//------------------------------// // 10| Party Time // Story: A Nightmare Come To Life // by Alcatraz //------------------------------// From upstairs, Spike heard a massive crash emanate from the main foyer of the library. He looked up away from his comic, his gaze pointed towards the top of the stairwell. "Twilight?" he called. "Did another pile of books fall over?" On hearing no sound nor a reply from Twilight, feeling concerned that something crashed on top of her, Spike got out of his basket, placing the comic face down on his blanket to keep his place as he made his way downstairs. With a sigh of relief, he saw that no swaying tower of books had fallen over like what had happened innumerable times in the past. On the other hand, there was a tower of stacked books he saw stacked next to Twilight's reading desk. Even though it was face down, one of the books had fallen forward off the stand to the floor: the book Twilight was using to cross-reference demons. Spike picked the book up to try and see what Twilight was looking at last, but as he turned it over the weight of the pages caused them to sag back into the middle of the book, losing the page Twilight was on. He grumbled at that before he looked over at the front door, seeing a white pegasus stallion with a darker shade of blue for a mane looking over the door from top to bottom. The top and bottom had separated from each other, and the top half bent back on its hinges further than they should. The bottom swung free, though. "That mare must've been in a hurry," he said casually. "Bent the hinges out of shape. They're gonna need to be replaced," he added. "Hey, did you see which way Twilight went?" "Muttered something about a cup of coffee and the spa." The pegasus poked a hoof at the bent hinges. "She must be strong to bend hinges like that; running out a door like a stampeding buffalo." He dropped the book and ran over to the door and shut the bottom half of it and reached over from outside to lock it from the inside. Next, he told the stallion to step back as he blew a small gust of green fire onto the two bent hinges, turning them red hot as he forced the top door closed. He heated up the metal of the hinges enough for them to be malleable, and shutting the door would ensure they would return to their original shape and would be cool upon his return. The lock fixed into the door was unique in the way it functioned: it was a normal keyhole, but it had two bolts. One bolt locked the top portion of the door to the frame while the second slid into the bottom half of the door. Even though he locked the bottom from the inside, he would just need to unlock the top and reach over to unlock the bottom. Had he not, then the bottom would swing open. Spike locked the door as a whole and turned in the direction of the spa and began to run after Twilight. Twilight was weaving in and out of streets. She had accidentally hit one of the vegetable carts, sending its contents of cabbages spilling onto the dirt as the proprietor of the stand, an earth pony with a green coat, an off-yellow mane, and a cutie mark of a golden circle with a square taken out of it, exclaimed; "My cabbages!" "Sorry!" Twilight shouted with sincerity over her shoulder, galloping as fast as she could towards the Day Spa. A trip that would normally take five minutes at a canter, ten minutes if you took your time, now took less than a minute as she galloped under the sun as its radiant heat poured down upon the panting mare. She barged in through the front door and then continued her charge through the swinging, saloon-style doors that lead into the back, standing breathless and sweating in place as over a dozen pairs of eyes stared at her. "Twilight?" Rarity asked, looking up from the table on which the unicorn was getting massaged, the concern in her voice apparent at how ragged her friend looked. "What happened, are you alright?" "Joe..." she panted. "Eclipse... Where..." "She"—Rarity enunciated—"left a while ago, dear. What's all the fuss about?" "Where did she go? You didn't think to go after him—I mean her—so we don't lose her? It's kind of important since, you know..." "S-sorry, Twilight..." Fluttershy added, hiding her saddened expression at potentially having let Twilight down behind her mane. "Why don't you join us, Twilight? You look like you could use a hooficure!" Twilight groaned in frustration and anger with Joseph on his own, loud enough for all