Episode: Nightmare at Canterlot
The Twilight Zone
Episode 1: Nightmare at Canterlot
Based off of: Nightmare at 20,000feet
This is the picture perfect night: Twilight and all her friends had all had their ‘best night ever’. A large storm approaches, not scheduled by the pegasi. Celestia,the royal princess, offers them a guest room at the castle. Pinkie doesn’t want the night to ever end. She has gotten that wish; they are now in a place where time is stretched out, where the best night ever will take a turn, they are now in the Twilight Zone.
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The castle was long abandoned, a contrast to earlier when hundreds of ponies had gathered for the night. The thunderous storm echoed through the empty castle halls. The storm had raged on, if the friends had lived closer, they would have had been home by now. However, the storm made it too dangerous to travel a far distance such as Ponyville. Celestia had offered them a night at the castle; with pleasure they agreed and quickly exited the doughnut shop to leave for the castle before the storm got any worse. With the help of Rarity’s improvisation, they were able to make a makeshift umbrella, though the mud had stained their dresses. Celestia offered to have one of her guards to clean them and led the group of friends to the guest rooms, much more luxurious then they were used too. With each reveal of a room she was given some sort of thanks.
“With the exception of my personal escorts, the royal guards are on leave for the night so you won’t have to worry about any misinterpretations about your stay,” Celestia said comfortingly. “I will be in my personal bed chambers; it is quite a walk, so I suggest you use that,” she said this pointing her hoof to a speaker-like object attached to the wall, “if you need assistance of any kind, I would be glad to send some of my guards to help, if need be.”
“Thanks princess, but I think we’ll be just fine,” Twilight declared. Celestia nodded and disappeared with a flash of light. “OH OH, I KNOW,” Pinkie immediately beamed. The five other mares and the baby dragon shot her a strange look. “we should order room service,” as she said this Pinkie grabbed the end of the loud-speaker and took in a breath to fill in her lungs. Just as she was about to yell into the object a purplish aura grabbed her and forced her back.
“Pinkie, these speakers are used for emergencies or other important situations that require immediate attention. The princess was kind enough to allow us to use them, let’s not abuse this,” Twilight said in her lecturing tone. A brief look of disappointment came upon Pinkie’s face. “Okay,” Pinkie puffed. Twilight rolled her eyes at this, “come on, I know where the kitchen is,” Pinkie’s usually joyfulness came back as she bounced up and down, following Twilight.
Despite the long and tiring events of the night, everypony had been energetic. It had been just before midnight, or at least they assumed, they couldn’t see the moon through the thick sheet of clouds. It hadn’t felt that late at least.
The remaining ponies started to move some pillows and blankets into Twilight’s room (it had been the largest) so they could have a sleep over. “You guys have fun with that, I think I am going to have some shut eye,” the small dragon said tiredly as he walked out to another room, pillow and blanket in hand.
The hallway was dimly lit by Twilight’s horn. Finally noticing some candles on the wall, she used one of the many spells to instantly light up the room. The weak candles just barely beat Twilight’s magic at illuminating the hallway. The ceiling had been as high as the hallway was long. On one side of the hallway was the wall filled with a single row of candles each about 5 feet apart. The other side was lined up with windows; the hallway was designed so that each gap between the windows would face a candle. From here both ponies could see the storm was still going strong.
“Okay Pinkie, there should still be some treats left over from the party, lets hurry though, I don’t want the others to wait too long,” Twilight told her ecstatic friend. Pinkie nodded, still jumping up and down in perfect rhythm next to Twilight. She had opened her mouth to reply, but before she could a thunderous boom was heard blasting one of the windows open. The wind from the storm had blown a few candles out making it difficult to see. Pinkie stopped her bouncing and walked over to close the window. The wind had been strong, and the window had resisted fully closing. After seeing the pink pony struggle, Twilight got behind Pinkie and putting her hooves on Pinkie’s back, started pushing in an attempt to force the window back to normal. Twilight was surprised at how powerful the wind was, but they were making progress. Just as the window was about to close a lightning bolt lit up the outside and Pinkie fell back.
“Tw… Twilight,” the usually cheerful mare shook as she spoke, “I saw…. saw something…” Twilight gave her a confused look, before switching her gaze to the outside. She half-expected something to jump out at her, but instead saw nothing but rain. “There is nothing there Pinkie,” Twilight assured as she closed the window with ease; the tenacious blast of air from before now gone. Twilight didn’t think much of it. “Are you sure you didn’t just see a tree and confuse it for something else?” Twilight was probably right, it was just her imagination. Still, even if it was her imagination it seemed so real. How could she confuse a tree with what she saw? It had been a weird figure, somewhat resembling an ape. Well kinda, it stood on two legs, but that was all it had in common. She could have sworn it tried grabbing out at her. Still Twilight was most likely right. As they continued to the kitchen the pink mare hummed a tune to herself, it was a song she had known well, after all she did create it herself. It was the song that always calmed her down, the song based on some advice that her granny pie had once given her.
