Okay. Here we go. For the first time, I'm doing an 'adaptation' of a comic.
"I'm sure you'll do all right."
Thanks, Pinkie. I planned on doing this right after I discovered it, but after realizing through spoilers that it takes place during Season 2, I held it off for a while.
Disclaimer: I own only the following: My originally designed OCs, and anything that doesn't happen in the comics proper.
Note: If you haven't read my main story, hit that back button and do so now or else you will not understand much of this tale. Also, I will not be covering the entire comic, even though it's not as easily accessible as the show.
SCFIM–SCFIM–SCFIM–SCFIM–SCFIM
In the dreamscape…
Chronicle found himself in the middle of Ponyville, which was up in flames. He very well knew this was a dream, but it didn't make the issue any easier, even with Blue Diary by his side. Surrounding them were numerous beings that had features he was always afraid of. There were living balls of fire he remembered were called Bombs. There were cream-colored horses (not ponies) with red eyes and flames as their mane and tail and on their ankles. There was a bipedal being with a flaming skull wearing leather clothing and flaming weapons. There was even a likeness of whom Blue identified as Corona, the Tyrant Sun. Above them all, a black miasma obscured the entire sky.
"Is-is-is T-t-tim-m-mer-r-rity s-s-suffering the s-s-same n-n-night-t-tmare as I am?", Chronicle asked in a very shaky voice, losing his guts thanks to all the fire creatures.
"Yes, apparently.", Blue replied as he swung his magical swords, Justice and Retribution, about to keep them at bay. "Our brother Mahou is with her as we speak."
"Th-th-thanks f-f-for s-s-s-stay-y-ying w-w-with m-m-me."
Blue rolled his eyes from his older brother's stuttering. He was hopeless in the face of so many of these guys. "Well, even if I'm the youngest of the four of us, I am still obligated to help my siblings in times of need."
This was the fifth time this week. Chronicle had been suffering some terrible nightmares, and they were progressively getting worse. Ever since the second day, Blue Diary had taken it into himself to help Chronicle with these nightmares, not having to deal with them in his Equestria. Each time, the fire beings were stronger, much more difficult to fend off.
"Look out!" Before Blue could turn and see what his brother was warning him about, the Corona lookalike unleashed a powerful beam from her horn and it engulfed Blue completely, sending him back to his own dreamscape. "CRAIS!!"
As one, all the fire creatures charged forward, ready to overwhelm him as he hid his face down to the ground, feeling very much like Fluttershy.
"BLIZZAJA!!", a different voice came from above.
Out from the black sky, a fierce hailstorm of ice shards descended, tearing apart what remained of the town as well as the fire creatures that surrounded Chronicle. Not even the facsimile of Corona didn't stand a chance. When he realized nothing was attacking him anymore, he looked up, and saw not only was the dreamscape plain and black as it usually was, there was a pony in front of him.
It was a unicorn mare with violet-blue-and-purple hair styled like Timerity's, a forest green coat, blue eyes, and the same cutie mark as his. She wore a black hair bow on her mane, a ribbon on her tail, a plain imperial red cape, and a moderate cornflower blue suit.
"Little Timmy.", she said, her face and voice filled with concern. "Are you all right?"
Upon hearing that voice, something in him clicked. Before he realized it, he found himself running into her in an embrace. "Mom!" She caught him and gave him a powerful hug as he began to shed all the tears he had been holding back.
They stayed like this for about twenty seconds before another voice came. "Who are you and what are you doing here?", it said.
Both unicorns turned to see a certain figure somewhat familiar to Chronicle. "Princess Luna?", he gasped as he sniffled out the last of his tears.
Indeed, it was her. She visited him a couple of time before ever since Nightmare Night, having taken interest in him for reasons undisclosed. For some reason, her appearance is akin to the one she assumed post-"Harmony Blast" and not how she looked at Nightmare Night. "Greetings, Chronicle. Might I ask who is this pony with you?"
The unicorn mare stepped forward, cleared her throat, and introduced herself. "Greetings, Princess Luna. My name is Ebony Spell, and I am Chronicle's mother."
Luna turned to Ebony. "Miss Ebony Spell. I was just about to help your son with his nightmares before you came in with that powerful spell of yours. From what I can recall, such spells are not possible for any unicorn to do. At least none could cast it on their own and stay standing like you are."
"Well, this is a dream. Anything can happen, especially when you're a lucid dreamer."
