Nightmare at Canterlot High

by SuperBlackdeth666

The Debate

Later that night, at Sugarcube Corner, Sunset, Rainbow, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie, Rarity, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom tried hard to stay awake the whole night, desperately hoping to avoid the fate that would await them if they dozed off. Pinkie had eaten more sweets and diet soda than the other girls can count as they all watched Rainbow Dash's TV, which was showing the TV sitcom, I Love Filly.

"We'll be right back to I Love Filly after these messages," said the announcer before the commercial break.

Rainbow started to nod off. This was much later than what she was used to staying up.

"It's no use, girls," Sunset said dejectedly. "We can't keep staying up forever."

"Well, I can!" squealed Pinkie Pie. She gulped down a can of soda and let out a loud, long burp.

Applejack couldn't help but roll her eyes. "How she's able to keep this up is way beyond me."

Rarity, meanwhile, was having a difficult time bearing it all. "I know our lives depend on it and all that," she said, "but poor Sweetie Belle can barely hold her eyes open."

Sweetie Belle raised an eyebrow. "Um… Rarity? I'm actually doing okay."

"Seriously?" gasped Rarity in an overly dramatic way. "It's almost midnight and I can't get my beauty sleep! Somebody must do something!"

"There's only one thing we can do, Rarity," insisted Sunset. "One of us needs to go into our dreams and take out Discord, once and for all."

"Now, hold on there, Sunset!" protested Applejack, wrapping her arms protectively around Apple Bloom. "You ain't suggestin' we send mah little sister, Scootaloo, or Sweetie Belle into deadly dreamland for a gruesome, painful death, are ya?"

"Or Fluttershy?" added an equally worried Rainbow Dash. "She doesn't stand a chance against that psycho!"

Fluttershy shook with fear at the thought.

"Of course not," Sunset reassured them. "That's why I'm going."

Everyone else let out a collective gasp.

"Sunset, no!" cried Fluttershy.

"You can't be serious!" objected Rainbow.

"Don't throw yer life away just fer us, partner!" begged Applejack. "You might never go back home to Equestria!"

"I know," sighed Sunset. "Look, I don't want to lose any of you now—especially not this soon after you and Twilight Sparkle saved me from myself. I don't even care if Flash Sentry's hot for Twilight now—I won't let him get hurt again." Her resigned face switched to one of determination and courage, a face that might make Princess Celestia proud. "I know more about Discord than any of you do, having studied him when I was in Equestria. He may be unpredictable, but not unstoppable.

"If giving my life for all of you will make up for how I've screwed up in the past, then so be it."

After a moment of stunned silence, Rarity started to protest. "But you have so much to live for, darling! We've only just gotten to know you and we certainly don't want to lose you, either."

"Yeah, and you still need to pay your rent!" piped in Pinkie.

Sunset slapped a palm onto her face. "Ugh," she groaned. "Don't remind me, Pinkie Pie…"

"And you're still a bit hurt from that rake swipe," Rainbow noted, "unlike me. Not to brag or anything, but I'm much faster and more maneuverable than you are, and I do karate. Discord won't know what him 'im. If there's one thing I know, it's that no one hurts my little sisters and gets away with it!" she asserted heatedly, referring to Fluttershy and Scootaloo. "And I mean no one! That's why I should go!"

"Well, sure," Sunset conceded, "but who'll be there for them if Discord gets you? And who'll lead C.H.S.'s teams to victory, huh? Think about that."

Rainbow's mind ran blank, unable to conjure any counterpoints.

"Wait a minute," chipped in Rarity, "don't shut me out of this! Personally, I'd love to get my hands on that Discord after he messed up my perfect hair! Not to mention what he did to my little sister!" she added, referring to Sweetie Belle.

"Maybe so, Rarity," intoned Applejack, "but Sweetie Belle and yer cat Opal need ya. Remember? Ah can't imagine what'd happen if Discord got the best o' ya. Besides, he done destroyed mah hat and gave Apple Bloom and Big Macintosh a hard time. Ah could go fer some good ol' fashioned payback myself, ya know!"

