BC+SL: A Nightmare to Remember

by Broseph_Stalin

Rating: teen
Tags: Dark
Length: 2963

I'll never be the same... What began as laughter, so soon would turn to pain

Riding a wave of high spirits, Twilight Sparkle and her friends are all but ignorant to the wretched accident they are about to suffer while returning home from her brother's wedding.

Part of my Black Clouds and Silver Linings album/story transition, based on the same album/track by Dream Theater

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-10-02 20:26:44 UTC

Movement One

-Movement One

The sky stood frigid, darkening quickly caught in the grip of the strange but wonderful time of twilight. As the air stood thick and still, a piercing bullet flew across the horizon. A bright eye light was lit up before it, illuminating the long silvery tracks that it followed. Along the black serpentine form shone a twinkling of light that revealed itself to be windows. And facing out of the window was a unicorn who was gazing intently upon the bruised and black clouds that were amassing high above.

Twilight Sparkle, stifling a shiver, turned away from the window and instead embraced the warmth that came off the figures inside the cart. Her friends, amassed about the train’s seats haphazardly, were napping, talking, or minding their own time. Cracking a smile, she thought back to the moments of the day that enraptured her most. Her coronation, her friends' dazzling smiles, the pangs of heartache knowing she was no longer Celestia's student… It had been a very, very long day, and Twilight was glad it was over and done.

Letting her eyes drift, she spotted her parents, who were together in their own way. Her father, as stoic as usual, was looking out the window thoughtfully, and her mother was snoozing gently upon his shoulder. Another smile found its place on her lips, and she let the feelings of joy envelop her. Truly, these were the best of times. A little notion came up in her mind: Save this moment forever. Shooing it away, Twilight buried the thought and smiled wider.

Certainly there wasn’t a reason she needed to capture the moment. She had singlehandedly fixed her friends' destinies, had gone through the fire and come out a brand new pony. She figured she deserved a moment to feel content with the seconds that ticked by her.

Settling deeper into the soft cushions of her seats, she allowed her mind to drift away from the here-and-now. A voice, however, pulled her away from the grey stillness.

“Hey, Twilight; Pinkie, Applejack, Flutters and I are gonna go to the back cart and sit on the porch to watch the stars. You wanna come with?” Rainbow Dash’s voice was soft and heavy like a thick blanket. Stifling a yawn, Twilight considered it for just a moment.

“No, thanks, Dash. I’m not really feeling it right now— you all go on without me.” She added a tired smile to her words. Dash’s face fell, however, as she hovered near the doorway to the rear cart.

“C’mon, Twilight, come with us. It’ll be fun!”

“Yeah Twi, you know you wan-na!” Pinkie’s high voice called out from the next car over through the doorway. A bit of annoyance burned up as Twilight shifted her wings to get comfortable once more.

“No, thanks. Really girls, I’m content to sit here. You can go on without me.” And looking out the window, she ended the conversation shortly.

With a shrug and a sigh from the four ponies, she was left in peace. Letting out a long sigh, Twilight settled down and felt the weight of the day flow off her body and fell into the drop of consciousness.

A piercing shriek flung Twilight into the land of the tangible.

“Rarity, wha—?” was all that came out of Twilight’s mouth as the backwards force shoved the air out of her lungs. Sent careening into the seat opposite her, she felt her nose break on the hard metal bar and cringed as the moaning squeal of iron being bent and shattered into a million different directions rasped into her ears. The last thing she caught a glimpse of was a flash of purple hair and a thick flow of blood that shimmered in the instant of zero gravity across her vision. So suddenly, the lights of the train went out in a harsh buzz and the train car was thrown in the opposite direction she had been pushed before. An explosion resounded near the far end of the car, and flames erupted inside the cramped cabin as greasy smoke began to coalesce inside.

Barely able to gasp in air, Twilight was tossed and thrown into the window. The cracking glass threatened to break as she smashed bodily into the side of the train. She spotted, through the facet of cracks and pooled blood, the ground rapidly rolling up and pushing away. As the ground underneath her disappeared suddenly, she was thrown against her will into the other side of the cart. Round and round it went, with the piercing screams and cries of her parents and Rarity being tossed about violently around her. Shutting her eyes tight, Twilight’s mind could do nothing as she rolled around and around in a twisted, inescapable iron trap.

Moments seemed to fuse and divide at the same time, and before she knew it, Twilight’s body had stopped moving inside the car. Her face against a broken window, she looked out the vast plain to see the dancing of flames across the grass and the winking of lights that spun around her head. Off in the distance, a lightning bolt crackled, and the roar of thunder screamed mercilessly in her damaged ears. Heavy drops of rain began to drop all over, and soon sheets of water were punctuated by the overzealous screams of thunder.

With nothing but the cry of a sobbing mare somewhere and the far-off wail of sirens to comfort her, she screwed her eyes tight against the acrid smoke and gasped in ragged breaths as her mind gave up on her body.

