True Harmony

by Saturni_Rose

Part 17: Sleep.

Sunset slept peacefully. On and on she slept, blissfully unaware of the world around here, even as the sun climbed higher and higher. Noon was fast approaching. But still she slumbered. In her dreams, there was a fuzzy, blurry facsimile of the real world, but only around well traveled places. Luna had told her that such areas had gained importance in a plethora of unconscious minds. But the rough idea of a town hewn from half remembrances quickly faded. There was green, and there was darkness. Even so, she refused to awaken. Not until this was done.

Luna appeared again, resplendent in her old armor. She turned herself about in the void of dark verdant, feeling the aura of her horn tugging this way and that. The minutes felt like hours. On and on it went. She thought if it weren’t for being able to keep track of her own limp body floating nearby, she’d forget which was up and begin rotating away, off into the empty nothing of forgotten random details of less tread ground.

When Luna appeared again, Sunset could have sworn she hadn’t seen her in days. She was curled in on herself, trying to keep her breathing leveled. She felt the hoof on her shoulder and nearly jolted.

“I did warn you this part would be difficult.” said Luna. Even as she shook, she pulled Sunset into her hold.

“Was that before or after you were done cuddling the griffin queen?” spat Sunset.

“Nothing untoward happened between us.” Luna said patiently. She knew Sunset didn’t mean her barbs to aim right for the throat. In the dream world with no dreams, and no faint shared memories, there was no frame of reference whatsoever, for either time or location. With neither to hold onto, an individual could all too quickly lose their grasp of the reality they were quickly leaving behind.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Sunset lurched forward, placing her chin across Luna’s shoulder. She didn’t care that this was far too familiar of a gesture, or that it wasn’t that far off what she’d just accused Luna of doing with foreign dignitaries; any comfort at all was of great relief.

“Hey now, it’s quite alright. If anything, you’re doing splendidly.” Luna rubbed her back and let her have that shoulder of hers as long as she needed. “In my time, I saw would be dream walkers falter after not half as long as you. You really are a paragon of patience.”

Sunset took a step back and fanned her face. “Okay, okay, I’m good. Lemme see, it’s… that way.”

Luna followed that direction, but looked back at her. “Are you alright? It’s okay if you aren’t, we can take a break.”

“I’m fine, I’m fine, I just needed a moment to collect myself.” She took a deep breath and held it until calm serenity seemed like the only expression she was capable of.

Dream walker magic had been her domain for so long, some small part of Luna nearly forgot what a risk it could be. Some of the first to try walking dreamless had gotten lost, stuck waiting until sleep at nightfall brought a trail of breadcrumb dreams for them to find their way. They’d tended to give up the magic entirely. “I’m serious, Sunset. I went through this exact sort of isolation during my exile. It is not for the faint of heart.” She pulled her closer in. “Do not push yourself on my account.”

Looking up into her eyes, Sunset felt as though she were truly seeing Luna for the first time. The sight of her was at once overwhelming and humbling. She grabbed the hooves holding her shoulders. “Trust me, Luna. I’m okay.” After some hesitation, she added: “If you could pop in a little more frequently, though, that would be great. I’ve been talking to myself to pass time, but I’ve run out of things to talk about. Also, we’re getting closer.”

Luna nodded. “Noted.”

Then Luna was gone. Sunset was alone again; asleep and lost in the dreamless land of dreams. All that she could focus on was her breathing, the spell, and following her body. So she did just that. On the cycle went, of numbing hours seemingly passing by, Luna coming back for her for the update, and repeat. It felt like days had gone by.

When Sunset started anxiously thinking she couldn’t take much more, ready to throw herself onto her knees and beg Luna for a break, she noticed something off. Looking about, the world was still little more than the blurring void of dark green shades and hues. Perhaps they were in a forest? But in the direction the detection spell pointed, it had grown darker still.

