Nightmare Moon on Oak Street

Chapter 5: I’ll Leave You In Stitches

“Yes… yes… oh YES!” Nightmare Moon breathed out. Dash’s scream tore her throat raw. Twilight’s eyes locked onto Dash and all of the remaining pieces of ice scattered across the hardwood floor. She tried, and failed, to imagine how the pieces would fit back together. Perhaps if she had more time, she could work on this macabre, three-dimensional puzzle…

“RAINBOW DASH!” Fluttershy screamed. Twilight turned her head to look dumbly at Fluttershy. “WE NEED A HOSPITAL!”

“HA-HA-HA-ha-ha-ha…” Nightmare Moon’s laughter grew distant, as if the sound came from a retreating train. The tone grew lower and lower. Twilight blinked away tears, then rubbed her eyes. Everything grew fuzzy and indistinct. Twilight felt like she was looking through a camera lens that badly needed calibration.

Her breath hitched in her throat. My friends! she thought. Twilight could clearly see her friends, but now everything else looked even fuzzier, as if the world had only so much focus to give and had to take some from everything else in order to keep her friends sharp. Everything is soft… and quiet… and warm? Wasn’t it snowing outside? It’s like I’m in a big bed… Twilight mused.

Twilight blinked once more, and when she opened her eyes, everything had changed. She stood in a hospital room with dingy white linoleum. Florescent lights that occasionally flickered, and always gave off a low hum, hung from the ceiling. A single window to her left looked out onto green, sunny fields. A heavy, wooden door on Twilight’s right hung ajar, but no light came from the opening. A gray moth beat itself against the lights, making a quiet thud every second or so. Two beds with sterile metal frames stood against the opposite wall. Twilight’s heart skipped a beat when she looked at them.

Rarity lay in the left bed, Dash in the right. Pinkie sat in a chair by the window near Rarity, eating from her bag of candy at a steady pace, like a machine. Spike stood on a stool to Rarity’s right, clutching her right hoof and rubbing it slowly. Fluttershy stood on Dash’s left, crying softly as she finished wrapping Dash’s wing. “Rainbow Dash! Are you alright?” Twilight asked, hope bubbling in her.

Dash sobbed, and with a shaky movement, pulled her left foreleg out from under the covers. It ended just past her knee in a tightly wrapped bandage. Fresh tears burst out of Dash when she glanced over her shoulder. “My wing!” she cried. “I… I can’t fly! It’s my worst nightmare!”

Twilight shot to Dash’s side. “Don’t worry, this is all in my… our heads!”

Dash cried again, big, sloppy tears bubbling out of her. “That’s not what Luna said! My wing… my real wing is gone! You can have my leg, but gi-hive me b-back my wi-hing!” Dash broke down into pitiful sobbing. Twilight couldn’t understand anything else she said through all the blubbering.

“Shh… there-there, Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy whispered. “I’m so sorry, I’ll make it up to you. Please, let me help.” As she spoke, Fluttershy slowly grew to normal size. She looked at Dash with soft eyes, dabbing away tears and mumbling assurances that Twilight couldn’t hear. It seemed to have some effect, because Dash’s sobbing subsided to quiet weeping.

That’s when Twilight heard the candies drop and skip across the floor. Like a filly dropping a bag of marbles, little pastel candies rolled across the linoleum and around Twilight’s hooves. Twilight looked past the beds at Pinkie. “This candy is tasteless,” she said, with the tone of a funeral director. Pinkie’s hair completely deflated. It hung around her, limp and straight.

Twilight’s eyes grew wide as she remembered what Luna had said to her. ‘An insane pony is a perfect host for Nightmare Moon.’ Twilight gulped, and trotted around the room to stand near Pinkie. First things first— I’ve got to distract her, keep her sane. Twilight thought. “So… isn’t it nice in here? Our friends are going to get better, right Pinkie?” That’s the ticket, make everypony think about getting better, and we will!

Rarity sniffed. “I’m so sorry. This is all my fault…”

“No it isn’t! Don’t be like that, Rarity!” Spike replied. He rubbed her foreleg again. “You’re going to be fine. Dash is going to be fine. We’re safe here, right?”

Rarity swallowed and said, “I suppose so. This is where I spent the weekend after falling into the frozen lake.”

Twilight turned to Rarity and smiled. “So, you got better here? And the doctors certainly didn’t amputate anything. So… we’re safe!” Twilight gulped, and hoped nopony noticed. She glanced at Pinkie, then asked, “So, what’s around here, Rarity? Are there any books, or board games? You know, something to distract us while we pass the time?”

Rarity closed her eyes, and tears leaked out of their corners. Quiet, silent tears that evaporated in a grayish mist. “No, I didn’t leave this bed for two days. This isn’t a proper hospital, and there are no doctors. This is just a country clinic with a nurse who tends to broken bones, the flu, that sort of thing. She did her best, but she wasn’t a doctor, and she couldn’t say if I needed to have something amputated. They called the doctor, but this place is so remote, it took two days before he arrived…”

Twilight’s eyes widened in horror. “What did you do in the meantime?”