"I see." Luna then changed her tone. "I also see that you aren't completely honest with me. I've been in everypony's dreams and not once have I seen you before. Tell me, who are you really?"
Ebony frowned, then said, "Before I can answer your question, Princess Luna, I need to know if you are even just a bit knowledgeable on the question I'm about to ask. I'll also need to know can keep a secret."
"You have quite some nerve to ask this from an alicorn princess such as myself. ...All right. Ask away."
Ebony turned to Chronicle, silently telling him that this conversation is private. Once he started walking away, she turned back to Luna and said, "…What do you know of alternate worlds?"
Luna was silent for a few seconds. "Well, I do know that Celestia sometimes talks with Prince Solaris, who is supposed to be the ruler of an Equestria similar to ours, but with everypony's genders swapped. From what I could tell from what I overheard, Prince Artemis there is supposed to be a male version of me."
Ebony put a hoof to her chin. "Prince, huh?", she muttered. I wonder why Timerity keeps confusing 'Prince' with 'Lord'?
"Also, a bit more recently, though still a fair amount of time ago, I communicated alongside my sister with an alternate version of me whose Celestia turned evil and hasn't been restored to good like I was even after getting blasted by the Elements of Harmony."
She's made contact with Luna Equestria as well, huh? Ebony returned her attention to Luna and said, "All right. Allow me to explain the nature of this…Timer family…"
Somewhat coincidentally, Jenny's wife Thomas, whose pony name is Record Keeper, is explaining the same thing to Prince Artemis in Timerity's dreamscape. However, they kept secret the nature of their mission and the Story Crew.
The rest of Chronicle's sleep was peaceful, though not peaceful enough for him to get enough rest.
C—PL—BD—ES—C—PL—BD—ES—C—PL—BD—ES—C—PL—BD—ES
The seventh day…
Chronicle woke up in the morning, losing his habit of waking up late due to the nightmares. During the sixth and seventh nights, Luna was no longer around, and each time his mother brought along Blue to assist in shaking off the bad dreams. As for Timerity, she was being helped by their older brother Mahou, whose pony alias was Mystic Wand, as well as their father.
He also found something else that was queer. He wasn't the only one suffering nightmares; his charge Twilight was suffering from them too. Spike however slept like a baby, unaffected or not targeted by whatever was hitting them. And there were always tears shed from crying on his bed every time he woke up.
The three of them were walking down a street in Ponyville. Well, Spike was on Twilight's back and Chronicle had dispatched a few magical clones after deciding to catch a few more Z's. While one accompanied his charge, the other went over to Mystic Shield to inform him he wasn't in the best of conditions. Mystic thankfully understood, having noticed for the past few days that Chronicle had been getting less and less sleep, and it didn't seem to come from late night practice, which the blue unicorn always did once a week, one day after another friendship report has been sent to Princess Celestia. And he had the day off today and was going to take a nap.
For some reason, Chronicle's clones were just as fatigued as he was, but they didn't let this stop them from doing what their 'summoner' requested.
"There has to be a way to get rid of these nightmares!", Twilight said to herself as he perused a book while walking, the boys with her making sure she would not bump into anypony. "None of these books have a single cure!" Just then, Spike—taking a drink from a paper cup from what was apparently the pony version of Starbucks named, coincidentally, Starbucks—saw something headed their way. Chronicle saw it too and preemptively cast a barrier around them. "Is it something we ate? Too many ghost stories?"
"Uhh, Twilight?", Spike said, but was ignored.
She heard a voice speaking to her but didn't pay it any mind.
"These nightmares seem to come out of nowhere. They just hit—"
"TWILIGHT! LOOK OUT!"
The oncoming pony was Rainbow Dash. And she didn't look like she's been getting much sleep either. She smashed through Chronicle's barrier quickly (it hadn't been reinforced well enough) and knocked into Twilight, clotheslining her and knocking off Spike as she went. The dust cleared shortly after.
"Whoa!", gasped Rainbow as she got off of her friend. "Sorry, Twilight!"
"It's okay, Rainbow Dash—I should've been paying attention.", the unicorn replied.
"I'm a little off course today, too. I haven't been sleeping that great. All week, I've had—"
The two paused before uttering in unison. "NIGHTMARES!"
Just then, after noticing that Spike was wearing shades for some reason as he picked up the book, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rarity walked over to them.
