//------------------------------// // Nightmares // Story: Maintaining Harmony // by DiabloGuapo //------------------------------// “You’re not going anywhere,” the three bridesmaids threatened with their eyes glowing green. Twilight backed away from the advancing mares. She turned to Cadance to see if she had any ideas, but she was struck with alarm when she saw that the bride to be was replaced by a towering figure with a black carapace and a croocked horn. Its legs were riddled with holes and its mane and wings were a translucent blue. The figure laughed with malice and Twilight jumped back from it. She turned to flee, but she came face to face with her best friends. “Oh thank goodness you’re here. We got to…” The words died in Twilight’s throat as saw her friends smirk menacingly at her. Their eyes too were glowing green.“No! Not you too!” “Yes…” the five ponies and the dragon droned in monotone voices. Twilight looked around and found a gap between the two groups that were closing in at her. She tried to run through it, but it was block off by another group. Her mentor, Princess Celestia, and her sister, Princess Luna, stood before her. Like the others, their eyes glowed and had such evil grins on their faces that she didn’t know was possible. She turned to run in the other direction, but that way was blocked too. “Shining Armor, Mom, Dad…” Twilight sobbed as her family closed in on her. She fell to the floor of the cave weeping as the figure laughed at her despair. ***** “Alright, Apple Bloom. Let’s get these apples back to the farm.” Applejack was loading the last basket of apples on to the wagon. She looked up to look for her sister when she didn’t respond. The filly was by her side only a moment ago. She scanned her eyes around the orchard, but she still couldn’t she her. “Apple Bloom? Apple Bloom! Where’d you run off to?” She groaned in agitation, but she went ahead and hitched herself to the wagon and started pull the wagon back to farm. As she was making her way past the fields, she noticed that Big Macintosh wasn’t there. That wasn’t unusual, but the fact that his plow was there by itself was. Big Macintosh always puts the farming tools away when he is done with them. By the looks of things, it seems like he just disappeared when he was halfway done plowing the field. Applejack was confused by these strange turn of events. The blonde pony reached the barn and opened its large doors. She froze in mid-stride when she saw what was inside. Green cocoons were hanging from the ceiling of the barn, and there were ponies inside. She could see the figures of Granny Smith, Big Macintosh, and Apple Bloom floating upside down inside them. Next to them, she noticed other cocoons. They contained Twilight, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie. There were still more; Spike, the mayor, Lyra, Derpy, Cheerilee,…it seemed like all of Ponyville was there! “This can’t be happenin’! It just can’t!” Applejack shouted in disbelief. “But it is, Applejack,” a group of monotone voices called from behind her. She spun around to see her friends and family blocking to doorway of the barn. Applejack was about to ask how were there two sets of them, but in a green flash, they transformed into black monsters and pounced at her. ***** Rarity was struck with inspiration and had to act on it immediately. Fabrics were levitated across the room by her magic as she worked on her last piece. She stepped back to observe her latest creation. The dress was magnificent, but now she needed a model to wear it. The dress was designed for a filly, and she knew just the filly to try it on. Sweetie Belle fortunately wasn’t to be leaving to go home to their parents until another day. Rarity went down the hall to the guest bedroom which was most often used as Sweetie Belle’s when she came to visit. “Sweetie Belle, could I ask you to model a dress for me?” she asked as she knocked on the door, but there was no answer. She knocked again, but there still was no reply. “Sweetie Belle? Sweetie Belle, are you there?” Rarity opened door and walked in. The room was pitch-black. Rarity was about turn on the lights, but the door slammed behind her. She let out a yelp at the sudden noise, and she stumbled about in total darkness. “W-what’s going?” she asked in panic. She then heard a low chuckle, and the fear grew in her heart. “Generosity…” the voice hissed. “What’s so generous about you?” “W-who are you? What’s the meaning of this?” Rarity tried to look for the source of the voice, but she couldn’t see anything in the darkness. “You only care about yourself,” the voice judged. “Everything has to be about you.” “That’s not true!” Rarity tried to defend herself from her unseen prosecutor. “Oh really? Then were you when your friend, Twilight Sparkle, needed you the most?” The voice let out another cruel laugh. “You were too preoccupied on your silly little dresses to see that your friend was right all along.” “I…I just thought…” the fashionista attempted to justify herself, but the voice cut her off again. “Thought what? That Twilight was over reacting again? That she was being overly protective of her brother? Haven’t you learned to trust her yet? To take her concerns seriously? As I recall, it was you who facehoofed when she came running into the chapel to stop the