Chapter 19 – Return of Nightmares
Fragments of Memories
By Starwin
Chapter 19 – Return of Nightmares
Twilight simply couldn’t help but sigh contentedly. This was everything she had ever wanted, everything she had dreamed about. She was sitting with her mentor – well technically, they were laying, not sitting – in front of the fireplace and talking!
They had passed away the hours over hot cocoa, that never seemed to empty. Twilight told stories about her adventures. For some reason, they always seemed more exciting than she remembered. Celestia would let out a little laugh of amusement or a smile of approval whenever Twilight paused.
It was perfect. Too perfect.
“Celestia,” said Twilight, as she concluded another one of her tales about her friends – although she couldn’t recall any of their names, or any details about the story itself. “Is any of this real?” Celestia laughed lightly in mild amusement at Twilight’s question.
“Twilight, you must remember my title. I am a Princess after all,” said Princess Celestia.
“But, you didn’t answer my question, Princess,” said Twilight. A growing doubt was building in her stomach. “Are… are you real?”
“Of course I’m not, my dear little pony,” said the Princess.
“I want it to be real,” answered Twilight quietly.
“Well, what you want and what you get aren’t always the same,” said the Princess.
“Oh,” whispered Twilight, her happy expression falling into a frown.
“Did you think that I would ever have time to waste on you?” continued the Princess. “To sit here, sipping this filthy drink and listening to your rambling stories?”
“I… I guess…” began Twilight a little teary eyed.
“You’re just the pony I send off to do things for me. You’re my messenger, my delivery girl,” chuckled the Princess cruelly. “I don’t care about you, Twilight. Why would I? Your magic will never be as strong as mine. Your deeds will be forgotten. You are nothing, not even fit to say my name.”
“I… I have to go,” mumbled Twilight getting up to leave. However the Princess now stood in front of her, blocking her path.
“Oh, no, I’m afraid it isn’t time for you to leave,” said the Princess darkly.
Twilight felt heavy chains suddenly snap around her legs and neck, pulling her down. The fire in the hearth died into cold embers and the room dimmed into shadows.
“You haven’t answered for your crimes yet,” explained the Princess as she towered over Twilight. “The horrible things you’ve done to your friends. Not to mention all the ponies you’ve failed. No, you aren’t going anywhere.”
“No, no, no!” cried Twilight. She tugged at the iron chains, but they held her fast. “Not again. This has to be a dream.”
“This is no dream,” said the Princess, lifting Twilight’s chin so that she could look her in the eyes. “This is a nightmare, your final nightmare. For what you have failed to do, I pronounce eternal imprisonment upon you. You will be trapped within your own mind, forever!”
“Not if we have anything to say about it!” shouted a booming voice that carried across the room. Weakly, Twilight managed to glance behind her. She couldn’t help but gape in surprise.
Two great gilded doors, with sparkling gems, stood wide open. Bright white light poured through, although the shadows of the room held it back. Framed in the doorway, posed heroically, were several shadowy outlines. At the front of the group was a small purple dragon. Standing just behind him was a pink earth pony, a white unicorn and Dash and… Discord?
“You let Twilight go right now!” demanded the pink pony. She stood up on her back hooves while raising her front legs into a fighting position above her head.
“If you so much as touch her, you are going to have to answer to me!” exclaimed the white unicorn, trotting slightly forward and lowering her head into a charging position.
“You mess with her, you mess with US!” shouted Dash
“Hello Twilight!” called Discord with smile and a casual little wave.
“All of you shall be punished!” shouted the Princess. Her coat washed over with black. A long ugly red horn twisted out of her head. Flames burned along her wings as she charged at the group. In her wake, heavy iron chains sprung up from the ground, reaching out towards the friends.
Quickly the ponies – and the small little dragon – sprung into action. They leapt aside, scattering out of the way of the charge. Dash batted some of the incoming chains out of the air, while the pink pony leapt at the nightmare-ish Princess with a flying kick and a scream of battle – or maybe, excitement? Twilight couldn’t tell.
The small purple dragon and the white unicorn hurried forward to Twilight. They each took a leg and tried to work the chains off her.
“You have to go!” cried Twilight. “I’m dangerous! This is my fault! I let this happen!”
“That isn’t true,” shouted the little dragon as he ducked a flaming hoof that barely missed his head. “This isn’t real! It’s just a bad dream.”
