3:14 PM

by SugarPesticide


That's What You Think

It was the kind of bright and sunny afternoon that almost made Pinkie want to go outside, running and shaking ponies to let them know she was alive. Nevertheless, she found herself trudging up the stairs to her room, which held the comfortable warmth of accumulated sunlight. In the patch of light beneath the window stood Gummy, who blinked in his usual cheerful way at his owner’s approach.

“Gummy, I love you,” Pinkie gushed, seizing him and hugging him tight. The movement jostled the blanket that was draped over her back, but she grabbed it before it could fall and wrapped him in its cloth embrace. “I hope you never freeze to death.”

Gummy blinked in agreement.

Outside, ponies were happily going about their lives. Foals darted about in small herds, glad to be enjoying the summer freedom; their parents haggled and bartered in the marketplace, smiling and greeting with friends as they passed by. Even though she didn’t know everypony personally, Pinkie found herself smiling at the sight of all the familiar faces below.

Then a unicorn made her way across Town Square, accompanied by a baby dragon.

Pinkie’s heart nearly stopped. Her limbs locked in place, and she was forced to watch as the two strangers made their way into Town Hall. She sputtered, shuddered, and whinnied, not necessarily in that order.

When she finally managed to find her voice, it was strangled and halting. “But that’s … I’ve only ever … they were in my dream. How …?”

She realized that Gummy was chewing on her mane. With effort, she managed to shake off the horror that threatened to swallow her. Gummy, however, was allowed to stay where he was.

“It’s a coincidence,” she told herself, keeping her voice as steady as she could manage. “That’s what it is. Ponies can look like other ponies, can’t they? Really, odds were pretty good that one would match one in my dream. It has to be that.”

She turned away from the window and began to pace. “But what about the baby dragon? You don’t see those in Equestria every day. At least, not that I know of. How am I supposed to explain that? The exact same baby dragon.”

Coming to a stop, she rubbed her chin thoughtfully. Gummy, clamped onto her puffy pink forelock, swung in a lazy arc. “Maybe I’m still in a dream. I could be having ideas that keep echoing through my subconscious. A dream within a dream? It’s crazy, but it could happen.”

Hooves clip-clopped as she paced again. “Yeah, but how do I know there’s only two layers to the dream? I could be in a coma or something, and the Cakes are trying to wake me up, but every time they try I could be bumped up a level. Like digging out from the center of an onion. It could be ages before I come back. And if I’m only on the second-to-last layer, I could be doing this for a while. Still, at least it makes sense. Kind of.”

But her brow was furrowed. With a huff, she grabbed her book and flopped onto the bed. “Well, whatever it is, I’m gonna just ride it out. Or I could see if I get hurt, since that never happens in dreams. But that wouldn’t be healthy to just go out and do it, so ride it out it is.”

Saying such, she cracked open the book and eagerly began to lose herself in the words within.

Within seconds, however, she scowled.

“What the hay?” She gestured at the book petulantly, as if it had personally wronged her. “This says the exact same thing as it did in my dream, and I just started reading it after Maud sent it to me! I wouldn’t know the exact word order to this already, but I do! I don’t think even layered dreams can explain that!”

She shook her head, fighting irritation. Gummy, who had not let go of her mane thus far, flopped back and forth across her vision.

“Something’s up.” Pinkie kneaded at the blanket with both forehooves. “This is all happening again, one way or another. Which means Nightmare Moon is coming tonight.”

She shivered, and for a moment her limbs were weighed with a tinge of numbness. “She has to be stopped. But how are you supposed to face a monster and win? The old mares’ tales said she was defeated the first time by … what was it, a rainbow laser? Maybe I should figure out what that is, exactly.”

There was a pause. Then her eyes lit up.

“Of course! The library probably has some answers. Maybe I can find the old story and figure out how to get out of this trap thing!”

Saying such, she depositing Gummy onto the bed and left the room. For the first time that day, she didn’t wince at the slightest chill of a breeze.

Outside, ponies chattered and laughed under a sunlit sky. For a moment, Pinkie could almost believe that she had imagined Nightmare Moon really was just an old story, and that summer would continue on as happily and healthily as it ever did.