Slowly, but certainly, inevitably even, verdants gave way to black, black, and blacker still. Ahead was a zone of darker than the inkiest of stormy nights. And she was flying straight toward it. It would have been an excellent time for a stop, where Luna could appear and tell her it was nothing to worry about. But that didn’t happen. So she worried.

The shadow seemed to stretch outward, encroaching on more and more of her field of view. Sunset gulped hard, recalling the memories preceding her own brief, but highly unpleasant possession. On and on it spread. She found herself calling in vain: “Luna? Could you please get in here?”

She smacked her forehead. “What am I doing? She can’t hear me.” Then, a very scary thought occurred to her. Luna had said the shadow—Nightmare itself—could hear her while she was dream walking. Staring into the approaching abyss, the words fumbled right out of her. “Uh oh.”

A single line of white light screeched across the darkness. It spread up and down, thick threads of shadow ripping and snapping as it did so. A flood of white hot tears streamed forth from the underside to pool across the lack of a visible ground. The gaze was scalding and blinding, and a single high pitched giggle grated her ears.

The eye grinned and Pinkie said: “Peekaboo, I see you!”

That definitely wasn’t okay. Sunset looked about, panicking. Her body, of course. It was time to wake up. She beat her wings against the dreams and raced toward it even as the dark slowly encroached upon everything she could see. Mind rejoined body, a meeting of essence and corpus, and… Sunset promptly tumbled over Twilight’s shoulders, landing squarely in a bramble laden scrub brush.

For one thing, it was a great relief to her to feel again. And yet, for another, it hurt.

Shooting up and scraping off leaves and thorns, Sunset announced: “Something’s wrong—she saw me, she knows we’re here.”

Luna reached out and pulled her free. Sighing, she looked out ahead. “So much for the element of surprise.”

“This place though?” Twilight stared ahead through the clearing, horn meticulously removing every thorn Sunset missed. She chewed her bottom lip. “I thought you said you’d checked it.”

Sadly, she had indeed. It had been where she found a second note waiting for her. Luna sourly mused: “It would seem her sense of irony is very much intact.”

Turning about, Sunset took one look at the castle ruins that awaited them and groaned: “Oh. You have got to be kidding me.”

The Everfree castle grounds stretched out before them, the grand seat of the heavenly sisters from which to rule all Equestria, now and forever. But ‘now’ was ancient history. And ‘forever’ had fallen apart in a fraction of its declared span. The decrepit walls were barely standing yet as the trio slowly paced across the grounds to its gate. Luna paused by a great stone plinth in the courtyard, now markedly empty. She glanced toward the knocked in set of tall doors, around and beyond which were countless piles of rubble and broken bricks caked with mortar dust.

Twilight stood on pins and needles, pensive in pose and posture, frightful eyes swiveling about in her skull. “I told myself the next time I came back here it would be to document things.” Looking for leadership, she asked: “What’s next, Luna?”

The old helmet was heavy upon Luna’s head. Slowly, she also looked this way and that, desperate to catch any sign they were being watched. She knew they were, of course; a little confirmation would have made her feel less paranoid about it is all. “We stick to the plan. Sunset at my side with me as vanguard. You’re our rearguard and our way of retreat should we find ourselves caught out.”

Before Luna could take the first step to leading them into the fray, Sunset pushed in beside her. She shouted: “Watch out!”

A sunbeam of aqua energy erupted from her lowered horn, aimed for one of the few remaining ramparts. She hit something, center mass, and it ripped apart into several pieces. Her jaw dropped as different scattered pieces rained down into the courtyard with thunks and clattering crashes. “Oh, o-oh sun above…”

“Now hold on, Sunset.” Luna reached out with her magic and yanked the largest chunk across the courtyard. When she caught it, she turned it about in her hooves to reveal it to be an old helmet, brown and orange with rust. A fragment of log fell out of it. “It was just a trick.”

The three of them looked up at the looming castle wall as Pinkie’s giggling echoed on the air from somewhere within. “Aw, did somepony just think they killed me? How horrifying!”

