//------------------------------//
// Chapter 11: Where There's Smoke... 
// Story: Nightmares 
// by unoservix 
//------------------------------//


Nightmares
———

Chapter 11: Where There's Smoke...

———

"You!"
Twilight Sparkle started forward with a spell building around her horn—but for a flash of golden light to blaze up around her and lift her off the floor instead. Spike came bounding up the stairs, and he too was caught in the light. Both of them were crammed together, and then ropes came flying out of nowhere to circle around and pull tightly around them. Trixie watched in fear as Twilight and Spike plopped down helplessly on the floor, bound up in ropes glowing with golden magic.
Seesaw grinned as from the shadows emerged a tall, elegant blue unicorn with a horn and a swirling star cutie mark surrounded by shimmering red light—and six more ponies too, those same hooded figures that had surrounded Twilight in Canterlot. "Well done, Lazuli," Seesaw chuckled. "Well, as they say, if at first you don't succeed, try, try again."
"What are you doing here?!" Twilight snapped.
"Hey, this is a library, isn't it?" Seesaw laughed. "I'm here to check out a book or two. And while I'm at it, I have a few other errands to run."
His eyes flashed red, a column of fire whirled up around him—and then the flames parted and Nightmare Inferno grinned down at them all.
"You won't get away with this—" Twilight started.
"Yes, yes, so I've heard," Inferno sighed, and brushed past Twilight and Spike with a stroke of his wings. Twilight struggled against the rope; Lazuli had it held in place with strong magic, it would take a long time and a distraction to work her way through— "Anyways," Inferno went on, "Trixie! Long time no see, eh?"
Trixie glared back. "What do you want?"
"Oh, my little storm cloud," Inferno sighed, as flames and the telltale glow of magic began to build around his horn, "what have they done to you? Clever use of the suppression spell, Miss Sparkle, and I see you know your Nightmare history well, but that's alright. I'll fix things up here, right as rain." Trixie's eyes went wide and she shrank back under the sinister glow. "Of course, it all wound up taking a much more direct approach than I expected, but hey, who says I'm not a stallion of my word?" He grinned maliciously as the flames swirled around Trixie. "So, Nightmare Storm, why don't you come on out and play?"
"Trixie!" Twilight cried.
Spike sucked in a deep breath and blasted a jet of flame over the ropes, burning them to cinders in a moment. Twilight flung off what was left, nailed Lazuli head-on with a blazing shot of magic, and whirled around towards Inferno—only to find two of those hooded ponies blocking her path, horns poking out from under their hoods and glowing with magic. The other four circled around her, all of them daring her to make a move.
"I'd be saving my strength if I were you, Twilight Sparkle," snarled Lapis Lazuli as she reemerged from the shadows. "You're going to need it."
"I know you're in there somewhere, my little storm cloud," Inferno crooned, as the flames drew closer to Trixie. "And I've got your prey nice and cornered for you. Now come on out!"
"No!" Trixie yelled back.
"Come out!" roared Inferno.
"No!"
"You have a funny way of showing gratitude, Trixie," growled Inferno, his confident smile disappearing. "Who was it who found you when you were at your lowest ebb? Who was it who gave you this power? Who gave you the opportunity to take revenge, to take back everything that was rightfully yours? Well?!"
Trixie slammed her hooves over her ears. "I don't want it anymore!"
"Yes you do! It's still there within you! If you didn't want it anymore—"