"See, that's the thing about revenge, Applejack," Sunset pointed out. "It clouds your judgment and your thinking. Don't you realize that the Apple Family needs you? What'll happen if you die? Who'll take care of Apple Bloom? Or wake Granny Smith up when she oversleeps?"

"And what if Big Mac and Fluttershy get married?" Pinkie broke in.

"Pinkie!" Fluttershy snapped as everyone stared her down. Her cheeks were as red as roses.

"Uh... sorry, Fluttershy," smiled Pinkie, embarrassed. "Just thought I'd bring it up, that's all. Anyway, maybe I should go! Besides, anything Discord does to me is worth dying for! More floor buffers means more sparkly outlooks, and more chaos means more chocolate rain and cotton candy clouds!" She finished her sentence with a long squeal of excitement.

"What are you, nuts?!" Sunset snapped. "I'm pretty sure Discord wouldn't be as 'stimulating' with you the next time around. And with how crazy you are, you could end up killing each other, for goodness' sake!" She paused for a bit, her mood starting to change to one of sincerity. "And without you... who'll cheer us all up when we're down, or show everyone else at school the meaning of laughter?"

The only word Pinkie could say to that was, "Shrug."

From this point, the civilized debate degenerated into a quagmire of cross-talk, with each party trying to make a valid point over why they should go, only to be stunned into submission by another counter-point. No one was winning any debate. It was like a courtroom drama.

As this cycle went on, with seemingly no end, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle looked on, unimpressed.

"Is this their idea of keepin' us awake?" asked Apple Bloom.

Scootaloo shrugged. "Well, it's working so far."

"Ugh!" moaned Sweetie Belle. "I can't take this anymore! Hey, Pinkie Pie! You know where I can find some string and scissors?"

Somehow managing to hear her over the bickering, Pinkie poked up her head. "In the kitchen, center-most cabinet, left-most bottom drawer," she directed. "You can't miss it!" And with one last squeal, she returned to the squabbling.

"Uh, thanks," Sweetie Belle answered nonchalantly as she headed to the kitchen.

That was when Fluttershy took notice. She sneaked out of the argument and followed Sweetie Belle into the kitchen, unable to let her concern stay contained.

"Um... what do you have in mind, Sweetie Belle?"

"If my idea doesn't stop their arguing and let us all go to bed," Sweetie Belle responded flatly, "nothing will."

Two minutes later, Fluttershy and Sweetie Belle, with the latter holding a pair of black strings in her hand, returned to the dining room, with everyone still arguing as impolitely as they had been.

"Um... girls?" Fluttershy said weakly.

But there was no response; Fluttershy's best friends just kept on arguing.

"Try speaking louder," suggested Sweetie Belle.

"Oh, uh, okay. Excuse me? Girls?" she asked again, but to no avail. Her voice, no matter how louder the pitch, was still pretty feeble. She hung her head in defeat.

Sweetie Belle, frustrated, took a deep breath and yelled out in a loud, cracking voice, "WILL YOU ALL JUST SHUT UP ALREADY?!"

Needlessly to say, this yelled statement startled everyone, causing them to jump and turn to face Sweetie Belle, effectively ending the argument. "Thank you," she smiled innocently.

"Sweetie Belle," said Rarity, mildly annoyed, "would you at least give us a warning before shouting out like that? It's simply not ladylike."

"Sorry, Rarity, I kinda lost it for a second," uttered Sweetie Belle, sheepishly. She made a little cough before getting down to business. "Anyway, if you all want to go into dreamland and spare the other from a grisly fate, why not simply draw a string?" She held out every single string in her hand. "I cut it into five pieces. Whoever gets the shortest string wins."

This idea suddenly garnered heaps of praise from almost everyone. Sunset just looked from girl to girl, absolutely astounded by their reactions.

"That's superdy duperdy splenderific!" gasped Pinkie.

