Twists and Turns without Bends or Curves

Twilight’s eyes slowly opened. Her muscles were aching, and her breathing was tight. This isn’t good. I wonder if it’s magic related. The nightmares were getting worse from three days ago. She looked towards Spike. Her heart lurched when she saw he was shivering; his teeth were snapped tight and his eye lids were wild as if being asleep and awake at the same time.

“Spike…” she said. Nothing.

“Spike wake up,” she began to get out of bed. He didn’t respond. Her own muscles didn’t respond when her hooves hit the ground and her weakness took her by surprise as she hit the ground. A billion vibrations shook her tired state both awakening her and suppressing her at the same time. She got up and walked towards Spike’s bed.

“S-spike,” she wheezed, “Please wake up.” She nudged him with a hoof.

It was enough. He jerked awake and gave the alicorn a stare. His eyes flooded with rolling tears and he lurched forward and hugged her neck. It’s affecting him too, she noticed, Maybe it’s a magical disturbance. No doubt Celestia would know about it by now, since she has a direct connection to Spike.

“T-twilight…” he stammered through gasps. “I’m here Spike,” she hugged him back.

“I know you said it would never come to pass… but it still hurts every time.” It took her a second to think about what that meant.

He must have dreamed that he was abandoned by her again.

As if that wasn’t enough, there was a knock heard at the front door. “Give me just a moment, okay?” she whispered, and he nodded as they broke. She trotted to the front door to spot Rarity. Oh thank goodness. She hung her head in exhaustion, “Oh Rarity, listen. I don’t think I’ll be able to make it to the Gala, I’m kind of si-” “Twilight,” was the only word said by the unicorn. She looked up and almost was surprised by what she saw. Rarity looked awful. Her eyes were dim, and her mane was messy and hanging. This meant only one thing.

The six of were gathered in Twilight’s Library room, which was now not as comfortable considering the walls were made of crystal rather than soft oak tree wood. Pinkie Pie hadn’t said a single word because she was too busy trying to keep her eyes open. Fluttershy was a bit more jumpy than her usual self, and Rainbow Dash was passed out cold. The entire group of friends looked defeated; they hung their heads in exhaustion and misery, and they carried themselves as if the weight of Equestria had just been put on them.

“So it looks like all of you have been having them then, huh,” Twilight said aloud. Surprisingly, Pinkie Pie was the first to respond, “Only last night.”

“I’ve had them for over three days,” Rarity said wide eyed, resting her face in her hooves, “Twilight make it stop,” she rushed over and threw herself on the princess, “Ma-ake it stooooopp!” she was sobbing her drama cry. Twilight looked down at her and gave her a stare. Rarity’s voice became quiet and high pitched, “I had to get another spa treatment… it didn’t help.”

“Rainbow Dash get up,” Applejack said, annoyed.

“H-huh, what?” she asked jerking her eyes open.

“Your attention span is deader than Pinkie Pie’s rock farm-” “Hey!” “-we’re trying to fix a problem here.”

Shoving Rarity off of her, Twilight continued, “Well girls, do you remember the last time all of us starting having nightmares like this?” The room became quiet as they pondered the question.

Rarity came first.

“No…” she said in disbelief.

You didn’t miss me, but I missed you.

The Alicorn looked around at where that came from. What was that?

“You don’t think the Nightmare Forces have returned, do you?” Fluttershy asked quietly. Twilight only shrugged, “It’s the only reasonable explanation. But seeing how both Rarity and Luna are cleansed of their influence, we don’t know which pony they could go after next.” Applejack had a look of terror on her face, “What if they were going to come for Celestia this time…” “That would not be awesome,” Rainbow Dash said, starting to get a worried look herself. AJ stopped dead when she heard that for some reason and gave a look at her friend. They’re all really jumpy.

“The Gala’s tomorrow, Twilight,” Pinkie Pie said despite her tired state, “I know if I were a monster made up of bad dreams that had a habit of corrupting powerful ponies and turning them into complete unstoppable terror machines, I’d definitely want to go to the Grand Galloping Ga-la!” she sang the last two syllables.

