Prologue: The Infernal Clanking
Clank…
Twilight Sparkle stirred in her sleep. Her mane found its way into her face as she rolled over in bed, a cold sweat overcoming her entire body. She subconsciously swiped her mane away and attempted to get comfortable, burying her nose in her pillow.
Clank… Clank…
In her dreams, she heard a light clanking sound. She’d had this dream before. She stood at the end of a dark hallway. Her horn lit up the darkness around her, and kept it from swallowing her whole, as it seemed to want to do every night she had this dream. A light breeze blew around her, ruffling her mane, almost seeming to push against her hind legs, willing her forward.
Clank… Clank… Clank…
She couldn’t stand it anymore. She had to figure out what that noise was. She let the wind push her as she began to gallop in the direction of the clanking. She galloped as hard as she could, her hooves pulling up dirt behind her, her breathing growing heavy and ragged. She ran, and ran, but yet the clanking never grew louder.
Clank… Clank…
In fact, it almost seemed to be growing quieter. Instead, she began to hear whispers. Whispers of her friends. She tried to run faster, but her legs refused to carry her.
Applejack was telling Twilight she was a liar…
Fluttershy told Twilight that she was always being mean to her…
Rainbow Dash told Twilight that she always abandoned Dash when Dash needed her most…
Rarity said Twilight was the most selfish mare she knew…
Pinkie was fed up with how Twilight never tried to be funny…
Twilight’s legs buckled out from under her, and she tripped and fell to her knees, hitting the side of her head on the cold dirt in front of her. Her vision grew blurry from the fall and she began to sob, leaving a small puddle in the dirt her head rested on. The rest of her body followed the head, giving up all hope of running, and fell into the dirt as well.
Clank…
And still the clanking continued. It was faint now. Twilight could barely hear it over her sobs. Did her friends really feel that way? After all they had been through? Had Twilight really not been good enough to hold them all together? Had Twilight really been so selfish as to take their gift of friendship and never give it back?
A shadow began to fall over Twilight’s shaking frame. It was the tall body of an alicorn. Twilight looked up at her through her blurred vision, barely seeing the figure creep over her.
“P-princess C-c-celestia…?” she managed to ask through her sobs. The white form smiled warmly. Twilight managed to reign in her tears for a moment, and smiled back at the alicorn as best as she could.
“My little pony…” the form said solemnly, “I’m sorry that I had to find you here. I’m sorry that I had to see you fail…” The white alicorn never stopped smiling as she said this, almost as if, she was happy Twilight had failed.
Twilight noticed this, and her eyes grew wide, as she grew frightful of her long time teacher. She attempted to stand, unsure of what was going to happen next. Surely Princess Celestia didn’t mean that… Twilight hadn’t failed at anything…
Princess Celestia lowered her horn, her smile growing wider, and her eyes taking on a bright white shine.
“Goodbye, apprentice,” was all she said, before a white bolt of lightning flew out of the tip of her horn, striking Twilight directly on the chest.
Twilight flew backwards down the mineshaft. She didn’t even have time to react. As she flew, the magical light on her horn faded, replaced instead by bright crackles of electricity that ran through her body. Twilight landed on her back, unsure of what exactly just happened. Did Princess Celestia, her beloved teacher, just attack her?
The electricity sent severe pains through Twilight’s entire body. It was meant to kill, and it was slowly but surely doing so.
The magical electricity did not fade from Twilight’s body and instead grew more powerful as it surged through her, the pain growing more and more unbearable with each second.
Twilight brought her head up to look at the figure that had struck her, and was now killing her, but it was gone. The Princess was gone. Her teacher had murdered her failed apprentice, and left Twilight here to die.
Twilight’s head fell back into the dirt, her strength completely sapped from the electrical surges. What had Twilight done to deserve this? Was it because of what her friends said to her? The darkness around her was suffocating. She lost all ability to think as another surge of pain flowed through her body. She couldn’t take anymore. Her body couldn’t take anymore. Twilight’s eyes began to close, never to open again…
CLANK! ... CLANK! ... CLANK!
Twilight sat bolt upright in bed, her mane flowing wildly about her neck. A cold sweat drenched her body, and caused her bangs to stick to her forehead.
