A Series of Ponified Events

I woke up to something I didn't expect. A lack of pain. It was a pleasant surprise, and it managed to delay my anger at losing to Sombra. I could vaguely hear hushed voices as I woke up. I allowed my eyes to open, and I saw I was in a tent. The voices were coming from outside, so I got up to check it out. I peeked out of the tent and saw Celestia with Twilight, facing away from me at a fire. Everything felt normal. There was nothing out of the ordinary here. Yet I felt something was wrong. Perverse. Twisted…

“Celestia? Twilight?” I called as I approached, but the second I did, the hushed voices stopped. Neither turned to look at me. Everything was still except the fire, but even that was silent. Something was definitely wrong here. The fire should be radiating warmth. The two alicorns should have turned at the sound of my voice. There should be sound. But there was nothing. The silence grasped my heart in the grip of fear. I slowed my approach, recognizing the twisted feeling only grew as I went, yet I was unable to turn back.

“You should have told us about the Train Incident, Summer.” Celestia’s voice said, a cold anger evident in the way she spoke.

“Now innocents are dead because of you.” Twilight’s equally cold voice spoke. I was dumbstruck. I could never have expected to hear such hate and loathing in either of their voices, unless someone blew up Twilight’s library in Ponyville. But what was worse was that I’d already been thinking the very same thing.

They turned towards me so fast I could have sworn they were the Weeping Angels from the Don't Blink episode of Dr. Who. Their faces weren't what I remembered them to be, but that was probably because they held so much hate, and were crying blood.

"You knew he was going to attack. You knew and yet you did nothing to prevent it." Celestia accused.

"I should bring you in to the Rainbow Factory for your failure." Rainbow Dash made a sudden appearance, joining Celestia and Twilight.EXE, bearing the same hate and bloody tears. I could only look on in shock and fear at the three. And then Pinkamena joined the growing group of Creepypastas.

"What? Why make her into Rainbows? I'd much prefer Cupcakes!" She argued angrily, before turning towards me. "Besides. You have to answer for the Pinkie Promise you broke!" If one was scared by everything else, one would be struck with absolute terror at that last bit. And I was terrified. I was surrounded now. There was no way I could escape.

I turned around at the sound of heavy breathing, only to have to catch the bile rising in my throat at the sight. It was Rarity and Fluttershy, converted into Amnesia Grunts. And it was Hyper-realistic, which only served to raise my terror another couple of levels. I was beginning to hyperventilate when I saw something that raised the bar for the media of horror I'd seen already.

You've seen people encounter twisted and evil versions of themselves before. You've seen the creepypastas of many others before. But there's one thing that sets this apart from everything you've seen.

You've never lived it out. I was staring right into the face of the pony I'd become. And it was HORRIFYING. She held the same bloody eyes the others had. She had a grin to rival the Cheshire cat, full of blood-soaked, sharp teeth. Her face was twisted into indescribable horror with tendrils of Darkness waving about, threatening to eclipse the sky. Worst of all, it was the personification of my dark side, which meant it was far more powerful than I could ever hope to be. She said one thing without ever moving her lips.

"Welcome to your worst nightmare. You'll find this nightmare in more than just your dreams. I hope you enjoyed the pain you've caused." A malevolent purple aura faded in behind my Nightmare, followed by green eyes with red irises.

"Summer Dash." I glared back, my previous rage returning to replace my fear. I knew what this was now. This was all just an illusion meant to scare me. And it worked too, right up until the one behind it showed himself.

"Sombra." I seethed. "Get the FUCK outta my HEAD!" I shouted, dispelling the horrors that surrounded me. I saw Sombra's eyes widen before it was all gone, replaced by the blackness of a dreamless sleep.

Finding that I could, I pushed my way out of my sleep-state. Raising my head, I was quickly greeted with the sight of my room in the train, totally untouched.