Blacking out, she became a victim of the dead stillness. Wrapped in silence, there was no more screaming, and no more cries.

No more pain.

Movement Two

-Movement Two

A swirl of something conscious enveloped Twilight and the click and whir of magic-powered machines pervaded the private unconsciousness that she had been absorbed in.

She realized she was lying on a table, under a cushion whose paper cover crinkled as she drew in each ragged gasp of air into her lungs. A mask sat over her face and dry oxygen was being pumped into her immobile body. Trying to focus her eyes against the blare of the lights above her head, she realized she had no idea where she was. Images and words swirled around in her head and she could barely grasp the association of then and now.

“Miss?” greeted a stranger’s voice from afar. His voice seemed muffled and thick.

Scraping up every ounce of strength her broken body allowed, Twilight turned her head and her body towards the sound the best she could. A dribble of spit flowed out the corner of her open mouth and she winced at the pain that seemed to come from- everywhere.

A unicorn without a face was looking down on her. Only his eyes were visible from the blindingly white mask and hat he wore. A shock of a purple mane stuck out where his brown horn protruded and fell across a set of vibrant green eyes that searched the victim before him deeply.

He said, “My dear, do you remember?” His eyes tightened sharply.

“Do you even know your name?”

The mare could do nothing but stare as her mind overloaded once more. The doctor murmured a bit and shined a bright amber light from his horn into her eyes. Sighing heavily, he walked away, leaving Twilight helpless on the table once more.

After what could have been an hour, the doctor returned, and gently removed the mask from Twilight’s face. Propping her head up, he placed two pills on her tongue, poured some water into her mouth, and said:

“Take this, for the pain.”

Blindly willing, Twilight felt her throat contract painfully and stifled tears as she felt the liquid go down her throat and into her stomach. With a gentle sigh, her head was placed back down, and the doctor disappeared once more in to the grey ash that surrounded Twilight.

A great sea of nothingness picked up the injured pony’s prostrate from, and she was rocked back and forth gently into an ocean of inifinities. The last vestiges of panic inside her mind began to fade, and she was left hopelessly drifting, and bathing in a beautiful agony of a painfully painless existence.

Hot lead of anguish poured from the rim of a bucket and cascaded down into an ashen pit of sorrow. A searing sound pierced the air and the steam of bitter emotion floated back up to greet the empty vessel. She could barely hear the doctor that was calling her name from afar.

“…light. Twilight!” came the doctor’s calls. They had been growing frantic. Twilight reciprocated her name for a slight glance up at its origin.

“Yes.” The doctor didn’t seem convinced, though, as he looked at her skeptically. A clock ticked by the seconds on the nightstand by her bed.

“Tell me, does this hurt you?” he said, his face unreadable. He tapped an extremity with a little rubber mallet. A ping of pain shot up somewhere from her body; Twilight really didn’t know where.

“Yes.”

“Can you move all of your hooves? Can you try your best to stand?”

The last action led to something awful. Being pushed back into her bed, Twilight was howling with pain as monitors shrieked and rattled in their electronic cages at her pain and sorrow. A nurse rushed into the room to help as the doctor tried to lift her body back into the bed.

Artificial comfort took her weight. The monitors no longer blared and beeped and the nurse ran back out of the room to some other urgent event. The doctor went to the other side of the room while Twilight felt her agony grow tenfold; memories began to surface in place of physical suffering.

“Is everyone okay?” But he told her not to worry.

“Don’t worry.” And he turned and looked away as Twilight felt a very familiar sensation of weightlessness steal her body away from the world of the corporeal. In peaceful sedation she lay half-awake, and was lost for eternity in a wonderful misery.

Movement Three

-Movement Three

Twilight awoke and was relieved to have joined the land of the living once more. The faces that surrounded her were not blank expressions of emotionless aid, though: they were her true and honest friends and they could do her no harm.

“Twi!” Applejack shouted, and covered her mouth in embarrassment as she realized she was being far too loud for a pony in Twilight’s state. The rest of the girls chimed in with their expressions of good comfort.

Twilight could only crack a smile, painful as it was.

“Girls… I’m so glad to see you,” she mumbled- it was all she could manage. Looking around the lit up faces around her, her smile drooped significantly as she realized a piece of her life was missing.

“Rarity..?” The other ponies’ faces dropped significantly.

“She uh, she’s okay Twilight, I promise,” Rainbow dash, said, her face a mixed amount of pleasure and pain. “She was really bumped around. The doctor said she’ll be recovering quickly though! Said she was very, very lucky for a mare in her position!” All the ponies nodded in earnest.

“And… and my parents?” Twilight asked, afraid to know the truth. The faces around her were grim.

“We haven’t heard anything about them, yet. I’m sorry,” Fluttershy reciprocated, and her friends tried their best to give a subtle nod of support.

Twilight smiled anyways, despite the news.

“I’m so glad… to see you girls…” she trailed off. Her drunken mind tried to cut through the medication as she thought frantically. Her face winced as she remembered painful thoughts.

