A mild gloom set over Ponyville, as the local weather team prepared the current rainstorm. Gray clouds hung low in the sky obscuring the everbright sun, leaving the heavenly rays dimmed and muted. A muggy, dence wind sweeping through the small town, ensured the coming storm was going to be anything than a light drizzle. As distant thunder sounded in the background and the noise of the villagers hurrying to get inside and fortify their homes echoed through the small town, the trees began to sway violently all except the tree home of a certain violet unicorn.
In the hollowed out tree library, Golden Oaks Public Library, sat the lone librarian catching up on some light reading, ‘The Effects of Advanced Thaumaturgical Decay and Magical Resonance in an Induced Sleep Cycle’ being the book of choice. “Spike can you bring me ‘Lucid Dreaming for Beginners’ Please”, the unicorn called out to her young assistant and friend.
“Sure thing, Twilight”, the now tall, slender dragon called back as he took a ladder and swiftly climbed to the appropriate shelf where the book could be found. “Got it!”, Spike exclaimed and as he did so lightning flashed and the power went out briefly then came back on. In the power surge the dragon managed to fall off the ladder while knocking down some books and finding himself under a small pile of them.
As Spike blushed a bit and walked over to hand Twilight the book he asked a bit miffed, “ Why did the weather ponies have to make this storm so bad? I was going to go to the park today, but as you can see thats not happening.”
Twilight sighed “ I know its pretty bad isn’t? But don’t you remember that ‘Spike’s growing up’ party Pinkie threw you the other day.”
“Yeah, I still can’t believe she would throw me a party just because I grew a few inches,” the dragon responded sheepishly.
“Well you know Pinkie she always looking for an excuse to throw a party. But anyway She spent the entire week petitioning the mayor for that day to be bright and sunny, so this storm is to make up for the lack of rain.” Twilight explained in a slight lecturing tone.
“Oh yeah well, I guess I thought that would be future Spike’s problem.” he said in a de facto tone.
Both the purple and green dragon, and the violet unicorn laughed a bit at his remark, as Twilight went back to reading. “Ooh thats odd,” Twilight expressed while thinking aloud.
“What is it?” Spike asked with a bit of concern.
“Well it says here that Night Terrors are actually a magical illness , but it doesn't list a cause or treatment for it,” the unicorn states with confusion.
“Aren’t Night Terrors just really bad dreams?” questions Spike.
“No, A night terror or pavor nocturnus is a parasomnia disorder, causing feelings of terror or dread which by this definition is a psychopathological disorder not a magical one. Hmmmm... this is interesting I will have to look at this farther, in the meantime I might know of some books that would help. Spike, can you go get ‘Pinnacle of Dreams a Reference Guide’ and ‘The Big Book of Dreams’ for me from the basement?” Twilight asked of her young assistant.
“Sure thing Twi....” suddenly the lightning flashed causing the power to go out “light,” Spike sighed.
Twilight then lit up her horn producing a bright, yet eerie purple glow that illuminated the entire room. Upon seeing the frustration on the not so small dragon’s face, she giggled a bit and gestured him to follow her into the basement. As Twilight and Spike descended into the dark abyss , the unicorn noticed that the darkness wasn’t natural. Her light spell should have lit the entire room but only reach a few feet in front of them. It was as if the darkness swirled and undulated around her waiting for the moment to lash out and consume any and every living thing it touches, only being warded off by a small insignificant light held upon her horn. This unnerved the violet unicorn, but she soon repressed the thought telling herself it was just her nerves.
As the two entered the basement, Twilight noticed the roots of the tree appeared to be old and decayed. The bookshelves look ancient and abandoned, though she had been down here a few days ago. All the color of the room was mute, despite the dome of light, that protected from the encroaching shadows, trying to cast its signature violet glow. After looking through shelf after shelf Twilight had all but given up hope of finding the book. “Spike did you have any luck finding the book?” she called out to her assistant.
Nopony replied. “Spike are you there?” the unicorn voiced with concern. “Spike this isn’t funny.” she said almost crying. “SPIKE!” Twilight began to run around the shelves look for her friend, the light on her horn becoming dimmer and dimmer. “Spike please answer me. Spike pleas...,” the mare stopped as she found a greyish blue book. This book was the only thing in the room with color and gave off a faint pink glow. As Twilight approached the mysterious tome, she found she couldn’t pick it up with her magic. It had only one word written on the cover. The unicorn bent over to read it out loud, “Nightmare. What's that supposed to...AAAAH.” Just then the light on the mare’s horn went out as dark tendrils quickly lashed out and grabbed her legs. An icey numbness crept up her body as the shadows consumed her.
