REM sleep
A monitor hummed in the background. Rainbow Dash did a push up on the basement floor. Twilight Sparkle tightened a bolt on her device. The clock read 11:27 p.m. Neither of them had slept in days.
“…125.” Rainbow said to herself, coming to a rest after her set. Breathing, she looked to Twilight working feverishly on her device. A helmet, she claimed, that would be the solution to saving them.
“How’s it coming, Twi?” Rainbow Dash asked between breaths. When Twilight didn’t respond, Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened as she noticed Twilight’s body was beginning to sag on the work table.
“Twi!” Rainbow Dash screamed, jumping to her feet.
Twilight jolted from her seat. Dazed for a moment, before looking down at her work, and remembering their situation.
“Sorry! I’m,” Twilight apologized, reaching for the coffee cup and downed it all in one gulp. “Sorry.”
It had been over a week since the nightmares begun. Nightmares that at first, would leave the dreamer waking up with cuts and bruises. Injuries, they had obtained in their dreams.
“It’s okay,” Rainbow Dash chuckled nervously. Having stood up to stand behind her tired friend. “We’re going to be fine.”
Twilight lowered her head. “Yeah… Of course.”
Rainbow Dash bit her lip and rubbed the bandage on her arm.
At first, the nightmare would only injure and keep you awake, until, eventually, you died. Never from the injuries themselves, but from either a heart attack or stroke. Even through the bloody remains that had been that had been their friend Pinkie Pie, it hadn’t been the blood loss that killed her.
“Hey, I believe in you.” Rainbow Dash said, sitting down in an adjacent chair within Twilight’s laboratory. Or rather her basement , turned lab, now turned shelter. As if the ground would offer some kind of protection from whatever was hunting them. Little good it did Applejack and Rarity.
“Sure.” Twilight mouthed, getting back to work.
At first, it was only Twilight and her friends who had been infected. Then, just before Fluttershy’s death, their close acquaintances started to have the nightmares as well. However, curiously, it was only the ones who had direct contact with magic that seemed cursed. Friends such as Wallflower, Vinyl, the Shadowbolts, Juniper, Glorios, and then it moved to anyone any of them had been close too as well. Each of below the age of nineteen.
Rainbow Dash let out a sigh. “Twi, don’t.”
Twilight narrowed her eyes. “Don’t-“ she started to ask.
“Don’t blame yourself.” Rainbow cut off. “You at least gave Rarity and Applejack a fighting chance.”
“More than I gave,” she tightened in another screw. Wanting to forget about how Sunset had first suggested there was more to the nightmares….
*****
Three nights earlier, Sunset's apartment.
“Groundhogs?” Sunset said with her arms crossed, baggy eyes squinting at the monitor.
“Ground squirrels actually,” Twilight let out a yawn and pointed at the computer. “Foreign animals on routine quarantine before being put on display. They had to use the animal shelter because the zoo's own quarantine quarters were undergoing repairs? Five of them die from seizures, one of which in Fluttershy’s arms just a day before this all began, and you don’t think that’s odd?”
Sunset rubbed at her face. “Well, putting aside how that sounds, it doesn't account for the fact that we are the only ones affected.”
Twilight's fingers tapped at her phone, causing the screen to light up with a new post.
Timber:
Gloriosas dead. I’m startling to have nightmares just like she did and waking up with cuts and bruises on my legs. What’s happening to me?!
“Working on that.” Twilight admitted. “But you don’t just fill in the blanks with ‘magic’ because you want answers.”
“Yet you think sick chipmunks cause nightmares that kill you?” Sunset protested with a bit more ire than she intended.
Twilight adjusted her glasses to Sunset. “Well then, please tell me what kind of magic is causing this and how we keep our friends from dying.”
“That's not fair!” Sunset snapped. “It’s not like I don’t want answers too!”
The girls stared down one another.
“Sorry.” Sunset shook her head and pushed her own book on dreams and magic aside. “Why don’t we take a break?”
Twilight turned her head back to the computer.
