//------------------------------//
// Chapter 06: Peace Offerings 
// Story: Nightmares 
// by unoservix 
//------------------------------//


Nightmares
———

Chapter 6: Peace Offerings

———

Note: I'm probably going to set a record for "number of times I've changed a character's name." Ember Rein, Comet Star, Comet...yeah. Sorry.

———

Trixie's convalescence got off to an encouraging start with a daylight escape attempt from Nightmare Storm the next day. It was an "attempt" mainly because she couldn't get two steps from her bed without crumpling to the floor in a heap of pain and helpless rage. That hadn't stopped her from hurling invective and bolts of magic at her hosts, but one more suppression spell was all it took to send the Nightmare scuttling back into the recesses of Trixie's mind. And that didn't stop Trixie from at least hurling invective at her hosts, but she shut up eventually once Fluttershy showed up to massage away some of the pain in her legs—and once Applejack showed up and threatened to core her skull like an apple if she didn't knock it off with all that racket.
And so Twilight, Fluttershy, and Applejack wearily made their way back downstairs as Trixie pouted in bed. "Well," sighed Twilight, "at least that was pretty easy."
Applejack snorted. "Yeah, fer now."
"I hope she stays in bed this time," Fluttershy added. "It really isn't helping those sprains to keep getting out of bed and, um," she blushed, "trying to kill you."
"Yeah, about that," Applejack said, and came to a stop in front of Twilight. "Ah gotta say, ah'm with RD on this one. Trixie's pretty dangerous. And the better she gets, the more dangerous she'll be. Ah'm only helpin' ya on this 'cuz we agreed to give Trixie a chance 'fore we fry her," she nodded upstairs, "an' right now that's lookin' mighty temptin'."
Twilight stared at her skeptically. "You'd really kill her?"
"Don't wanna kill her, no, but there ain't no denyin', she's dangerous. An' ah don't reckon we're gonna make much of a friend outta her."
Fluttershy fidgeted. "Well, it's only been a day. We have to give her a chance."
"Exactly," Twilight said. "I've been studying the suppression spell. It only wears off if something happens to really work her up, enough for the Nightmare to overwhelm the barrier and come back to the surface. So if we can all avoid ticking her off—"
"Good luck with that," Applejack snorted.
"If we can all avoid ticking her off," Twilight went on, ears flat, "maybe we can start making some progress with her."
Applejack sighed and looked back up towards the stairwell again. "If ya say so, Twi," she said, "but, well...remember how ah said yer bein' reckless? This is, like, super reckless." She put a hoof on Twilight's shoulder. "Ah'll be outside on the cart, so if Trixie needs me to sing her another lullaby, just holler an' ah'll be there, ya hear?"
Twilight smiled wryly. "You think of the most innocuously terrifying euphemisms, Applejack."
"It's a talent. Take care, Twi."
Twilight slumped down and her smile disappeared as Applejack left, leaving Fluttershy to hover over her with concern. "A-Are you alright...?"
"I guess," Twilight sighed. "It's just...well, I keep hoping we really can make friends with Trixie. Because I wouldn't mind having someone to talk to about magic. Someone who understands it and also cares about it, y'know? Nobody else in Ponyville is really into magic the same way I am, so..."
"I understand," Fluttershy said with that typical warm smile of hers that melted every heart in its path. "Rainbow Dash didn't think much of the butterfly migration either." She shrugged. "Maybe you should try talking to her about magic. I'm sure she'll come around; right now she's just scared."
Twilight sighed and idly blew a lock of her mane out of her face. "Sometimes I think making friends with her should've been your job, Fluttershy. Being kindness incarnate and all."
Fluttershy gave her a quick hug. "But I'm not the one who needs it." Twilight sat up and blinked in surprise. "I'll be back later this afternoon to check on her. See you then!"