Discarding the ruined helm, Luna stood tall. “I’m only going to ask you one last time to give this up, Pinkie. We don’t want to fight you.”

There came a pause. As though Pinkie actually had to ponder this—really weigh out her options. She didn’t really need to, of course; it was just for show. At long last, she called back: “Nah. Those two might not want to. They’re scared of me. But you?” She chuckled. “You know what I can do. And you want more. Don’t deny it.”

That was highly to Luna’s chagrin. She blushed and groaned. Turning to Twilight and Sunset, she said: “She’s trying to get under our skin. We, erm… have to ignore it.”

The other two watched her try and shake it off and march across the courtyard. They fell into step with her, taking up their assigned positions. Sunset moved her head left and right, while Twilight stole occasional peeks over her shoulder to make sure no danger was following them in. Luna’s hooves were heavy on the steps. She pushed over a pile of large stone bricks to move beyond the entry portal, and promptly began stifling her coughing fit from the dust.

“Mind your step, girls.” she told them before creeping in, legs and shoulders tense.

Together, they entered the ruin. The sun was quickly left behind for the dry darkness of long untouched, disheveled granite construction. They climbed in through the first antechamber, making for the foyer. Then, something lurched behind them. Just as Twilight looked back to see what it was, a massive ball of stone fell in front of the entrance, sending up a cloud. It gained momentum quickly, tearing through the dust.

“Hold me!” yelped Twilight as she hopped over toward Sunset.

Luna reached out, racing thoughts speeding through her eyes and mind. “Quickly, we need to—”

“No,” shouted Twilight, lurching forward with Sunset under her hoof, connecting her other to Luna’s outstretched leg, “hold onto me!”

Kzap!

The trio were gone from its path in a magenta flash, reappearing several paces back, in the spot where it landed just beyond the entrance’s precipice. From their now safer position, they watched its wobbly path careen into the foyer’s exitway into the main hall, and go spinning wildly off kilter in another shower of detritus. It was out of sight, somewhere to the left of the fragmented wall, by the time they heard another, final crash.

There they all stood, panting, holding onto each other tightly. It took some time for the moment to pass, Pinkie’s giggling echoing in the main hall beyond as they tried to calm down.

Shaking free of Twilight’s still tense grip, Sunset looked to Luna and balked: “Did you know she was capable of that?”

Luna was gawking up at the ceiling, gauging the mechanisms involved. They were rudimentary, the sort of thing one would rely on in a pinch. She’d overseen her fair share of siege preparations, attacking and defending. Looking back at Sunset, she answered her: “No. But it’s something I’m capable of. We’d best move cautiously.”

“Maybe we should split up?” offered Twilight. Her legs trembled like she was a fawn in search of its mother doe. “Any other traps of that nature won’t be able to catch all three of us at once that way.”

Again Luna’s own words echoed in her mind. She watched Twilight shake and shiver, wondering if the princess had ever seen any real danger, any conflict beyond sparring. She glanced back toward the main hall, lowering her voice to a hush. “No. She’ll be wanting that. Divide and conquer.”

They watched her raise her chin high and proud, and keep going. There wasn’t another word on the matter. So Sunset fell into position behind her, and waved for Twilight to do the same. The lavender princess hesitated. The only light ahead spilled in from entire missing sections of the roof and back wall of the main hall. But what else awaited in the long shadows cast by beam and pillar set her heart along a knife’s edge. Any moment, it could fall over. With as deep a breath as she could manage, she steeled herself and followed, being sure to check behind them periodically.

By the time the trio had gotten into the main hall, the remaining ceiling rising high above them, they found more figures waiting for them. There were armored wooden dummies strewn about the hall. They were especially dense where they lined the banisters looking over them from the second floor balconies and walkways. Everywhere they thought to look, yet more stood perfectly still, as unliving effigies often did, and stared towards the entryway they’d come through.