"Not to be a pest, but would ya mind keeping it down a bit, Pinkie Pie, er, Fluttershy, I mean, Twilight?", said the farmer, who didn't have her stetson on. Her face showed all the symptoms of sleep deprivation, just like last applebuck season.
"Yes, some of us haven't had our beauty rest.", said the white unicorn, having a hood of sorts around her head and fancy red-rimmed shades concealing her eyes.
"Have you had nightmares, too?", asked Chronicle as he gave a short yawn.
"Whenever I close my eyes, I'm struck with those ghastly images!"
"Every single night, I reckon, Rarity, er, Twilight, I mean, Chronicle."
"The baddest dreams ever!", lamented Fluttershy, then noticed the concerned faces of the others. "Sorry! I didn't mean to be so negative! I think I'm a bit grouchy."
"How can we all be having nightmares all week?", Twilight said.
"Well, it can't be all of you, right?", pointed out Spike. "Where's Pinkie Pie?"
C—TS—S—A—RD—R—F—C—TS—S—A—RD—R—F
Later that night…
"Welcome to my slumber party!"
They were all gathered at Mystic Shield's place. After hearing that Chronicle and his friends were having nightmares, Mystic decided to work with Pinkie Pie to set up the place for a slumber party. Mystic didn't need to provide much, just the space. Pinkie got everything else covered. Before he knew it, the place was full of decorations and whatnot. There were candles, pillows, blankets, mattresses (after learning that tatami mats weren't exactly comfortable), and so on. There was a banner reading "Sweet Dreams" on the top. And Mystic decided to add a dreamcatcher he bought in the marketplace, hanging it in the middle of the room.
Twilight was busy reading with a cup of tea next to her, Applejack was preparing to tuck herself in for the night, Fluttershy managed to ask Chronicle to tie ribbons into her hair, and Mystic decided to stand guard outside, conjuring a dome barrier encompassing his entire household. He set it to let in only fresh air and keep out everything else.
After giving Gummy a kiss, Pinkie—wearing a blue pajama top—then said as she embraced two pillows, "If anything can chase away those heebie-jeebie dreams, it's a girly night of fun! Right, Rainbow Dash?"
"Super. Duper. Fun.", the pegasus said with sarcasm, being treated to a cucumber facial and a hooficure by Rarity. She was promptly hit by a pillow thrown by Pinkie, who laughed as one of the cucumber slices fell off. Accepting the challenge, she wiped off her face—much to Rarity's disappointment—and declared, "This means war, Pinkie Pie!"
And, taking a pillow, she zoomed straight for Pinkie, pillow on hoof. As the brawl continued in the background, Twilight said, "There's got to be some kind of connection between our dreams…"
"Sounds like an old coinky-dink to me.", remarked Applejack.
"My father told me that there's a fine line between coincidence and fate.", Chronicle commented as he did the finishing touches on Fluttershy's hair. He admitted to himself that he was enjoying this. "I would've mentioned that maybe the Elements of Harmony are a factor were I not among those who's been getting nightmares."
"That seems like a sound theory.", said his charge.
"Thanks, Twilight."
"After such a fun party, I'm sure we'll all sleep like baby dragons tonight.", commented Fluttershy. Indeed, even as a few bits of the mud mask landed on his nostril, he didn't stir.
C—TS—S—A—RD—R—F—PP—MS—C—TS—S—A—RD—R—F—PP—MS
Later…
Everypony got themselves tucked in for the night. "Let's hope so.", Twilight said. "Good night!"
"Sleep tight!", said Rarity, wearing an eye mask.
"Don't let the bedbugs bite.", added Chronicle as he pulled the blanket over himself.
"Night, Twilight!", said Pinkie. "And Rarity! And Fluttershy! And Spike! And Applejack! And Gummy!"
"Yes, goodnight every single pony in all of Equestria!", finished Rainbow.
"And Rainbow Dash! And Chronicle! And Mystic Shield!"
"Mystic already took his sleep during the party.", groaned the sole stallion in the room. "He's up with the barrier."
C—TS—S—A—RD—R—F—PP—MS—C—TS—S—A—RD—R—F—PP—MS
A few hours later…
"I sure hope my barrier works. I never tried keeping out nightmares before."
Mystic Shield stood just outside his home, his force field encompassing it. Picking up a few tips from Twilight, his force field is self-sustaining and does not need to be constantly maintained. "I wonder if—no, I can't doubt myself. Chronicle and his friends are counting on me. I will not let them down."