present patrons to hear. Without further explanation, she turned tail and ran the opposite direction, back the way she came. She anxiously trotted on the spot upon exiting the spa, looking left and right to try and see if she might miraculously spot Joseph. She saw a few ponies walking their way up and down the street and saw a brown, earth-pony stallion with a white muzzle. He sported a hat akin to Applejack's without the cutout, and a vest with a chain hanging out of his pocket. Twilight assumed it to have a watch on the other end. In his mouth he carried a large bag filled with groceries. "Excuse me?" Twilight hollered as she cantered up to him, the stallion stopping to look at her. "You wouldn't happen to have seen a dark blue mare with an equally dark purple mane exit the spa, or at all by any chance?" He stopped to put the bag down when Twilight got close. "I didn't see her leave the spa," he answered, "but I did find her sleeping in the alley behind the building." 'Why would he be sleeping?' Twilight asked herself. "Did you see what way she went?" The stallion shook his head. "Sorry, but after I made sure she was alright I went to finish my shopping." Twilight looked over her shoulder at the alley. "Thanks for your help." The stallion tipped his hat to her before picking up his shopping, then Twilight went over to the alley. She stopped just before it, looking it up and down. 'Why did Joseph leave, then sleep behind the alley?' she asked herself rhetorically. Her gaze gravitated towards the entrance of the alley, spying several squares of multicoloured paper on the ground and on the side of the building. Twilight used her magic to levitate these, pulling them closer to her eyes to scrutinize. 'Confetti...' Twilight mused, rolling her eyes. 'Pinkie Pie must have found Joseph and taken him to the party she put together. Would explain why he left the spa but not why he was in the alley. Maybe he tried to hide from Pinkie?' Twilight cracked a smile at the last of her thought. Peace of mind settled momentarily, but Twilight's mind jarred her back to the reality of the situation. They had it all wrong. Nightmare wasn't a demon at all, but a god, matter-of-factly. Twilight began walking towards Sugarcube corner. The run to the spa definitely winded her, so she adopted a slower pace for the moment. It let Twilight figure out what to say next when she found Joseph, but it didn't quell the growing, nagging questions pulling at her. Why or how would a god turn evil? What did it want with Luna? Normally entities associated with godly or angelic being had the notion of white, ethereal energy around them. So why did the God of Nightmares have black, smokey... Evilness? It didn't make any sense to the bookworm. She would need more books to study. "Come on, hurry up, silly!" Pinkie chided in her gleeful manner. "Party is waiting on you!" "Oh, yippee..." Joe sarcastically replied. "I'm not much of a people person—" "No, we're ponies!" "—so I want to try and get to know everyone before I get their presence shoved down my throat. You know, it's a thing called personal space." Pinkie kept bouncing—or hopping, whatever Joe called it. He followed the highly caffeinated pony. His eyes inextricably followed the pony, somehow placing herself into every area of his vision. With Pinkie perpetually getting within his line of sight, bouncing all over the place, he couldn't help but notice how well toned her legs were. He guessed it was from all the hopping around. His eyes began to wander north... Would you stop it? Nightmare angrily drawled. It's bad enough I'm in here, but being forced to watch your perversions is another thing altogether. 'Look, I can't help it, alright?' Joe replied in exasperation. 'You wandered off before. Why don't you do that again and give us both some space? Or at least what constitutes the next thing since I'm in your head... Just let me know what you're doing.' Fine... she agreed with contemptuous unease. With a roll of his eyes and looking ahead, Joseph couldn't see Pinkie. He stopped on the spot, his head swiveling in all directions to try and locate the mare. 