Clipped

by Unarmed Pony

Chapter 9

They all followed Twilight to the library. Everyone was curious on what her 'fantastic idea' was. But whenever they asked, they just got "Wait and see." When they reached the library, Twilight told them to follow her down to the basement. The three ponies, each with a unique look of confusion, followed Twilight down to her basement. As soon as the majority of the room was in view, a strange machine was spotted near the corner of the room.

"What's that?" They all asked at exactly the same time.

"That is a machine that reads neuro-transmitions, or brain waves if you want to be simple. Next time we sleep, i'll hook us up to that thing and see what happens when we have those dreams. With information on what happens, hopefully Nurse Redheart will be ably to tell us why it happens." They all looked at eachother in confusion. Twilight let out a grunt of frustration. "Machine tell us what happen when we sleep."

"Oooooohhhhh I get it now." Pinkie said, as if she had just solved the hardest math problem ever. Probably because in her mind, she did. "You put the machine thingy on and it tells us the what happens when we go beddy bye."

"Exactly. Now, i'll need you all here at precisely nine in the afternoon. No excuses for being tardy." Twilight focused her gaze on Rainbow. "That means you in particular Rainbow."

Rainbow suddenly beefed up. "Are you kidding? I would never leave my friends hangin'."

"You better not, 'cause this is very important."

"Oh stop worrying."

"Whatever, just don't be late!"

"I won't"

Twilight muttered under her breath. "Yeah, you will."

"I heard that."

"You where supposed to."

"Ugh! Where is she!" Twilight was pacing back and forth, occasionaly smaking her hoof to the ground in frustration. "She was ment to be here half an hour ago!"

"Don't worry Twilight. I'm sure she'll turn up sometime. Even though being late is her speciality, i'm sure she will turn up. Maybe tomorrow." Rarity was also frustrated. The difference between Twilight and Rarity's frustration was that Rarity was making a joke out of it. Twilight perked her ear up as she heard wingbeats, then hoofsteps. She looked towad the door to the upstairs. She saw the door handle move and a cyan pegasus walk in.

"Where have you been! We've been waiting for 35 minutes for you to get your lazy butt here!"

"Chill out Twilight. I'm still here arn't I?"

"Finally."

"Oh stop being such a kill-joy. Now, how do we get hooked up to this machine thing?"

"Well, I put the headpieces on all of your heads, and then you go to sleep. Simple."

"Great. Lets get this over with."

"Ok then. Just lay down with the others and i'll set it all up."

Rainbow did as she was told and layed down in between Pinkie and Applejack. Twilight came over and put a headset on each pony and flicked the switch on the machine. "Wow. This thing is uncomfortable. I'm not sure i'll be able to sleep with this big clunky thing on my head Twilight."

"Oh shut up Rainbow. You can atleast try."

"No need to be rude."

"I repeat my last statement. Shut up."

Rainbow huffes and buried her head into her wing and curled it up against her head. The headpiece grinded againt her feathers, leaving unattractive ruffles. She struggled to get comfortable enough to sleep, but when she did, it took her a while to actually get to sleep. She was terrified of what was going to happen, but anxious to find out. This mix of feeling caused her to feel a bit nauseous. She dismissed the sickly feeling and tried to go to sleep.

Rainbow awoke in a familiar cell. She looked around to see both her and her friends chained up against the wall. "Oh no. This can't be good." She diverted her attention to the six shadowy figures now visible. Each one had a black flame surrounding there shadowy bodies. The shadow of Fluttershy spoke first. "Well now, looks like your little friends have come to join the party."

"Who are you!"

"Don't you recognise me? I swear i visited you a few nights ago."

"I don't mean it like that. Who are you for real? And why do you keep taking me here?"

"Oh. I'm just a figment of your imagination. In a way, you could say that I am you!"

"No, you can't be me. I would never do this to my friends."

"Oh but i'm not you. I'm like, for lack of a better word, your evil twin."

"What?"

"I'm an evil emodyment of your friend. I'm an evil soul. I've corrupted Fluttershy's pure soul and now I haunt your dreams." The evil Fluttershy approached the chained up Rainbow Dash. She put her muzzle so close to Rainbows that she could feel her breath. "And there's nothing you can do about it."

Rainbow stumbled over her words. "Oh y-yeah? well we'll see about that."

"The Elements of Harmony won't work."

"How did you know I was thinking about that?"

"Because I am in your dream. Or, more like, my dream. You're forced into this. I make it how i want it. I know everything your thinking about."

"W-well, how do you know that they won't work?"

"Because the soul that one of the elements resided in has been corrupted. By me."

"Oh. Right. Well, no matter how corrupt the soull, there is always a way to purify it."

"You are so naive. There is no magic strong enough to match the power of the elements. And the elements are the only magic strong enough to defeat me."

Rainbow cringed at being called naive. "Oh i'll find a way. Maybe we can't use all the elements, but we sure as hay can use the ones we have."

Twilight finally made her consciousness known. "The elements are useless if they are not a complete set."

Immediatly after Twilight had said this all the other ponies chained to the wall shouted."WHAT!"

"Without all the elements, they're just useless necklaces."

The corrupted Fluttershy grinned, satisfied that she had won"Even Twilight agrees that there is nothing you can do."

"I never said there's nothing we could do."

Her look of success turned into a slight look of worry "Oh and just what are you going to do?"

"I'm not going to tell you that. Because then you would be prepared for it."

The corrupted Fluttershy walked up to Twilight with an evil grin. "Then i'll just force you to tell me." She picked up her instrument of torture in her mouth and grinned once again. "Play time!"