//------------------------------//
// Nightmares 
// Story: Equestria Girls: The Cursed PJs 
// by CatrosCreativeCorner 
//------------------------------//

“I’ll take that!” Sunset sneered, pulling the crown down from the air as she caught it in her hands, the cold gold chilling her hands as she clung to it. The pure and clean metal reflected the teen’s reflection on it. She had spent so much time trying to get the stupid piece of metal and now it was finally here. She had stolen it from the pony world, then lost it, and the schools stupid principal couldn’t even see that she had more power shoved and locked in her desk drawer than what she would ever see again, she lost the Homecoming Queen contest, and now her and those two idiots she had as henchmen chased the six girls around the front of the school. Just for that foolish Princess of Friendship to flinch and chucked the crown behind her and now it was all hers. Everyone who ever wronged her doubted her and didn’t see her for how great she truly was had a rude awakening coming their way. “At least…” She hissed like a snake, practically foaming at the mouth as she stared at the purple gem that looked like a star design with all the points on it. “All the power I could ever imagine!” She declared, raising the crown above her head and dropping it down on her head, the weight making her head bounce down slightly. Finally, she would get everything that she deserved was hers.
The teen held her hands up in the air as she waited for the energy to fill her, to finally get the magic she lost while being in this world back, and to be able to show everyone who they have truly been messing with. She kept her eyes closed as she was ready to be bathed in the energy to wash over her. Which took a few seconds as the crown realized she was capable of using magic. But sadly that’s where things had started to go off course.
Sunset could feel every single cell in her body pulse with energy, like the time she had licked an outlet when she first appeared in the human realm. But this was 1,000,000 times worse as her body kept filling with more energy. Her body felt like it was a balloon filling up with more and more air to the point that it was ready to explode. She wanted to cry out in pain, to yell for help, or even toss the crown away. But her body didn’t respond to her and she could only stare at the six teens in front of her, pleading for help with her eyes.
But her vision darkened and left her in total darkness as the world around her vanished. Her body was numb as she floated in a void of darkness, not even able to twitch her fingers or toes. She was oblivious to what was going on outside of the world around her but she was somehow aware that things weren’t good. She felt magic leave her body as a spell was cast, only to be refilled instantly. Regret immediately washed over her.


	Help, someone help me!


Sunset tried to call out, but the words never left her lips. But some, how it filled the cold endless void. 


Somebody anyone! Please! I was wrong! I’ve messed up! I’m scared!


She called out, trying to see if by some miracle someone would be able to reach out and pull her out of this. She confessed everything that she could, from how she treated the ponies while she was a student under Celestia, sneaking into the forbidden library to learning about what the mirror did, ruining the friendship of the five girls helping the pony princess, to now stealing the crown. If she could take it all back she would!


I’M SORRY!


The girl felt tears slowly start to leave her eyes, but as she wasn’t able to blink them away, not that her vision becoming blurry really messed with the pitch black darkness, and the tears quickly ran down her cheeks. The only little bit of warmth that the girl had as she floated alone. The worst part was, she couldn’t blame anyone for her being here than herself. Her selfishness and pride is what had gotten her there.


I hear you…


	The voice pulled the teen out of her pity party. Had she imagined it, was somebody else there with her? 


Hello?



I… Can’t… Reach you!  Your dream… It’s out of… Reach.


A dream? Was she dreaming?! If this was a dream then it felt completely real, as if it was something she had actually gone through.


You must wake up… Wake up… Sunset wake up!