ceremony.” The voice had a point. Rarity was ashamed and embarrassed by her friend when she thought that Twilight was again trying to stop the wedding. Rarity tried to think of something to say in her defense, but the voice spoke before she could come up with anything. “Some Element of Generosity you are. You walked out on your friend right after she was disowned by her brother! A truly generous pony would have comforted their friend, but what did you do?” Rarity was silent. “What did you do?” the voice asked again, but Rarity remained silent. She couldn’t speak because her tears robbed her of her voice. “Say it…Say it….SAY IT!” “Nothing! I did nothing to help her!” Rarity screamed through her tears. The voice laughed at her cries. “Who are you!? Show yourself!?” The lights came on, and Rarity stood face to face with herself. Her doppelganger laughed louder and louder as Rarity collapsed to the floor crying. ***** Rainbow Dash was napping on a cloud over Ponyville; her favorite past time. However, the pleasant nap quickly when the cloud she was on suddenly disappeared. The pegasus awoke to find herself falling down an abyss. She yelled in terror and tried to flap her wings to stop her fall. Her terror grew when she looked behind her and saw that her wings were missing. She looked around for anything, but she saw that she was falling down a hole. “Not loyal, not loyal, not loyal,” a voice chanted as she fell. She finally landed at the bottom of the pit. She was surprised that she wasn’t splattered on the floor. She noticed that the hole was gone and that she was standing in the middle of Golden Oaks Library. She also noticed that Spike was there too. He was scratching at his back again. “Here, let me help you with that,” she offered. The young dragon looked up at her and Rainbow jumped at what she saw. His eyes were more snake-like. His forked tongue flickered as he hissed at her. “Whoa, hey Spike. It’s me!” The dragon hissed again and scurried out of sight up the stair to the bedroom. A second later, Twilight appeared at the top of the stairs. She glared at Rainbow Dash as she descended down the steps. “Not loyal,” she said icily. Her horn glowed magenta with magical energy. A book went flying at Rainbow’s head, which she barely managed to dodge. “Hey what was…whoa!” Another book went zooming by her head, then another, and another. Soon, Rainbow was being bombarded by books. “Not loyal, not loyal, not loyal,” was all that she heard as she was being buried by a tomb of books. ***** Pinkie was in Paradise. She was at a party that dwarfed the Grand Galloping Gala by a hundredfold. Everyone she ever knew was there and she was standing in the middle of the dance floor with everypony cheering her on as she danced. “Go, Pinkie, go!” they all cheered. Pinkie was grinning so hard that she felt like her face was going too spilt. Everything was going great, and everyone was happy. Pinkie closed her eyes, because her grin forced them closed. Then Pinkie noticed something was wrong. The laughter had ceased. She opened her eyes to find that her friends were gone. In their place was a legion of Changelings. “No, don’t stop,” a voice called out from the crowd. Queen Chrysalis stepped forward to face the party pony. A look of genuine glee was on her face. “Your love of laughter and of your friends is feeding us so well.” “Yes, go on! Go on!” the Changelings cheered on. “Where are my friends? What did you do with them?” Pinkie trembled as she desperately searched for her friends’ face amongst the crowd of insect-like faces. “Come on, let’s party! Let’s sing! Let’s dance!” the mob demanded. They started to close in on her. “Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity!” she called out as she was being swamped by the endless crowd that was still demanding her to party. ****** “What’s that!? Who’s there!?” Fluttershy cried out in panic as ran aimlessly in the Everfree Forest. She was hopelessly lost in the dense forest, and she hears noises approaching her. Dark figures appeared from out the trees. The looked like ponies, but she still couldn’t make out who they were. As they came closer, she noticed that weren’t ponies at all! It was the Changelings! Fluttershy screamed and ran away as fast as she could from the creatures. Fluttershy came across the opening of a cave. It was dark and menacing, and she trembled at the thought of entering it. However, it was either enter the cave or face her pursuers. With a whimper, she ran inside. The cave was dark, but she noticed a light in the distance. With renewed hope she ran towards it. That hope was quickly shattered when she came to a large chamber filled with cocoons. She saw that Pinkie Pie was in one of them and that the rest of her friends were in a line waiting for their turns. They didn’t move at all, and their eyes glowed green. Rainbow Dash was next, and then Applejack was also cocooned. Fluttershy was paralyzed with fear as she watched the Changelings cocoon Rarity. Right before Twilight Sparkle was cocooned, she slowly turned her head towards Fluttershy. Tears wear streaming down from her glowing, green eyes. “Help us…Fluttershy,” Twilight managed to say in a hollow voice before being cocooned. ***** Six ponies awoke in the middle of the night in a cold sweat and with tears in their eyes.