It was dark and grim in Ponyville, and nopony was in sight. The sky was painted a Particular crimson color which made a purple Unicorn think it could have been blood. She resisted the urge to cringe. 'That’s weird' thought Twilight as she walked through the market, which was normally bustling with activity.
She looked over to where Carrot Top would normally have her stand, only to see it was vacant. "Hmph" she said as things were getting stranger at the moment. Usually Carrot Top was the first to open her stall, even before Applejack. ‘Was she up early?’ Twilight thought to herself. Maybe seeing how the sky is so red, she might have awoken earlier than everypony else.
She continued to walk through the eerie and unusually quiet market. She hoped to spot somepony, ANYPONY! 'Even Trixie would be better than this silence' Twilight imagined to herself. The thought of that mare coming back to Ponyville was a joke, and she knew it.
Twilight's Train of thought was abruptly interrupted, as she heard a blood curling scream coming from around Sugarcube Corner. “Oh no” shouted Twilight as she rushed to see what the commotion was about. "Wait." She said out loud. "When did I get here?" She was interrupted again by another scream much louder, than the last, and obviously in agony.
She turned the corner to see Pinkie pie bouncing up and down, very much in her Pinkie ways. "Oh, hey Pinkie." Twilight gave out a very relieved sigh, as she was glad no pony was hurt. "What was the screaming about?" Twilight asked completely oblivious to the fact that there was a steadily growing pool of red liquid rushing out of a barrel next to Pinkie.
Pinkie looked at her in a way that was not very pinkie like, and did not respond. The only way Twilight was to describe her smile was menacing and manic. Kind of like how Rainbow Dash explained how Pinkie was acting crazy when they were going to throw a surprise party for her, and she started talking to turnips and bags of flour.
"Hey" she said even more menacingly than her smile. Now Twilight was even more nervous than before. She had seen Pinkie when she was under the weather, or mad about something, but that only lasted for very few seconds and Pinkie would be back to her 'normal self'. But this was different, Pinkie seemed to be just fine with the way she was.
It was just then Twilight noticed the red liquid reaching her hooves.
Twilight let out a horrified gasp as she wretched at the sight. She stepped back only to no longer see Pinkie. Instead she saw something else. Something that most ponies thought Equestria was rid of.
An unusually large Changeling, only one thought passed Twilight’s mind about who’s blood it was. Pinkie’s.
She knew what Changelings looked like and smelled like, but this one was more than twice that. She almost had to puke at the smell of burning corpse of which it reeked. His size would rival Big Mac if it didn’t have the holes throughout its body.
Before she could react, the beast had her pinned and was ready to take on its newest victim. Twilight had thought to use her magic, but the beast had already seen to that, crushing her horn with a powerful blow.
The last thing Twilight could remember was being dragged into Sugarcube Corner, helpless; along with all of the other bodies of her friends and the residents of Ponyville.
Twilight woke up with a scream, and she found herself to be drenched in a cold sweat. Although she now knew it was just a dream, she couldn't shake off the fact that it seemed so true so... REAL. The dream clung to the back of her mind as she tried to forget about it. This was a dream that NOPONY deserved. Not even Gilda for yelling at Fluttershy.
"Heh" she said. "I guess she really isn’t a pony." But it was all the same. No one deserved a nightmare like that." She only had two other nightmares like that, but she had other things on her mind than how many nightmares like this she’s had.
She reached up to check if her horn was still there. Obviously it was but she still checked for good measure.
“Time for the next test” she said to herself. She lit up her horn and conjured a clock; easy enough for her, but not for many other unicorns. She chuckled to herself under her breath, hoping to not wake up Spike, but her nightmare had already seen to the opposite of that.
It was 3:41 in the morning, it was LATE. Celestia's Sun hadn’t come out yet, so that meant Luna's Moon and stars were still covering the sky. Twilight thought of the irony that she was up before her name, but the thought was quickly crushed as her dream came back to mind. In her dream she felt everything as it were real. She had cracked her horn doing some difficult spells, and sure that was uncomfortable and it hurt as much as fracturing any other bone, but this was a pain like no other.
She got out of bed to take a walk outside, and try to cool her nerves. She heard Spike grumbling something about not leaving the door open. She tried to laugh to herself, but that memory still clung to her mind like Zap Apple Jam on toast, darkening her thoughts.
She found herself walking towards Sugarcube corner. As strange as it was Twilight thought, it still felt right to go there.
Not a few minutes later, Twilight arrived at her set destination and instinctively she walked to where her dream took place. Sure enough when she got there things weren't exactly as they were in her dream, but they were there more or less. She looked to see where she had dreamt Pinkie’s body to be stuffed, but found that it was empty. Or so she thought.
Just before she closed the barrel she noticed a glimmer at the bottom of the barrel. Only hoping it wasn’t blood Twilight lit her horn for the second time that night. 'A simple candle light spell will do.' She thought to herself as she casted the spell peering into the barrel.
By the time she was nose deep in the barrel she saw what it was. A note... on silver paper? "This stuff is expensive and rare Pinkie." Twilight said to herself as she face hoofed.
The note read: HEY YOU! WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY BARREL? OH WELL! HAVE SOME SHINY STUFF!
Twilight giggled from Pinkie's antics, only to be silenced by a voice that said exactly what was on the paper. Twilight quickly turned around to see Pinkie only inches away from her face with her tongue sticking out.
"Heya Twilight!" chirped Pinkie bouncing up and down. How the Pink mare could ever have so much energy throughout the day and even at night Twilight would never know. She knew that earth ponies have much more strength and stamina than Pegasi and Unicorns, but this was uncanny. So she just chalked it off as being Pinkie and tried to move on with the subject at hand.
"Why are you up so early Pinkie?" Twilight asked.
"HUH?", asked the still bouncing pink mare as she tilted her head a full 90 degrees.
"OH! Well I kind of had a tiiiiiiny wiiiiiiiiny nightmare that’s all..." Twilight was taken aback not only was it strange she had a nightmare on the same night as she did, but the way she responded could have matched the volume of Fluttershy when she's nervous.
"What was it about?" Twilight asked as Pinkie nervously looked over at the barrel. Twilight’s eyes widened and asked her vague questions, relating to her nightmare. As she predicted Pinkies dream almost exactly matched hers. "This isn’t good" remarked Twilight. "I had a Dream exactly like yours but... you were in the barrel." Pinkie's Mane looked like it was about to deflate, as Twilight made that comment, but she quickly regained her self and bounced in the air smacking her head on the roof. She really didn’t seem to notice.
"YOU KNOW WHAT WE NEED RIGHT NOW?", screamed the pink mare as she was still suspended in the air. "A PARTY!"
Twilight face hoofed and suspended Pinkie in the air with her magic in the hopes to calm her down. Eventually Pinkie went back to her 'normal self' and was calm enough for Twilight to speak again. "I’m going to talk to the others about this tomorrow, see what they have to say about this."
Pinkie nodded and then immediately collapsed to the floor snoring. Twilight giggled, she knew Pinkie had to be tired but she never knew she crashed like that before. After bringing Pinkie back to bed, Twilight though about how crazy that mare really is; even in her sleep. On her way to her bedroom Pinkie looked, and sounded like she was wrestling a large plate of jello. Not to mention her mumbling about getting a ranting old gremlin out of the bushes, so she could beat the Doctor of Video games.
Twilight Teleported back to her home and slipped into bed finally getting some sleep after a crazy night.