———

It was noon and noon was Pinkie Pie's favorite part of the day, except for all the other parts of the day that were her favorite part of the day, and she bounced down the street on her way back to Sugarcube Corner after a stop at Sweet Apple Acres for lunch and watching the Cutie Mark Crusaders once again valiantly try to earn their cutie marks and even more valiantly fail. They were so persistent! Someday they'd get their cutie marks. Pinkie wondered what they would be. Applebloom would probably get something related to apples. Probably.
The streets were full of life and the ponies who noticed her bouncing along always returned her smiles and that was just wonderful! She knew everypony in town. There was Lyra and Bonbon over there, with Lyra playing her lyre and talking about something silly—Lyra was so silly—and there was Derpy talking to that mysterious earth pony with the hourglass cutie mark, the one who always seemed to disappear for a while and then reappear for no reason, almost like Pinkie except without her taste for parties and pranks, and there was Zecora at the marketplace and Caramel and Carrot Top and Colgate and there was Thunder Lane up there moving clouds around—clouds were so fun!—and then there was—
Pinkie stopped short. Those two, those unicorns, they were new! A green pudgy-looking unicorn with his nose buried in a book and a red one who really looked like he should probably cut back on the coffee in the morning because it probably wasn't healthy to go twitching like that all the time but still—
She bounced right over in front of them and ignored the way it startled them both. "Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie and I've never seen you two here before and I know everypony here so let me be the first to say welcome to Ponyville!" and a blast of confetti erupted from somewhere known only to the mysterious party forces that governed the universe.
"Um...hi," ventured the green unicorn.
"Anyways you should totally come to Sugarcube Corner!" Pinkie went on. "I can throw you a 'Welcome to Ponyville' party and you'll have so many cakes and pastries and muffins and cupcakes and cookies you'll want to explode but you won't actually explode because that would be bad but it'll be a good kind of explosion!"
The green unicorn turned up his nose. "Ugh. Sugar. I'll only eat organic, thanks."
The red unicorn glared. "Sugar is organic, you nitwit."
Pinkie frowned. "That wasn't very nice—"
"It's all just processed junk, Pollux," the green unicorn insisted with a wave of his hoof. "It's tragic, really. The art of true baking has been lost to time. Rampant capitalism—"
"Oh, not again," groaned Pollux. "Castor, every time we ever buy something you complain about how it's not made by a self-sustaining organic artistic commune that properly expresses the pointless angst of existence or whatever. It's stupid!"
"Stupid?!" Castor squawked, the book forgotten. Pinkie peered down at it and wondered why he was reading about how Princess Celestia was actually an alien lizard disguised as a pony. "I would expect somepony of such crude sensibilities to say something like that!"
"Well!" chirped Pinkie, commanding both ponies' attention, "I don't know what kind of sweets you've been eating but rest assured that at Sugarcube Corner everything is freshly baked and positively scrumptious!"
Pollux scowled over at Castor. "This is just like that time you said aliens built the old ruined castle in the Everfree Forest."
"They did!" Castor howled. "Do you honestly expect such primitive creatures could be capable of such stupendous feats of engineering? They obviously had celestial assistance!"
"That's ridiculous!" shot back Pollux. "There is not one shred of scientific proof—"
"You don't need scientific proof! It's logic!"
"No it's not, it's something that rattled around in your little pea-brain—"
"Pea-brain?!"
Pinkie promptly collapsed to the ground in a fit of giggles. The two unicorns stopped arguing and stared down at her, completely baffled.
"You guys—are just so—funny!" She kicked at the air in hysterics. "Oh my gosh you guys are hilarious!" She promptly jumped back up and grabbed them both by the hooves. "Come on! We have to throw you a 'Welcome to Ponyville' party! You can meet my friend Twilight! She loves books! Even if they're about how Princess Celestia is an alien lizard from outer space! Let's go!"
And then they were off in a blur of pink.

———

From an alley not too far away, Razor Edge required every fiber of his being not to slam his head into the wall over and over again until the sheer horror of what he had just witnessed had dissipated from his violated mind. At his side, Comet simply stared in disdain at it all.
"That was about par for course for those two, wasn't it," sighed Comet, with an idle flap of her wings.
"The boss is going to kill them," Razor Edge groaned. "And then he's going to kill us, for letting them attract so much attention."
"He's going to kill you," Comet sniffed. "I, however, took the liberty of procuring some employment—albeit employment far below the standards I deserve."
"Did you now," grumbled Razor Edge. "And how might you be earning your keep in this fine community?"
"Weather patrol," Comet huffed, and flicked her tail at Whiplash, sitting nearby and staring at the shifting clouds with an enormous grin. "The boss thought she was alright, even in spite of the loose screws, and I just rode the coattails, as it were."
"Wonderful." Razor Edge stepped out towards the edge of the alley and carefully watched the ponies strolling by in the market. "Boring little town. Looks like one of those places where everyone knows everyone. Which would explain the pink one, now that I think about it."
"Ugh. That thing had better stay away from me," groused Comet.
"Oh don't worry, you're not nearly as entertaining as Castor and Pollux," chuckled Razor Edge. "Now all we have to do is wait for Barbell and Lazuli to get here," he smiled, "and then things get interesting."

———

It all started with a blast of confetti and party poppers that jolted Trixie awake. She looked around, wide-eyed with panic, and her eyes settled on a pink pony with a poofy mane, framed with balloons and bubbles and falling confetti and streamers.
"Hi!" chirped Pinkie Pie. "I'm Pinkie Pie and we kind of didn't get a chance to do this earlier so let me be the first to say welcome to Ponyville!"
Trixie blew an errant streamer off her nose. "Yes."
Pinkie kept up her wide grin. "So! I know you can't really go anywhere or anything but you're new here and I know everypony here and everypony here is my friend so I'm never friendless and it's great! And that's such an awesome and super-duper-amazing-tacular feeling that I want to share it! With you!"
Trixie stared back at her. "Share it."
"Yes indeedy!"
With that, Trixie promptly turned over. "Go away."
Pinkie did not so much as flinch. "That's okay! I know it's scary to be in a new place and not have any friends! But that's okay! Because Twilight will be your friend! And Fluttershy! And me!"
"I don't want any of you to be my friends," Trixie grumbled.
"Oh, don't be such a silly filly," Pinkie laughed. "Everypony has to have friends! Or else you'd go crazy!"
"I said go away," Trixie snarled.
"Uh oh, looks like someone woke up a little cranky this morning—"
Trixie whirled around again, grabbed Pinkie by the mane, yanked her forward, and snorted in her face. "I told you," she hissed, "go away."
Pinkie stared back in shock for a moment. At least when Cranky Doodle had been telling her off, he'd been a little more patient about it, and she had been kind of overbearing, but this was hardly even close to the level of hyper she could truly unleash.
"Okey dokey lokey!" she chirped, and got back to her feet. "See ya later, Trixie!"
Pinkie bounced back downstairs and past a confused Twilight. "Um, how did it go?" she asked.
"Oh, just the way I thought it would," Pinkie said with a shrug. "I was all 'Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie!' and she was all 'grr I don't wanna talk to you' and I was all 'I wanna be your friend' and she was all 'go away' like a great big meaniepants."
Twilight glared back up the stairs. "'Meaniepants,' huh?"
Pinkie rushed up into her line of sight. "Oh, it's okay, Twilight! She'll come around! They always do."
"Pinkie, there's an angry spirit of darkness swirling around inside her that thirsts for my blood."
"Well nopony is perfect." Her eyes lit up. "Hey, anyways, did you know that there are other new ponies in Ponyville?! So I totally have to throw them a party too! At Sugarcube Corner! Wanna come?"
Twilight frowned and glanced meaningfully back upstairs. "Um...I'll think about it. I kind of have to stay here and take care of the Meaniepants up there, though."
"Oh, I know! Just to say hi! It's not every day we get new ponies in Ponyville!" She threw her arms around Twilight and briefly squeezed the life out of her. "Oh my gosh! I have to get ready! See you there!"
And then she was gone in a pink blur. Spike ambled in with a cupcake in hand, looked down at the trail of confetti left in her wake, and simply sighed.
"Pinkie Pie?"
Twilight took a moment to recollect her wits. "Yeah, Pinkie Pie."
"I'll get the broom."