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When the two mares had gotten back to Twilight’s room their friends had been there. They were talking calmly about the night as Twilight and Pinkie brought forth the midnight snacks.
“And then he wanted me to kiss him, can you believe the nerve on that…,” Rarity searched for the right word, “on that no-good-disrespectful-spoiled-foal of pony.” Applejack noticed the two mares, “there yah go Rarity, show that good-fer-nothin’,” she replied with a slight chuckle as she helped her two friends with the treats.
They had sat in a circle as they played some games, among them was ‘truth or dare’. It had been Twilight’s turn. “So,” Rainbow asked suspiciously, “truth or dare Twilight?” Upon remembering the last time Rainbow was in charge of picking the dare Twilight winced; the hot-sauce covered cupcake gave Twilight the inability to talk for a few minutes. Twilight figure to go with the lesser of two punishments, “Truth,” she replied confidently.
Rainbow rubber her hooves together, thinking of which embarrassing question she could possibly ask the intelligent unicorn, “okay I got it,” Rainbow exclaimed, “is it true that you never had a coltfriend?” Twilight instantly turned red, she had been ready for almost any question, this, however, wasn’t one of them. “No, I have had a coltfriend before,” she answered sheepishly. “Really, when?” Rainbow asked, surprised along with the rest of her friends. “Only one question!” Twilight fought back. “Oh come on, just tell us,” Rainbow would not back down. Twilight knew this could go on for hours, so she admitted defeat. “Right before the nightmare moon incident,” Twilight looked up, “and yes, before you ask, he was my first and so far, last coltfriend. Anyways we had gotten into a fight and he broke up with me. I was really heartbroken so I spent the rest of my days studying and flushed the world out. I always kept myself occupied, luckily I found you girls and have since discovered the magic of friendship.”
“Good, yah didn’t need him anyways,” Applejack said comfortingly.
“And what about you AJ? Why do you always seem to hate relationships?” the rainbow-maned pegasus asked.
“Ah don’t hate relationships. Ah jus’ don’t think yah need worry about some good-fer-nothing colt,” the orange mare shot back angrily.
They continued going back and forth before a small voice was heard, “girls, uh, it is my turn, if that is okay with you.” Pinkie bounced up with excitement, “Yay, I get to ask Fluttershy, so tell auntie Pinkie Pie, do you want truth or dare?” Fluttershy shot her a somewhat annoyed look that said ‘I am a year older than you’ before returning to normal. “I choose truth, uh wait, dare, no wait, truth, if uh that is okay with you.”
“Okay, is it true that you have a crush on Big Macintosh?” Applejack tried to protest, Rainbow laughed at the perfect question, Fluttershy turned a shade of pink, Twilight and Rarity waited for her answer, and Pinkie’s jaw had dropped. Fluttershy had answered, but Pinkie never heard it. Twilight, who had noticed Pinkie’s expression, chuckled “I guess you weren’t expecting that answer,” though after she finished that sentence she saw terror in Pinkie’s eyes, “Pinkie what’s wrong?” The pink mare was taking quick, short breaths as she raised her hoof to point to the window. She looked directly into Twilight’s eyes, looking scared for her life. The others were focused on Pinkie; simultaneously they all turned their heads and saw… nothing. Absolutely nothing. She had been pointing her hoof towards the window, but their stare was only greeted by rain.
“Nice try, but if you are trying to scare us you’ll have to do better than that,” Rainbow broke the silence, “I am the queen of pranks, you can’t fool me with something that simple.” The other mares agreed with Rainbow Dash, it was just Pinkie being Pinkie, of course she wasn’t serious. However, Twilight was less convinced. She stared at Pinkie, who was still was in a state between shock and confusion. Pinkie couldn’t be imaging this, could she? The figure was right at the window, staring directly at her, trying to open it. Twilight was about to console her friend, but the pink pony spoke out.
“Prank? No! I know I saw something, it was there just staring at me, trying to open the window,” Pinkie cried out, the yellow pegasus was easy to believe her and started shaking in fear. Pinkie got up, her fear turned into a look of determination. “I know I’ll call for the guards!” However Pinkie’s tail had been caught in a familiar purple aura. “Twilight, LET GO OF ME!” the pink earth pony screamed. “Pinkie stop doing this, it is just your imagination,” Twilight tightened her grip.
“Maybe, uh, we should call the guards, uh, just in case,” Fluttershy said to the disappointment of most of the other girls.
