe I’m just having really vivid dreams, and I’m seeing these things in my dream, and they’re not real, but I’m sleepwalking, and the sleepwalking drops me in front of the nursery. That’s possible, right?” Pinkie asked. Cranky Doodle glared at her over his pancakes. Matilda chuckled, but Cranky wasn’t amused. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, but you’re interrupting my breakfast, Pinkie. Please go home.” “It’s just, I wonder what these sparkly things are and why do they make me dream when I touch them, huh?” Matilda put down a few pancakes in front of Pinkie. She drowned them in syrup and shoved them in her mouth, chewing loudly. “If you really want to know what’s going on, you need to see Luna. Didn’t you say you were going to? She is the princess of dreams you know.” “Oh, yeah! That’s where I was going before I bumped into you two, and you were making pancakes, and they just smelled so good that I had to stop and get some! Do you think it’s too early to see the princess of the night?” “Pinkie, I’m sure if you take your time getting to the castle she’ll be wide awake,” Matilda said. “You think so?” “Yes! Please, go!” Cranky shouted. Pinkie was unbothered by the volume of his voice and just blinked. “Okay! After one more round of flapjacks!” Pinkie exclaimed. Matilda laughed, Cranky groaned. Without a gurgling stomach anymore, Pinkie trekked across town to the Friendship Express. She gazed at all the houses that filled the streets, subconsciously naming all the ponies that lived in each one. She knew them to a horse, able to label each building with the names of everypony that lived in them. She knew where they all worked, what they enjoyed, their favorite food and pastime, and she knew so many of their secrets. There wasn’t a pony in Ponyville that escaped her eye, and she was a friend to all of them, even if that meant she only got to eat breakfast with them once in a blue moon like Cranky. She respected those boundaries. But sometimes, friends needed to know when to ignore such boundaries. One such occasion might have been right now, because as she trekked up to the Friendship Station, she saw a glowing dream orb floating above a house. It was pink, like herself, and it was circling the roof, round and round and round. She tried to convince herself it was nothing, but the orb’s spinning was interrupted by those grasping tendrils from before. It was touching the roof and the eaves, floating around the circumference of the house’s top. To her eyes, that looked like it was going to be a nightmare about falling off the edge. Maybe it wasn’t a nightmare, but Pinkie wasn’t going to take that chance! A friend in need of a good morning’s rest deserves that rest! Houses flew by with empty windows as ponies were out and about already doing their shopping and schooling and work. Pinkie arrived at the offending building and peered first inside the windows. She jumped to the second story and peeked inside until she found the one that housed the pony that was trying to have a good nap. She looked up at the dream, its tendrils flickering as it prepared itself for the terrific nightmare her friend was going to have. But it wasn’t going to do that if Pinkie Pie had anything to say about it! The roof wasn’t sturdy. The straw made it a bit slippery, but Pinkie was used to this kind of hoofing. She found it easier sometimes to jump across the roof than to take the streets, especially if she was following a Pegasus pony like Rainbow Dash. She climbed onto a house a few buildings down and bounded up and over each one, across the wood until her target was hovering over the next one. She waited, timing her strike until the ball was in reach, then jumped! The tinkling thing passed through her hooves as she leaped, but she bit it as she came down. Like last time, it lodged in her jaw, and visions filled her head. She was falling. Flight or a fall was expected from a dream hovering around a house. Pinkie found herself dropping through the air from Cloudsdale. She looked up to see the foundation of the cloud city above her, colorful rainbows hidden behind fluffy whiteness. She, herself, was dropping through the mist and air toward Ponyville, the tiny houses below spearing upward to greet her as she fell. They were taller and pointier than in real life, all bending slightly toward her. But she never got closer. The falling continued as the air whipped past her head. Sometimes clouds would come within reach, only to be pulled away last second by some invisible force. She couldn’t get a purchase and her wings weren’t working. Her wings? Sprouting from Pinkie’s back were two giant pinkie wings, huge and feathered, they dwarfed her in size, but