Beckoning them forward, Luna quietly called for a quick change in positioning. She placed them into a triangular formation. “She could easily be hiding among these things. Here, I’ll be at the fore. Sunset, you watch our left. And Twilight, the right.”

They huddled up, backs together, each staring in their given direction. Their steps were painfully slow and cautions, each of them wide and pensive in stance, ready to jump at a moment’s notice. It was entirely too quiet, all of Pinkie’s taunts and laughter seemingly having faded away. Yet on they went. On they—

“Movement!” pointed Twilight down a corridor, hopping one pace in that direction. “I saw something appear at the end and duck around the corner.”

“Wait, wait,” stammered Sunset, “I did too, down that way.”

Luna hesitated. She looked down Sunset’s corridor. There was nothing there she could see. Then she looked down Twilight’s. It was much the same. She chewed her lip in consternation and thought, peering around at the second floor above them to see if something else was going to fall on them as soon as they chose one over the other. “Hrm,” she pondered, “let’s go with… Twilight, you’re pretty observant. We’ll go your way first.”

The triangle spun about and started toward the corridor. As they approached the doorway, Twilight couldn’t help noticing an armored dummy facing towards them. Had it always been that way? She could have sworn all of them were pointed towards the main entrance. Must have been her nerves; paranoia, that was it.

It had only been about ten paces down that corridor before Luna felt the weight of her hoof sinking into the step. She hopped back with half a second to spare as the tiles fell away, cracking across sharpened wooden stakes in the waiting pit below. She let an equally sharp breath go. Looking back, she nodded up, and the three of them began flying down the rest of the hallway instead.

When they rounded the corner, they found the rest of this portion of the castle had already long caved in on itself. There was, however, another dummy posed by the rubble as though they’d been crushed under the collapsed, twig limb reaching out as though desperate to be pulled away to safety. They all let out a frustrated sigh and turned back the way they’d come.

Soon enough, they found things had changed in the main hall. While they were off investigating, every single dummy had been shifted to now face where this corridor poured out. It gave them pause enough. They fanned out a few paces from one another, hackles raised, and looked over their silent assailants as much as possible to try and find her in their midsts.

Luna blew a couple errant locks of powder blue aside. “A cheap tactic. Come, let’s see about the other hall.”

Down the far corridor they went. Toward its end, Luna called for a halt. She spotted a taut chord low to the floor. Following it, there was a catch holding a log among the rafters ready to swing down toward them. And once they were safely past that, they found nothing but jammed doors and empty rooms. The empty rooms were fine. The one at the end with more dummies staring at them had gotten on her nerves.

Once again, when they’d reemerged into the main hall, all the dummies were looking toward their new exit. Luna was growing sick of this place. There were too many bad memories. Something the Nightmare doubtless knew all too well. She stood tall, letting go of all the ready-to-pounce tension they’d all been holding, waltzing in past the encroaching effigies.

“Wait, Luna, c’mon. We just need to be patient.” Sunset could tell hers was running thin. She jogged up by her side, looking this way and that, still wary of an ambush at any moment. “Let’s take our time, maybe check upstairs.”

“And be toyed with for another two hours?” Luna wrenched her wretched gaze over her shoulder at the nearest dummy, its nasalguard protecting nothing, its gaze blank and empty. She threw herself sideways toward it, pivoting to crack her rear hoof into its lack of a mouth. The chunk of wood and rusted helmet went flying, and the entire body tumbled to the floor. One slain combatant down, she snorted, saying: “I think not.”

Twilight sidled up beside Sunset, the two of them facing opposite directions. They were still looking out, desperate to not get caught unaware. Twilight swallowed her nerves. “I think Sunset’s right, Luna.” She watched her tromp up to a trio of false guards, knocking one of them to the ground. “It’s like you said earlier, she’s trying to get under our skin. We can’t let her, right?”