"I won't use it anymore!" Trixie's eyes snapped open, even through the flames dancing around her. "I don't want revenge anymore! I want my magic back!"
"Of course you want revenge!" Inferno snapped. "She destroyed your reputation! She turned you into a laughingstock! The Nightmare took your magic from you, you can't back out of this deal now, little Trixie—"
"I don't care!" Trixie screamed. "I won't hurt her!"
Down below, the sound of splintering wood echoed through the library, followed by hooves on the floorboards—and an instant later, Applejack and Rainbow Dash vaulted up the stairs and skidded to a stop—followed closely by Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and a trembling Fluttershy.
"An' just what the hay is all this?!" Applejack snapped.
Rainbow Dash immediately launched herself at Inferno—only for one of those hooded ponies to leap into her path and knock her down with a hard kick. Inferno spared one last scowl at Trixie.
"They don't have the Elements—" Lazuli spoke up.
"They are the Elements," Inferno snarled, as his minions gathered around him. He swept back around towards Twilight and Trixie. "Well, not that I mind unexpected company," a ring of fire sprouted up from the floorboards, as Inferno's minions closed in around him—and Trixie began to glow as Inferno lifted her from her bed, "but our dear little Trixie and I were trying to have a private conversation, so if you'll kindly excuse us—"
"No!" screamed Twilight, and she fired forward a beam of magic—which Inferno swatted aside with a flick of his wings.
"Ah don't think so!" Applejack cried, and she stormed forward with her head down—
And then, with a swirling plume of fire, Inferno, his minions, and Trixie all disappeared.
Silence descended over the library as only a few flickering embers settled on the floor where Inferno had once stood. Twilight stared into the empty space, eyes wide and blank; Spike brushed himself off and looked around nervously.
"So," he said, "um, now what?"
Rainbow Dash shook her head. "Wh-What the heck just happened in here? Did that guy just kidnap Trixie?"
Pinkie immediately sat up with a horrified gasp. "Omigosh, we have to save her!"
"Wait, what—" Rainbow started.
Before anyone else could speak, Twilight wheeled around and plowed past them, down the stairs. Spike immediately rushed after her. "Where are you going?" Rarity exclaimed, but the purple unicorn was already out the door.
"Twilight, they could be anywhere!" Spike wailed. Twilight put her head down, lifted the dragon onto her back, and charged ahead.
"Anywhere, yes," she said, "and that means they have to be somewhere. And we are going to find them."
"W-Well, yeah," Spike said, "but where are we going?"
"Twilight! What the hay are you doin'?!"
Twilight whipped around at the sight of her friends rushing after her out of the library. "If you're not coming to help me, then just stay here," she said, brow furrowed, "but I'm going to save her, whether anyone likes it or not."
Rainbow landed with a roll of her eyes. "Yeah, like we're going to let you just charge off into certain doom on your own. Of course we're coming with you."
"Yeah, you ain't tacklin' this one all on yer lonesome, sugarcube," Applejack added, and she adjusted her hat. "We stick together."
"But where will we start?" Fluttershy stammered. "D-Did anyone see where they went—"
"If I was an evil monster full of hatred and contempt for life itself," Pinkie said, adopting a studious pose, "I would probably go to a place full of things like me. Things that are also full of hatred and contempt for life itself, and things that also think ponies are pretty tasty."
All eyes turned towards the Everfree Forest, and Spike immediately cringed. "We're doing this again, huh?"
Twilight steeled herself. "Hang on, Trixie. I'll get you out of there..."