———

Another day, another Pinkie Pie party, mused Twilight Sparkle, this one in honor of some new arrivals in Ponyville. As usual, Pinkie was pretty much beside herself with joy at the thought of even more new ponies from which to extract smiles and friendship. The rest of her friends, absent any previous bad blood as they had with Trixie, were as friendly and welcoming as always. So that was both encouraging and discouraging: encouraging because it meant her friends weren't just turning into jerks or something, discouraging because they were their typical friendly selves and they still didn't appear to like Trixie all that much.
Twilight headed back for the library with a groggy Spike on her back. Trixie had fallen asleep shortly before the party at Sugarcube Corner, and Twilight had managed to slip away long enough to go visit and assure Pinkie that she wasn't just ditching her party, she actually did have work to do, such as caring for a cranky unicorn that also contained a bloodthirsty murderous demonic spirit. Not that their brief visit had been too brief for Spike to load up on cupcakes and promptly launch himself into a nap.
And it was a chance to get a good look at what were apparently Ponyville's newest residents, such as they were. Twilight idly wondered if it was in the nature of a small town like this one that she should feel a twinge of suspicion at these newcomers. They seemed nice enough, if a bit odd—but being odd had hardly stopped her from becoming friends with the likes of Pinkie Pie or Fluttershy.
The green unicorn, Castor, had stopped by the library earlier that day to check out the book on "breathing diet," which claimed that a pony didn't need to actually eat food or drink water and could subsist purely on the ambient nutrients and water droplets floating around in the air that everyone breathed. Twilight had gone through that book herself and catalogued no less than one thousand seven hundred and fifty-six logical and scientific errors and dubious claims, but she'd stocked it anyway out of a feeling of duty not to go suppressing a book because she thought its contents were a load of bunk. At any rate, at least somepony else agreed; the red unicorn, Castor's brother Pollux, promptly launched into a verbally abusive diatribe about how stupid "breathing diet" was, along with numerous other things, and the argument only ended when she kicked them both out.
But they weren't the only ones. The two pegasi that apparently Rainbow Dash had hired onto the weather patrol had been interesting on their own. There was that prissy, arrogant one with the velvety-looking purple mane called Comet, that rather reminded Twilight of her encounters with Canterlot's snooty elite, but she had pretty much hovered around the punch bowl and settled for looking down her nose at everyone. And then there was that demented blue pegasus called Whiplash, the one that Rainbow had said wasn't as fast as her but could turn on a bit and that was, Rainbow had admitted, "pretty awesome—not as awesome as me, but still, pretty awesome." Twilight had briefly watched her darting around the party, and she reminded her of no one more than Pinkie Pie—but in a crazed, neurotic, trying-too-hard kind of way. Pinkie's preternatural joy came naturally, oxymoronically enough; Whiplash, however, seemed...different.
In fact, they had all seemed different. Like the two Earth ponies, the hulking mountain of not-very-talkative muscle named Barbell and the smaller and much more gregarious Razor Edge, who had spent the evening chatting up Rarity, much to Spike's dismay. Twilight wondered where this suspicious streak had come from. Surely this wouldn't have anything to do with Trixie; after all, Ponyville frequently had visitors for whom Pinkie threw parties, and occasionally somepony moved here on a more permanent basis. It was one of many stops on the rail lines that led to Canterlot, and the only reason it wasn't as big as Baltimare or Vanhoover was that pesky little fact known as the Everfree Forest. So why did these new ponies bug her so much?
She shook her head as she nudged open the library door with a thread of magic and silently scanned over the library. Trixie was still asleep, judging by the wispy tendrils of that sleeping spell still curling through the air, undetectable to anyone but a well-trained unicorn. There was a reason these spells were entrusted to very few—including Twilight Sparkle, because if the princess's personal student didn't count as one of the trusted few, no one did.
Twilight deposited an increasingly listless Spike in his bed and then turned back towards Trixie, still fast asleep, and gently lifted the spell from her. Trixie stirred for a moment, Twilight cringed, and Trixie's eyes fluttered open—and then she caught sight of Twilight and quickly put a scowl on her face.
Twilight arched an eyebrow. "Hello to you too."
"What do you want?" she grumbled.
"Oh, I was just putting Spike to bed," Twilight said, and Spike helpfully mumbled something unintelligible, "but now that you're awake, how are you feeling?"
"Go away."
"That's not an answer—"
"I said go away."