“I’m going to make a fresh brew.” Sunset said as she picked up the empty coffee pot. “Do you want anything else?”
“No.” Twilight said softly.
“Okay.” Sunset leaned over and gave Twilight a peck on the cheek. When Twilight didn’t return the affection, she took the hint and made her way to the kitchen.
Once Sunset left, Twilight put her hands on her head to stare at the mess they’d printed on the wall before her. The mass of papers covering every square inch of it. From the news article on Pinkie’s death, to various sleeping disorders, animal shelter reports, and nightmare analogy charts. Yet, neither of them had gotten anywhere on explaining what was happening. Supernatural or otherwise.
Suddenly, there was a loud crash from the kitchen that made Twilight jump. Then, upon remembering that Sunset had departed to the kitchen, her heart dropped like a stone.
“Sunset?” Twilight called out.
There was no response.
“Sun-“
Twilight leapt out of her seat, at the sound of an ear-piercing scream, making haste towards the kitchen
“Sunset!”
When she got to the kitchen, she saw that the coffee pot had fallen to the floor and shattered. Laying on the counter, was a sleeping and spasming Sunset Shimmer, her face twisting in pain as blood leaked out of her ears.
“SUNSET!” Twilight cried. The glass on the floor sliced into her bare feet as she raced to her friend's side. “Wake up! Wake up, Sunny! Wake up!!”
She never did.
****
Rainbow Dash looked away and eyed her rubber ball. “Have I ever told you about my 7th grade track meet?”
Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Is it a, 'learning from your failures,' story?” She fought back her sarcasm. “Sorry. No, I don’t think you have.”
Rainbow Dash smiled and started to bounce the ball again. Telling her story while Twilight analyzed the data collected from Rarity and Applejack.
“It was the three-hundred meter hurdles. I got careless with my state ribbon in sight.” She bounced the ball off the wall. “So I tripped and sprained my ankle really badly. Nothing that needed hospitalization, but it was the end of that year.” She smiled half heartedly. “But instead of giving up, I got better, and went to state in almost every sport the next year.”
Twilight gave a small smile of her own. “So the moral of this story is I shouldn’t give up even when things get bad?”
Rainbow Dash shrugged. “If that’s what you want to take away from it. I just thought you should hear an awesome story of mine.”
A part of Twilight wanted to be annoyed. Instead, maybe it was from the lack of sleep, or the idea that Rainbow Dash was all she had left, but she smiled at that. Which in turn caused Rainbow Dash to smile and laugh as well. It was a happy moment all too soon ruined, as she turned her attention back to the silver helmet in her hands.
After Sunset's death, cause and explanations were no longer important. If they went without sleep for much longer, knowing if magic was involved or not would be meaningless. Her focus instead had been on figuring out how to prevent her remaining friends from dying. The result was the basement they now sat in. Lined wall-to-wall with monitors and other medical supplies with a single bed in the center to deal with the natural symptoms.
In her hand, Twilight held the helmet she had worked on six sleepless nights worth of stress to deal with any outside magical influences. The idea being to try anything and everything until something allowed them to sleep. After that, they could work backwards to figure out what had saved them until she found the cause. Six sleepless nights, five of her best friends' deaths, and all she had to show for it was little more than a tin-foil helmet with wires sticking out of it.
Another hour passed. Rainbow and Twilight shared funny stories about their lives in an attempt to try and stay awake. After Twilight had told Rainbow Dash about the time she spilled hot tea onto her brother's pants, Rainbow asked,
“I’ve heard of hot guys, but geez.” She laughed at her own joke then motioned to the helmet. “How’s that looking? About ready to go?”
Twilight fidgeted. “Oh, um, it’s…
Rainbow grunted. “Twi, I know that look.”
Twilight blushed. “You do?”
“Yeah. You think it’s ready to go again and you are just trying to put it off.”
Twilight rubbed at her face. “Well, not so much that, as… Fine. There's nothing else I could do besides add another foot of tin foil and silver to it,” she groaned and lifted the helmet towards her head.
Rainbow objected.. “Whoa! Whoa! What are you doing?!”