———

"I don't know if you noticed this or not, but even if I did still want to take orders from you—and we are, I assure you, speaking completely hypothetically here—there is this teensy problem of my legs being completely sprained and completely useless as far as supporting me or providing locomotion, so—"
The Great, the Powerful, and the babbling Trixie fell silent as Inferno's fiery mane flared tempestuously around her. The black unicorn glowered back at her with glittering red eyes as he and his hooded followers slowly marched through the forest, Trixie suspended in a shimmering red glow between them. Lapis Lazuli watched with mounting joy as her master silenced their meddlesome experiment, at least for the time being.
"You know," he said, "I have to admit, I'm rather hurt. I mean, I don't create fellow Nightmares for just any old occasion, and for all the time and effort I sank into you, I think I've got a right to have expected more. A return on my investment, if you will."
Trixie scowled back. "Is that all I was? An investment?"
"Well, hey," chuckled Inferno, "let's be honest, little miss Lulamoon, it was either that or reducing you to cinders." He shrugged. "And I guess this little venture hasn't been a total bust." He nodded to one of the hooded ponies. "Whiplash, you're on. Make daddy proud."
Whiplash snapped a salute and then darted into the darkness. Trixie watched her go with mounting alarm and then looked back at Inferno. "And what's that all about?"
"Oh, come now, Trixie, you know this one. A magician never reveals the secret of the trick. Undo the magic, it will."
"And what do you know about stagecraft?" snarled Trixie.
Inferno whirled Trixie around to float in front of him and face him. "A great deal more than you, my dear. After all, I've had far more practice," the flames began to swirl around Trixie, and she curled herself up as tightly as she could, "and far more skill."
The blue unicorn looked back with as defiant a face as she could muster. "I'll have you know that you are speaking with the Great and Powerful—"
A burst of magic clamped her lips shut and Inferno arched a skeptical eyebrow at her. "I suppose it's simply characteristic of you that you sit here and presume to tell me that you, of all ponies, you, are somehow capable of addressing me as an equal."
Trixie glowered back at him. "I was strong enough to push down the Nightmare!" She crossed her forelegs defiantly. "And that's the way it is! I don't want any part of this bargain anymore! You can pursue your plans on your own! I quit!"
Nightmare Inferno chuckled. "Oh, Trixie," he sighed, "I have to admire your nerve, but I'm afraid you're forgetting one very incredibly unfathomably tiny yet unbelievably important detail, which is that I OWN YOU!" The flames blasted up around the two ponies; Trixie lurched back in terror from the searing heat as Inferno's eyes blazed with fury. "You are my creation, Trixie Lulamoon! Your power, your dignity, your reputation, they were all charades that all lay in tatters when you came to me—and everything you have ever had since then, you owe to me! You are nothing without me!" His mouth twitched with satisfaction as tears welled up in Trixie's eyes. "You are nothing but a pitiful trickster, pretending to power to hide your pathetic true self!"
"Th-That's not true!" Trixie shot back. "It's—"
"Don't lie to me now, magician," Inferno growled. "I know you better than anyone. You poured out your soul to me—and that means you are mine to command."
"I am not—"
"And you should consider yourself fortunate for it," the black unicorn went on, and the flames swirled around him, "because that means I am the only creature in the world that wants you."
Lazuli smiled as she watched Trixie squeeze her eyes shut and fight back the tears—but then her ears caught the snap of a twig and she shot a glance over her shoulder.
"Well well well, they sure took their sweet time," Inferno said with a smirk. His horn flickered with red light and he turned around. Trixie's eyes opened in fear. "Now let's bring it all together, shall we?"