“Ah!” Sunset yelped, her eyes shooting open as she sat up, a new voice having taken over for the deep regal one and shocked her awake, her arms wrapped around something warm and soft. “It's a dream!” She yelled, her heart pounding in her chest.
“Sunset… you ok?” Someone asked her, making the girl's skin crawl before she jumped again and looked at who it was, and sighed in relief seeing it was just her friend Twilight. The teen still wasn’t ready for the day as she was dressed in a pair of dark purple shorts and her light blue Camp Everfree T-shirt. Her long dark hair was a rat's nest as it was in some weird attempt to be put in a bun. Her eyes were wide and filled with concern. “You were crying in your sleep.” She said, getting on her knees and immediately putting her hand on Sunset's forehead to make sure the girl wasn’t sick.
Hearing that Sunset raised a hand to her face and rubbed her face, which was indeed soaked with tears from the rather intense nightmare. She hadn’t expected to have cried in real life because of the nightmare, that she had almost every night since the incident. But she wasn’t exactly in the same state that she normally was. She didn’t even need to take off the pink blanket that she was covered with to know she was wrapped in the magical footie. She hadn’t bothered to try and take it off since it had jumped her at the soccer field the previous day. As much as she didn’t like the PJs she couldn’t deny the fact that they were really comfortable. They were still super soft and they didn’t smell like she had been wearing them for 3 nights in a row, so that was nice.
Though she was concerned about the lump under the blanket that she was hugging. So she quickly grabbed the blanket and tossed it off her chest, revealing Twilight's pet dog Spike sleeping soundly on the girl, his little purple tail wagging slightly. Making Sunset roll her eyes, at least one of them seemed to be having a good dream.
“Mm… squirrels… almost gotcha.” The puppy mumbled in his sleep, making Twilight let out a slight giggle and Sunset let out a small smirk. She wasn’t sure when the dog joined her on the couch in the living room, but apparently, he thought she was comfortable enough to use as a pillow.
“Oh um… yeah I’m fine. Just a nightmare.” She said, taking her sleeve and using it to clear her face. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to worry you.”
“That looked like a pretty serious nightmare,” Twilight said, reaching over and gently petting Spike on the head. “Wanna talk about it? Shining Armor and Cadence did that a lot for me when I had nightmares.” She said.
“Oh no, it’ll be fine.” She said, squirming a bit as she thought about a way to change the conversation. She had been dealing with the nightmare for months now, and some nights were worse than others, that night probably being the worst that it ever had been. Probably because her little kid's body was reacting like a little kid would. “Sorry to worry you. But I'm fine, really.” She said, giving the purple-skinned girl a smile.
“OK if you’re sure.” She said, reaching down and lifting her sleeping puppy off the girl's lap. “Well, hopefully, you’re hungry. Cadence made pancakes and since we had an extra person she may have made a few too many.” She said sheepishly as she scratched under Spike’s neck. The purple dog immediately kicked his little leg as he started to wake up. Sunset hadn’t noticed it before but now that her friend pointed it out the sweet smell of pancakes filled the air, making her tiny tummy growl out for it.
“Huh, what?” He asked, his voice not sounding much more mature than Sunset’s at the moment, looking around. “Aw come on, I almost had that squirrel, Twilight!” The puppy pouted as he was placed on the ground. “Couldn’t you have waited another minute?”
“Knowing your luck we could’ve let you sleep another day and you still wouldn’t have it.” Sunset teased as she reached down and petted the dog's soft fur.
“Mmmm….” He growled, probably trying to say something, but was too distracted by trying to shove his head into the head scratched, his little foot banging against a thousand times a minute.
“Besides, we have real-life pancakes that will need your attention,” Twilight said leading the way to the kitchen area. Unlike the rest of their friends, Twilight didn’t actually live in a house but in a fairly large apartment area. Since it was her, her brother Shining Armor, and her sister-in-law, aka Shining Armor's wife, Cadence it was probably cheaper to rent an apartment than to get a house. Or that was Sunset’s guess at the very least.
As they entered the kitchen area Sunset froze as she saw Shining Armor on his knees, twisting the leg on a white high chair, the seat decorated with animals of different colors. Blue alligators, pink elephants, purple monkeys, and a few other different kinds of animals you would see in a zoo.
“Morning girls.” Shining Armor said, dressed in a blue tank top and black shorts, looking back at the two as Twilight pulled out a chair for Sunset and then got into one for herself. 
“Finally got that thing built for my niece?” Twilight asked, making Sunset sigh in relief having been worried that the family had expected her to sit in it. But thankfully that wasn’t the case as she climbed into the light brown wooden chair beside Twilight. A thick yellow phonebook did wait for her on the seat helping her reach the table.
“Yep, and I believe that should be in besides baby-proofing everything.” The bleach-white man said as he slid into the chair at the head of the table. “Good thing you came when you did, Sunset. Or you would’ve had a challenging time getting around here with… this going on.” He said, picking up a fork and waving it in a circle at the girl. 
“Yeah, thanks for holding off all the prep stuff.” The girl said with a blush as she shifted as she sat. Why couldn’t phone books be more comfortable if little kids had to sit on them?
“Are you sure that you set it up right?” Twilight asked, holding her hand up a small booklet covered in purple glittery energy flew through the air past Shining Armor's hair, brushing against his blue hair, and flew into Twilight’s hand as she went over the instructions again. Though he took a deep breath in.
“Yeah Twili, I followed the instructions to a T.” He assured the girl, “And what did we say about… magic, at the table?” He asked, saying magic cautiously as if the word was going to make something blow up.
“Um… not to do it at the table. Sorry.” Twilight said, her cheeks blushing a bit. “I won’t do it again, promise.” She said, with a giggle. “Anyways the chair looks like the picture, so good job BBBFF.” She praised.
“Now hopefully it works like it's supposed to.” A new voice joined in the conversation as a lady dressed in a purple robe with Crystal Highs emblem on it, with dark pink skin walked beside Shining Armor, setting two plates of pancakes down, and making Sunset’s eyes grow wide. Each plate had at least twenty perfectly round golden brown discs stacked on top of them.”I wasn’t sure how many pancakes you would want, so I made extra.” Cadence said with a smile as she looked at Sunset.
“Oh thanks, Mrs. Cadence,” Sunset said, looking at the lady who rested her hand on her extended belly. Twilight had told them that her brother and sister-in-law were expecting a little girl. The lady had a sweet smile on her face and with her being pregnant Sunset didn’t have the heart to tell the women she would never be able to eat enough to help make a dent in the stacks of pancakes. “They… look delicious,” Sunset said giving the girl a smile as Twilight gave her a hand and dropped a couple of the circles onto her plate. Now the little girl knew why Twilight wanted her little dog's help, as she grabbed one and held it down for the pup.
“Score!” He cheered, getting on his hind legs and grabbing the pancake from Twilight's hands before scurrying off.

