//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Fear Factor // by Apple_Crack //------------------------------// Chapter 1 The snake stared Twilight down as it slid towards her. While everypony else was busy preparing themselves for the dinner party Fluttershy planned, Twilight’s eyes darted around the room looking for an escape route as the snake continued its route towards her. Sure, she just saw Fluttershy handling the snake, but Fluttershy didn’t know them the way Twilight did. The snake almost got within striking distance when it hissed. She screamed as loud as she could and bolted out the door. The memories of that horrible day flooded back to her. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ A traveling circus had come to Canterlot, and her family thought that it would be a perfect day for everyone to enjoy summer. They managed to get ringside seats which made the experience thrilling for a young filly. The bravery of the tightrope walkers amazed Twilight. She fell off her seat from laughing so hard at the hilarity of the clowns. The dancers’ flips and tumbles stunned her. Then, that fateful moment happened which marked the beginning of her nightmares. “Fillies and gentlecolts!” the animal tamer announced, “Today, you are going to bear witness to the most dangerous stunt I have ever performed.” The entire crowd waited with baited breath. “For today, I am going to control a cobra using nothing but a flute and the ancient techniques of the Saddle Arabians!” An assistant ran out from backstage carrying a flute and basket in his magic. He gingerly sat the basket on the ground while placing the flute in the outstretched hoof of the tamer. “I must ask for complete silence from the audience.” All the lights shined on the tamer. He sat down in front of the basket and took a deep breath as the assistant left the spotlights. Everyone sat on the edge of their seats, watching this brave pony tame the dangerous creature. The tamer played a hypnotic tune from the flute, never taking his eyes off the basket. The crowd watched in awe as the lid on the basket lifted and the cobra rose up, swaying back and forth to the tune while hissing its tongue. The tamer and the cobra stared at each other, neither one willing to back down from this potentially deadly game. The cobra descended back into the basket. The tamer, slowly relaxing his muscles, started playing softer and softer. But his hoof slipped, and a horrible, earth-shattering squeak froze everypony’s breath and even time itself. The cobra shot back up and slithered away from the tamer, its trance broken, straight towards the easiest and closest prey – a wide-eyed and trembling filly. Nopony had time to react. The cobra lunged straight for Twilight and sank its fangs into her side.   Her cries of pain joined with screams of horror as the crowd watched the tamer carefully force the snake off her. A medical team sprang into action, placing hooves on her and inserting needles in her, spouting incoherent, rushed gibberish at each other. They placed her on a stretcher and forcibly shoved aside anyone that tried to get between them and the ambulance. Her breaths felt like she was sucking through a straw. The pain in her chest threatened to make her vomit. Her head screamed in agony as her eyelids drooped. As her eyes closed, she caught one last look at her mother before succumbing to the darkness. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Twilight awoke in such a hurry that she nearly jumped out of her bed but a sharp stinging pain shot through her. Once the pain had subsided, she glanced at her surroundings and saw her family fast asleep at different spots around the room. She glanced at herself and saw she was wearing a hospital gown, she had stitches on the side of her body, and a bag of fluid dripping through a tube into her left foreleg.   The memories of what happened came flooding back to her. The pain of the bite of the cobra, the agonizing ride to the hospital, the doctors talking to somepony, and the mask that knocked her out. What scared her the most wasn’t the pain, but the explanation from the doctors. She didn’t understand most of it, but she did catch three words that stuck to her: ‘life or death.’ Her life was on the line. Her family must have awoken because they gently embraced her until her sobbing stopped. Their words of comfort calmed Twilight, but the fear of death had already implanted nightmares. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The nightmares would always be the same: she walked through a forest in the middle of the night when she heard that hissing sound. She turned to find a snake the size of a house glaring at her. She tried to use her magic to fight it, but she never could. She did the only thing that she could think of. She ran. She headed deeper and deeper into the forest, trying to outrun the snake. The hissing never stopped, and it came from everywhere. The ground opened up in front of her, and she fell into a pit. Snakes slid out of the very walls and ground around her, slowly surrounding the helpless filly. She cowered until they attacked with savage speed and ferocity. Every bite felt like a thousand needles piercing her skin, and she cried and begged for it to be over. She would always wake up after that screaming and drenched in sweat, only to find the worried eyes of her family watching her. She would cry her heart out to them, asking if they would make the nightmares go away and stay with her throughout the night to protect her. She always felt the safest in the hooves of her BBBFF, Shining Armor. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ That was years ago, though. There were some instances where she was unable to keep the nightmares away no matter how hard she tried – like that time during the Winter Wrap Up – and would always wake up the same, minus the screaming. She would lie back down and wish for the warm embrace of her brother or any other member of her family, but they had their own lives now. Besides, she always told herself, how pathetic would it be for her to run home to her family over every nightmare? So, she silently kept her fears to herself. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ “Twi, wait!” Twilight didn’t bother to see who called out to her as she ran down the dirt path leading back into Ponyville. Nopony tried to stop her. She cried out to the setting sun as she barged into the library, slammed the door shut, and slumped against the floor sobbing. She defeated three dangerous villains in the history of Equestria, and showed no sign of fear when she stood up to them. So, why was she so afraid of a snake? She shoved the thought out of her mind, the memories leaving her to languish in fear.