“The crash… What happened?” she managed after some time. All the ponies looked about at each other, trying to decide who would explain the next part.

"Nopony knows, Ah'm afraid," Applejack drawled.

“Luckily, we were on the back part of the train, on the patio of the caboose, looking at what stars we could see between the clouds. When the train crashed, we merely got flung out of the back and landed in the dirt and grass.” Fluttershy shied away as the memory of some ghostly metal carcass lit up by fire intruded on her memories.

“We were really, really, really, really scared, Twilight,” Pinkie chimed in. She smiled a bit. “I helped the ambulance ponies find you.” She held the smile wide as she looked on her friend.

Twilight could only smile back at her friends. Medicine began to flow both mercifully and unwanted through her body, and she only numbly recalled saying goodbye as the nurse came to dismiss all the ponies in the room.  As she screamed on the inside, the rest of her life faded away as the other ponies merely sighed and left their friend once more.

A sunny room with unnaturally cheerful, peeling paint trapped Twilight inside a cage of misery. Her friends were mingling around the room, talking to one another and the few ponies that were unlucky enough to be stuck in the recovery ward.

Turning her head to the other side with a great effort, she clenched her teeth as the bandages about her head rubbed and chafed the soft skin underneath. With a gentle hoof, Rarity flicked an errant lock away from Twilight’s eyes and smiled deeply at her friend. A chipped tooth showed in her wide smile and the bruise under her eye still showed up vibrantly, even through the extra makeup she had dabbled on that morning. Her movements were rather stiff.

“How have you been feeling, my dear?” she asked, still smiling. Twilight’s eyes hardened at her friend but guilt washed the look away and she sighed.

“Horrible,” she said, and she meant it from the bottom of her heart. She wasn’t sure if she would ever be truly okay. Her thoughts turned to her family. "I'm scared about my parents. For my parents." It had only been a week since her accident, and from what she had heard, her parents had been through a few surgeries since the day. She wasn’t sure what to expect if she saw them.

“Never fear, darling. I’m sure they’re quite alright.” Rarity’s generous smile affected Twilight well, and she felt some of the anxiety drip off her limp form. “Why, I bet…” She trailed off as her eyes defocused. Looking the opposite direction as Twilight, she bit her lip and nodded sternly to somepony behind Twilight.

“Ah, just a second dear. The doctor wants to see me.” And without another word, she popped up to her feet and sauntered stiffly out of Twilight’s vision. The purple unicorn could only sigh as she felt even more hopeless at her inability to move without pain.

Cocking her ears, she could pick up a select few words from the pair talking behind her. “Ready,” “might not be,” “in a condition such as hers,” was all she could pick up. She shot a dark look towards the other corner of the room as several patients laughed at Pinkie’s shenanigans and drowned out any other bits of information. “Okay” was the last thing she heard, and she straightened up as she heard several hoof steps on the carpet behind her. Putting on a fake smile, she wasn’t sure what she was going to get.

Out of the corner of her eye came Rarity, smiling her winning smile, and then the doctor, whose name she didn’t bother to remember.

“Twilight. How are you feeling today?” Doctor asked. Twilight looked away as she tried to think.

“Not good, doctor,” she managed to bring up. Her voice croaked and she cleared it quickly as a rattle of pain shot up her back. The doctor seemed to have a falsely concerned look on his face.

“I see, I see,” Doctor said. Flipping his concern 180-degrees, he looked behind Twilight and back at her. “Your parents are here out of surgery. Would you like to see them?”

SYNOPSIS: Plot self explanatory. Twilight eventually learns those around you should never be taken for granted because death could come at any moment.

A Nightmare to remember

I'd never be the same.

What began as laughter

So soon would turn to pain.

The sky was clear and frigid

The air was thick and still

Now I'm not one to soon forget

And I bet I never will

Picture for a moment

The perfect irony

A flawless new beginning

Eclipsed by tragedy.

The uninvited stranger

Started dancing on his own

So we said goodbye to the glowing bride

And we made our way back home.

Life was so simple then

We were so innocent.

Father and mother

Holding each other.

Without warning

Out of nowhere

Like a bullet

From the night

Crushing Glass

Rubber and steel

Scorching fire

Glowing lights

Screams of terror

Pain of Fear

Sounds of sirens

Smoke in my eyes

Sudden stillness

Wrapped in silence

No more screaming

No more cries

Stunned and bewildered

Cold and afraid

Torn up and broken

Frightened and dazed

Stunned and bewildered

Cold and afraid

Torn up and broken

Frightened and dazed

Day after day

And night after night

Replaying the Events

Did they ever see the red light?

Over and over

Scene by scene

Like a recurring nightmare haunting my dreams.

How could you prepare

For what would happen next?

No Son should ever have to see

His father such a mess.

It's a miracle he lived

It's a blessing no one died

By the Grace of God above

Everyone survived

[Scream]

Life was so simple then

We were so innocent.

It will stay with us forever

A nightmare to remember