Twilight thought back to what the princess had said. See it from her perspective—and have patience. It had practically become a mantra. She sighed and turned away, intending to head back downstairs, light up a candle, and get some studying in before she got too sleepy to keep reading—but then an idea flashed through her mind. She glanced back at Trixie, who had turned her back to the purple unicorn and was undoubtedly pouting; well, maybe this would shut her up. And so Twilight quietly headed down to the basement.
The basement, of course, was a tangled mess dug out under the tree's gargantuan roots. It was a bit eerie down here and required a quick illumination spell to see anything, but before long Twilight had unearthed a dusty little cardboard box. She blew the dust off, sneezed perfunctorily, and trotted back upstairs with the box in tow. She had almost forgotten about it, but now that Trixie was back, it was probably for the best to give this stuff back to her as soon as possible.
Once Twilight got back upstairs, she saw Trixie had turned over again to glower at the entire room. She turned her angry gaze towards Twilight, although the hate diminished as she caught sight of the box floating behind her.
"And just what the hay is that?" she asked.
"For you," answered Twilight, and she pushed it towards the blue unicorn.
Trixie glowered back.
"I'm serious," Twilight said, "it's for you. It's the stuff we saved from your wagon."
Anger flickered through Trixie's eyes for a moment. "You went through my things?!"
"Well you kind of just left them there sitting in the street," Twilight answered, "and we did have a rainstorm scheduled the next day."
"Lovely," Trixie snarled. "Now you've even taken my privacy from me."
"Trixie, I didn't go through your stuff, I just put it in the box, now open it."
Trixie stared skeptically at Twilight for a moment, then looked down at the box and tipped it open—and then her angry look shattered and she simply stared into the box in disbelief.
"We found it all after you left," Twilight explained, awkwardly pawing at the floor while Trixie pulled out her star-spangled cloak. "You kind of, um, took off without your stuff, so we packed up what we could save and held on to it in case you ever came back for it." She rubbed the back of her head with a hoof as Trixie pulled out her hat. "I mean, the Ursa didn't leave much, but we found some bits in there, and Rarity was able to fix the hat and cloak, and..."
She trailed off. Trixie just stared down at the old accessories of what Twilight could only assume were happier days for the blue magician—or at least, days when she wasn't living in the Everfree Forest, consumed by a spirit of hatred and plotting to kill someone, and then being laid up in that same someone's home after an Ursa Minor beat her to a pulp.
"Look Trixie," Twilight said, "I know you think that I was trying to humiliate you that night when the Ursa showed up, and I can understand how you might think that way, but I really wasn't. Honest. Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."
Trixie stared back. "Excuse me?"
Twilight blushed. "Um...I'll...explain later...anyways, the point is, I really wasn't trying to embarrass you. It's just, there was an Ursa on the loose and I had to do something about it." She waved a hoof at Trixie, stuck in bed with broken ribs and sprained legs. "And I didn't try to humiliate you with all this. I'm trying to help you."
Trixie snorted and looked away bitterly out the window. "Really," she grumbled. "I embraced the power of darkness to give me the strength to kill you and now I'm trapped in your home with a broken body, being cooed at and threatened by your friends, and now you tell me you aren't trying to humiliate me?"
"I probably saved you from even more humiliation," Twilight said. "Rainbow Dash wanted to go after you and drag you back here and make you apologize." She waved a hoof at the sparkly cloak in Trixie's hooves. "And besides, if I was trying to humiliate you, would I have given you back your stuff? Would I have asked Rarity to sew that thing back together even though you embarrassed her in front of the whole town? Would I have kicked my friends out when they were just scaring you even more?"
Trixie stared down at her cloak, silent.
"Anyways," Twilight said, "we kind of got off on the wrong hoof last time, so I mean it when I say I want to start over. I really do want to help you. That's why I argued with my friends not to use the Elements to destroy the Nightmare. And," she gestured vaguely towards the rest of Ponyville, where all her friends were, "if anyone should know how powerful friendship can be, it's me. So why not share?"
Trixie kept her eyes fixed on her cloak.
Twilight sighed. "Well, I'll let you think on it," she said, and turned away. "Good night, Trixie."
The next morning, Trixie said nothing when Twilight and Spike brought up her breakfast. But Twilight did notice her starry cloak folded up on the foot of her bed, and her hat perched defiantly on her head; and when she looked up towards the pony and dragon, the anger in her eyes had dimmed.