'What in the...? Did she pull one of her vanishing tricks again?' "Over here!" Pinkie shouted, her voice somehow echoing off every available surface to find its intended target. "Gyah!" Joe exclaimed when the boom of Pinkie's voice hit him. He went to rub his now-hurting ears. Joseph looked over to the building Pinkie was exuberantly waving from as she ducked back inside, his jaw hitting the ground. It looked like any other building he had seen so far, but instead of thatched roofing this place looked as though it had had giant cookies as tiles for the roof. White frosting replaced the frame of the roof, and red-and-white candy cane-esque posts held up the awning of the front door, chocolate-coloured and carved support beams helped keep everything aloft. He wandered up to the candy cane posts and leaned closer to sniff at them. "I hope these aren't actually peppermint..." He looked around cautiously, seeing if anyone was looking his way, and took a quick lick of the post. He quickly spat out the taste and wiped a forehoof over his muzzle. "Bleh. Nope, just regular old paint," he said bitterly. Joseph turned back to the front door of the store, using a hoof to cautiously nudge it open, a crack of sunlight piercing the veil of black inside. He finished opening the door with a slight squeak, the sunlight streaming in and only illuminating what appeared to be a display cabinet with a cash register at the end of the room. "What in the hell? I saw her duck in here..." Joe absentmindedly said to himself as he walked in. Two seconds after he finished his sentence, the lights flicked on and an innumerable amount of technicolour pastel creatures jumped out from hiding in places that shouldn't've been physically possible for them to get into as they collectively shouted: "Surprise!" From the sudden scare, Joseph stumbled backwards far enough to trip over the doorframe and fall, down the two steps that he came up moments before. Pinkie came rushing out the door as Rainbow followed behind her, each with concerned looks on their face. "Uh, you alright dude?" Rainbow tentatively and sincerely asked. "If you... ever... scare me like that again..." Joseph began, not finishing his sentence, his point threateningly ambiguous. He got up off the ground and dusted himself of the dirt that collected as Rainbow set herself down on the ground, closing the distance between herself and Joseph. "Dude, are you alright?" Rainbow asked again, but this time with emphasised concern. "You took a bit of a fall there.” Joseph replied in a harsh whisper. "I almost had a heart attack from the fright of you all shouting 'surprise'! Although I suppose it wouldn't be like a bad thing..." he added retroactively. Joe gave an appreciative nod towards Rainbow, thankful for how concerned she was being. "Yeah... I should be fine. I hope. Even if I did they're bound to find out about, well, me." "Heh, yeah... Didn't think about that." Joseph took a few breaths to calm himself. He went back up to the door as everyone parted to let him in, and he gazed at the inside of the store. Thick, chocolate-shaped wooden support beams carved into the shape of the aforementioned bars lined the room. The walls themselves had small, short, round tables in front that were each adorned with balloons tied to the feet of the tables to hide the drab colour of the wall behind as cupcakes, drinks, crepes, and a wide variety of treats sat atop them. The glass display cabinet he saw was empty of whatever it normally contained, but hanging from the rafters were streamers, ribbons, all the while confetti inexplicably coated every surface. However that happened, it would be a nightmare to clean up. To his left, a small table sat up against the wall. Stacked with over a dozen boxes of varying sizes, wrapped in as many colours as those at the party, each donned with a ribbon tied into a bow that held the wrapping securely in place. He looked to his right to see a much more spacious room, at the end of which was a giant cake at least as half as big as he was. "So, waddaya think?" Pinkie gleefully asked as she bounced into Joseph's sight. "So much cake..." "Well this is the bakery owned by Mr. and Mrs. Cake! I live here and help make all the sweet treats for all of Ponyville for the parties I throw!" Pinkie went over to a table and snatched up a cupcake, opening her mouth and shoving the entire thing in and seemingly swallowing it whole, much to the horror and bemusement of Joseph. "I think I'm gonna either develop diabetes or get have an actual heart attack by the time I'm done here..." he said in awe, eyeing up all the tantalisingly delectable treats. Figuring he should at least try and enjoy himself while here to make it look like he was having a good time, he levitated