“It’s more than likely not a coincidence,” Rainbow stated, “Better go in with our Elements.”

“Wouldn’t hurt, I suppose,” Rarity said, “At least now we know what we’re up against.”

“Are we really supposed to take those off the Tree?” Fluttershy asked, “We just gave them back not that long ago.” Rainbow growled, “If those seeds sprout back up and turn Equestria into chaos, Discord’ll have to clean it up.” They all looked towards Fluttershy; even she couldn’t defend him in that manner.

“It’s settled then,” Applejack said, “We get the Elements, go to the Gala, fight the forces, and then come back and get life back to normal.” The six nodded. Too bad it’s not going to be a normal Gala this year.

***

Fluttershy hadn’t fully gotten used to going an entire night without sleep, so she was a bit slow and groggy with opening the door.

“Oh well hello there, dear Fluttershy!” the draconequus swooped in to greet her, “I trust your day has been well?” She nodded with no words, as he continued talking, “Did you get that… thing I asked for?” His mischievous eyes looked up and down.  She reached into her bag and pulled out a smaller one with his “request”. His eyes shone (literally) when he opened it, “YES!” and he ascended in the air, “A double decker, daisy sandwich! I’m starving!”

“Couldn’t you have just made that appear whenever you wanted?” she asked, looked up at him with a hint of annoyance. He stopped for a moment and came back down with a look of sincere sorrow, “But I thought we were friends… and friends do stuff for each other right?”

“Discord, yes, we’re friends, but you don’t have to starve yourself the entire day when you can get something yourself without me having to get it for you,” she said halfheartedly and looked in another direction to see where she could lay down. Now he definitely knew something was wrong.

“Fluttershy are you alright?” he asked with a bit of worry in his eyes and brought the couch closer for her so she didn’t have to walk all the way there. She was grateful for that and collected herself, “Yes, it’s just that the girls and I have been having nightmares these few nights.”

That triggered a spark of interest. “Nightmares?” he perked his ears and began pacing, “Hmmm that sort of magic has never been my expertise… it’s tricky stuff- very hard to detect if you aren’t ‘into’ it.” She just watched him pace back and forth. “Though nothing I-” he placed his talon on his chest, “-couldn’t get into.” That she heard.

“What do you mean by that?”

He stopped, and turned, “Nightmares are the result of conflict. Now,” he chuckled, “While chaos and conflict are not interchangeable all the time, they are… compatible,” a dark look overcame him, “All chaos is conflict, but not all conflict is chaos. Like this,” he manifested a cotton candy cloud with a snap of his talons. “Cotton candy and clouds do not match,” he giggled, “and yet here they are. Chaos, believe it or not is conflict becoming one with itself. The rawest form of unity and disagreement at the same time!” he made it vanish, “It makes perfect sense, and it doesn’t.”

She thought about that for a moment. “Would you be able to help in some sort of way?”

“But of course!” he said, “After all it’s only dark magic, and who doesn’t have that?” he leaned in closer to whisper in her ear, “After all even the Generous Rarity has had a taste of that stuff… TWICE!” he backed away, “Though say on, Luna’s level? No. After all she is cut out for this sort of thing.” We forgot to talk about that, Fluttershy recalled.

“Though, I wouldn’t be surprised, since you said the six of you were having it, that the Princess of the Moon and Sun would be experiencing the same,” he thought out loud.

“Haven’t you gotten any?” she asked, now a bit more engaged in the conversation.

“Me? No. My magic is one of a kind,” he flipped her mane, “It has no flow or stable presence. Though not convenient when trying to perform huge magical tasks, it makes for a handy home defense system!” he look excited when he said that, and then got back to her ear, “Just watch the next time mane man Tierk tries to take magic from some pony again.” He backed away. She thought about that.

“Well then maybe you can help after all.”