———

It wasn't, like, super fast or anything. Definitely wasn't as fast as her. But it was still impressive, even if Rainbow Dash wasn't very keen on admitting it.
Whiplash, the weather patrol's newest hire, kind of reminded Rainbow of Pinkie Pie, if Pinkie Pie had wings—which was a terrifying thought all on its own. But she was pretty good with the clouds and, most impressive in Rainbow's mind—not that she'd ever admit it—was her crazy ability to turn really quickly. Most pegasi could do some basic, lazy loops in the air and the awesome ones like herself could do much tighter circles, but Whiplash could do boxes and triangles and whatever it was you called a shape that had twenty-seven sides. Twilight would probably know. That was egghead stuff.
She perched on a cloud and watched in muted fascination as Whiplash carved an octagon with an inset square into the midmorning sky using only contrails, raw speed, and insane cornering ability. Of course, back at Junior Flight Camp, once the little pegasi foals had learned how to get themselves into the air, they'd been told not to try to turn too tightly because they would almost certainly wind up hurting themselves. And of course, some of them had to do it anyways—including Rainbow Dash herself—and, surprise of surprises, they wound up hurting themselves. It was if their instructors had seen this sort of thing before and knew it would happen again. Weird.
"Not bad, not bad," Rainbow said as Whiplash plopped down on the cloud next to her and admired her fading contrail octagon with inset square in the sky. "Gotta say, I don't think I've ever seen a pegasus take a ninety-degree turn at full throttle before without breaking a wing or something."
"Oh yeah, gotta have strong wings!" Whiplash chirped, punctuated with a strong flap.
"Although," Rainbow said with a smirk, and she gestured back down towards the rest of the team, which was still trying to wrangle the clouds that had been disturbed by Whiplash's wake, "you don't exactly have to go all-out for weather patrol."
"Oh. Oops."
"It's not the worst thing we've ever had done here." She glanced down awkwardly at one of the homes down below. "Not like that time Derpy accidentally sent a thunderstorm to Canterlot."
Whiplash blinked. "But Canterlot's way up there!"
"Yeah, it was the weirdest apology letter I've ever had to write." Rainbow perked up. "Anyways! Speaking of Canterlot, I heard you lived there for a while before you moved here."
Whiplash suddenly seemed very nervous, and Rainbow frowned at the sight. Weird. "Yeah! Uh, for a while, y'know, moving around, seeing the world." She gestured to the three speeding arrows on her flank. "And I mean what do you even do when your special talent is just flying around and turning really fast?"
Rainbow frowned. "Apply for the Wonderbolts?" She immediately puffed out her chest. "Not that you'd steal a spot from me or anything."
Whiplash's ears went flat. "Didn't get in."
"Oh. Sorry."
"That's okay! Now I can fly all over the place whenever I want! Funfunfun!" She punctuated herself with a quick, very tight loop in midair.
"Right, well," Rainbow said, "in all seriousness, the weather patrol isn't really that intense. Just make some rainstorms on the days when it's supposed to rain, and break up the big cloud formations on days when it's not." She patted a hoof on the cloud they both sat on. "Stubborn little things, but it's not that hard. Lots of downtime. Good for napping."
"I like naps!" Whiplash chirped.
Rainbow smirked back. "Then you and I are gonna get along just fine."

———

With the suppression spell firmly in place, Fluttershy to supervise, and Spike well-armed with a frying pan and an abundance of willingness to use it, Twilight felt perfectly safe in leaving the library long enough for the weekly shopping run. The weekly shopping run was a bit more chaotic without Spike to keep track of the list—well, lists, plural, divided into helpful columns and cells, set out in groups according to a complex classification scheme, with every purchase painstakingly recorded so that she could go home and chart out her expenditures over time as compared to the national average and further streamline her budget. But it was getting done, and that was the important part.
Twilight wheeled around with a couple of gems in hold for Spike when she got back. He'd been a pretty good sport about this whole Trixie business so far, all things considered, and so she could overlook the odd sarcastic comment and reward him for his patience. She dropped a couple of garnets into her saddlebag. He'd get a kick out of those. She dropped a few bits on the counter and turned around—and then she squeaked in surprise at the sight of a familiar face.
"Seesaw!" she exclaimed.
The chestnut-colored pegasus put on a charming grin and bowed. "Twilight Sparkle! Glad to see you're out and about—oh, and I got your note, by the way. Delivered by the most curious of mail mares, I have to say."
"Y-Yeah, Derpy is like that," Twilight stammered, "so, um, what brings you to Ponyville?"
"Traveling on business, as it were," Seesaw said. "So I understand you ran into that flamboyant little unicorn recently...?"
Twilight bit her lip. He didn't need to know that much. "Something like that." She put on what she hoped was a disarming smile. "She's sick right now and she probably shouldn't be disturbed, or at least that's what I understand of it, but I'm sure she'll be back on her feet and touring Equestria soon enough!"
"Although," Seesaw went on, with a dubious look around the marketplace, "I've also heard other stories about her and this town."
Twilight cringed. Lovely. "Like what...?"
"Oh, something about an Ursa. If I recall her show correctly she claimed she'd actually defeated one in single combat or whatever." He chuckled. "Show business, eh?"
"I guess." Twilight eyed him carefully for a moment. "Although I'm sure if she knew she had fans eagerly awaiting her return, she might feel a little better."
Seesaw smiled back. "I'm sure she would."
An awkward silence reigned as Twilight wondered what to say next. It occurred to her as well that she hadn't really considered what everyone else in Ponyville might think of a vicious and highly destructive spirit of darkness looming inside the town—but it wasn't as though she had a choice. She would need her friends to help and they couldn't all move to Canterlot. And one of Trixie's apparent fans, standing in front of her right here, was just one more reason to get the blue unicorn back on her feet and free from the demonic presence.
"Well," said Seesaw with a courtly tip of his head, "I'd hate to be keeping you. Good afternoon, Miss Sparkle. And thank you for the note; I very much appreciate it."
Twilight smiled back as Seesaw took to the sky and disappeared around a building. Her smile vanished as soon as he did. Now she had fans pawing after her, and it had taken the only goodwill token she had just to get Trixie to stop glaring daggers at her at every opportunity. This was going to be more difficult than she thought.