they were also the cause of her flightlessness. They were too big, too bulky, and unattractive. Nopony liked them. She knew this implicitly. But that wasn’t right. “I’m a perfectly normal-looking pony, and so is the intended recipient of this nightmare! Ponyville isn’t dangerous, and I’m a great flier!” Pinkie said to herself confidently. Her wings shrank a little bit. “I can fly and have done so, and even though I may not be the best, I’m still a great flier, and I can accomplish big and important things when I put my mind to them!” Her wings shrank and the feathers organized themselves better. “I am fun to be around, and ponies don’t mock me or my wings!” They shrank until they were normal-sized, and Pinkie found herself able to fly. Her breath was blasted out of her and her eyes opened. Pinkie’s mouth lost hold of the dream, which was now much smaller and lacked the grasping tendrils. It flew up and away, diving through the walls of the house. Pinkie gasped on the ground, reaching for it, trying to stop it. But one of her hooves didn’t work right. She gasped for air and turned idly to her non-working hoof. It was bent at a strange angle. Ponies were gathering around her, looking at her. Rarity was among them. “Pinkie Pie! Were you sleeping on that roof? Hold still, I’ll get the doctor! You’ll be fine!” Pinkie’s trip to the doctor went fine, but it meant she still wasn’t anywhere near princess Luna. When the bone was set she sat back in the hospital bed waiting to be discharged. Sometimes she wondered why anything healing-related took so long when surely there was a magic spell for it or something. It felt like there really ought to be a cutie mark for a unicorn that could just heal ponies straight-up. Why couldn’t Doctor Horse do it, after all? His name was Doctor Horse! Surely that counted for something! The hospital was even boring on top of that. Their books were all books she had read before, the food was bad, there was no entertainment, so Pinkie had to entertain herself. She pretended there was a little pony climbing all over the walls, dodging among the pictures, paintings, and décor, hiding from the evil, wicked-bad boredomonster! She was making the fighting noises with her mouth, much to the chagrin of the other pony in her room, who tried to block it out with pillows, when she heard the familiar tinkling sound of a dream! The bed creaked ominously as Pinkie’s weight rolled out of it. She landed gingerly on her hooves, holding her broken one out straight to the side. She dragged it along with her as she stumbled out of her room and into the hall. The late afternoon was busy, with ponies in scrubs running to and fro. Injured ponies filled the halls, all keeping out of the way of the nurses rushing back and forth. The source of the tinkling was out here, weaving back and forth in the air around the rushing nurses. Its tendrils swept out, brushing passing ponies as they hurried about their business, changing color slowly from a golden glow to a deep orange. Pinkie hobbled out and stood underneath it in the middle of the hallway. She stared up, watching the thing as it bobbed. She couldn’t jump up and grab it with a bum leg like this. Her pronking was crippled as surely as if she’d had no legs at all. She bounced a bit, but it wasn’t any good, and she got the stinkeye from a passing nurse. “Miss Pie, please don’t do anything that would aggravate your injury!” a red nurse said. “I won’t, I’m just trying to catch a dream right here,” Pinkie said. “Hmph! Dreams are best kept somewhere safe, Miss Pie. Please don’t block the path for anypony.” “I won’t!” Pinkie smiled. The nurse moved on. She turned her attention back to the floating dream above her head. It had become a deep crimson, glowing with a sinister light. It’s tinkling had gone deeper as well, becoming a horrific crashing sound. It was still quiet, but now it sounded like somepony was banging rocks together. Pinkie was amazed nopony else could hear it. When the color of blood had been achieved, the thing slowly fluttered away. It’s crashing sound got slightly louder as it floated, like it was taking horrifying, large steps. Its form bulged, but it stopped reaching out. It had hit the mass of formless energy it wanted and was now content to hunt for its prey, an ominous orange floating through the halls. Pinkie giggled at the idea of an ominous orange. She hobbled along behind it, intent on finding out its prey and protect them from whatever this thing was. She didn’t have much to work with, especially since her last attempt at protecting somepony had ended with her breaking a leg, but she couldn’t let something this dangerous get to whomever it was that was trying