Just as he said that, he felt something hit his force field. Mystic looked up to see a cloud of black smoke slowly breach through it. Impossible! Flaring up his horn, he let off a couple of blasts. Unfortunately, they were to no avail as the smoke then veered straight for him. Some of it brushed past his face, but a few of it went into one of his ears and out the other. The sensation was extremely painful, but he couldn't get himself to scream.
Instead, as the door was opened, he found himself getting very woozy, the barrier around his residence still staying in place. As he turned to try and neutralize the threat, he saw the black smoke get repelled by a golden barrier that seemed to emanate from the dreamcatcher. But hopes of it doing what he had failed to do were quickly dashed as the smoke went straight for the dreamcatcher itself, which wasn't protected by its own barrier.
The smoke assaulted the charm, and the second it broke into two, the smoke started entering the ponies by their ears, ignoring Spike for some reason. At this point, he saw his friends shudder and feel pressured.
"I'm… sorry… Chronicle…", Mystic Shield muttered before passing out, half of his body inside the building. Unlike the other ponies, his dreams will be safe in spite of the fact he tried to act against them.
C—TS—S—A—RD—R—F—PP—MS—C—TS—S—A—RD—R—F—PP—MS
In the dreamscape…
Chronicle was seeing visions while still in a dream. As it was, upon entering dreamland, he immediately found himself in front of a flaming apparition of Fluttershy. And before he could scream or flee in fright, she used the Stare on him. He began re-experiencing things in his life. Misdeeds, wrongdoings, scoldings he had done, times he chewed out anybody on anything stupid they did, disasters that happened some time after he did them. Every iota of pain he had ever inflicted on others in his life, with or without cause. And there were also memories he knew that never happened, but could've when he made a different decision.
And just when he thought that was the last of it, he started experiencing them all over again. And for some reason, it didn't get any easier seeing them again. He could feel himself losing his will, already at the point of breaking down into tears.
Suddenly, the burning eyes that were staring into his own suddenly diverted their attention. Something had attacked Chronicle's tormentor and she turned to see the attacker. It was his mother Ebony Spell, who had flared up an ice spell. The Fire-Fluttershy turned to face her.
"Don't look into her eyes!", he warned his mother.
She didn't give any indication of hearing as she primed up another spell. The Fire-Fluttershy lunged for Ebony, who teleported away and right behind her before launching shards of ice, shotgun-style. The ice instantly took the flaming being down. The surrounding landscape, which was a foggy meadow, reverted into its black space.
"Are you all right?", asked Ebony.
"Thanks again, Mom."
"Glad to be of assistance." She then turned serious. "Something's wrong in your waking world. You have to wake up."
"On it." And with that, Chronicle concentrated as he disappeared from the dreamscape, Ebony doing so as well.
C—ES—C—ES—C—ES—C—ES—C—ES—C—ES
Back in the waking world (of Equestria Prime)…
Chronicle was up in an instant, brushing off what happened to be pieces of Mystic Shield's dreamcatcher. After rubbing his eyes, he saw a mass of black smoke swirl around Rarity, waking her up with a scream, which woke up all the others.
"What's happening?!", gasped Twilight.
"Mystic!", the blue unicorn yelped as he turned to see his defending friend woozy as he was getting up. Apparently, his barrier had failed and he had been attacked by the black smoke.
"Help me!", Rarity yelled in distress.
"RARITY! NO!", cried out Spike as he ran to reach for her, but failing.
"Take that, you dirty air!", cried out Pinkie as she used a butterfly net to swipe at it to no avail as the smoke passed above the waking Mystic and out the door, passing through his force field like it wasn't even there. "That worked so much better in my head!"
As Spike and everypony else ran outside, Chronicle gave an order to Pinkie. "Super see-saw, now!" Instantly, the pink pony produced one out of nowhere, which Rainbow and Applejack noted and seemed to remember; it was the one the latter used to inadvertently launch the former into Mystic Shield's place. As it was, thanks to some special agreements, Pinkie can bring out certain items at Chronicle's command. He doesn't ask her for practically anything, though; just stuff that can be useful in a pinch, even though .
The see-saw was aimed so that when it is jumped on, the pony on the other end would be sent flying straight for Rarity, who seemed to be— "Are they goin' to the moon?", said Applejack.