Luna eyed the pair still standing before her, defiant. She reached out and knocked the branch legs out from under one and watched it collapse. It was almost halfway satisfying. But it would never hold up to the real thing. With a sigh, she turned about to go and rejoin them. “You are right again, Twilight. I simply wish to fight her and be done with it.”

“Careful what you wish for.”

The voice had been little more than a hushed whisper on the wind, tickling at Luna’s ear. It still caused her to jerk back around. There was nothing still but the dummy. Unless…

“What is it?” asked Sunset, stepping over toward her.

“Get back!” shouted Luna, whirling back to try and get the warning out in time.

She hadn’t. The illusory disguise of a dummy faded away as Pinkie vaulted up and over Luna’s shoulders mid shout, spinning through the air. Crack! The baseball bat fell apart in a shower of splinters from a single blow to Sunset’s jaw. The princess stumbled back once before all the light faded from her eyes, and she fell faint, limply hitting the ground with a thud.

“Sunset!” screeched Twilight. She took a step forward. Then stopped. Training told her this was the part she was to pounce at the monster. But instinct told her to keep her distance.

While the princess left standing hesitated, Pinkie sought the former princess. She threw herself at Luna, whose spell went astray into the far wall as she tackled her to the ground. Chuckling through two smiles, she ran the back of her hoof against Luna’s cheek and said: “Are you ready to take me seriously now, my dear?”

Before Luna could spit up a retort, a magenta starbeam caught Pinkie in the side, sending her tumbling across the floor, where she bowled over several more false warrior standees. Twilight rushed over and yanked Luna onto her feet. “O-okay, plan A failed, what now?”

Luna took half a second to think, glancing back at Sunset on the floor. She looked Twilight in the eyes and said: “Keep her safe. Nightmare’s trying to prove something to us, and I’m scared of what that might mean.”

Twilight’s jaw sank and her eyes went wide. She backed away slowly, gaze flipping between Luna and Sunset. “B-but I can help, I can—”

Bits of armor and wood flew into the air as Pinkie rose and screamed towards Luna. Twilight jumped back into position, to stand over Sunset. She watched Pinkie carefully, with great calculating eyes shaking in her skull. Every movement, every twitch, every tense of every muscle, Twilight gauged it all for turning her way, and her mind raced through an archive’s worth of spells she might use to stop her if she did.

Instead of heading in Twilight’s direction, Pinkie rushed Luna, howling with fury. Luna caught her lunge, partially with magic grips glowing from her horn, partially by rearing up and extending her hooves. Body and aura moved in tandem, throwing Pinkie face first into the tiles. Her mask cracked the old stones, her entire body lurching behind her, but even as she began to slump to one side, she threw her legs into it and rolled up onto her hooves, wings lashing behind her to try again.

Ducking and sweeping her horn, Luna let loose a lash of white flame. The flare caused Pinkie to recoil. Just long enough for Luna to dart under where she hovered. She hopped and rolled back with help from her wings, all of her hooves wrapping around the dazed Nightmare. As she continued her roll, she again drove Pinkie stoneward with a crash that set even Twilight’s teeth on edge two dozen paces back.

Up Luna rolled in an instant. She was tall, chin raised and glowring gaze passing over the bridge of her nose while Pinkie coughed and trembled. The back of her hoof ran against the chin of the smiling mask. “S-so you’re done holding back now, is that it?”

Luna lowered herself, widening her stance. “I can do this all day.”

“Good.” Pinkie hocked up a gob of spittle running red. “I love a gal with stamina.”

A fast barrage of silvery bolts let loose from Luna’s horn. Pinkie ducked one, side stepped the second, and threw herself into a tucked roll under the third. Along her haunch, she slid in just under Luna’s chin, where her rear hooves flew up before she could step back. It was a lucky thing she didn’t bite her tongue, but as she reared from the sting, Pinkie spun against her own shoulders, whirling her hooves around across her shins, sending the alicorn thudding across her side.