“You can’t be serious.” Twilight sighed.
“Come on Fluttershy, you don’t really believe her do you, she is just trying to prank us.”
“There is no need to be uncivil about this, Twilight, the least you can do is let her go." Twilight reluctantly agreed.
“Now calm down y’all, are you alright sugarcube?” Applejack asked to nopony in particular.
“Well, I, uh, am a little scared, I just don’t see the problem in calling a guard over.”
“See!” Pinkie then bolted out and grabbed the speaker. “Hello! We need you to come over right away, there is a monster here.” Pinkie spoke, desperation returning to her voice.
“We will, uhhhhhhh… we will be right over,” the guard replied, clearly confused.
What felt like an eternity to Pinkie, and really a few minutes to Twilight, the guards finally arrived. One of them brought a spear, to vanquish this ‘monster’ he had heard about. Twilight explained the situation to the guard, who had taken the situation surprisingly calmly. “Ok, well if that will be all Ms. Sparkle, we will be returning to guard the Princess’s chambers.”
“WAIT! YOU GOT TO BELIEVE ME,” Pinkie screamed in desperation. “Miss, calm down, there is nothing to worry about,” the guard nonchalantly said as he eased closer to Pinkie. With each step he took towards her she began to calm down, taking slower and much deeper breaths. The guard was now face-to-face with her. She was almost fully calm when she could have sworn she heard a scratching noise, barely audible, but she could tell it wasn’t coming from their room.
“Oh no, oh no,” Pinkie panicked. “Miss, what is wrong?” Pinkie looked up at him, her eyes surveying his body until she found it, “Don’t worry Spike, I’m coming,” she yelled as she ran past the guard grabbing the spear with her mouth. Everyone had been shocked by her outburst before they all snapped back to reality, “we have to stop her, she is crazy, she might hurt Spike,” Twilight shouted as she ran after Pinkie.
Pinkie had entered the room, her fears confirmed. The figure from before had been at the window. The baby dragon had been blissfully unaware of the terror at his window as he slept. The creature was successful and threw the window open. Pinkie gathered all of her strength as she charged forward with the spear aimed at the creature. She slightly scratched the creature, but it was enough. The creature retreated. Pinkie then threw the spear, making contact with something that let out a shriek.
When the group had arrived all they had seen was a panting Pinkie leaning against the window. The guards immediately tackled the mare to the ground. “I did it, I saved Spike,” Pinkie said hysterically before succumbing to sleep. She had looked peaceful as she had fallen unconscious with a smile on her face, clearly proud of herself. Twilight looked out the open window, but saw nothing. It was the same as before, just rain with the occasional flicker of lightning that revealed nothing but nature.
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Pinkie had woken up. There was not a cloud in the sky, a dramatic change from last night. Her other friends had been worried for her mental health, though when she was questioned she gave them her account, now much more calmly since she ‘stopped the creature and saved Spike.’ Her friends didn’t question it much, she seemed to be perfectly fine now, despite the fact that she kept the same crazy story.
Celestia saw them off, feeling guilty upon hearing what the commotion was about, as they rode off in a carriage. Despite the events of last night everypony had been in a good mood. At the back of her mind Twilight thought the she should send Pinkie to get mental help upon their return, however she would save that for later. As they were out of sight, one of Celestia’s guards approached her. He was holding the spear from last night, the tip was covered in blood. He also reported that he had seen small scratches on multiple windows, including the window of the room Spike had been in. Celestia took a moment to process this and then nodded.
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The terrible night Pinkie went through was now over, a night that she desperately wanted to end. Although her friends worry about her mental health, she no longer has a worry. Her fears are now left behind, along with the creature and the storm, left behind in a small corner of the Twilight Zone.
(AN: I may write more, but I am not sure yet. I still got other fics to work on. If you guys like it please suggest other episodes if you want me to continue (original series only). Feedback is welcome.)
Please enjoy this alternate ending, which is not to be taken seriously, but it was just a thought I had when I was creating this story. Takes place right after the real ending.
Alternate Ending:
Celestia had waited for her guard to leave. She just stared down at the spear, now covered in dry blood. She couldn’t believe that Pinkie could throw so well in that rain. She looked down at her stomach, where the wound had once been, now healed through magic. “Totally worth it,” she thought as she started to grin and laugh uncontrollably. For someone who had been good at pranks she didn’t think that Pinkie would fall for them so easily. Celestia hadn’t done something like that in years. She agreed with her student and her friends, it really was the best night ever. “You still got it Celestia,” she said aloud congratulating herself. She had felt slightly bad, “perhaps I should send them a letter to explain.” She took one last look at the spear, “Perhaps…”
Yup, Trollestia.