“What, I- No!” Twilight protested. “No! No discussion! I’m not going to put any more lives on the line!”
Rainbow Dash held tightly onto Twilight’s wrist. “Twi, be reasonable. You need to be the one to observe what’s going on.”
“No, no, no! I can’t lose you too!” Twilight let go of the helmet and started to hyperventilate. “I can’t! I won’t! I will not…
Rainbow set the helmet to the side and brought her friend in for a hug. They remain like that for several minutes. Twilight cried her eyes out, as Rainbow held on. The silver helmet left to the side.
“Come on,” Rainbow offered, wiping away a tear. “Don’t cry. I hate it when you cry.”
Twilight looked away and smiled.
“It will be okay.” Rainbow assured. “I-“ she pulled back and paused.
Twilight looked up inquisedly. “You…
Rainbow started to blush. “I… I’ll tell you when I wake up. Something to look forward to, okay?
It wasn’t enough to assure Twilight nevertheless, “Okay.” Twilight nodded. “Still, you sure about this?”
Rainbow let out a yawn. “You better believe it, Sparky.”
With that, Twilight began to attach the ECD wires to Rainbow, causing a brief moment of awkwardness as Twilight attached one to Rainbow’s chest.
“So!” Rainbow spoke to break the awkward silence as Twilight handed her a glass of liquids and some pills. “What kind of cocktail you got for me?”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Pretty much the same as before: Mostly pills used on PTSD victims. Plus seven different kinds of herbal teas and every safe kind of vitamin and mineral I could condense into a single glass.”
Rainbow took a breath. “I see you took out some of the previous medication from last time and replaced it. Shouldn’t we use them too?”
Twilight shuddered. “Aside from the fact mixing drugs can kill you just as easily? No. If it’s a natural cause, then those other pills were clearly not the answer.”
“Right. Down the hatch then.” With a smile, she swallowed the pills and gulped down the brown liquid. “Bah! Although this may be just as likely to kill me.”
Twilight didn’t laugh at that.
Rainbow frowned as the helmet was placed on her head, laying down on the bed. “If I wasn’t so tired,” she groaned as the foil inside the helmet scratched at her skin. “I’d have some serious complaints about comfort right now.”
To that, Twilight giggled. “I’ll be sure to take note of your complaints when you wake up.” Her smile vanished.
“I will.” Rainbow said, reaching out to take Twilight's hand. “But, Twi, you have to live. Even if I die, you have to survive. You’re the only hope every other teen in Canterlot has.”
Twilight could feel the tight nervous grip in return. “No. You’ll be okay. This will work.” She said, halfheartedly. Then again, there was no reason why things couldn’t work out. Only the next few hours would tell.
She continued to stroke her friend’s hand until it went limp and turned on the heart monitor. The lab filled now with the sound of loud snoring and beeping.
Twilight let out a breath, pulled the silver blanket over her friend, and turned on her camera.
“Day five— No! Um… Six. 12:37 a.m. Just Rainbow and myself left.” She smiled warmly at her snoring friend before looking back to the camera.
“This time, along with an extra layer of tin foil, I’m trying more aspirin-like medication in place of some of the sleeping ones. Also a few pills for ADHD I felt were safe to add. See my notes for the names.” She rubbed at her head and laughed. “Yeah. Who knew tin foil made for a good magical insulator? Silver works better, but I’ve already used up all my college savings on what I’ve got now. Guess the pastafarians were right all along.”
She adjusted her glasses. “I’m also sure that if Dash wasn’t in stage three of NREM sleep right now, she’d swat me across the head for overusing that one. But, yes. A lack of sleep has caused miss Dash to immediately drop into stage three of NREM sleep, and will likely enter REM sleep within a couple of minutes. That’s where the real test begins. Along with the aluminum blanket and additional layers of foil to the helmet, I have also applied a magical barrier to the room. But, as a fail safe,” she fidgeted with her fingers and held out a button, “I’ve rigged the helmet to deliver a mild, yet very painful shock, to activate at the first sign of trouble. When you wake up, I’m sorry about not telling you that, Dash.” She clenched her fist. “But I can’t lose you.”