to sleep and recover. The terrible blood orange crashed its way into the foal’s ward, where the newborns and the young foals were kept isolated from any of those older ponies that needed medical help. It was wandering toward a room off to the side, where Pinkie was sure a young foal was just trying to sleep off his or her illness. While Pinkie was here, she wasn’t going to let any such thing happen, however! Its trajectory looked to be bringing it past a table covered in papers and bottle nearby. Pinkie hobbled ahead of it and clambered up onto it. Bottles shifted and clattered to the floor. A few pieces of paper slipped a bit, causing her to wobble precariously. Nopony had seen her yet, so she readied herself as the blood orange crashed on up next to her, and she jumped out to nab it in her teeth! It was too big! She bit off a chunk of it, but half of the thing kept floating, leaking red, crashing bits about as it careened on down the hall. It slipped into the foal’s room at the same time Pinkie hit the floor. Her cast clattered, and her vision changed. She was in a long, dark hallway. No sound except the buzz of the lights above. Doors lined each side of the hall, some partially open, most closed. A clock ticked down the time next to her head. She was at a desk. On the desk there sat a big book. Pinkie opened it. Names filled the pages, with a single one highlighted. “Pinkie Pie,” she read out loud. “That’s me… How curious. My cast was already…” Her cast was gone. She was fine, but then she remembered this was a dream, of course she was fine. The page squirmed and the names rolled off the paper. A series of inky letters slithered off the paper and dropped to the floor. In a line they marched slowly down the hall, chanting in tiny voices a cadence as they paraded away from her. They even did it in alphabetical order, with A leading the charge followed by B, C, all the way down to Z. “Hah! That’s so cute! What are you all doing? Where are we going?” Pinkie asked. The letters didn’t answer, of course. They marched along the hall, stepping in time with their tiny boots down the empty passage. Lights flickered overhead, blinking away the darkness. Pinkie didn’t mind the low light, and the empty, half-open doorways led into black in which Pinkie imagined a hidden surprise, like a crowd waiting for a party to begin if only the guest of honor would step inside the door. Maybe there would be a cake, maybe there would be a pie instead, or even no food at all and just a crowd with music ready to go! She marched, tip-hoofing along beside the little letters, unconcerned about what might be hiding in the nooks and crannies of this empty hospital. A room shimmered and light spilled from on open door into the hall. The tiny letters, dancing and stamping along the linoleum avoided the ray of light, diverting their path to travel around it instead of through. Their steps did not halt and their chanting did not end as the A’s led the B’s and the rest in a steady curve up and over the beam. Pinkie’s tip-hoofing followed them, going around the light. She glanced up only a second to see why they might be avoiding it, and felt the first hint of a shiver. Inside the room loomed a face that filled the crack in the door. Grinning teeth sat at the bottom, topped by a warty, warped snout and a single mad eye. The eye glared out the light that the letters were avoiding, a red orb beaming white light into the hall. Pinkie let out a quiet “meep” when she saw it, and the light burned upward, hunting the source of the noise. Tiny lettermen melted from the light, dying with tiny cries and lamenting wails from their comrades. The Ees were almost entirely wiped out and the Dees and Effs were scattered. The remaining platoon gathered together to prepare to fight back, circling the entrance to the room nearby. With a valiant cry and a shout of defiance, the lettermen gathered together in groups to turn on the doorway, defying the giant pony face within. More letters perished. Pinkie could only watch in horror and sadness as the lettermen attacked the doorway in a futile attempt to defeat the creature within. They died in droves. Ink spilled across the floor. When it ended, not a single letter still stood. A final P dragged itself toward the crack in the doorway. In one last, valiant gesture, the P threw a period at the face which bounced off the creature’s chin. It turned its gaze downward and the beam of light erased the P from existence. It cast its deadly gaze across the hallway one final time before turning to look toward Pinkie. She hopped out of its line of sight. She hadn’t been able to help and wouldn’t have known what she could have done even had she