“Uh…” Sunset groaned once her plate was cleared, “I don’t think I could eat another bite.” She said, rolling her head over to look at Twilight, who was in the same boat. The little girl had managed to get four and a half pancakes down before she had to tap out. Maybe if she was a teen she could have handled that and a bit more, but in this tiny body, the girl was sure she was going to be full for the rest of the day. 
“You wanna take leftovers home?” Twilight asked as she stared at the leftover twenty-five pancakes.
“No, I think I’ve had my fill of pancakes for… ever.” She groaned, sliding off of her phone book and chair before heading back to the living room to get her backpack. Reaching into the bag she pulled out the next set of clothes that Rarity had prepared for her and took them to the bathroom. “Are we going to be difficult today?” She mumbled to the PJs as she looked at her chest and sighed in relief seeing the little red zipper there, meaning the PJs weren’t holding her hostage that day. Well, it could still try and hunt her down so it wasn’t holding her hostage that morning to be specific. 
She quickly switched over to her new outfit and looked at herself in the mirror, grimacing a bit. She was in a purple shirt with ‘Math Kind Of Gal’ in dark glittering purple and a green skirt with black dots. It looked like she was trying to cosplay as Spike and the colors definitely didn’t look that good on her, but it was better than nothing. But as she looked at herself suddenly her PJs inflated as if a body was in it. It jumped up to its feet and instantly wrapped its arms around the girl.
“Hey, no! No! I just got you off! Do not get back on me!” Sunset growled as she shoved it away, glaring at it. The red and yellow PJs immediately waved their arms back and forth as the neck part moved left to right like a head was shaking no. “Ok, we’re doing the arm thing again. So you aren’t trying to get on me?” She asked the piece of clothing, to which it responded by raising both arms up. “Ok… well then what do you want?” She asked next. It dropped both arms as the neckpiece moved again as if it was trying to look for something. But then it froze up and the design on it changed from lizards and fives to two stick-figures hugging. “You want… to hug?” She asked a mix of shock and confusion filling her voice. The clothing instantly shot a hand up before dropping it and holding its arms out for the girl to accept the hug. “Ok, why do you want a hug?” She asked next and the design changed to a stick figure girl lying under a blanket. But instead of looking like the girl was relaxed as she slept, she frowned and clutched the blanket she was covered with. Sunset knitted her eyebrows trying to figure out what was going on. “Is that me having a nightmare?” She asked making the PJs raise one hand and making Sunset’s expression soften a bit. She wasn’t exactly fond of the soft kid PJs, in fact, it was the main source of her problems. But the fact that the clothing was wanting to comfort her only left her to smile. “Fine, but no funny business.” She said, walking over and wrapping the PJs in a hug and sighed. It did feel nice to be comforted from her nightmare, even though she had assured her friend that she was fine. 
“Thanks.” She said, after a few seconds, and let go of the PJs. “Nightmares aren’t fun, no matter what age.” She sighed watching the PJ raise one hand as if she answered a question. “Yes? How would you know?” She asked staring at the PJs before she raised an eyebrow, “Do you have nightmares?” She pressed the PJs, who froze up at the question. But as it slowly started to raise one arm there was a knock on the door, making them both jump.
“Sunset, once you’re ready meet me in the basement.” Twilight said, “I wanna try and run some tests to see if I can fix this!” Twilight informed the girl and the sound of her walking away could be heard.
“Coming right now!” Sunset assured her friend before turning back to the footie and giving it another hug. “Thanks, I guess.” She said, before picking the piece of clothing up and folding it up to put it back in her bag.
“So um… this is safe, right Twilight?” Sunset asked, lying on a grey cold metal table, looking up at a round red bulb pointed directly down at her. She was eager to get back to normal more than anyone else, but not at the risk of death or becoming a weird Frankenstein monster.