*****
“Day six,” Twilight said, calmly. “1:33 a.m. Rainbow Dash has been in REM sleep for twenty-five minutes. Thus beating Applejack's... Record.” she shuddered. “For lack of a better term, without any signs of distress. It’s too early to be excited, but—
A sudden explosion of loud beeps erupted from the monitor.
Twilight jumped and reached for her remote, but paused when the heart monitor returned to normal. She remained like that, hands on the button, ready to zap her friend awake at the next loud beep. When nothing happened, she slumped back into her chair.
*****
“1:55 a.m. Forty-seven minutes of REM sleeping. Aside from that little scare, likely by natural or technical causes, no signs of distress.” She breathed. “This could work. That said, something’s been bothering me.”
Twilight ran a hand on her chin. “Well, I mean, what’s ‘not’ to be bothered by all of this? That’s not it. It has more to do with a theory I had about how the magic we’ve been exposed to might have weakened our natural immune system. Explaining how, after us, only our friends more directly exposed to magic died first. The problem with that theory is, if true, then we all would have died last flu season. Plus, it doesn't explain why no adults seem to be affected.”
Twilight leaned back against her chair. “I put the thought on hold for a while, but before Rarity… I asked myself, what if it wasn’t a whole lot? Like, just a little. Or maybe more aken to being more vulnerable? Sounds silly to think it would be enough to affect us now rather than before. It also doesn't account for the nightmares, or how they can injure you, and that it’s a heart attack or stroke that kills you. Viruses don’t work that way, and you’d think if it was magical it would be more un—
There was another loud beep. Singular this time. Instead of jumping, Twilight simply held her finger over the button and remote towards Rainbow. When she lowered her arm, she sighed and replaced the remote with her coffee mug.
“That aside, maybe it has more to do with how nothing about this makes sense. Also... Okay! Maybe it is just my guilt talking.
She placed a hand on her head. “Yeah, I know; not my fault and I’m doing everything I can.” Her left thumb began to rub along the mug. “Before Rainbow went to sleep, she told me that if something happened to her, that I needed to live. That I needed to carry on. That I would be everyone’s last hope.” She added quietly, “Assuming there’s anyone left.” She looked down at the mug. “I’m very tired, and I’ve lost just about everything that, not even a year ago, I wouldn't have thought to be important.” She took the mug with both hands and gripped it tightly. “If this doesn't work, maybe I’ll just—
There was another loud longer beep. This time, Twilight sprang to her feet. The mug falling to the floor where it shattered. Holding out the remote towards her friend as if it was some kind of weapon. She made her way slowly over to Rainbow. When nothing else happened, she lowered the remote and began to run every kind of test she could think of. Even then, she hardly breathed.
“2:19 a.m.” She told the camera once she was done. “All clear. While my fears are justified, I need to relax. Still, maybe I should just wake her up. Play it safe. Ask her if anything happened in relation to these random heart spikes. An hour of REM sleep is more than successful given the circumstances.” She rubbed her chin. “Although if nothing is wrong, and I wake her up for nothing, then she would—
The loud beeping returned. This time, it didn’t stop. The room became to illuminated with the flashing red warning lights as Rainbow Dash’s body started to convulsed violently on the bed.
Twilight slammed her fingers onto the remote’s button with all her might, the helmet lighting up as the shock that should have woken Rainbow Dash
did nothing. Dropping the remote, Twilight raced towards the bedside, ripped the helmet off, not caring about the shock she received or any lost data from doing so.
“DASH, WAKE UP!” she cried out, slapping her friend across the face.
Rainbow Dash continued to spasm as her eyes remained firmly shut while blood started to run out from her nose. Then, signaled by one final loud beep, her body tensed, then dropped onto the bed, the monitor flat lining as it did so.
“No…” Twilight grabbed for the EMP chargers. Not waiting for them to charge, she slammed them into Rainbow Dash’s chest. Her friend’s body twitched from the electricity. There was a beep, and then the flatline continued.