“What the…” I wondered just what was going on. Didn’t Sombra just destroy the train? Unless… that was just an illusion. But didn’t Sombra’s mind games usually induce fear or something? Why’d the first one cause rage? What did he hope to accomplish? …And why did it feel so real?

"Hey! Summer! It's time to get up, sleepyhead!" I heard AJ call from outside my door. "The sun’s up an’ out so hurry up!” I looked gratefully at the door, happy to have been shaken out of my confused line of thought, but the negative feelings and worry remained.

"C'mon! Stop moping about that totally fake dream! You know it didn't happen!" Pinkie called out. I didn't even question how Pinkie of all ponies knew I had a really bad dream. It was probably Pinkie Sense, as it most often was. But I did reflect on her words. She was right. There was no point in just moping around, trying to puzzle over Sombra's objectives, as it wouldn't get me anywhere. That didn't change the fact that I was still pretty shaken over the second dream. I gave a light, forced smile and trotted over to my door, opening it to find the two Earth Pony mares in conversation. Whatever AJ was saying was cut off by my appearance. Pinkie jumped at me, wrapping me in a hug. I was surprised, but I ended up returning the embrace.

"Thanks Pinkie. I needed that." I said after breaking the hug. I looked at AJ and saw her just looking confused, but also concerned.

"Did somethin' happen last night, sugarcube?" AJ asked. My smile fell and I deliberately looked away. Something about the way she asked me told me she’d dealt with something too.

"Trust me, AJ. You don't want to know." I shivered. "Nopony should have to see those nightmares..." Pinkie pat me on the back comfortingly.

"There, there. It's all fine. Auntie Pinkie's got your back. There's nothing to worry about." Pinkie said in a caring tone. However, that was where she was wrong. That nightmare had actually scared me, and normally I'm only startled by jump-scares. But I couldn’t subject them to the creeps and horrors of my world. No way. I suspect Sombra only used a spell to show me my greatest fear back there. There’s no way he can subject anyone else to that kind of horror, right?

I should really stop thinking these dark thoughts. I’m supposed to be an optimist! It’s not going to matter what Sombra does to us, we’re still going to take him down!

With my determination returned, I trotted into the main car to find everypony else already awake and chatting, though while nopony was looking at Celestia, she seemed to hold a grim face. I only caught it out of the corner of my eye. At one point, I saw AJ and Pinkie talking with Celestia, none of them smiling. After the short word, Celestia and the two earth ponies approached me. I tried to keep a happy façade, but it’s kind of hard to when the princess isn’t smiling. I don’t know why that was a cause of my unease, but it was.

“Summer,” Celestia greeted when she came within casual conversation distance. She paused uncertainly. “Did… you happen to dream of a train wreck?”

The second she said those words, everypony stopped talking. The air was suddenly tense. Or maybe it always was and I was just now noticing it. Either way, those words brought a stop to anything casual and carefree aboard the train car. Just like that, my confidence vanished.

I swallowed the lump that’d formed in my throat and replied, “Yeah. D-did you happen to dream about nightmarish twists of everypony here yelling at you for failure?”

“Black eyes crying blood?” Twilight added.

“Horrible, unimaginable freaks?” Rainbow threw in.

“The Rainbow Factory?” Fluttershy squeaked.

“… King Sombra?” Pinkie added. I let the silence speak for me. Not one of us hadn’t seen it.

“That was no dream then. We were all caught in the same illusion.” I declared my conclusion.

“Next stop: Crystal Empire, dead ahead!” A voice announced from the speakers. We gathered at the windows and looked out of them. Sure enough, the empire was there, on the horizon. It was surrounded on all sides by dark crystals, no doubt Sombra’s creations. And by all sides, I mean in the air, too. I glared ahead at the city, and the clear signs pointing out that Sombra had in fact returned. That train wreck may have been just an illusion, but like hell I was just going to calm down and let it go. I pulled back in and addressed the group of mares.

“Ladies, prepare to face your nightmares come to life. We've got a Tyrant to crush.”