Rising and hopping back, Pinkie whirled one of her wings around. From within them, a shower of knives flew forth. Luna barely rolled out of the way as steely tips chipped away at the tiles she left behind, clattering across the ancient stonework. Luna pushed up and aimed a haphazard moonbeam at her. It was hardly meant to hit her, nor did it; she just needed to create a little breathing room to stand up. In dodging the shot, however, Pinkie ducked behind one of her dummies, and was seemingly gone.

Luna looked this way and that for half a second before she realized she’d faded into the shadows. The only problem was that entire half of the hall was in shadow. She spread her wings wide and rushed toward the princesses. Landing opposite Twilight’s vigil with a huff, she said: “Vigilance, Twilight. She aims to leap from the shadows.”

The two of them began to slowly circle around Sunset. It was deathly quiet, save for their own racing hearts and nervous breathing. Then a groan got their attention. Sunset sluggishly pushed up, then immediately felt at her jaw. “Ugh, ow!”

Twilight crouched by her side. “Stars above, Sunset.”

“Twilight,” snapped Luna, glancing down at her from across her shifting shoulder, “focus.”

“Right, right.” she said, hopping back up to look out for the monster.

Sunset sighed and started pushing up onto her hooves. She was dizzy, and certain the new bruise forming was pockmarked by splinters. Head spinning, she tried to spit out: “Sorry I let her get the jump on us.”

“The fault was my own.” Luna’s gaze jerked. She could have sworn something moved between the false warriors. She peered harder into the darkness beyond the reach of the flitting light. One tentative step brought her forward, away from the tiny patrol she and Twilight were creating. An errant shaft of light from a hole in the roof began to warm one side of her face when something arose from the other.

An aqua sunbeam reached out even as Luna startled, tearing into the figure. Loose armor went scattering across the floor and Sunset held her aching head from the effort. She cursed under her breath. “Can’t believe I fell for that again.”

Twilight pat her on the shoulder. “It’s okay, Sunset.”

Luna snorted, kicking aside a remaining greave. Glancing back, she said: “Thanks for getting it, either way.”

“She seems to move herself and things through shadow, so maybe we should shed a little light on things.” Sunset took a deep breath, centering herself. Luna and Twilight returned to her flanks while she uttered incantations. A sphere of burning aqua light rose above her horn and grew in both size and intensity. Bright and brighter, until it was white hot, setting the whole hall alight. The shadows shrank away, stretching then burning.

Pinkie stepped out from behind another dummy, shielding her eyes and frowning twice. Her scowl was a genuine one, having just lost her agility, but she tried to play it off. “Ugh, but I don’t want to come out and play today.”

With a nod from Luna, Twilight stepped forward with her. The two of them crossed their horns, then flared them aside. A volley of magic missiles loosed through the crackling air between them, each bolt a swirling mix of silvery blue and magenta.

Pinkie Pie was busy treating some of the dummies like her friends, asking them if they wanted to grab a bite to eat after this. Then she hurled one in her way, where it caught several of the bolts. Broken bits of armor and wood rained as she flew along, past another rank of faithful soldiers, each one ready, willing, and able to take a blow meant for her. And they did just that. When the last of the mixed bolts had found their way into felling her compatriots, she careened for the perpetrators.

“My turn.” said Sunset, interposing herself in front of Twilight. With a whirl of her horn, aural rings of aqua energy formed around her hooves. She reached out and slammed one against the tile.

Pinkie screeched to a halt as a large ring of light formed in her path, before a gout of seafoam fire shot up. She heard another stomp, and saw a new ring just beneath her. She whirled aside as another pillar of flame erupted. There came another stomp. She had to keep flying.

Sunset grunted with effort as she set pillar after pillar at her; the effort of concentrating on multiple spells at once was a toll for even the most trained of wizards. The increased capacity for magic that a wizened, supernatural body like hers had was a great boon.