"I... suppose that could work," Fluttershy spoke, unable to find any other ideas.

"Totally!" affirmed Rainbow.

"That's brilliant, Sweetie Belle!" commended Apple Bloom.

"We always said you were the genius of the group," smiled Scootaloo.

Sweetie Belle beamed. "Dad always said I had talent."

"Why, what a fascinating idea, Sweetie Belle!" Rarity proclaimed as she pinched Sweetie Belle's cheek with affection. "I don't know what I'd do without you!"

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom barely held in their laughter as Sweetie Belle blushed.

"I think we should give this a try," proposed Rarity. "What do you say?"

"Well, darn tootin'!" proclaimed Applejack. "Count me in!"

"Me too!" agreed Rainbow.

"Me three!" squealed Pinkie Pie.

Sunset hesitated momentarily, still unsure. But she finally decided, "I don't see why not. Alright, let's do it!"

With Apple Bloom and Scootaloo watching in anticipation, and Fluttershy shivering in fear behind them, Sweetie Belle placed her hand down on the table in front of everyone. Pinkie, Sunset, Applejack, Rainbow, and Rarity each pulled a string from her hand. They carefully eyed the little threads, comparing their separate lengths.

After several seconds, Pinkie was the first to back down. "Oh, bummer!" she groaned. "I got the longest string."

Everyone around her breathed a sigh of relief.

"What's so good about that?" she sulked. "I'll never get the chance to show Discord my party know-how! That's no fun!"

"Movin' on," Rainbow muttered.

Rarity had just finished assessing the length of Applejack's string. "Well, Applejack," she said, I can safely say that you have the second-to-last longest strong! You won't need to face Discord, after all!"

"Land sakes, Rarity!" Applejack replied, returning the feeling. "Yer string's a little shorter than mine! Way to go!"

As Rarity and Applejack high-fived, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom rushed up to them and hugged them, happy that they wouldn't have to run the risk of losing their big sisters.

Sunset and Rainbow then exchanged nervous glances with the other girls, knowing that it would be one of them who had to face Groundskeeper Discord. They laid their strings on the table next to each other vertically and Sunset took out a ruler to measure Rainbow's filament.

It only took one-and-a-half seconds to come up with a result.

"Alright, Rainbow Dash, your string is just five inches and seven centimeters long."

"How'd you get that done so quickly?" asked an astonished Rainbow.

"I used to study under a Princess. Remember?"

Without bothering to look at Rainbow as she spoke, Sunset proceeded to measure her own string.

Egghead, thought Rainbow derisively.

Suddenly, Sunset stopped dead. Her eyes widened in shock. She stared at her string before switching to Rainbow's and back again.

"Wait, this can't be right!"

"What? What is it, Sunset?" asked a worried-looking Fluttershy.

"Don't keep us in suspense!" Rainbow Dash insisted. "How long's your string?!"

Leaning back on her seat, Sunset turned to gaze at Rainbow Dash, and she replied morbidly, "Five inches and... seven centimeters."

At that instant, the room was suddenly filled by the eerie sound of a pipe organ. For a second, the shock of the girls' predicament kept them from noticing. But then, they turned to look at Rainbow's TV, which was showing an old black-and-white movie. The current scene depicted a man wearing a black cloak and a face mask playing the very organ the girls were hearing.

Rainbow quickly turned off the TV. "Man, I hate opera!" she complained.

A distraught Sweetie Belle banged her fists on the table. "Oh, why didn't I check the strings before I had them drawn?!"

"Don't you fret, darling," Rarity smiled, placing a hand on Sweetie Belle's shoulder. "You just haven't learned algebra yet."

"Yeah, well, I'm pretty slow at math myself," admitted Pinkie, grinning with a little "squee" in the background.

Rainbow, unable to think of any alternative, turned to her friend with the red and yellow hair. "Looks like it's you and me, Sunset," she stated.