"Go get her, Rainbow Dash!", Twilight ordered. "Uh, you too, Fluttershy!"
"I'm on it!", said the cyan fast-flyer.
"Me too!", said the slower yellow one.
As her bodyguard cast a spell on both pegasi, he ordered both of them to—"Get on the low end of the see-saw now!" As they did so without question, hoping he had something in mind, he promptly leaped for the high end and said, "Get ready to fly!"
He landed and on his end and it instantly lowered, launching the two on the other end upwards, where they immediately used their wings to keep in the air. He then cast a spell on himself and as it began to perform its effects on him, he said, "Pinkie! Launch me after them!"
Immediately, the pink earth pony turned the catapult around, then pounced on the other end, launching him after the two even as ribbons of brilliant blue light begin to engulf his entire body into a cocoon of magic. A ball of light then burst through the cocoon and there was a blinding white flash. When if faded, it could be seen that he now bore a pair of Glimmer Wings, similar to what Rarity had during the Best Young Flyer competition. However, they were colored different from Rarity's pair and were of a yellow hue, with blue, brown, and black patterns.
He continued to soar upward, cursing himself for not gaining a much speed due to Glimmer Wings not being built for aerodynamic flight. As he bypassed Fluttershy he saw part of the black smoke line up next to Rainbow. Before it could strike her, he let off a magic shot, dissipating it. "Hurry!", he yelled.
A second later, Rainbow managed to break the sound barrier and perform the Sonic Rainboom, in spite of flying upwards and thus fighting gravity's pull. The spell Chronicle bestowed on her earlier, which decreases air resistance on its target, also helped in that regard.
He continued to shoot at the black smoke, making sure not to ht either of his friends, even though his shots didn't fly as fast as Rainbow was doing right now. But he still continued to try. Unfortunately, the black smoke disappeared all of a sudden. And Rarity was gone too. Rainbow immediately stopped in shock, then started zipping around the night sky.
"Whaa? No fair! Aww, man!", she complained even as the others caught up with her, though Chronicle had a difficult time slowing down, swerving as he turned around. "Talk about bad sportsmanship…"
"Which way did they go?", ask Fluttershy as her fellow pegasus grabbed Chronicle with a hoof…somehow. Rainbow then grabbed her as well with the other.
"Come on speedy."
C—TS—S—A—RD—R—F—PP—MS—C—TS—S—A—RD—R—F—PP—MS
Later in the library…
Everypony, including Mystic Shield (who recovered rather quickly), gathered at the second floor, taking in what had just happened a few minutes ago. Rainbow was busy banging her head on one of the pillars, Mystic was explaining to Chronicle what had happened (including what his dreamcatcher did), Fluttershy and Applejack were trying in vain to calm down a very torn up Spike, Twilight was busy writing a letter to Princess Celestia, and Pinkie rested her front legs on a desk, lost in thought.
"Ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh!", Spike said through very heavy sobs as he was provided tissue paper to blow his nose. "Rarity! She— She! VOOM! Gone! Twilight?! How?"
"I'm writing a message to Princess Celestia right now. She'll know what to do… I hope."
"That icky stuff looked really familiar!", Pinkie commented.
"Pinkie's right—it was in my nightmare.", mused Applejack.
"I saw it in mine!", said Fluttershy.
"As did I!", remarked Chronicle as he turned to them.
"Me too!" added Twilight as she had the letter sent. Immediately after breathing his green fire, Spike fainted due to emotional trauma. "So, there has to be a link between this… stuff, and our bad dreams. It makes sense."
"Let me get this straight.", said Rainbow as she went back to them while rubbing her head. "You're telling me that this glorified smog somehow got into our brains?"
"That's right.", said Mystic. "Before I passed out after it subdued me, I saw the smog enter your ears, except for Spike."
"Gasp!", Pinkie gasped as she circled her hooves around Applejack. "Brains?! Zombies?!"
"Where do we even begin?", Fluttershy asked Twilight.
"Princess Luna! She's the protector of dreams. And she was taken over by Nightmare Moon! She can help us interpret out nightmares and find Rarity! Princess Luna is our only hope! Anyone have a scroll?"
"You can ask her in pony.", a different voice came. Everypony else had already turned to face the newcomer save for Twilight herself, who followed shortly after hearing the voice. "I believe a dark energy has been infiltrating your dreams. My sister may be able to help."