Luna took off, steadily following the geysers of flame, watching as Pinkie weaved along. Lowering her navy horn, she summoned her aural lash. When Pinkie leapt left, just as she was hoping for, her chord of energy was ripping toward the spot. She lassoed her around the waist. But Pinkie took one look at it, then smiled at her. With one good roll of her hoof, Pinkie threw the slack back at Luna, wrapping the loosening link around her neck. “Uh oh.”

Pinkie wound toward her, spinning on the air, and Luna lurched forward too. When the two met in the middle, aqua ring appearing beneath them, Pinkie held one hoof out and asked: “May I? I dance a hot tango.”

Thinking quickly, Twilight gave Sunset a push. All her rings faded, and her miniature sun faltered, barely staying lit. She breathed a sigh of relief as the two, though entangled yet, were unscorched.

While they were still intertwined, Pinkie quietly asked Luna: “So which one do you care about more?”

Luna tried to balk at such a question, glancing at the princesses even as she let go of her last spell. The aural lash faded, the two parting. It wasn’t a fair question. She hoped there was no tiny movement of her eyes that gave Pinkie an idea of one over the other.

“Heh, got it.” said Pinkie smugly.

But of course. thought Luna. It had been a silly thing to hope. The Nightmare wanted anything it could grab onto and twist. She had to grab her first; she had to end this.

When Luna flew for her, Pinkie let herself fall out of the air, beating her wings out behind her before hitting the floor. She soared towards the princesses, hooves skidding tile.

“You’re low, I’m high.” said Twilight, sidling up beside Sunset. The pale orange princess nodded, and let loose a quick volley of aqua bolts. While she did, Twilight raised her head high, loosing several magenta ones.

Luna followed Pinkie’s path from above, watching her duck and weave between Sunset’s attacks right before Twilight’s missiles careened down toward her. One magenta bolt struck her between her shoulder blades as she avoided another aqua one. She spiraled past another, wings wrapped around her as they scraped the floor, another magenta bolt narrowly missing. Closer; she grew closer by the second. An aqua bolt glanced off her shoulder, a magenta one struck her mask, bursting off in a shower of magic sparks that flitted away like butterflies. She was closer yet, Luna then diving into a crash course to intercept her.

“Don’t worry,” Twilight quickly assured Sunset as she ceased her volley, “I’ve got this.”

“Wh—” began Sunset, right before Pinkie crashed into Twilight and Luna came down hard in the space Pinkie had just left behind, fragments of old stone tile rumbling out of place.

The pink and lavender figures went tumbling across the hall, Pinkie coming out on top, her wing unfolding to let a knife drop into her hooves. She raised it high, manic in expression, and brought it down with a shout: “Goodnight, princess!”

A magenta flash briefly replaced Twilight, and the knife sliced harmlessly through empty space beneath her. Before she could wonder where she’d gone, the same flash erupted behind her, Twilight’s rear hooves already pulled in and ready. The kick hammered the side of Pinkie’s mask as she turned toward the noise, clanging and sending her careening back.

She recovered, swiveling back onto her heels and coming up practically frothing at the mouth as she picked up into a trot. Twilight disappeared again as she reached out for her. The purple princess reappeared above her, throwing her whole body weight down into a slam. Pinkie bounced off the floor a few inches as Twilight blinked in underneath her, horn pointed, and fired a magenta beam that sent her skyward. When it faded, Pinkie began to fall, only to have Twilight appear next to her already somersaulting through the air with another kick across her masked face.

Pinkie beat her wings with a fury to steady out, mask frowning as she screeched: “Grr, hold still!”

“No.” denied Twilight, appearing above her. One flick of her horns lashed Pinkie’s wings mid flap. She vanished again, reappearing above the second floor balcony. The aural lash connecting them threaded between the railing as she flew hard, yanking her back first against the banister which cracked from the impact. As Pinkie fell again, Twilight appeared right on top of her, shoving her hoof in under her chin to drive her into the dirt herself.