one of the cupcakes over. This one was iced with blue icing, little tufts of whipped cream holding a rainbow-coloured strip of candy, depicting an arching rainbow in the sky. He took a tentative bite from it, and the flavour was unexpectedly delicious. The icing was the perfect balance between sweetness and flavour, the lightly whipped cream complimenting the light, fluffy texture of the sponge. The rainbow candy was the final kicker. The sugar washed over his tongue as Joseph tasted each individual flavoured color. He turned to look at Pinkie, his face contorting into one of utter disbelief at how delicious the cupcake was. He still had a mouthful, not wanting to swallow something this good. "Sweet Mary mother of..." Joe began, stuffing the treat in his mouth to try and take as big of a bite as he could. "You made these?" he asked with all due incredulity and bulging cheeks. "Yeah, kinda, sorta, not really... The Cakes did most of the work with the baking while I decorated the place! Do you like it? Oh puh-lease tell me you like it!" The hyperactive mare darted forward to gaze at Joe. With her muzzle covered in cream, icing, and crumbs, Pinkie's eyes were inches away from his, the only thing keeping them separated being their touching noses. He swallowed what he could before giving a sincere answer. "Best cupcake I have ever had!" "Thanks! Rainbow helped me make them. Let me show you around!" Pinkie declared as she grabbed Joseph's leg, pulling him in the direction of a table of colts and fillies. One was a white unicorn that had a similar mane style as Rarity, but she seemed to be staring off into space as though she was jaded, all the while she idly picked at a cupcake while she rested her head on her hoof. Another was a small colt about three-quarters the size of the white one. He too was white, but had spotted brown patches all over him, most notably his left eye. The third, a yellow earth pony with a cherry-red mane with a darker pink bow that tied her hair up behind her head. "These cute little guys are from Ponyville Elementary," Pinkie said as she gestured to each of them in turn. "Eclipse, this is: Sweetie Belle; Rarity's sister, Pipsqueak, and Apple Bloom; sister to Applejack!" "'Allo 'Allo!" Pipsqueak said, giving a welcome salute. He spoke with a British accent, much to Joseph's amazement. "Dude, how are you speaking with a British accent?" "I'm from Trottingham!" he declared. "You mean like Nottingham?" "No ma'am, Trottingham, Norh-West of Ponyville ma'am! What's British anyway? Is that where you're from?" "As a matter of fact, yes it is!" Joseph said half truthfully. "Ah’ve never heard of that place,” Apple Bloom asked with a raised eyebrow. “Where is it, then?" She took a bite of her cupcake as she stared at Joseph waiting for an answer, all the while Sweetie Belle kept picking at her cupcake and putting the larger chunks in her mouth and disregarding smaller ones. Joe's eyes kept darting to Sweetie. She was at a party, but he couldn't figure out why she wasn't being more sociable like the rest of the ponies around him. "Well, aren't you a smart filly," Joe said condescendingly, tousling her hair with a hoof. "But I'm not going to lie to you." He nodded at Sweetie Belle. "What's eating her?" "No, she's eating the cupcake, silly!" Joseph, Apple Bloom, and Pipsqueak shot an errant look at Pinkie, Joe turning back to the conversation at hand. "Ah'm not sure. Been a bit mopey for a couple weeks after she went missin' one day." Joe levitated another cupcake over and sat down with the three school kids, intrigued by Apple Bloom's statement. "What happened?" he asked, taking a generous bite from the treat. "Well, after school let out for the day, we all went home. Sweetie didn't go back to the boutique where she lives with Rarity, so Rarity came to the farm looking for her. Figured we'd be studyin' or something," she finished with a giggle and a smirk. "I remember!" Pip interjected. "Rarity told Miss Cherilee Sweetie didn't come home, and told the ones that stayed after school to keep an eye out for her!" Applebloom nodded in confirmation at this as Joseph listened on. "We don't know where she was, but a couple hours later she wandered out of the Everfree Forest near Fluttershy's cottage." "Rarity was in the middle of asking Fluttershy if she had seen Sweetie, and then she walked into the front yard of the cottage as Rarity was leaving. She didn't tell us where she went or why, but we got her back," Apple Bloom finished with a grateful smile aimed at Sweetie. Joe raised an eyebrow at how indifferent Sweetie was being, not even saying anything. "So where'd you go when you disappeared?" "The forest," she answered abruptly. Joe pressed on. "Ok, do you remember what you did in the forrest?" "I don't remember what I had for breakfast today," Sweetie deadpanned. If she still remembers where she went, try asking her that, Nightmare said. 