“I know,” said Twilight. “I know it is. I made it a bad dream.” The dragon halted for a moment looking at Twilight in confusion. The unicorn kept working, her horn glowing with magic. She seemed to have almost gotten the first chain off.
“What?” said the little dragon in surprise. “You… you know it’s a dream?”
“What I did to Dash,” said Twilight. “What I turned her life into… it’s my fault… I took everything from her. I messed everything up.” More chains began to slither up from the ground. They wrapped around the white unicorn, clamping down on her neck and dragging her away towards the hungry darkness.
“Rarity!” shouted the dragon as he reached for her. But it was no good, a maniacal clamped around his wrist, pinning him down beside Twilight.
“Twilight, you have to stop,” cried the little dragon. He was so familiar. She could almost remember his name.
Dash charged by overhead, the blazing princess rushing right behind her. The pink pony appeared to be wrapped up in chains too as she struggled against them. Discord was still standing at the open door, observing the chaos with keen interest, but not getting involved himself.
“It’s you, Twilight,” said the little dragon. “It’s you making these chains. It’s you punishing yourself.”
“I deserve it,” said Twilight quietly to the floor.
“NO YOU DON’T!” roared the little dragon. With all his might, he ripped apart the chains that bound him. Every link along the line broke free, scattering into the air. The broken links rung like tiny little bells of freedom as they fell.
For a moment, the curling chains along the ground backed away from Spike. They kept their distance as if they were afraid he might try and rip them apart as well.
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” said the dragon. In one swift motion he tore the manacles off Twilight’s front legs. New ones tried to replace them but he roared at them and they slithered away. “You SAVED Dash. YOU saved her.”
“But at what cost,” mumbled Twilight. “Look what I’ve done to her. Look what it’s done to us.”
“Believe me, Twilight,” continued the dragon. He tore the back chains away too, only the heavy collar around her neck remained. “No one understands how difficult it’s been for you more than I do. I’ve had to watch as everything you had slipped away from you. Your speech, your magic, your memories, your friends.” Twilight looked away in shame. “But that doesn’t mean you aren’t still Twilight. That doesn’t mean you aren’t my big sister… or my mom…
“I love you, Twilight,” said Spike, his eyes watery with tears. Twilight looked back at Spike in surprise, her own tears returning. “I can’t go on without you… I can’t lose you…” He fell to his knees, wrapping his small arms around her.
The collar around Twilight’s neck shimmered away. The raging nightmare Princess evaporated into glinting trails of smoke. And the writhing chains all around the floor melted away into shadows.
“Spike…” whispered Twilight, she put her hoof around him, returning the hug. “I… I’m so sorry. I didn’t want to forget you, or anypony else.” All of the others were walking towards her now too. Pinkie, Rarity and Dash. How could she have ever forgotten any of them? “I tried to hold on, but all of you kept slipping away…”
“Ah, yes, well that was most likely my sister’s doing,” offered Discord from the door. “I think she has been, uh, borrowing things from you.”
“You mean stealing!” retorted Dash.
“Stealing, borrowing without intending to return, what’s the difference?” said Discord with a dismissive wave.
“There isn’t one,” replied Rarity flatly.
“Oh, well, I guess that actually explains why so many ponies have been so mad at me,” said Discord thoughtfully.
Twilight worked her way back up to her hooves. She glared at Discord.
“What do you mean your sister has been stealing things?” asked Twilight.
“Look, you don’t really want me to recap everything again do you?” answered Discord. “I feel like I keep repeating myself every time I meet somepony new. Can’t we just wait until we find somepony else as well so that I don’t have to keep saying the same thing over and over?”
“Somehow, his sister Harmony ended up in our head,” explained Dash, rolling her eyes and looking away from Discord. “She’s the reason we’ve been forgetting our friends. She’s why we’ve been losing memories. Why we can’t fly and why our magic doesn’t work!”
“And she stole your name!” exclaimed Pinkie. “She’s calling herself Rainbow Sparkle! AND she wants to use the Element of Magic to cast the fusion spell again!”
“What!” cried Twilight in alarm. That was possibly the worst thing that anypony could have told her. “She can’t. Not a third time! That would… me and Dash… We have to stop her!”
“And how exactly are you planning to do that?” asked Discord. “Are you just going to saunter up to her and nicely ask that she stop existing? I’ve already tried that, and as you can see it hasn’t worked out so well.”
“Maybe Luna can banish her someplace?” suggested Dash.
“Well, she isn’t staying here,” said Rarity.