———

"I hate to be the wet blanket here," Rarity gasped, "but do we even know where we're going?"
Twilight clenched her teeth and plowed ahead at full gallop through the undergrowth of the Everfree Forest, her friends struggling to keep up. She would not lose Trixie again—not to Inferno's power, not to Nightmare Storm, and not to this evil forest.
"Wh-What if they aren't even in here?" Spike asked, as he bounced around on Twilight's back. "And what would we do if—"
"Surprise!"
A whirling fireball came blasting out of the shadows; Twilight screeched to a halt, her friends piling up behind her, and deflected the blast with a shimmering magic shield. She lit up her horn for a counterattack, and the shadows came to life with a sinister laugh.
"You..."
Nightmare Inferno stepped from the shadows with a grin, and his hooded minions emerged in a ring around Twilight and her friends. Twilight caught another movement in the darkness, and dug her hooves into the ground as Lapis Lazuli emerged with Trixie, suspended in a golden glow from her horn, a desolate look on her face. "Commendable bravery, Miss Sparkle," chuckled Inferno, "but I think I win this round."
Twilight glared back, horn sparking with magic. "Let her go, Inferno."
Inferno arched an eyebrow—and then nodded to Lazuli, whose horn went dark as she dropped Trixie unceremoniously on the ground. Twilight started forward, but Applejack held her back—just as a ring of fire sprouted up around the fallen blue unicorn.
"Oh, forget this! Give her back!" shouted Rainbow Dash, and she crouched down, ready to dart into the air—but then the flames sprung up around and over Twilight and her friends, pressing them together with searing heat and roaring fire. Twilight looked up furiously through the blaze as Inferno raised Trixie into the air, a gleaming red glow around her neck.
"As you know, Miss Sparkle," Inferno cackled, "a Nightmare cannot survive without the hatred that nourishes its roots. And Trixie's little Nightmare is hardly over. Now, I know you're a bright little thing, smart as a whip, and the rules of deductive logic say—"
"No more games!" Twilight shouted, and her horn threw wild sparks. "Let her go! Or else—"
"Or else what?" snapped Inferno, and he stepped up next to Trixie with an eager smirk. "Or else you'll strike me down? With what? Friendship?" Trixie flinched as Inferno's flames curled around her; Twilight froze in horror. "Haven't you wondered why the Nightmare has always been there, despite all your efforts to kill it at the source?" The flames closed in; Fluttershy and Rarity squeaked with fear and Twilight clenched her teeth as the sweat began to pour. Inferno turned his eyes with a sneer towards Trixie. "And to think after I turned you into a Nightmare, I still had to finish the job. A great investment that turned out to be."
"Put her down!" Twilight screamed.
Inferno glanced back at Twilight, and then the flames licked at Trixie's hooves. "Well, I suppose I'll just have to take care of it all at once, won't I? Live and learn, as they say."
Trixie's eyes widened in terror as the flames approached. "T-Twilight—"
Twilight's horn flashed to life. "NO!"
The earth shook, the trees rattled, and Inferno's minions screeched as a wave of magic burst out from Twilight Sparkle, washed over the forest, and sent Lazuli and the hooded ponies flying back into the darkness. The Nightmare stopped short, his flames blown away, the forest flooded with pink light gushing out from a lone unicorn at the center of the clearing.
Inferno's eye twitched. "Impossible..."
In the middle of the clearing, sparks flying and light pouring in all directions, Twilight opened her glowing eyes and fixed Nightmare Inferno with a furious look.
"This is your last warning," she said. "Let her go."
Behind her, Twilight's friends watched in mounting astonishment as arcane power circled their friend, the forest shuddered, and Nightmare Inferno watched in disbelief. "Um, Twi," Applejack started, "is this, uh, is this normal?"
Rarity coughed. "I should think not!"
"Wh-What is Twilight doing?" Fluttershy murmured. "It's...it's so frightening—"
"Wait!" Pinkie cried, and the others looked back at her. "Do you girls remember the wedding, when Shining Armor and Princess Cadence did that spell? The one that blew away all the changelings?"
"Yeah," said Rainbow, "the one that—" She stopped short and looked back at Twilight. "Wait, what?!"
Twilight stepped forward, lightning swirling around her horn and tendrils of magic waving in the air. They surged forward and wrenched Trixie from Inferno's magical grip; Twilight levitated the blue unicorn over to her friends and fixed her eyes on the black pony opposite her.
Inferno arched an eyebrow. "Very impressive, Miss Sparkle," he said, and the flames of his mane began to gather around him, "but as deep as your feelings run, my power—"
He lurched back and deflected a blinding blast from Twilight's horn. "Shut up," snapped the purple unicorn. Inferno looked back in surprise—at the glowing unicorn and the increasingly erratic swirls of light gathering around her. "You don't know Trixie at all. I do. And I know that she doesn't want this false power you gave her. I know that there's good in her. I know there's a pony in there who deserves to be happy—and I'm going to make her happy." The sparks and swirls of light flashed around her horn. "And the first step is putting an end to you."
Inferno watched it all with a stony look, and then he arched an eyebrow and smirked. "Very well then." He took an elegant bow with his wings and a sweep of his mane. "You want your magic back, Trixie? You think you've rejected this Nightmare? Then come find me, in the catacombs beneath Canterlot—and we'll see just how far your newfound forgiveness extends."