'Lets try that, then.' "Could you take me where you went to?" Sweetie stopped shoving chunks from the now-destroyed cupcake into her mouth, eyes darting to Joseph as she stared wide-eyed for several seconds. She didn't move, but after a moment she finally spoke. "I can take you there!" she beamed, hopping down from the table. Joe gave a smug grin at Apple Bloom. "Did you think to ask that?" "No..." she replied sheepishly. Neither did you, Nightmare seethed, Joe just laughing inwardly. "Can Ah come with ya?" "No," Sweetie said forcefully. "I mean... Heh, I need to get some fresh air. You and Pip have fun while I show Eclipse, alright?" "Alright..." Apple Bloom replied dejectedly as Joseph finished off his cupcake. Joe looked around for Pinkie, but she seemed to have gone somewhere else. "Where's Pinkie?" he asked. He turned to look in the other direction. "Here I am!" Pinkie declared, appearing out of nowhere on cue. Joe stammered on the spot. "Freaking... How do you keep doing that? "Doing what? You wanted me, so here I am, silly!" Joe remembered what Rarity said to him at the spa. 'It's Pinkie Pie, we just let her be.' Rather than give himself a headache trying to figure it out, he let it slide. "Sweetie Belle is going to show me something. I'll be back soon, alright? Keep the party running." "Okie dokie loki!" “Hey dude,” Rainbow spoke up as she saw him turning to leave with the little filly. “I’m going to come with you. If something happens, Twilight is going to want to know about it so she can tell Celestia.” “You sure you don’t want to stay for the party? I shouldn’t be more than twenty minutes or so.” “I wasn’t asking,” Rainbow replied with a stern gaze. "Somepony’s gotta keep an eye on you where they can. That goes for you too, Sweetie Belle.” With a frustrated huff, Sweetie lead the way out the doors and down the street. Joseph followed the small filly as the streets got wider, eventually leading to the outskirts of town where a few smaller cottages dotted the treelines. They followed one of the dirt paths to just before a cottage and Sweetie detoured off to the right, taking them to the treeline as Joseph stopped before the looming forest, looking back-and-up at Rainbow with uncertainty. "What are you waiting for?" she called back, jumping into the underbrush and disappearing. Her voice sounded from the bushes as she spoke. "Come on, it's a surprise!" With a raised eyebrow, they both followed the sound of the rustling bushes as they stepped into the foliage. Joseph had a hard time parting the thick brush to allow himself to get through, whereas Rainbow flew up higher to avoid a lot of the foliage. But, using his magic, he managed to part the bushes enough like he would have done with his hands to get through. The sound of Sweetie's rustling grew increasingly distant as Joe called out to her. "Hey, wait up!" He tried to hurry, but his next step was poorly timed. His hoof clipped a branch that had fallen on the ground and fell face first over it. With a grunt and moan, he rolled onto his side and went to pick himself up. Sunlight streamed in through the canopy of the trees, a stray beam of light hit him in the face as the trees swayed in the wind. He was about to pick himself up when he swore he saw something dart from one tree to another, a black mass silhouetted against whatever sunlight made it through. His head darted around to try and see what it was. "Hello?" he called. "Anyone there?" It was a bit of a silly thing to say, but it was force of habit out of anything. From somewhere, he heard a strange hissing. He looked up and around all the gnarled trees, trying to discern the source of the noise. Out of all the dark trees, two blue glowing orbs stuck out at him. He blinked to make sure they were real, and a moment later they blinked back at him. In the blink of an eye, he was met with a black figure jumping on him. His vision filled with a green haze as he felt his strength get drained from him as he passed out.