“Maybe we could use the Elements of Harmony against Harmony,” suggested Pinkie. The group all turned to look at her in surprise. “I mean, if she is really taking the Twilight’s element back, then we’ll have all of them again.”
“Except, Applejack and Fluttershy left us!” pointed out Spike bitterly. “They could be back in Ponyville already.”
“Oh no, they haven’t left the city yet,” said Pinkie with a shake of her head.
“Did your pinkie senses tell you that?” asked Rarity.
“Nope, I just know that they wouldn’t abandon us,” said Pinkie confidently. “Well, I guess they did abandon us, but they wouldn’t abandon abandon us.”
“Either way it doesn’t matter who those ponies are,” interrupted Twilight. “We are stuck in here. Without a way to contact some outside pony we could never get our gems to use the elements.”
“Doctor Heart!” exclaimed Spike. “Wild Heart! Can you hear us?” His voiced echoed in the cold empty room.
The fireplace had gone dark and it was deep night outside the windows. The only light came from the white glow beyond the door where Discord stood. Then, a second golden glow began to emanate from just above the fireplace.
Spike hurried over. The other ponies trotted up behind him. They all watched curiously as one of the framed pictures radiated golden light. As they looked on, the pony in the frame came to life. It hopped out of the picture and onto the mantel before leaping down into Spike’s open claws.
“Spike, you’re alright!” cried the golden pony. It hugged his thumb. “When you all vanished, I thought… Never mind what I thought. What’s going on in there?”
“We found Twilight,” explained Spike. He held the golden pony up so that it could see Twilight and Twilight could see her.
“And she remembers all of you?” asked the golden pony curiously.
“Yes,” said Twilight with a nod. “Also, I’m standing right here.”
“I’m sorry,” apologized the tiny glowing pony. “The return of your memory so quickly is… odd.”
“It isn’t all back,” said Twilight. “I still feel like things are missing.” She looked towards Dash, who nodded.
“I can remember our friends,” said Dash. “But… but it feels like I’m not the pony remembering them. Like it’s some pony else’s memories… that I’m remembering, if that makes any sense.”
“You are all sharing the same mind,” suggested the glowing pony. “It is possible that you only remember your friends because they are there with you. Do you remember, say, Fluttershy, for example?” Twilight shook her head. Dash shrugged.
“They were stolen!” said Pinkie. “Or, they still are stolen I guess? Maybe borrowed without the intent to return?”
“Our memories can wait, they aren’t important right now,” interrupted Twilight. “It wasn’t Discord that took us over, it was Harmony.” The expression upon the tiny golden ponies face darkened, as did her glow. “We think we can stop her with the elements, but you have to get them for us.”
“I can try,” said the little pony with a nod. The pony paused for a moment, then continued, sounding slightly concerned. “What are you planning to do with Harmony?”
“We can figure that out once we’ve stopped her,” said Twilight with a shake of her head. “But I have no idea how we are going to do that! I don’t even know how we are going to find her!”
“Fear,” said Discord, his one word bringing silence to the room.
“Fear?” asked Spike. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“Well, come on in and I’ll show you,” said Discord, taking a step back from the doorway into the world of white. He bent over slightly and held out his arms inviting them to enter.
“It’s alright,” said Pinkie. “He’s better now. All he really needed was a friend to bring him around. He helped me rescue Rarity, Spike and Dash. And he helped us find you.”
“I still don’t trust him,” mumbled Dash under her breath.
“I’m not sure I do either,” said Twilight shaking her head. “But what other choice do we have? We have to stop Harmony.”
The group trotted back towards the large double doors that led back into the realm of the unconscious mind. As they got closer, the golden pony began to flicker in and out of existence.
“Spike, the connection is weakening,” said the golden pony. “Wherever you’re going, I cannot follow. We will find the elements and we will bring them…” With one last step, she winked out of existence. Spike closed his claw around the misty essence left behind, than he too passed through the doors.
“How exactly did you save us anyhow?” asked Dash as she hovered beside Discord. With a soft click, Discord pulled the doors closed behind them. Like the door before it, this too shimmered away into swarm of tiny dots.
Discord started to answer, but Twilight cut him off.
“Where is this place?” asked Twilight glancing around.
“The unconscious,” offered Rarity.
“Wait, what? How’s that even possible?” asked Twilight in confusion.
“Well, we’re asleep, so I guess we’re unconscious,” suggested Dash.
“No, that isn’t what the unconscious mind is…” began Twilight.