Sunset suddenly became genuinely scared—scared for Rainbow's life, scared of how mangled she may end up at the hands of Groundskeeper Discord. "Rainbow Dash, please," she implored. "I don't want to see you end up like Trixie!"

"You won't," promised Rainbow, holding Sunset's hand. Then, her face turned downright serious before she showed her loyalty. "And don't try to talk me out of it. No way am I gonna let one of my best friends face Discord alone. We'll stand a better chance if we just work together: two of us against one of him."

Slowly, but surely, Sunset became convinced. "Come to think of it," she thought aloud, "I've heard of the old saying, 'divide and conquer.'"

"Now you're talking!" exclaimed Rainbow Dash as she gave Sunset a hearty slap on the back. "Let's go kick some Groundskeeper tail!"

"TEAM SPIRIT!" Pinkie Pie cried out as she held up a pair of cheerleaders' pom-poms, looking to join in the moment.

Without acknowledging Pinkie, Sunset rubbed her back and turned to the others. "Girls, we need you to stay awake. If it looks like we're in any trouble, just wake us up."

"Y'all got it, sugar cube!" promised Applejack.

"You can count on us!" affirmed Rarity.

"Uh-huh!" answered Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle, nodding.

Fluttershy, being the nervous wreck that she always was, timidly asked Rainbow, "Promise you won't be grouchy?"

"Aw, no sweat, Fluttershy," assured Rainbow as she pulled her closet childhood friend in for a gentle hug. "I'm not gonna get crabby... as long as nobody's gonna be using megaphones."

With this statement, everyone turned to look at Pinkie. In her hand was a megaphone that she had planned on using to wake Rainbow and Sunset up, if the need ever arose. She just started at the other girls blankly for a few seconds before she realized what they were referring to.

"Um... what megaphone?" she smiled awkwardly as she threw the megaphone back over her shoulder.

With that out of the way, Sunset looked at her circle of friend with a warm grin, her eyes beginning to well up. "Thanks, girls. You're the best." She and Rainbow were then smudged by an artillery of hugs from one friend to the next, each of them wishing them will, knowing that this may very well end up being the last they ever saw of them.

"Good luck out there in dreamland," Applejack said, "Y'all gonna need it."

Sunset gave a little frown, unconvinced. "Uh, I think we're gonna need a lot more than just luck, A.J. But thanks, anyway."

"Are you sure you don't want me to use my megaphone, Dashie?" asked Pinkie.

Rainbow Dash said nothing. She simply shot the pink party girl down with an angry, cold-hearted stare that did all of her talking for her in this instance.

"Okay, just checking," shrugged Pinkie.

"Ready, Rainbow?" asked Sunset.

"You got it, Sunset!" replied Rainbow Dash, giving her own personal thumbs up.

Ready to march into battle, the two girls yawned, stretched their arms, sat back down in their seats and rested their heads on the tables—but not before Rarity slipped a pillow for each of them to lay their noggins on.

Sweetie Belle, Pinkie, Scootaloo, Fluttershy, and the Apple sisters looked at Rarity with raised eyebrows.

"What?" Rarity asked incredulously as Rainbow and Sunset drifted off to sleep. "You didn't expect me to let them sleep on the cold, hard table, did you?"

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

Why does chapter four have no words in it?

[SuperBlackdeth666]

5199027 Because I keep forgetting that my computer isn't fully compatible with this site, and that I have to work extra hard to get the stuff on properly.

Whatever, I got the words on.

[DarthWill3]

I Love Filly... Catchy. Kinda like I Love Lucy, if I'm not mistaken:

Pinkie just can't stop, can she?

Sunset sure is acting brave, considerate, and selfless. That's a big improvement.

Sweetie Belle, you cute little genius, you:
img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140325000656/mlp/images/0/0e/Sweetie_Belle_blushing_S4E19.png

I think I see some Phantom of the Opera in that last movie... Great book and musical!

Rainbow Dash and Sunset Shimmer vs. Groundskeeper Discord. Place your bets! Who will win?

Rarity never ceases to be generous, huh?