Elements of Destruction

by StarvinArtist

Nightmares

Twilight Sparkle sat bolt upright, eyes wide and staring out into the darkness as her heart pounded inside her chest. Her breath was sharp, quick, nervous, and her wild eyes darted around the room in a blind panic. Dark shapes leapt out at her, the dim moonlight doing nothing to protect her from them. She let out a short yelp and clasped a hoof to her mouth, before once again peering into the night. 

Slowly her breathing returned to normal, as she realised with a sigh of total relief that she was, in fact, in her own room, in her own bed. She was safe. It had all just been some horrible, horrible dream...

This was worrying. Frightening even.  She hadn't awoken in such a state of panic since... Well... She hadn't ever done so. No. This was something new.  

Something worth taking note of. 

Cautiously, still a bit shaken up from the sudden fright, the Purple Unicorn shuffled off the edge of her bed, the thin blanket still draped over her body, and quietly moved to the small desk that stood neatly in line with the edges of her window. Her journal lay neatly closed, with the spine neatly in the exact centre of the desk so that, when she opened it, it was still perfectly, centrally, neat. Such perfection may have seemed obsessive to some, but to Twilight it was the one thing in the town that she could truly say she had under control. Order was logical. And logic was the key to success. 

Which was what played on her mind most, as her horn glowed dimly and the nearby quill floated into position over the page. This, FEAR, she was experiencing was just ridiculous. The very fact that she had been startled by the long, thin shadows cast by the branches outside her window was inconceivable to her - sensible, logical Twilight Sparkle, afraid of the dark? Just what had she dreamt that had disturbed her in such a way?

She glanced down at the paper, quill still poised and ready to write. But she didn't know why. What was there to write about? "Dear Diary, tonight I had a bad dream. Off to sleep again now. Ta ta." She shook her head and laid the quill back down, her horn's glow diminishing. She couldn't even remember what the dream had been about, so why in Equestria was it still rattling round her skull like a parasprite in a cake shop?

She yawned, and turned to go back to bed. 

'Twilight?'

The voice scared her to death. She leapt into the air, a high pitched squeal escaping her, and she dropped onto her back, clutching at her poor heart which was once again attempting to free itself from the confines of her ribcage. 

'Whoa! Easy there girl!' came the voice again, and a quick glance revealed it to be no more than her trusty assistant and companion, Spike, 'It's just me! Calm down, what's the matter?'

Twilight scrabbled to her hooves once more and glared through the darkness at the young dragon. 

'What do you think you're doing, sneaking up on me like that, Spike?!' she hushed angrily, trying to keep her voice down so as not to wake the rest of Ponyville. 

'Sorry!' Spike replied with a yawn, 'What's got you so shaken up? I woke up after I heard you yell and I just thought I'd come to make sure you're okay...' he looked at the unicorn, bundled up in her blanket, mane sticking out all over the place and eyes wide and staring, 'Clearly I was right to be worried...'

Twilight sighed and loosened up again, standing fully and rubbing her neck with a forehoof. 

'I'm sorry for waking you, there's nothing wrong ... I'm uh... I'm okay. Just...' she looked at the floor sheepishly, 'Just a bad dream, that's all...'

Spike crossed his arms and raised a quizzical eyebrow. 

'A... Bad dream? You're telling me that you're all freaked out about some Nightmare, Twi?'

'I know it sounds dumb, but...' again she was lost for words, 'I dunno... I've had Nightmares before and they've never had this kind of effect on me... This is something more, something...' she swallowed and sat down on the foot of her bed. 'Bad.'

She closed her eyes and rubbed them with her hooves. All this stress, plus the tiredness had given her one heck of a headache. Spike saw the discomfort on her face and stepped over to her, placing a comforting claw on her shoulder. 

'You're beat. You should get some rest, settle that egghead o' your's. You're overthinking things again, thats all. I'm sure in the morning everything'll make more sense - shoot, I'll even bet you'll have forgotten the whole thing by then!'

Twilight let out a quiet laugh as her sidekick let out a long, noisy yawn, and smiled at him. 

'Thanks, Spike. You always know the right thing to say to calm me down. Now, its way past your bedtime...'

The dragon nodded and stretched. 'Trust me, I know. Night!'

With that, he turned and descended the staircase into the library, leaving Twilight alone with her thoughts. 

She shook her head and laughed once again, her bedheaded mane wafting infront of her eyes, before lying back and wrapping the blanket back around herself. She wouldn't even remember what she was so worried about in the morning, of course she wouldn't. 

But right now, she certainly did. 

"Back again I see."

The disembodied voice crackled through the cold, damp air like lightning, ringing in Twilight's ears and forcing her to clamp them shut with her hooves. 

"WHO ARE YOU?!" she bellowed at the top of her lungs, letting her usually mellow demeanor slip away, "WHAT DO YOU WANT WITH ME?!"

Her shouts echoed throughout the cavernous space she was in, bounding off the walls and clashing with the chorus of drips and running water that seemed to emanate from nowhere. 

"Oh it's not you I want, Twilight Sparkle," the Voice came again, calm and crisp with a layer of mocking thrown in, "At least, not JUST you. And not quite yet, either."

Twilight fell onto the hard stony floor, covering her ears and her eyes closed tight. Why couldn't she escape this place? Why did she keep coming back here?

The Voice continued. 

"Oh, no no no. Right now, right at this very instant, do you know what I REALLY want?"

Silence. The purple unicorn on the floor curled herself into a ball, letting a single tear of pure terror run down her cheek. 

"I want..." the Voice snarled, "To have some fun..."

With that, a blast of cold air rushed through the cave, lifting Twilight as though she were a Ragdoll. As the wind intensified, it hurled the terrified mare through the deep, pitch black tunnel as she let out a scream of abject horror. Lightning and thunder crashed around her, the invisible taunter laughing maniacally over the cacophany as she was thrown through the air, and collided against the sharp, jagged rocks of the cave wall. 

"I'm on my way, Twilight..." the Voice cooed softly as she fell, broken and beaten, "Tell your Princess that Disaster is just around the corner..."

Twilight opened her eyes painfully, just as she hit the ground with a dull, sickening thud. 

She awoke again. This time, she screamed.