“To answer all your questions,” interrupted Discord. “Fear, is how I found both Dash and Twilight. Raw emotions and reactions. This place doesn’t have memories, or thoughts, it has actions and reactions. Things you don’t think about, that you can’t think about.
“I was able to latch onto your unconscious fear and follow it back to its source,” said Discord. He lifted up a pawed hand. As he did, thousands of tiny dots shimmered into existence, as though he had put his hand into a stream of sparkling water. “That’s how I found all of you.”
“And that’s why we found you when things got bad!” cried Pinkie excitedly. “Because that was the scary parts of your bad dreams!”
“And Harmony,” asked Twilight. “Is she afraid?”
“Oh, more than you can possibly imagine,” said Discord. “I’m surprised you can’t feel it. It’s so strong that it’s overflowing all around us. But I guess all your minds are too organized to see the chaos in plain sight.”
“So you can take us to her?” asked Spike.
“I can,” answered Discord. “But…” he glanced towards Pinkie, seeming to struggle with something for a moment. “I guess I should warn you. You’ve only faced dreams and nightmares so far. Whatever my sister is now, whatever she calls herself. She is still a goddess. And she will be drawn towards her true nature, no matter the cost.
“Just as Celestia must raise the sun, so must Luna bring the moon. I spread disorder and chaos. Harmony creates order and predictability.”
“Actually, that… doesn’t sound that bad,” said Rarity. “I think we could do will a little organization after the mess of these last few days.”
“Except, that when taken to its extreme, anything can be harmful,” said Twilight. “Look what happened when Luna refused to set the moon. What if Celestia did the same with the sun? A little order might be nice, but I have a feeling that, like Discord, she won’t stop at just a little.”
“Hey!” exclaimed Discord in indignation. “I heartily agree with that remark! I really can’t control myself.”
“So what are we waiting for,” said Dash, pounding her hooves together. “Let’s go stop this name thief and take our body back!”
Luna felt the last of the Element of Magic absorb into Twilight Dash’s body. There was nothing she could do to stop it. Her only chance now was to wrestle away control, or to make Harmony stop.
“You do not have to do this, Harmony,” said Luna. “We can find another way.”
“That isn’t my name,” growled Rainbow Sparkle. “And there is no other way.”
“We can help you, my sister and I,” said Luna. She could feel the body tense around her, Rainbow Sparkle was preparing to cast a spell. A teleport spell. No.
With all her focus, Luna reached out and interrupted the magic. The spell fizzled and died, sending a cascade of sparks trickling down.
“Get out of my head!” demanded Rainbow Sparkle, shaking her head back and forth as though to fling Luna from it..
“This is not your head!” answered Luna. “This isn’t your body. Stealing is not the way. Nor is fusing with another pony! You would be no better than Discord, taking what ever he wants from whom ever he wants!”
“I am nothing like Discord!” shouted Rainbow Sparkle. She tried to teleport again, but it was even less focused than the previous attempt. Luna easily blocked her once more. “He is a monster! A demon!”
“And how are you any better?” asked Luna calmly. “Look at what you are doing right now. Tormenting these two ponies, taking away what little they cling to. How are you not a monster?” Rainbow Sparkle did not answer.
“You take and take, but your have not tried the simplest of options,” continued Luna.
“And what… is that,” whispered Rainbow Sparkle. Luna could feel sadness, shame and guilt behind her words. The pony had lost control over her emotions once more, or was no longer trying to hold them back.
“You have not asked for help,” said Luna.
“From who?” retorted Rainbow Sparkle bitterly. Luna braced herself against the new wave of emotions. Terrible, seething anger and hate towards her and Discord, engulfed. “From you? Is that what you meant? My judge and jury, who stood and watched my own brother as he… he… No, you’re the monster here.”
Luna felt suddenly taken aback. All of Rainbow Sparkles emotions focused on her. It was like being under a blazingly bright spotlight. It felt like she was burning.
“You think you’re high and mighty, but you’ve done horrible things too,” said Rainbow Sparkle. “Some of them worse than anything I ever did. I can see your memories.”
Luna felt the other pony shifting through her thoughts, looking through her past. Awful moments replayed before her eyes. The sun worshiping village she had destroyed while it inhabitants had fled from her wrath. The nightmare ponies she had created to serve her during the time of her darkness. The children she had stolen away in the night when her sister had refused to hear her out.
Luna struggled to close her mind, to shut Harmony out.