"What the hay are you talkin' about?!" Applejack cried—
And then Inferno disappeared in a whirling plume of fire.
Everyone stared for a moment at the ring of smoldering embers that Inferno had left behind, before Trixie buried her face in her hooves and sobbed. Twilight blinked once; the light went out, the forest went dark again; Twilight's friends went silent as the fountainhead of mystical power disappeared and all that was left was their Twilight, rushing over to Trixie and throwing her forelegs around the blue unicorn.
"Are you okay? Did he hurt you?"
"Twilight, dear," Rarity spluttered, "what on earth was that?! I've never seen magic like that!"
"Was that the guy who came after ya in Canterlot?" added Applejack.
"Princess Celestia said there was another Nightmare on the loose besides Nightmare Storm," Twilight said quickly, "and that was him."
Rainbow connected the dots and whirled around on Trixie. "And you were working for him?!"
"Rainbow, shut up!" Twilight snapped. Rainbow stopped short in disbelief; the air crackled with tension. But Twilight turned her attention back towards Trixie, and Fluttershy drifted over to rub the blue unicorn's shoulders soothingly.
"Just, just make this all stop," Trixie groaned. "My magic is gone and my parents are dead and this Nightmare won't go away and all I can do is sit here and cry!" She buried her face in Twilight's chest. "My parents were right after all..."
"Wha—what do your parents have to do with this?" Twilight sputtered.
"Look at me!" Trixie cried. "All I can do is sit here! I can't do magic anymore! I can't get rid of this stupid Nightmare! I can hardly even walk!"
"B-But your legs are healing—" Fluttershy spoke up.
"They were right to leave me, weren't they?" Trixie snarled. "Look at me now!"
"Trixie, I thought your parents gave you up because they couldn't afford to raise you," Twilight interrupted. "What do you mean they were right?"
Trixie scrubbed away the tears. "You want to know the truth? Fine!" She screwed her eyes shut. "My parents were performers just like me, but they really were poor, and they wanted a powerful unicorn foal who could do amazing magic to bring in more money. So they had me, but," she choked back another sob, "but I wasn't that powerful unicorn foal! I wasn't good enough!"
A somber silence descended over Twilight and her friends. "They...gave you up for disappointing them?" Rarity murmured.
"Yes!" wailed Trixie. "For disappointing them!" She shook her head. "Yes, go ahead, laugh, all of you! When I tried to take on that Ursa, that was just the best I could do! So go ahead and laugh at me!"
"We're not gonna do that!" Pinkie exclaimed. "That would be mean—"
"So you wonder why I turned into a Nightmare?" Trixie went on, eyes blazing. "That's why! I ran into the Everfree Forest with nothing—not even my own identity! Everything I did to stop that monster came up short! And, and..." She swallowed another sob. "And then..."
"And then Seesaw came into the picture?" Twilight asked quietly.
Trixie nodded painfully. "He...he was, well, we dated a little while in Canterlot." She rubbed her face again. "He was cute and charming and funny and I couldn't really help it. But I wanted to move on and travel and see the world, and he didn't, so we went our separate ways. And then," the flash of anger appeared in her eyes again, "and then in Everfree, I met him again, and I told him what happened, and he fed all my anger and hatred, and he helped transform me into Nightmare Storm. And he sent me to go have my revenge. On you."
"Wait," Rainbow said, "so you really were working with him?"
"Not now, sugarcube," Applejack warned.
"H-He gave me power," Trixie sniffled, "and...and I lost anyways." She shook her head. "Even with a Nightmare's power I still couldn't beat you. And now look at me," the tears started flowing again, "even though I've tried to kill you over and over again, you still keep coming back here to help me, and you still keep trying to make me happy." She wiped away more tears and squeezed her eyes shut. "And you went to Canterlot to find out what happened to my parents, and you stayed with me the whole night when I couldn't take it, and you protected me from the princess and from all your friends," she waved a hoof at the others and sent a shockwave of guilt throughout the clearing, "and now you're promising to bring back my magic. A-And you've showed me kindness I've never known before, and..." She rubbed her eyes. "So I can't even count on that, can I?"
"Trixie..."
"So look at me now," she groaned. "I'm a wreck. I can't walk, I can't do magic, I'm just a puppet dancing on someone else's strings. And now..." The tears started flowing once more and her words descended into incoherence. "Now they were right to give me up." She sobbed again. "Now I don't know what to do..."
Twilight pulled Trixie close and looked straight into her eyes, stopping the tears. "No, Trixie, they weren't."
"H-How do you even know that?" Trixie wailed.
"I know that because you were strong enough to stop the Nightmare, when I got home from Canterlot and just now," Twilight said. She swallowed hard and ignored the way she trembled, with Trixie this close and her friends all around, shocked into silence. "I'm not doing all this because I want to look good for the princess, I'm doing it because I want to help you. Because I want you to be my," she caught herself just in time, "my friend. And I promise you, Trixie, that I'm going to stay with you—even if no one else will. Because—" she swallowed the growing lump in her throat— "because neither of us wants to be alone."
Silence reigned for a moment in the clearing—before Trixie reached up, tears still in her eyes, pulled Twilight close, and kissed her.

———