The resulting crash cratered the tiles somewhat and sent a shower of debris into the air. Rising amid the settling dust, Twilight stood tall above the groaning figure gripping at the hoof keeping her down. And though she panted, sweat running hot across her brow, Twilight was unbelievably proud of herself. Her mind was tremendously sore from the rapid and interwoven spellcasting, but it seemed as though she’d done it.

“Twilight!” cheered Sunset as the two jogged toward her. “That was incredible!”

“Verily.” said Luna, seemingly awestruck.

Twilight then very, extremely foolishly took her eyes off Pinkie while Sunset let her sunlight spell fade, thinking also, incorrectly, the danger was over. The lavender alicorn sheepishly put her free hoof behind her neck and let herself smile warmly, despite the headache now growing beneath her brow. “Aw, shucks, you guys.”

Pinkie, meanwhile, still had ahold of the hoof pinned against her chest. Subtly as she could, she slid one up, and the other down, waiting for just the riiiiiiight moment, when the others would be a little closer. She coughed up: “You really shouldn’t have come here.”

“Hmm?” mused Twilight, looking back down at her prize, right before Pinkie kicked her rear hooves out from under her, then twisted across the floor still holding onto her foreleg. There came a loud snap that made her sick to her stomach. Only, she was too busy screaming to be ill.

Sunset lurched forward, panic forming across her face. The only thought on her mind was getting to Twilight, so no spells answered her scared, confused call. She tried to recoil as Pinkie rolled up and lunged toward her, her wings blocking out any nearby light. It was too late, though; she’d gotten too close. The world spun away from her as she was tackled and thrown across the way into a pillar.

A white flare of fire sailed from Luna’s horn, narrowly missing as Pinkie whirled, knife dropping anew from her wing. The second wave of lunar flame scorched across her mask; she was uncaring as she sputtered and lurched and—

Tsnk!

Luna’s eyes went wide as she stumbled forth into Pinkie’s hold. She couldn’t believe she’d just done that. Pinkie howled with laughter as the navy alicorn shuddered… for half a second before she realized something didn’t feel quite right. It didn’t hurt as much as it should have. Peeling away from her grip, she looked at the giggling mare, distraught and disturbed. “I-I don’t understand.”

“It’s a prop, silly!” To illustrate her point, Pinkie held the knife before her, its blade clean. When she pushed it and let go, the blade sank into the handle and sprang back. It was totally harmless. “Oh, the look on your face.”

Luna watched Pinkie play with it and giggle, utterly amused. One corner of her mouth perked up ever so slightly. Then the other. Sick as it was, she found she couldn’t quite help herself. A nervous laugh escaped her. Then another. “Heh… heheheh?”

“Hoo boy.” cooed Pinkie, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye, letting the prop knife fall to the ground. She watched Luna shake and tremble as the uncertainty of her own amusement uneased her. Then, a couple more daggers appeared, pinched in the claws of her wings. She wickedly told her: “These, however, are very real.”

Luna had no time to muse or ponder or wonder. There was sharp, burning pain in her sides. She coughed and sputtered, and the world suddenly felt much slower. It was also growing darker, but she felt strangely warm, as though a thick blanket were falling upon her weakening body. What harm then, she wondered, would there be in resting her eyes for but a moment? After all, wasn’t she tired? Didn’t she deserve to rest?

The light faded as muffled voices cried out. Their meaning was lost on her. Luna slept peacefully. On and on she slept, blissfully unaware of the world around here, even as the sun passed its zenith for the day.

---

Author's Note:

Don't hate me. I promise it gets better.

I mentioned before about having music going while I work. This week I put on a little medley of well known opera numbers. My favorites happen to be I Pagliacci, and Habanera, so naturally I went back to those. And it is only just now occurring to me how perfect and ironic it is I worked on this with those in my mind.

Comments

[DavisSentoV5]

Good God that whole fight was nothing but a freaking mind game, Nightmare Pinkie is just brutal