"Princesses Celestia and Luna!", gasped Rainbow, Applejack, Pinkie, and Mystic, the last of them immediately bowing. The former two then, much to the last's surprise, approached the Night Princess without formalities.
"So, what in tarnation is going on here?", asked the farmpony.
"And more importantly, how do we get Rarity back?", asked the failed rescuer.
As Luna backed away for a bit, Mystic turned to his co-teacher for an explanation, who could provide none. "Honestly, I don't have a clear answer for you.", she said as she turned away.
"But you're the Protector of Dreams!", pleaded Twilight. "You must know something! Anything?!"
Luna turned back to the others and conceded. "Only that evil, dark forces have taken your friend to the Nightmare Dreamscape."
"But why? What evil could still exist after you were freed?"
"Let's just blast up there and get Rarity back!", said Rainbow. "We're wasting time!"
"It isn't that simple.", said Luna. "You don't know what they're planning…"
Fluttershy then approached her as Chronicle noticed something very smelly between Applejack's legs as the farmpony held onto Twilight. "Princess Luna, I don't mean to be rude, but, um, is there something you need to tell us?"
"These ponies can be trusted, Luna. Tell us.", Celestia urged her sister.
Luna only turned away once more. "It's…it's troubling."
"Princess Luna, there's nothing to be scared of when you're surrounded by friends.", Chronicle said as he silently 'picked up' the smelly thing and 'chucked' it out of the window, hoping nopony would get a faceful of it.
The Princess of the Night turned to Mystic Shield, whom she was unfamiliar with since he hadn't suffered any nightmares. "You can count on me, Your Majesties.", he said as he gave a salute, then, after giving a gulp—under Pinkie's watchful eye—performed the Pinkie Swear. "I was already involved when I tried to stop them. I might as well be in on this too."
Luna turned to Celestia, who gave a nod, then to Pinkie, who nodded as well, then to each of the other ponies—glancing the still-unconscious Spike—and they all gave the same confirmation that Mystic Shield was as trustworthy a friend as any. She then faced the mare-faced stallion, who gave a resolute nod. "Thank you, Chronicle.", she finally said, then explained. "Something is happening. Something I had hoped would never come to pass."
"Did you eat too much broccoli?", Pinkie suddenly asked as she popped up next to Luna.
"No."
"Sleep through your alarm?"
"No."
"Use salt instead of sugar?"
"No."
"Accidentally wear your shirt backwards all day?"
"No."
"Realize your Mom was right about everything?!"
"No." She then proceeded. "When I was trapped as Nightmare Moon, I thought I could show everypony how special I was by making them fear me. The Nightmare Forces somehow knew exactly what to say to convince me… it give me their energy and hate. After my curse was broken by the Elements of Harmony, I believed the forces of darkness would wither and die…but I was wrong."
"Both evil and good have a penchant for enduring even after seemingly being thoroughly crushed.", Mystic muttered.
"Legend says that if the Nightmare Forces can harness enough strength through the cycle of the new moon, they are granted one more chance…"
"One more chance to what?", Twilight dared ask.
"To claim what Nightmare Moon promised—an all-powerful kingdom of their own!" At this, Luna stood on her hind legs and exuded an aura while saying this to express the horror of the outcome.
"It's time for action, not shuffling our hooves!", Rainbow declared as she turned around and slammed her front hooves into each other.
"Like what, Rainbow Dash?", Twilight asked her.
"Anything! Everything! We could…dress up like ninjas and be the darkness itself!"
"She doesn't takes failures well, does she?", Mystic asked Chronicle.
"Yeah. Neither do I. Depends on the failure though."
"What? I'm not thinking big enough, am I?", they heard her continue.
Meanwhile, as Spike clung to a blanket and sucked on his thumb like a baby, Applejack asked Luna, "But why does that gobbledy-goo care a flying feather about us?"
Luna seemed to pause for a moment, then cringe as if remembering a bad memory or imagining a bad vision. She recovered soon enough, but turned her back on them. "Together you possess the Elements of Harmony, which have defeated the dark forces before. Now they will come after all of you— the only ponies who can defeat them… and destroy your home—Ponyville!"
This elicited shock from all the present residents. Chronicle then asked, "That still doesn't explain why they assaulted me as well. I do not possess a true Element of Harmony like they do."
"I do not know either, but given your closeness to them and your capabilities, maybe they think you deserve as much torment as the others, but it's just mere speculation."
"I see."