“Of course it is, why would you assume it’s not?” She asked, rolling over on a desk chair and putting a pair of goggles with black lenses over her eyes, “Here, hold these here. I don’t have a child-size pair.” She instructed, holding the goggles until the little girl took over the job.
“Mainly the way you are dressed.” She sighed looking at her friend, who was currently trying to cosplay as an evil scientist. Her hair was put up in a bun, a pair of matching black goggles on her face, and a white lab coat with a leather belt around her waist, black slack, and black flats. Also, black rubber gloves pulled up to her elbows. “It’s kind of off putting.” There was also the fact she was in a lab in Twilight’s basement that had all sorts of weird beeping machines lining the walls that had flashing lights on them
“Don’t worry about it, Sunset,” Spike said, jumping on the table suddenly, making the girl just. “Twilight’s done this to me a hundred times, it doesn’t hurt. Plus you get a treat afterward. Well… if you sit still and don’t scratch during it.” 
“I don’t think the scratching thing won’t be an issue,” Sunset assured the pup, reaching over and scratching the dog. Immediately making him smile as he collapsed down, exposing his fuzzy belly to be petted, and the girl obliged the canine and petted his belly.
“I’m glad to hear that, but if you don’t hold your goggles with both your hands you won’t get a treat.” Twilight threatened, rolling to the other side of the table and taking Spike away, petting his belly as well, before sitting him down.
“Wait I get a treat?” She asked, holding her goggles like she was supposed to as she watched Twilight go over to one of the desks in the room. Opening a drawer she pulled out a packaged chocolate chip cookie that was half the size of Sunset's head.
“Uh huh, only if you are good though.” She said, pushing away from the desk, over to a metal box that had a bunch of flashing buttons, pressing a large green button, making a low brrrrr sound fill the air. The bulb above Sunset immediately started to glow, little bolts of electricity dancing in the glass. The yellow-skinned girl's body started to tingle as if invisible hands were tickling her. Immediately, unable to control herself she started to squirm a bit on the table as she let out a childish hehehehe. But thankfully it only lasted a few seconds before the light died down. “And that's it,” Twilight said, pulling out her phone and immediately tapping on it. “That this is a magical energy reader, if there's any trace of magic on you or in you I’ll be able to see thanks to this handy app. And yes you can take the goggles off.” She said.
“Finally.” She sighed as if the goggles had been the biggest inconvenience of her life, and sat them beside her.
“You know she probably could’ve used mine,” Spike said, jumping back onto the table walking onto Sunset's lap, and lying down.
“Yours? Like goggles? Why do you have goggles?” She asked, immediately petting the dog.
“Yeah, duh! I’m her assistant, of course, I have a pair of my own goggles.” He said as if it was supposed to be super obvious. “Plus the light from the bulb is really bright and would probably blind me.”
“Yeah, I used this a lot right after I built it.” She said, “After the friendship games I wanted to understand magic, and since Spike can talk I figured it would be a good chance to. But, sadly, I don’t think I’ve actually gotten any closer to that.” She said, rolling over to the table.
“Join the club, I’ve been trying to figure it out a little bit longer than you.” Sunset sighed, looking at her friend's phone. The outline of a human with their feet colored in green. “So… what's the diagnosis doc?” She asked her friend.
“Well…” The purple teen said with a frown as she looked at her phone. “According to this, you don’t have any unexpected magic. This is what it would look like if I were to be scanned and wearing my gem too.” She said. “This means whatever magic did this to you has either left you or there was never magic in you to change you. Kind of like Spike, he can talk now but he has no magical properties to him,” Twilight explained as she reached up and pulled a pen that was resting between her ear and hair, immediately chewing on the gray cap as she thought. “I was hoping fixing this would be as simple as draining you of whatever magic keeping you this way.”