“A dream… of course it was just a dream. A nightmare…” she told herself as she ran a hoof across her brow. Her friends still loved her. Her teacher hadn’t murdered her in cold blood. She wasn’t dying in a dark abandoned cave somewhere. Just a dream…
Clank...
Wait. Twilight’s ears perked up at the sound of that clank. That was the same noise as her dream.
Clank... Clank...
That couldn’t be right. It was just a dream. Her ears turned to attempt to pinpoint the direction the clanking was coming from, but it didn’t seem to have any set location. It was almost seeming to come from everywhere.
Twilight hopped out of bed. She walked downstairs to the library. Spike was still snoring away in his bed, clutching a gem they’d found one night while out with Rarity. Twilight was glad he didn’t have dreams like hers. Poor Spike would probably never get over them. But her assistant’s happy dreaming made Twilight smile, and she wished she could hug him and forget about the nightmare she just had.
Clank... Clank... Clank...
The clanking sounds were growing louder again, like in the dream. Spike didn’t stir when they went off, so it was possible Twilight was just hearing things. She made for the door to see if she could hear the noise better outside.
As she went to place a hoof on the door handle, the door flung open, revealing her five best friends standing at her door, all with grim looks on their faces.
“Girls? What are you doing here?” Twilight asked, a confused and startled look on her face.
“Oh Twilight! It’s horrible!” Pinkie exclaimed, bouncing into the library with her normal Pinkie flair. The other four ponies followed her in, shutting the door behind them, all forming a circle around Twilight.
Spike, hearing the door slam and Pinkie shouting, grumbled something in his sleep and rolled over, pulling his pillow over his head.
“There was this super duper scary horrifying angry monster beast who made really creepy clanking noises and tried to eat me!” Pinkie shouted enthusiastically as she bounced around the room.
“It was all a dream of course, but it still made me go...” Pinkie made a surprised expression and gasped before she continued on, “And I was all alone and then the monster beat me up and then at the end, YOU were there!” she said, pointing a hoof at Twilight.
“I thought you were going to save me but instead you just pointed your horn at me and blasted me with some kind of evil lightning and it hurt really bad and then I heard more of the clanking noise and I woke up and came to see you and when I got here everyone else was here too and ohmygosh it was just so scary!”
Pinkie breathed and finished her bouncing. She still looked like her normal happy self, but anyone who knew Pinkie well enough could tell she was freaked out a bit from the ordeal she experienced in her dream.
Sure enough, the ponies went around in the circle, sharing similar dream experiences. At the end of every single one of their dreams, it was Twilight, murdering them with some kind of evil lightning.
Twilight felt like she was on some sort of trial with her friends surrounding her like this. Like she had actually done those things in their dreams. Like these were just ghosts, accusing her.
Clank... Clank... Clank..
Everypony jumped as the clanks rang through the room, much louder this time. All of them looked around to see where it was coming from, but none of them could figure it out. They did all come to the conclusion that it was the same clanking in their dreams though.
After the clanking faded, the silence was deafening. Nopony seemed to want to talk. They all just stared at Twilight with accusing eyes. Like she was the cause of the clanking.
Finally, Applejack spoke up, her expression going from accusatory to comforting as she walked over to Twilight and put a hoof on her shoulder.
“Look, sugar cube,” she began, “Ahm sorry we’re treatin’ ya like this. But ya gotta understand. We all had the same dream, and it’s a lil’ bit frightenin’.”
“No, it’s fine, Applejack,” Twilight said as she looked down at the ground. “I had a similar dream...” Twilight explained her dream to her friends, and they all looked shocked when she described how they hated her.
“Twilight, we would never...”
“Why would you even dream such things, darling?”
“Come on, Twi, I know you got my back!”
Twilight smiled at the girls, and finished her story, telling them of Princess Celestia murdering her. Telling her she had failed. A tear escaped Twilight’s eye as she finished the story, never believing for one moment that her beloved teacher would do such things. Even if it was just a dream.
Applejack wiped the tear away as Twilight finished her story, and then all the girls closed in around Twilight and gave her a hug.
It was going to be ok, they assured each other. It was just a big coincidental nightmare. It was just a dream.
It was just a dream...
Clank... Clank... Clank... Clank... Clank...
Or was it?