"We need to get Rarity back home on the jiffy!", said Applejack as she started to run for the exit.
"Hello, everypony?! That's what I've been saying this whole time!", Rainbow yelled.
"We heard you, Dash.", Mystic told her. "We just don't have a plan or even a means to do so."
"No! I will investigate. Alone.", said Luna. "The Nightmare Dreamscape is filled with your worst fears. Its denizens will not hesitate to to use them against you. It's no place for regular ponies."
The speedy pegasus pony took offense at this as she swiftly turned to face the Princess of the Night. "'Regular' ponies? Excuse me, but that ain't flying!"
"If we have to face our fears to get Rarity back, then that's what we'll do.", Twilight declared.
"Yeah!", agreed Pinkie.
A "Meep." came from Fluttershy.
And Spike managed to get out of his depression.
"To be frank, Rarity may not be one of my most favorite ponies, but I'll be damned if I let anybody succumb to evil forces if there's anything I can do about it!", Chronicle swore.
"Don't you mean 'anypony'?", Mystic was about to correct. His co-teacher turned to face him, his face serious.
"I mean anybody, not just ponies. Even if they're a zebra, griffon, buffalo, dragon, or whatever, I'll rescue them too. "
"Oh."
Luna was unsure how to take this, but Celestia then said, "I must agree with them, sister. The Elements of Harmony are very powerful. The power of the Elements returned you to me. I trust they can do it again. And Chronicle has shown exceptional skill in what he does. He will not allow himself to fail." She then whispered to herself, "Not again."
"But what about Ponyville?", the younger sister asked.
"I will help Ponyville prepare. You must save Rarity and stop the attack."
"I shall remain behind as well.", Mystic offered. "I failed Ponyville once when Discord attacked it. I will not fail a second time."
"Nopony forced that burden upon you, Mystic.", Chronicle said.
"I know, but still…"
"But, how do seven ponies and a baby dragon get to the moon?", Fluttershy asked.
"Okay, hear me out—We get an enlarging ray and shoot me with it.", Rainbow suggested in a hasty tone. "Then I'll carry you all to the moon and—surprise—a million ponies will jump out and stomp those moonies to bits!"
"I know a way…", Celestia answered Fluttershy with a wink.
"I hope your friend is brave.", said Luna. "The Nightmare Dreamscape is not for the faint of heart."
At this, Pinkie spontaneously donned a cheerleader outfit and started waving pompoms. "Rarity is as strong as an ox, riding a fox, trapped in a steel box, using her teeth for locks!"
Mystic just raised an eyebrow as if to say, "Seriously?"
"Pinkie Pie's right…", Applejack replied to Luna. "I think Rarity would never back down if she didn't want to do something!"
"But she wouldn't have to do anything if we're there to save her!", Rainbow cut in. "Wait, idea! Two words: time machine!" Upon realizing nopony was listening, she cried out, "Is this thing on?"
"I know, right?", Pinkie agreed as she leaned near her, corks plugging her ears. "It's like we're speaking Cowhili!"
"Rest assured we hear you two.", Mystic said as he turned to face them. "It's just you two're being so silly we just tune you out."
"And Rainbow, time travel is a very bad idea.", Chronicle added. "Too many chances of a paradox. And paradoxes are bad."
"We'll all have to be strong for Rarity.", his charge told their friends meanwhile.
"We must move fast.", said Luna. "We don't know how long Rarity's bravery will protect her."
At that moment, Chronicle's eyes ached. Oh no. They're already starting to break her… He bent down and started rubbing his eyes, Rainbow and Pinkie not noticing as they started roaming around, the former thinking of more wacky ideas and the latter continuing her cheer. I got a feeling she'll be broken before we get there. He then got up again with a resolute glare. No matter. Regardless of whatever they turn Rarity into, we'll bring her back, I swear it. And should we find her gone for good, I'll make sure those Nightmare Forces will regret it.
To be continued…
SCFIM—SCFIM—SCFIM—SCFIM—SCFIM—SCFIM
- For those of you who don't know who Blue Diary is, check this chapter.
- Penance Stare!
- If Luna doesn't seem socially-awkward here as she is in Luna Eclipsed, let's just say she has different standards between "dream world" and "waking world".
- An explanation behind the eye-rubbing will be done in "Shisno Chronicles: Friendship is Magic: The Return of Harmony", which I will do after my first story.
That's all for now until I reach Season 2. See ya on Third!