Then she remembered the slow agony of freezing to death, and the illusion faded. She snorted, shivering despite the comfortable heat, and reminded herself that here and now she was alive.

Golden Oaks Library soon loomed before her, and she paused to take in the sight of the unusual building. While she had certainly seen it in passing over the last few years, she couldn’t remember having actually gone in more than once or twice. It seemed taller and broader than she’d thought, boasting more importance than Sugarcube Corner … She shook herself and entered the living tree. Now wasn’t the time to forget about Nightmare Moon.

Inside the library, it was clean and quiet. She noted a stairway leading up to the residential living space. As far as she knew, nopony had lived here in a while, but she still kept quiet as she approached the nearest bookshelves. It was a library, after all.

She read the spines on the first shelf and frowned. “Are these even organized?” She pulled the first one and flipped through the pages, skimming for the words Nightmare or moon. Then she started at the beginning again, moving slower this time before eventually setting it aside. Her eyebrow rose as she lifted another. “By title, I guess. Who even did this? It’s horrible for casual browsing.”

The process continued for a while, and Pinkie saw no success. The words swam before her eyes, and she could feel her brain slow under the strain of the constant searching. Every time she began to set the books aside completely, however, she thought of the cold and the dark, and so she kept on reading.

“Oh, I, um … didn’t know somepony was already here.”

Pinkie stiffened, and for a moment darkness flickered across her vision. “Nngh …?”

When she looked around, however, she saw perhaps the furthest possible pony from Nightmare Moon. It was that one pegasus who occasionally came into town for supplies, Pinkie knew … but the baby dragon cradled in her hooves was what drew her attention faster.

“Look, I appreciate a good listener as much as the next guy,” the dragon was saying, wriggling free and dropping to the ground without so much as a wince. “But don’t you think it’s a little early to be heading to bed?”

“Oh, of course it’s not too early, Spike,” the pegasus crooned. She pinched his chubby cheeks gleefully. “You want to see the sun come up tomorrow morning, right? It’s important to get plenty of sleep in between now and then.”

“I can stay up all night! Twilight lets me every New Year’s!” He looked out the open door. “Right, Twilight? Last year was a fluke.”

“Might as well,” a unicorn grumbled, stepping into sight. Pinkie recognized the frazzled stranger immediately: purple coat, striped purple mane, starburst cutie mark. “All these crazy ponies’ll keep us up all night anyway …”

Her words trailed off as her eyes swept over Pinkie, who waved.

“Very … pink,” the unicorn managed to say. “Let me guess: your name is Pinkie or something like that?”

Pinkie gasped. “How did you know? Is it happening to you too?”

The unicorn started to speak again, but then seemed to think better of it. She rubbed her forehead instead. “Five for five,” she said. “Okay then. Are you a librarian here?”

“More like a baker-slash-party-thrower,” Pinkie corrected. “I don’t actually come here that often. I’m just looking for stuff on Nightmare Moon, and I—”

There was a rush of air, and Pinkie’s vision was suddenly filled with purple. “Nightmare Moon?!” the unicorn nearly shouted, eyes wide. “Do you know if she’s coming back tonight?”

Pinkie wondered if she should stop feeling so gleeful at the confirmation that a horse of the apocalypse was returning. “Of course she is! I had a dream or something and she invaded and everything froze to death. But now it’s happening again because I saw you that other time before it happened, and I have to figure out how to stop her!”

The unicorn blinked. Farther off, Spike and the pegasus exchanged glances.

“... Good enough,” the unicorn said. She extended a hoof, and they shook. “I’m Twilight Sparkle.”

“I’m Pinkie Pie. But what do you know about Nightmare Moon?”

“I read an old book this morning about prophecies.” Twilight began to pace. “‘On the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in her escape.’ That should be tomorrow … -ish. But Princess Celestia instructed me to come here and oversee preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration.”

Pinkie stared. “And I thought my story would be hard to swallow.”