“MY NAME IS RAINBOW SPARKLE!” shouted the pony. Luna was frozen, locked in by her own fear and sorrow. “You’re the last pony that would help me. You would just as soon send me back into exile as you would extend a helping hoof.
“There is no other way,” repeated Rainbow Sparkle, half to Luna, half to herself. “This is the only path you’ve left open to me. I have to do this.”
She turned her magic upwards. Her horn began to glow with rainbow colored light. The Element of Magic surged within her. With an earsplitting roar, her horn ignited and a hugely powerful whirlwind of magic blasted away the roof above. It pushed back the rain outside, and even the clouds.
With the Element of Magic, she was stronger than she had ever been before. Luna couldn’t stop her. Even Celestia would be powerless before her. With any luck though, she wouldn’t have to put that theory to the test. All she had to do was fuse one more time, than she would get as far away from Canterlot, from Equestria, as she could.
Rainbow Sparkle lifted her wings, preparing to fly.
“You think…” grunted Luna. The pony froze. “You think I will just let you do this? Do you really believe that if you complete your plan, I will just let you go? These ponies are my friends.” Rainbow Sparkle could feel something dark welling up within her, something that wasn’t hers, an evil without limit.
“Do you really think, I would allow you to continue to exist?” said her own voice speaking with foreign words. “You are an abomination that never should have been made. You are nothing! Not even a faded memory.
“But my power… my power is eternal. I am darkness. I am nightmares.”
“Luna… stop,” whimpered Rainbow Sparkle. She could feel an icy cold corruption flowing through her, bleeding out of the Element of Magic as Luna’s fear and anger set it against them. “Is this… is this what it did to you the last time? The dark power of an element misused?”
Luna did not answer. Rainbow Sparkle could no longer sense the other pony within her mind. Everywhere she looked, there was only terrible darkness reaching out for her.
Her own thoughts turned against her. She could feel what little sanity she had gathered slipping away. She wouldn’t stop at fusing with just one pony. She would fuse with everypony that defied her. She would be order. She would be darkness. She would be Nightmare Harmony.
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Well shit.
Fuck, fuck, fuck and a meat bicykle on the top of that. [call it poesy]
Now we have 2 destructve godesses melted into one. I can't recall any strong enought words to even start to describe how fucked the situation actually is. Because seriusly - what can you do when faceing 2 etheral wills of oppression inside your own mind? And I piss on Discord - he would dodge evrything but evrypony else can't do that. So... shit.
For some reason that sounds like something The Doctor would say about a certain race.... I can't remeber what they're called.
This is fun.
Well, things just went from bad to worse...far, far worse. Fighting Rainbow Sparkle might have been difficult under normal circumstance, but this new development is something even Discord might find worrisome.
C&Cs will be PM.
So... Nightmare Harmony then....
Now Luna's fucked, Twilight's fucked, heck even Discord is fucked!!!
I loved this chapter,especially Twilight's self-loathing part!!
Keep going, I love this!!
5517473
As always, thank you for the corrections. Changes made
yikes!
Weird thought: what would happen if Harmony fused with Discord?
5519832
Given they're pretty much total opposites (law/order vs chaos), probably something very messy, kinda like trying to mix FOOF with anything, since FOOF is pretty much the current definition of explosively reactive.
And like Sunset Shimmer discovered, trying to use a good magic artifact for evil results in bad things happening to you.
Dang, well that's not good.
Don't even know how to pronounce <agic
I think you mean Magic
Also HNNNNG , you cliff hanging soon if an ostrich.
5524239
Corrected, thank you
5524298
No problem, looking forward to the rest of the story
"Good news! I prevented Harmony from using the Element of Magic to fuse one pony with her by driving her mad with the need to fuse with every pony!"
"Luna, please never ever help anypony ever again."
img1.derpicdn.net/img/2014/8/18/702179/tall.png
Things just got from bad to worse. Somehow. Wow, way to topple expectations. This is gonna get a lot more interesting now!
5527409 not related to the story but I loved that comic strip...
5519832
divide by zero
or maybe perfect balance who knows
Small error in case it hasn't been noted yet...
From Discord just before they're about to leave fake-Celestia...
Shall give full opinions on chapters when with keyboard... Ha...
5571858
Corrected, thank you
Sweet Celestia............
Buck, this is bad.
sd.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/i/well-that-escalated-quickly-11.png
Oh boy... well that happened.
LOL
LOL
All hail the Nightmare.