Jazzy thrashed and bucked upon her bed. Tears streamed from her sleeping eyes and her mane and tail became frizzled with all the tossing she was doing. The unicorn was mumbling incomprehensible words but the word or rather the name that became most apparent was Chatterjoy.
Jazzy was in the arena where the concert that she was to play in was being held. She looked above in the high stands she could make out Princess Luna. Jazzy smiled to herself, "Chatterjoy would be so jealous." Her face quickly slipped into a frown as she scanned the audiences. Wasn't Chatterjoy supposed to be here?
Jazzy shrugged it off as Chatterjoy just running late as usual or she had left. A nagging feeling in the back of her head was ringing alarm bells at the missing Chatterjoy. Chatterjoy could be a lot of things but not being there for her friends was something that Chatterjoy never did. To see the pegasus missing in the crowd and not sitting in the seat she had reserved for her was uncharacteristic for the pony.
The unicorn looked at the director as he lifted up his baton. He began to direct the other players and per the baton's cue Jazzy would strike her shiny golden vibraphone. The music they created sounded like a royal procession that would most have likely been used in Princess Luna's time.
The unicorn took brief moments to glance up at Princess Luna who was intently listening and smiling to the tune. The song seemed to be a success. When Jazzy wasn't looking at the Princess she scanned the crowd for her white pegasus friend. While looking she almost missed her cue and the director gave her a subtle glare. Jazzy smiled apologetically and took a deep breath and focused solely on the gray unicorn with a short gray mane and tail that she called her director.
Too soon for Jazzy the concert ended and she began to roll her vibraphone backstage. The unicorn heard movement in the direction she was heading and almost jumped. In fact everything had become dark and quiet as if all the ponies had just left or disappeared. Deciding to take a peek backstage Jazzy set her stuff down and began walking down the stairs. The stairs seemed to never end but she finally made it down to some sort of basement.
It was completely black down here and even though Jazzy used her magic to illuminate the area around her she could still not see very far. She scanned the blackness till she came across a white pegasus. Her mane was brown with black highlights but it was more messy than usual. Chatterjoy had constantly tried to keep her mane and tail looking neat but all of it was in vain. The messy style was horrible.
Bags were under the pegasus' eyes and the smiley face on her flank almost looked like a frowny face. Her wings, where were her wings and thats when Jazzy gasped in horror. Chatterjoy's wings had been clipped. The pegasus may not have been as athletic as the element of loyalty, Rainbow Dash but she enjoyed the gift of flight.
In fact many pegasi did and that is why you never clipped their wings, it would be just as bad as if you broke a unicorn's horn so they could no longer conjure up their magic. Then Jazzy noticed that Chatterjoy was trying to say something but upon the pegasus opening her mouth Jazzy could see or rather not see the tongue that was supposed to be there. How cruel, not only was Chatterjoy lost to her pegasus needs her talent had been stripped from her.
A voice echoed in the dark room as tears streamed from both Chatterjoy and Jazzy.
"You didn't leave the concert."
The voice sounded very similar to Chatterjoy's voice.
"You left me for your stupid music! How could you!" The voice screamed. It almost seemed to echo inside Jazzy's head. The unicorn shook herself to get rid of the horrifying experience and stared up at the broken pony before her.
"Did your concert mean more to you than me?"
"Never! You're my friend my best friend!"
"But all you had to do was leave the concert and this wouldn't have happened!"
"I'm sorry!"
"Sorry won't cut it! I can't fly! I can't talk! And it is all because of YOU!" hissed the disembodied voice of Chatterjoy.
Jazzy gasped in her tears and curled into a ball as Chatterjoy's accusations got sharper and sharper. All the unicorn could do was repeat sorry in a mantra and try to drown out the voice of her friend. Suddenly and very quickly the voice disappeared and Jazzy could feel the wind blowing through her fur and smell the flowers.
Cautiously, hoping not to see the deformed Chatterjoy, Jazzy opened her eyes and gasped. She was in a moonlit meadow and the flowers gleamed with the same brightness of the full moon, almost glowing. Jazzy looked up at the night sky to see the millions of stars twinkling at her and the full moon at its peak.
"I hope that thou appreciates this scenery compared to the last," a voice said behind her. Jazzy snapped at attention and turned around frightened that it might be her friend. Instead the unicorn made a hasty bow to the Princess of the Night. "Pleasantries is not what We came here for, instead a question. Why dost thou fear that thine friend will become deformed and hate you?"
Jazzy gulped as she remembered the horrible words scribbled on the note that she had received late last night. "It is nothing but a nightmare Your Highness," Jazzy gulped hoping against hope that the Princess would buy her lie. Instead Princess Luna clicked her tongue and rubbed her chin with a hoof. Jazzy then knew that she was against luck and that the Princess didn't buy her lie at all. Instead the unicorn tried to change the subject.
"What are you doing here Princess? I know you guard our dreams but this is my first nightmare in months!" Jazzy mentioned hastily. The Princess stared down at the rosy pink unicorn with her own piercing teal eyes. The Princess made a hmm sound and looked up at her night sky smiling.
"A fair enough question, for the past few nights We have been slipping into the other concert players dreams to, oh lets say to get a sneak peek at the songs to be played at the concert, only you however have dreamt of the concert," Princess Luna replied putting her hoof down and smiling warmly at the unicorn.
"So the Princess Luna in the high stands?"
"That was Us, thou art a very good vibraphone player, though worry for thine friend played throughout the dream, thine nightmare proving it, very good trying to get Us off topic, again We ask, What has happened to thine friend?"
Jazzy just folded her ears against her head and whimpered. The unicorn finally decided to concede to the Princess after all there was not much that she could do and the foalnapper would never know she had spoken to Princess Luna.
"My friend has been foalnapped and if I do not back out of the concert they threatened to harm her," Jazzy whimpered covering her eyes with her forehooves thinking that now that she had released the information the deformed Chatterjoy would spring out at her and begin to accuse her again.
Instead Jazzy felt an icy anger and she dared to peek at the Princess of the Night. The anger was not directed at her but the tremendous power that Princess Luna was emitting was making it very hard for Jazzy not to be afraid of her.
"Thou will bring the note and thyself to my sister's court tomorrow, she will be made aware of the events and We will do Our utmost to find thine friend, after all this culprit has not just wronged you but has wronged Us by trying to ruin Our festival!"
"But Princess!"
"No buts! You will come to see Us tomorrow morning!" Princess Luna had her face extremely close to Jazzy and the shock and terror caused the dream world to crumble and the unicorn woke up screaming.
She would show up to court tomorrow just to make sure that she wasn't dreaming that Princess Luna would help her. A little bit of doubt weighed on her heart. Chatterjoy was just an average pegasus she could not see the Princesses helping her but it was worth a shot wasn't it?
Jazzy got out of her bed and shook herself. She was drenched in her sweat from the nightmare and the shadows that danced on her bedroom walls from the night made her jumpy and she was afraid that the deformed Chatterjoy she saw in her nightmare would pop out and attack her.
She went to the bathroom that passed the guest room along the way. Jazzy couldn't help but glance at the empty bed hoping that she had hallucinated the whole thing and Chatterjoy would be in there snoring but that wasn't the case. It was as silent as an empty theatre.
Finally reaching the bathroom she dampened a cloth under some cold running water and pattered herself till she felt a little cleaner and refreshed. She didn't dare look into the mirror to see what zombie she would find there. The unicorn sighed sadly and allowed herself to silently cry at the sink, the running water drowning out her sobs.