———

"There," cooed Fluttershy, "that wasn't so bad, was it?"
Freshly wrapped in bandages and seething with outrage that was checked only by Twilight's suppression spell, the Great and Powerful Trixie apparently had a decidedly divergent opinion of how bad it had been. Fluttershy sighed and wished it hadn't reached the point where she'd had to unleash the Stare—it always made everypony so uncomfortable—but if Trixie wanted to be difficult, she would have to suffer the consequences and there just wasn't anything Fluttershy could do about it.
"Now," she went on, propped up Trixie's injured legs under a couple of bags filled with ice, and set down a concoction of medicine on the table next to her, "drink that all up and try to get some rest."
Trixie begrudgingly did as directed and nearly choked on the drink. "Holy—this stuff is terrible!"
"Well, nopony said medicine was going to taste very good." She fluffed Trixie's pillow and ignored her annoyed expression. "Anyways, you have to take your medicine and follow all of Nurse Redheart's instructions, or you'll never heal and you'll be stuck here for even longer. And you don't want that, do you?"
Trixie looked around the room with a look of sheer distaste. "Of course not. Stuck with that irritating know-it-all unicorn and her annoying little dragon..."
"Oh, Twilight's not mean," Fluttershy protested. "She just wants to help you—"
"By trapping me in her home and robbing me of my powers?" Trixie snapped. "By injuring me to the point where I'm completely at her mercy?"
Fluttershy eyed Trixie's scowling face for a moment and then turned her eyes towards the cloak folded up at the foot of her bed. "Well, I'm glad Twilight gave you back your things. It must be good to have your old belongings back." She shuffled her hooves awkwardly. "A lot of stuff was so smashed we couldn't tell what it was. But we recognized the cape and the hat."
"Yes," Trixie said, her frown starting to fade, as she touched the brim of her hat, "I...do appreciate this, at least."
"Twilight asked Rarity to sew it back together," Fluttershy went on. "I can sew, but Rarity is really better at making clothes look beautiful like that. And she packed it all up and put it down in the basement in case you ever came back for it." She looked back at Trixie with a warm smile. "She said that everyone deserves a second chance."
Trixie looked back at Fluttershy and fixed a glare on her face. "I said I'm glad I have my things back," she said. "That doesn't make it any better being like this."
"Is that the Nightmare talking, or is it Trixie?"
Trixie turned her head away, and Fluttershy sighed. Some ponies just had to be difficult—but it was always worth it to try, because they could always come over.