“Look, if you don’t believe me … I don’t know, I’ll recite Star Swirl the Bearded at you. The point is, we’re the only two ponies in all of Equestria who know that Nightmare Moon is coming back, and we have to do something about it! Even if one of us is making pretty strange claims.”

“I …” Pinkie thought of the cold and the dark. “Okay. There has to be something in one of these books. I mean, Golden Oaks probably isn’t as extensive as the libraries you’re used to … in Canterlot … but there has to be something.”

Twilight nodded. Then she remembered that they were not alone. “Spike, why don’t you and Butterfly go out and see the market? They must be selling some interesting things, and we really need to look for books here.”

“Really?” The dragon’s eyes lit up, and he chattered excitedly over the pegasus’s mumbled correction. “You’d let me go out by myself and possibly get lost in a town we’ve never been to before? This is possibly the best day of my life!”

“I trust you to have a sense of direction. You’re not a baby anymore.” There was a pause. “Well, you are, but that’s not the point. Go out and … I don’t know, have fun?”

A rush of air through the open door was her only answer.

Twilight smiled at the dragon’s antics. Her smile faded, however, when she realized that the pegasus was still there. “Shouldn’t you keep an eye on him or something?”

“I don’t really like the marketplace.” A curtain of soft pink mane obscured the pegasus’s face. “It’s too full of ponies. Even with a baby dragon, it wouldn’t be very fun.”

“That’s okay!” Pinkie grinned. “You can help us look for the things that happen when a horrible harbinger of doom comes down to kill us all!”

“Eep!” The pegasus scampered for the door. Unfortunately, she missed entirely, slamming into the wall hard enough to send her collapsing to the floor. “That’s … even worse … ow.”

Pinkie tilted her head. “You’d think she’d be more excited that we’re doing something about it.”

“Well, we still have to get this done.” Twilight eyed the pile of books on the floor. “These are the one’s you’ve looked through? Not very respectful of them.”

“It’s a quicker visual aid to remind me that I don’t have to go back and check them.” Pinkie shivered. “And I think we have more important things to worry about than whether a few books are neat and tidy.”

“But I — they’re not ...” Twilight teetered on the edge of her hooves. Then she exhaled, a long, growling sound that made the pegasus on the floor squeak and cower. “Fine. The fate of the world narrowly beats out the order of academia.”

“Good!” Pinkie seized the next book without looking and started to skim it. “Now, I’ve mostly been looking for mentions of the Mare in the Moon herself, but really, I think anything about the moon might be a good topic to grab in case—”

“Look out!”

There wasn’t even time to turn around. The unsteadied bookshelf toppled over, and every bone broke under its weight. The last thing she heard was Twilight’s scream.

“Ow.” Pinkie rubbed her head. Then she realized she was wearing an oven mitt. “Wait …”

Baked goods surrounded her. Hot air wafted from the oven’s gaping maw. The clock read 3:14.

“Don’t think about it,” she told herself, closing the oven. “Don’t think about how it crushing you into paste … even though it probably would’ve hurt less if it did, instead of just crushing you … don’t think about how you couldn’t move or breathe, even disregarding the broken spine ...”

“Oh my! You’ve certainly been productive, haven’t you?”

“I’ll say,” Pinkie thought aloud, pacing. “Dreams can be scary, but they don’t hurt. So that can’t have been a dream, which means I really did get crushed into not-paste. But I’m fine now, so that’s definitely out. Third time’s a charm, right? I’ve gotta be able to fix everything without dying horribly.”

Mrs. Cake slowly backed out of the room.

“Well, this mystery isn’t gonna solve itself.” Pinkie stood tall. “To the library!”


Once in the library, she considered the last book she had looked at, the one that had triggered the toppling bookshelf. With careful hooves she took hold of its spine, then jumped back quickly.

The shelf didn’t move.

“I’ve gotta be more careful,” she mused to herself, casting a careful eye around for any falling objects before looking to the book again. “What next, getting struck by lightning? Really.”

With that said, she continued to search through the B’s. Though she occasionally looked up to check the time, she mainly focused on finding answers.