“Yeah, sadly it's never that easy.” She sighed, patting Twilight's head. But then an idea popped into her head. She may not have been filled with magic, but maybe the thing that did this to her was. “Wait, how about we check out the PJs?” She suggested. “Maybe if we can get the magic out of them it will reverse this too?” She theorized, sliding off the table and landing on the cold floor.
“I mean, I suppose it’s worth a try,” Twilight said, getting up and going to a computer and starting to type something into it. “Why don’t you go get them?” She muttered, clearly thinking about something else as she typed the girl rushed back to the living room, where her bag had been sat neatly on the floor and the blanket and pillow she had used the previous night were gone. 
Unlike Rainbow Dash’s place where everyone had been pretty loose with rules such as bedtime and where they were eating, Twilight's family was pretty strict. Having made her go to bed at seven due to her younger age, not letting her watch any TV or glance at her phone after that time. They had to eat dinner at the kitchen table, not allowed to eat it in the living room. Even clean-up seemed strict as it didn’t even look like Sunset had slept on the couch, and the smell of pancakes was already gone and replaced with a flowery scent.
“Ok,” She said, opening her bag, the red PJs immediately jumping out of the bag, again inflating to look like someone was in them. “Hi, I need you for a second. And then you can go back to sleep or not sleep… whatever it is you do.” She said. A few question marks popped up on it as she grabbed its arm and tugged the PJs back down to the basement lab. Twilight got the PJs onto the table, gave Sunset her cookie once reminded,  and started the weird scanner. Sunset looked at the ground to avoid blinding herself, munching on her cookie, though she did steal a glance up and saw the PJs were squirming much like she had when scanned.
“Yeah, this thing is filled with magic,” Twilight said, looking at her phone again, a small smirk on her face as she hovered her hand over a red button. “Magic extraction starting!” She said slamming her hand down and suddenly the bulb started to glow again, making Sunset look down. But like before she looked up again, this time more curious about what the reaction to having magic drained was. But when she looked up her mouth dropped open. She could see what looked like a rainbow-colored mist leaving the PJs and going into the orb. But her eyes were focused on the PJs themselves, instead of squirming they seemed the writhe as if they were in pain, and seeing it made Sunset’s stomach twist in knots.
These piece of clothing may have turned her into a kid, something she was desperate to get fixed. They may have been really weird, having forced themself on her multiple times. But she did want to see it suffer! 	
“T-Twilight…” She said softly, her lips dry as she couldn’t believe what she was going to say. “I think you need to turn it off!” She said.
“What?” The girl asked, “But this might fix you, Sunset.” The girl pointed out, the bulb started to glow brighter, making the room flash white. 
“I know but this doesn’t seem right!” She said, closing her eyes and looking down at the ground, her eyes quickly stinging from the bright light. “Please just-!” She started to almost beg but suddenly there was a loud CRACK! Making Sunset look again, the room now completely pitch black.
“AH!” Twilight yelped, “Too much! It had too much magical energy for me to contain!” The teen groaned, “And it looks like it blew a fuse… Well, hopefully, it was just one.” She muttered to herself as she turned on the flashlight on her phone, Sunset quickly did the same. Suddenly Sunset felt something soft hug her, trembling. And at this point, she knew what it was, and patted the shoulder of the PJs.
“Yeah yeah, it’s all over.” The girl sighed, patting the PJs on the back as if she was trying to console a child. But soon she gave the PJs a hug as she buried her face in its shoulder. This had possibly been her ticket back to being normal, but not only was she too weak to let the clothing suffer just a bit, but also the PJs had too much magic to absorb. Was she going to be stuck like this?
“Ok let's get out of here and I’ll check the fuse box,” Twilight said, which the girl had her own personal lab at home Sunset figured her friend was accustomed to having to flip breakers maybe even replace them. So she pulled the PJs off of her and grabbed them by the arm cuff to walk them out. But as she did her body immediately began to tingle and her vision immediately went white for a second before going black.