———

The sun had long ago set when Twilight Sparkle arrived back at Trixie's bed, occupied as it was with a brooding blue unicorn. She glanced down on the floor and found a plate, emptied of the pile of lettuce and apples that had previous occupied it. At least she wasn't making a fuss about eating. Twilight really did not want to have to yank her mouth open and shovel food inside. There were some things that were just wrong, and spoon-feeding a cranky, grown pony just because she was being petty was pretty high up there as far as Twilight was concerned.
Trixie eyed her carefully as she picked up the plate. Twilight fidgeted under her gaze.
"Do you...want me to get you anything?"
"No."	
Twilight frowned. "Have you apologized to Pinkie Pie yet?"
Trixie said nothing. Twilight opened her mouth to begin a lecture, but then decided against it. Trixie had never responded to her lectures before, so why waste her breath on one now?
Instead, she lifted up Trixie's cloak, much to the blue unicorn's evident annoyance. "Y'know, I never got to see your show without any interruptions by hecklers." She glanced over at Trixie. "Although I have it on good authority you've got some fans awaiting your triumphant return."
Trixie seemed to perk up a bit at that. "Do I now."
"You do. I met one of them the other day." She turned the starry fabric over and watched it glimmer in the candlelight. Rarity had done an excellent job restoring its flashy appearance—but then again, that was what Rarity did best. Take things and make them beautiful. "So what else does the Great and Powerful Trixie work into her shows?"
Trixie seemed to flinch at the mention of her old sobriquet, but turned up her nose all the same. "An illustrious repertoire of arcane illusions and spectacular spells the likes of which a musty academic such as yourself could never fully appreciate."
Twilight ignored the jab and arched an eyebrow. "Like what?"
"Well I can't very well show you right now, can I?" Trixie snapped.
Twilight blushed. "Right. Sorry." She glanced around the room hoping for a distraction. "It's just, I don't really know anything about how to put on a magic show. I always just studied it academically."
"I can tell," sneered Trixie.
"Trixie..."
"Of course you wouldn't understand, bookworm. Being a stage magician takes more than just knowledge of magic. It takes pizzazz and confidence and a keen sense for what the audience wants! You don't just learn those things in books, Twilight Sparkle. A pony must be born with them."
"Born with them," Twilight repeated with an arched eyebrow. "So where'd you learn all the magic, then?"
Trixie frowned. "What's it to you?"
"Curiosity! I don't know anything about putting on magic shows. And you do. So you'd be the pony to ask, wouldn't you?"
Trixie considered that for a moment and then rolled her eyes. "What, so you can put on a show of your own? Don't make me laugh, little bookworm. You hardly have what it takes to make it as a stage performer."
"And why not?" Twilight asked. "Where did you learn to perform, anyways? Did your parents teach you?"
Trixie flinched at the mention of parents and Twilight immediately kicked herself for bringing it up. Of course that would be a sore subject; what had she been thinking? She hadn't been thinking, that's what—
"The Great and Powerful Trixie's parents, bless their hearts," Trixie said in as superior a voice as she could muster, "were sadly destitute and unable to properly devote to a foal as obviously gifted as I the attention and care necessary to ensure the true blossoming of my limitless potential, and thus I was forced to cultivate my talents on my own." She clasped her hooves over her heart and looked towards the sky with sickening melodrama. "And yet I know that somewhere they're out there, bursting with pride for the daughter they could not raise!"
Twilight ignored the melodrama and pressed on. "You haven't kept in touch with them?"
Trixie glared back. "I'm not sure I like your tone, bookworm."
"Sorry. It's just, well, I had a pretty good relationship with my parents, and—"
"And then you became the princess's very own student and you had a pretty good relationship with her too," Trixie snarled. "Yes, feel free to rub it in."
Twilight cringed. This was going rather poorly. "That's not what I was going to say."
"Then what was?"
"I was going to say that I know how you feel." Trixie opened her mouth to retaliate but Twilight held up a hoof to stop her. "Yes, I got into the School for Gifted Unicorns, and the princess made me her personal student. But even with as nice as Princess Celestia is, it took me a while to build up such a close relationship with her. And in the meantime, I lived in the castle and had a whole lot of schoolwork to do, and so I rarely ever got to see my parents. And for a while," she shrugged, "it kind of felt like I didn't have any."
Trixie's face fell. "That's not the same thing."
"No, but I can understand where you're coming from."
Trixie turned her gaze out the window, a dark expression on her face. "No, you really can't."
"Well, maybe, but I can try." Twilight offered a hesitant smile. "That's a start, isn't it?"
"Believe what you want."
An awkward silence took hold as Twilight tried to find another way to break Trixie's spell. This had probably been a lot easier when her friends had decided to make friends with her; they weren't intentionally trying to do it.
Or rather, they were, but they didn't have to think about how to do it. They just did it. Which made it all the more troublesome that Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash still weren't exactly willing to give Trixie a chance.
"Actually," she said, "I guess I do kind of know what it's like to put on a show. The School for Gifted Unicorns had an entrance exam."
Trixie snorted. "That is hardly the same thing as putting on a magic show."
"Well, not entirely. They put out a dragon egg for you and you had to hatch it. That's where Spike came from. I tried to do something with it but I was so nervous I couldn't think straight, and when nothing happened, I thought I'd blown it—when suddenly," she paused and decided to leave out the rather unlikely story about that Sonic Rainboom, "suddenly my magic went wild and I wound up not only hatching the egg but turning baby Spike into a giant." She smiled at the memories. "And I managed to turn my parents into potted plants."
Trixie blinked. "You turned your parents into potted plants?"
"They forgave me afterwards," Twilight said with a sheepish smile, "but they still won't let me live it down. You should hear what my brother said."
Trixie glanced away bitterly. "Turned your parents into potted plants and you still got into the School. The princess's personal student, even. Some self-deprecating story that was."
Twilight cringed. Maybe that story about the Sonic Rainboom was worth bringing up after all. "Well, the point is, I know what it's like to be under a lot of pressure like that too, with other ponies judging every move you make and having to get everything just right. It's just, I wasn't on a stage."
Trixie went silent, eyes turned towards the window, staring bitterly at the starry night sky. Twilight quietly sighed and figured that perhaps she'd gotten as far as she was ever going to get in one night. 
"Listen, Trixie," she said, "I know you don't really trust me, or pretty much anyone else here in Ponyville, but I want to help you. And you need help from somepony. That Nightmare swirling around inside you is as dangerous to you as it is to everyone else. If you don't get rid of it, we're going to have to destroy you. And none of us want to do that. Not even Rainbow Dash and Applejack. So you have to, um," she shuffled her hooves, "stop hating me, I guess."
Trixie stared at her for a moment. "Why should I trust you?" She waved a hoof at her surroundings. "It's your fault I lost everything. It's your fault I had to leave town in shame. And now it's your fault I'm trapped in here. How do I even know I'm not some science project of yours or something?"
Twilight held back a sigh with all her might and instead turned back towards her desk. "Because," she said, "I've got history on my side."
"Oh, spare me the lecture."
"It's not a lecture," Twilight said, and she pulled up a sheaf of papers from the books on her desk. She turned around and dropped them into Trixie's lap. "It's reading!"
Trixie looked down at the pages and then back up at Twilight, incredulously.
"Those are copies of pages from the Codex Monstrum," she explained, and felt a little relieved at the shocked look that briefly flitted across Trixie's face. Every unicorn who actually paid attention to magic knew what the Codex Monstrum was. "They cover the history of Nightmares in Equestria. Some of them have happy endings. Some of them don't. But you need to know exactly what it means to have this Nightmare attached to you. Anything less would be unfair. And those pages there will tell you what it means—and why we've got to save you from it."
Trixie stared down at the papers. Maybe holding a copy of a piece of one of the most heavily-guarded books in Equestria would prove how serious this was. And maybe it would finally start breaking through her shell.
"And what if I don't read these?" Trixie asked with a skeptical look.
"Then I'll send Spike up here to practice his serenades to Rarity until you do."
Trixie went white. "You are a cruel creature, Twilight Sparkle."
"Just read them."
Trixie scowled back for a moment, as though contemplating whether or not it was worth risking Spike's talent as a singer, and then apparently decided not to take the risk, yanked her candle closer on the end table, and turned her eyes towards the pages. Twilight sighed quietly as she went back to her desk and hoped that this would make some progress. After all, Applejack and Rainbow Dash were right about one thing—they were up against the clock.