“No…. No! NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!!!!!” She zapped Rainbow’s chest again. The monitor beeped but continued to flatline.
This pattern repeated for several more minutes. A zap, a beep, flatline. Until at last, the battery to the EMP ran dry. Even as smoke started to rise from Rainbow Dash’s chest, Twilight threw the useless device to the ground and began to perform CPR for the next half hour. When that didn’t work, over the irritating flatline, she slammed her fist through the machine.
Silence filled the room, until Twilight took her bloodied hand and started to smack Rainbow Dash across the face.
“Wake up! Wake up! God damn you, Rainbow Dash, wake up!” But no matter how hard she swatted, shook, or pounded, her friend’s eyes remained shut. Eventually, driven by exhaustion, she fell to her knees and screamed.
*******
“Day seven. 3:33 a.m. I…” Twilight, her eyes blood red, used her bandaged hand to focus the camera onto the bed, which now looked more like a crudely made casket than a medical bed.
“I spent all day building what I’m calling ‘The Box’. Better than my first idea.” She chuckled nervously. “I also am probably pushing the boundaries on what’s safe with prescription medication, but, I...” she started to speak, but her emotions caught up to her, and she cried for several minutes.
“I’m sorry.” she looked to The Box and back to the camera. “I’m sorry, guys. I’m sorry, Sunset. I’m sorry, Dash.” She wiped at her eyes. “I’d say shit by claiming I’ve done everything I could, but I know I could have done better. I could have spent more time and found more money for extra silver lining, i could have made sure The Box was air tight, factor in what i ate before, or fucking knows what else, but I’m done. I can’t! I can’t go on any longer!” She sniffled.
“But as easy as it would have been for me just to go upstairs and fall face first onto my own bed,” she breathed, rubbing at her eyes before continuing. “I owe it to everyone to at least give myself a fighting chance.” She took in a breath and looked into the camera. “I’ve programmed everything so that, should the heart monitor I’m currently hooked up to flatline,” she held up her clipped finger for emphasis. “Then all the data, all the research that’s been put into this mystery, will be made available online. I don’t expect many will believe me. Or may even just,” her fist clenched tightly over the pills.
“To whomever it may concern, if this nightmare doesn’t end with me, I hope you’ll be able to finish what I’ve started. I hope,” she picked up the rubber ball Rainbow Dash had been playing with just over a day ago. “I hope you can live.” She shallowed the medication and tea. “Goodbye.”
As Twilight’s eyes started to shut, her head resting upon the uncomfortable helmet, the drugs she had consumed flowing through her veins, she thought to herself, was there anything she might have been missing? Not that it mattered at this point. She was out of time. At best, she would have only had a few hours left before she would have passed out. Still, what could she have been missing that might have made a difference? Everything from what might have saved her, to what caused this, and how it began, where it might of began—
Her eyes shot open at a thought. It was a minor detail, one she hadn’t thought of before. It had to do with the zoo needing to use the shelter. Of all the times the zoo couldn’t use their own facilities. That, and along with her theory on their own; possibly magical weakened immune systems—
Using the last of her strength, she quickly reached for one of the several needles that lined The Box’s inner walls that contained pure adrenaline. However, just as she was about to stick it in her arm, she looked up at the picture of her friends she had stuck to the roof of her makeshift casket.
It was taken about a week after the friendship games. Fluttershy had been the one to text her asking if she wanted to hang out with them in the park. Twilight had said yes without a second’s hesitation. Only thinking after how strange it was to be more eager to spend time with friends than reading a book.
It turned out to be a fun day. Applejack brought cider, Sunset told her more about Equestria, Pinkie defied gravity, Rainbow Dash feel out of tree, and Rarity took the photo of them all, shortly after sending it to Twilight’s phone.
All of them looked so happy on that day. A tear rolled down Twilight’s eyes as it truly dawned on her that she would never get to experience that again.
With her last bit of energy, Twilight released the needle from her grasp. As it fell to the side, and her eyes closed, she figured, it probably wasn’t that important.