tried. Their deaths were vain and pointless, seemingly futile. Why had they even done that? Tears came unbidden to her eyes. She cried, and she didn’t know why. They were made of letters, animated by some strange dream magic for some unknown purpose. This was a dream, Pinkie reminded herself. It was all a strange, feverish, hospital dream she had ended up in while trying to help some lost foal scared and alone in his or her hospital bed. Terrors preyed on such ponies because of their youth and irresponsible weaknesses. She could help, but she was stuck here, now. She had to wake up. A stab of pain from a pinch wasn’t enough. She gnawed on her hoof, but that wasn’t enough pain, either. She may not be able to move in real life. She could just be dreaming she was moving without actually moving, because she didn’t know whether she was sleepwalking or not. Sleepwalking (or maybe just falling asleep on the roof) was what hurt her the last time. What would help wake her up now? Pinkie decided waiting for somepony to find her asleep on the floor was a good idea. She sat with her back against the wall and waited, imagining better things that this. Better things than faces in doors and dying lettermen. She thought about parties. A balloon floated by. When it caught her eye, she watched it float down the hall from the far end in its infinite distance away. It appeared as a mere speck and slowly grew as a bright-red blotch on the stark and sterile dream-vision of the hospital. It came closer, floating toward her on whispered noises and mumbled words until it reached the spotlight cast from the giant face. The light swished quickly to the balloon, but it stood up to it. Its floating was halted, but the balloon, despite being made of thin rubber, sizzled and withstood the heated assault. The side of the balloon receiving the brunt of the gaze began to bulge from the onslaught of terrible staring fire. It warped, the color grew lighter and grew larger until it couldn’t handle it anymore, then it burst! An ocean of blood poured from the wound of the balloon when it ruptured, washing away the ink stains from the lettermen and pouring into the cracked doorway. The thing inside yowled as the blood struck it and the hospital shook. Pinkie decided she didn’t want to be near the blood or the thing in the doorway. The balloon hadn’t dropped to the ground, it just floated, spilling forth more blood onto the crimson tiles. Pinkie ran. Doors flew past as she barreled down the hall, some open, some not, some filled with white, some with black, and some with sound… staticky sounds that bit into her ears. They were unsettling and curious, but despite the gnawing need to know, Pinkie kept running until the blood and the light were well behind her. When she could only see the faintest speck of red she finally stopped. The hallway went on forever, like it had appeared to. Despite running for so long, not a single corner or curve had yet appeared. It was endless. But… it was a dream. Pinkie stopped a moment to remind herself of that. She closed her eyes and breathed carefully. She was dreaming. Nothing in the dream could hurt her. Nothing outside the dream could hurt her, either. She was in a hospital with ponies that would find her lying in the middle of the hall and take her to bed or wake her. She was fine. Pinkie opened her eyes and saw every door within distance open wide, the black spaces inside each filled with eyes. As one they all slammed shut. Pinkie winced. “I don’t know what this is, but it makes me uncomfortable. I would really like to wake up now.” Pinkie laughed, giggling at the ghostly, it made her feel better. A gentle breeze blew down the hallway, tickling her fur. It made her mane whip gently in its wind, pushing her cowlick curl around her face. It felt nice. The wind picked up, getting stronger. There was no slight acceleration, but only a terrible force that grew stronger with each passing moment. One second it was strong, the next it was hard, and in another second Pinkie was leaning into it. Her breath caught in her throat and she had to turn sideways to breath. She squinted into the wind and shuffled to the side to try one of the doors, but it was locked. She tried to scoot backward, but the moment she took a step she slipped and fell. The wind increased in power and she slid down the hallway, pushed along by the terrible wind toward the red miasma leaking from the balloon. “Noooooo!” she screamed. She felt the sensation of movement. Her scream trailed off as she slowly opened her eyes to see herself being carried by two orderlies who were dragging her down the hall. She blinked, then grinned sheepishly. “Sorry.” The orderlies just grunted.