———

The Everfree Forest made for a terrifying place when it was lit only the tiny sliver of a crescent moon. Some of the forest's most horrifying monsters prowled the night and hunted their prey. But that suited Lapis Lazuli just fine. The stories about this place—some true, some false, all terrifying—served to keep out the unduly curious, and as for the rest, well, dead ponies told no tales.
She stepped into the clearing and cast a steely gaze over the other six ponies there. Castor and Pollux both had their heads held against the ground under Barbell's two front hooves, while Comet preened her wings, Razor Edge sat around looking bored, and Whiplash stared up at the sky, eyes darting between the twinkling stars, twitching neurotically. 
Lazuli sighed. The master's minions, at their best.
"It would appear," she said, loudly enough to catch their attention, "that we have a problem." She tossed her mane as she came to a stop. "Our tempestuous little friend is now in Ponyville, under the care of the Element of Magic herself, and deprived of her power by an arcane suppression spell. She has been neutralized."
The six ponies all put on assorted downcast expressions. "So what are we gonna do?" asked Razor Edge. "Spring her?"
"Actually," Castor spoke up, and Barbell begrudgingly decided to let him and his brother get back up, "when I was at the library, I overheard them talking about her. She's injured. She won't be any help even if we broke her out."
"Of course," Lazuli said. "She tried to attack her target and wound up attracting an Ursa Minor, which she then tried to fight, and you can guess how that ended for her."
The six ponies all grimaced as they did just that.
"So," Lazuli said, "we are now short a piece on our little chess set, so if any of you have met another candidate for corruption—"
"No need for that, Miss Lazuli."
The sound of gushing flames silenced everyone and the eerie warm glow of firelight bathed them all as the black stallion with fiery mane and glittering red eyes stepped into the clearing. 
"I appreciate the sentiment, but we all really must learn to see opportunities amid what appear to be obstacles." He came to a stop next to Lazuli with a wild grin. "Now then, our little friend Trixie is off in the home of the Element of Magic herself, is she?"
"Y-Yeah, boss," Castor said, "they said she was laid up."
"Perfect." He turned and took in the whole group with a sweep of his wings and a flutter from his mane. "Consider this your only warning on the subject, my friends. Our feisty little storm cloud is now under the care of the unicorn known as Twilight Sparkle. She bears the Element of Magic in the Elements of Harmony. She gathered the Elements to defeat Nightmare Moon and she unraveled the tricks and traps of the spirit of chaos himself to defeat Discord. She is Princess Celestia's personal student, well-trained in powerful, ancient magic unknown to even our lovely Miss Lazuli here—" Lazuli promptly blushed and tried to hide her face in the shadows, "—and she is more or less a genius. You trifle with her at your own peril."
Barbell and his gang glanced at each other nervously. "So," said Pollux, "we're doomed?"
"Oh, far from it, my choleric friend," the stallion chuckled.
"Then what do we do?" asked Razor Edge.
The black stallion chuckled. "That's the thing, isn't it? We have a problem—and now we have to turn it into an opportunity."
"I know!" exclaimed Castor, and all eyes turned towards him. "We steal the Elements of Harmony!"
Silence reigned in the clearing, before the stallion slowly turned towards the pudgy green unicorn. "Really," he said, advancing. "So you're volunteering to sneak into the tower where the Elements are kept—the most heavily-guarded section of the entire castle of Canterlot. You'll sneak past companies of guards thoroughly trained not just in combat magic and physical martial arts, but also in locator spells that will let them find a literal needle in a haystack. And after you get past them, you will steal the most powerful magical artifacts known to Equestria. You'll do this all under the noses of two immortal princesses at whose merest whim the sun and moon rise and set. And you'll come back here, with the Elements of Harmony, and without having the entire Royal Guard on your tail." He dropped his nose down to stare into Castor's eyes. "Is that it?"
"N-no sir," squeaked Castor.
"Well then!" The stallion stood back up, turned around, and thoughtfully singed Castor with the tip of his tail. "Who'd like to step up and try to outdo Mr. Herbal Tea? Because I have some ideas."
"Master," Lazuli spoke up, "this is still a serious setback. We were counting on her to distract their attention away from us. If they start questioning her—"
"Who said she still can't distract them?" the stallion asked with an arched eyebrow. He turned back towards the rest of the group. "Let's play a little game of question and answer! What is the one thing in this world that will surely, one hundred percent, no doubt, absolutely kill a Nightmare?"
Barbell and his gang looked uncertainly at each other. "The Elements of Harmony," ventured Razor Edge.
"Very good! And what is the thing that Twilight Sparkle and her little friends have most conspicuously not used on little Trixie?"
"The...Elements of Harmony," Comet said.
"Good, good, and so what conclusions, my ever so remarkably humble little minions, must we draw from these two most peculiar facts?"
Silence hung in the air again. Lapis Lazuli slapped a hoof over her face.
"I know, we're gonna need our thinking caps here," the stallion said. "I'll help you out on this one. What we can conclude is that little miss Element of Magic and all her other harmonic friends will be distracted, still distracted by our little storm cloud, despite her newfound need for convalescence. Because, after all, there's more than one way to kill a Nightmare—so I'm afraid you only get half-credit for that answer, Razor Edge." He turned again with another plume of fire. "It's a long and sordid story, but suffice it to say that a humble little pegasus named Flicker once defanged and defeated a vicious scourge of the skies known as Nightmare Nebula using only as modest a set of weapons as infinite compassion and friendship or whatever. But the good news is that doing that takes a whole lot of time and attention—time and attention that can't be spent on us. And so," he turned back towards his minions in a whirling plume of flame, "what are you going to do about this?"
Barbell's eyes lit up in understanding and a devious grin spread across his face. "Keep it that way."
The stallion smiled. "Exactly."

———