As the shadows constricted her legs, the unicorn felt a strong pervasive sense of wrongness emanating from the floor. As she looked down, she saw her dull purple hooves slowly being swallowed in darkness. Panicking she went to yell, but her voice died in her throat. Unable to scream, the mare tried to struggle against the encroaching shadow, but her body refused to move leaving her still and without a voice. A cold numbness washed over what was left of her body, leaving her sense’s deprived of any activity. Until a pain shot through her head as a black tendril reach up and touch her horn. This pain was more intense than anything she had ever experienced in her life. It was overwhelming to the point where she couldn’t remain conscious.
As she began to drift out of consciousness, the violet mare felt a tendril caress her head as it whispered, “Twilight.”
“Twilight”
“Twilight”
“Twili....UGH,” the young dragon said as he was knocked back by the unicorn mare quickly rising, screaming, and looking around the room in panic. Twilight hurriedly scanned the room looking for any sign of the shadow that had assaulted her, but too her relief it was just the library as she had left it before she had went into the basement. It was then when she saw the concern on Spike’s face. “Uh Twilight are you okay?” the dragon asked timidly.
“Why what happen?” Twilight responded still in a panic.
“It's j-just that you fell asleep and were twitching and...”
“A Dream,” Twilight interrupted, “of course it was just a dream. Heh, sorry to worry you like that, but I’m tired so I think I’ll go to bed.”
“Okay,” Spike said with a sigh of relief, “I’ll clean this mess up while you go upstairs.”
“Thank you number one assistant,” Twilight said as she walked up the step to try to get a more restful sleep.
Torrential rain poured, as a fast wind threaten destroy anything not firmly attached to the ground. Leaves on the trees whipped around violently as the apples that have yet to be harvested were tossed and thrown to an untimely end. The scene on this small farm was one of pure chaos. Crops were being thrashed about by the wind and animals were running around in panic as the rain relentlessly fell, much to the frustration of one farmpony.
“Consarnit,” yelled a orange earth pony mare, “the rain a coming down too fast, make sure the animals git to the barn safe, Mac.”
“Eeyup,” replied the large stallion, Big Mac.
“I’ll go and make sure none of them got lost,” she said as she looked toward the orchard.
“Applejack be safe now,” Big Mac shouted over the roaring rain.
Applejack noded in affirmation as she ran off into the dark orchard. The once familiar orchard now felt cold and unforgiving. The wind assaulted the trees causing them to shake violently, as water pelted her form. Having her vision limited, from the now increasingly more powerful storm, caused Applejack to become disoriented. Despite having grown up on this farm, she now found herself among unsettling trees and an oppressive darkness. Her fast gallop slowed down to a trot and then stop altogether.
The forest she now found herself in felt unnatural and hostile. The ground itself seemed to reject her presence. As her fear started taking over Applejack began to run. It did not matter where to her, anything to get away from this cursed forest. The trees however would have none of this. Dark vile branches lashed out from the tree, striking Applejack. This attack knocked her off balance and sent her head first into a gaping maw of one of the demonic trees that surrounded her. The mouth of the tree snapped shut tightly around her neck. She could feel blood ooze down her neck, as the mouth tighten its grasp over the poor mare.
Slowly being strangled, Applejack saw a point of light off in an impossible distance. As it began to approach her face she could make out a very sharp protrusion nearing her face as well. It stopped just short of Applejacks forehead drawing a small amount of blood.
“HA HA HA HA,” a creepy laugh echoed through Applejacks mind. Hearing the malicious intent in its raspy ungodly voice. She started to panic. As Applejack struggled, the voice sounded once again and the sharp protrusion reared back as if to strike.
“no,” Applejack whispered in disbelief, “No NO NO”
The protrusion rushed forward as the mare cried out in primal agony, “NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
.
.
.
“Appleja-,” was all Big Mac could get out as his sister screamed and tackled him. Leaping up from her bed like she was being chased, she shoved herself into Big mac. She was about to run, until she saw who she had landed on. She then just slumped down into his arms. He looked down and saw how afraid she was. “It's alright, was just a dream,” he assured Applejack as she began to cry. Big Mac pet his sister while humming an old lullaby tune until she went to sleep.