A foul stench filled her nose like she was surrounded by rotten and moldy food, her entire body felt cold making her want to shiver even though she couldn’t. Her heart panged like someone had taken a knife and stabbeed it like when Wallflower had made all her friends forget who she was. Betrayal, confusion, and hurt all mixed together into one intense pain. But she wasn’t going to just lay here and do nothing, there were other people who would want her if not them. Reaching up she pushed a plastic lid up and jumped out of the container she was put in, a ‘dumpster’ the one white pony with a blue mane had called it. Once she landed on the ground she saw the dark purple unicorn pony that had thrown her in the trash can. Her nerves immediately being set on edge as she quickly ran away on all fours away from the unicorn. Not wanting to be caught again and thrown back in the dumpster she knew she had to make a break for it.

“Come on Sunset,” Twilight said, pulling the girl out of her trance as she led the way out of the basement. 
“Oh, right.” She said, shaking her head before walking off, looking back at the PJs. Was that a memory from the clothing? She was used to her magical powers of looking into the past for other people, but she never had it work on clothes before! But more importantly, she had felt what the PJs had felt too. Their memories became hers for a few moments like normal, but it gave a clue. There was something about a white pony with a blue mane, and if she remembered right they were in front of a castle of sorts. Oh, and the unicorn looked weird like it was made from crystals or something. Maybe Princess Twilight would know something about it. She would write her as soon as they got power back in the house.