The pile had grown to her knees by the time she heard the door swing open. With perked ears, she flipped through the last pages of the useless book about the Classical Era, more interested in the clip-clopping of hooves.

“Oh, I, um … didn’t know somepony was already here.”

“Look, I appreciate a good listener as much as the next guy. But don’t you think it’s a little early to be heading to bed?”

“It’s you!” Pinkie gasped, tossing the book aside. “Twilight! Spike! Other pony! It really is all happening again!”

The pegasus squeaked and hid behind her mane. The other two simply stared.

“... Have we met?” Twilight asked after a moment. Her brow furrowed.

“Yes. But no. Look, Nightmare Moon is coming tonight, and we need to—”

“Nightmare Moon?!” The unicorn was in her face before she could blink. “How do you know she’s coming back tonight?”

“It keeps happening. At least, I guess so. I haven’t actually seen her, but the Cakes told me she was there, and I’m guessing she’s the one who made us freeze to death.”

“... What?”

“Look, I know your name is Twilight Sparkle, and you said Princess Celestia wouldn’t listen to you when you read about Nightmare Moon and her eternal night.”

Twilight gaped. “How did you know that?”

“It happened before. And then she …” Pinkie glanced at the pegasus. “Yep, she ran into the wall again.”

“But that’s impossible! Whatever it is.” Twilight’s nose wrinkled. “You are really not making any sense.”

“That doesn’t matter right now! What matters is that Nightmare Moon is coming. We have to find something in these books about whatever stopped her last time.”

“Ergh …” Twilight twitched. “Okay. Nightmare Moon is the important thing here. But I have a lot of questions for you after this, you hear me?”

“Yes.” Under her breath, she added, “If I live that long …”

“What was that?”

“Nothing. I already looked through these shelves over here; we’re doing the C section now.”

“C section?” Twilight eyed the titles, and blanched. “Why are these organized alphabetically? Are you from Neighpon or something?”

“I’m not the librarian. I’m Pinkie Pie. Now read!”

So they did.

“I’m … just gonna go outside,” Spike said, tiptoeing out of the library. Not quite under his breath, he added, “Crazy ponies sometimes, I’m telling you …”


“Aha!”

Pinkie looked up. Her eyes flitted toward the window, and she blanched at brooding sight of the night sky. “What is it?”

The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide.” Twilight hefted an open book in triumph. “I still can’t believe they put it under E … According to Predictions and Prophecies, the Elements of Harmony were what defeated Nightmare Moon a thousand years ago.”

“That’s strangely convenient, but I’ll take it.” Pinkie peered over Twilight’s shoulder. “So what are they?”

“Metaphysical … embodiments of virtues, it looks like?” The unicorn looked over the pages again, more carefully this time. “There are six of them: Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Honesty, Loyalty … and the sixth, which is a complete mystery. Their last known location was the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters, which is in …” She trailed off, setting the book down.

Pinkie felt her skin crawl as she finished the thought. “The Everfree Forest.”

“I’ve heard of it … isn’t it right next to Ponyville? What do you know about it?”

“It’s got monsters … an enchantress, too, who comes into town every so often." Yellow eyes under a black hood, she remembered. "The weather runs itself, so it can’t be a very nice place.”

“Nice or not, that’s where the Elements are.” Twilight closed the book with a decisive thud. “I’m going to find them.”

“Alone?”

“Why not?”

“That could go wrong in so many ways.” Pinkie rubbed her hooves together, contemplating the warmth that action brought. “You should go with somepony.”

“I don’t think so. I’m kind of Princess Celestia’s pupil. I know a bit more about taking care of myself than the average unicorn.”

“I didn’t say you don’t know all that,” Pinkie reasoned. “But if you’re risking everything like that, you shouldn’t be alone.”

“... You’re not going to let up on this, are you?” Twilight huffed. “Okay. But you have to stick with me the whole way. The sooner we find the Elements, the better.”

“I hear you. What about Spike?”

“He’ll be fine. Let’s go.”

As they passed the woozy pegasus, she stirred. “Uhhh … I’d like an adorable little kitten, if that’s all right with you …” Then she passed out again.