Rarity continued to cry softly. “I sat in this bed, worried sick that the doctor would say I had serious gangrene. That I would have to lose a limb, or limbs. Or even worse, that the gangrene had gone too deep and I would die.” The tears kept flowing, but Rarity seemed perfectly calm. “I sat for two days, and waited for death. Just waiting. It’s horrible to wait, not knowing like that. I wouldn’t wish it on anypony.”

Twilight gasped. “Rarity! Don’t say things like that! Think happy thoughts, like what happened when the doctor arrived and said everything was fine.”

Rarity gave a little smile, but the tears kept flowing. “I’m trying to, darling. You’re right, of course. I survived this little episode no worse for the wear. Right now, I can’t help but feel guilty about Dash’s wing and leg.”

Pinkie sighed loudly, drawing Twilight’s attention. She stared at Rarity and Dash in turn, focusing on their injuries. With another sigh, her eyes drifted in different directions. “Heh, just a dream. You know, inanimate objects can really talk in dreams… Isn’t that right, Applejack?” Twilight blinked, and Pinkie held a shiny, red apple in her lap. “You seem fine, Applejack. Perfectly healthy. I always keep my promises, you know. Heh-heh.” Pinkie’s chuckle abruptly died in her throat.

Twilight swallowed and put a hoof around Pinkie. “Say, Pinkie, how would you like to go for a walk? Get some fresh air? Just you and me, doesn’t that sound good?”

“W-well…” Pinkie’s eyes snapped forward and focused on Twilight.

“Is that wise?” Rarity asked. She looked at Twilight and Pinkie with clear eyes, and her ears perked up. “What if Nightmare Moon finds you?”

That’s what I’m trying to prevent! I think Nightmare Moon is tracking us by our fear. As long as we aren’t afraid, we’ll be fine. But if Pinkie goes insane… I don’t even know what could happen then! Twilight thought. “We’ll just be outside in the hall. We won’t go far, I promise.”

Pinkie jerked upright. “You promise?! Do you Pinkie Pie promise?”

Twilight gulped, and replied, “Yes, I Pinkie Pie promise we won’t leave this building without our friends. We’re not leaving our friends behind.” I hope I know what I’m doing. Twilight thought, as she executed the proper motions.

Pinkie smiled, although her hair remained flat. “Yes! A promise! Good, okay, yeah, let’s take a walk.” Pinkie stood and trotted out of the room with the apple balanced on her head. Twilight followed right behind her.

Twilight used her magic to close the door once she exited the room. She and Pinkie stood on a small circle of light, the door and a bit of the wall illuminated. Beyond that, there existed only darkness. “Huh, I guess Rarity didn’t imagine anything beyond that room.” Twilight closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them.

They stood in a long hallway that seemed to stretch on forever in either direction. Clean, white tiles covered the floor. The walls and ceiling were painted a light beige. Pinkie giggled, “Wow, this hallway is LONG! How insane is that?”

Twilight shook her head. “No-no, that’s not right! Things should be calm, and make sense. They should be sane. Yes, sane, not insane. Insane bad, sane good.” Pinkied looked at Twilight with one brow raised. “Heh, um, let me fix that,” Twilight said.

A pair of walls slid out of the ceiling on either end of the hallway. One end had a window looking into the same field as the window in the room, while the other end had a pair of swinging doors with thin windows near the handles. A sign hung on the opposite wall which said “quiet please, patients recovering.” Twilight nodded and said, “That’s a little better. Say, why don’t we throw a get-well-soon party for Rarity and Dash?”

Pinkie gasped, “Twilight, you’re a genius! Can we invite Applejack too?” Pinkie asked.

Twilight glanced at the apple on Pinkie’s head. “Well…”

“Yeah, I’d love to go! Are ya gonna plan this here shindig, Pinkie?” Pinkie said, with exceedingly poor ventriloquism.

“Of course I am!” Pinkie replied. With a fwump! Pinkie’s hair returned to its cotton candy-like state. Her hair flung the apple on a short flight through the air, before she caught it with a hoof. She grinned one of her normal grins, then said, “It’s gonna be a great party! It’ll help Rarity and Rainbow Dash feel better!”

Twilight truly smiled. And that might actually make them better! she thought. She suppressed a little gasp of wonder as Pinkie continued chatting with the apple, her every breath releasing vapor.

Pinkie didn’t breathe out black vapor; it looked like some kind of psychedelic, rainbow-colored vapor. Pinkie didn’t seem to notice it, but Twilight watched as it drifted through the air for a moment before getting sucked into the apple. Twilight could feel no breeze, no movement of the air, but she could clearly see the colors being drawn into the apple by some invisible force. She watched in amazement as the apple absorbed the strange vapors.

“Hello? Equestria to Twilight!” Pinkie hollered, as she waved a hoof in Twilight’s face.

“What?” Twilight asked, shaking her head. “Sorry, I… was just thinking.”

Pinkie giggled and said, “Ohhh, careful, that’s a dangerous thing to do here! I was saying we should decorate. This hallway needs some balloons, streamers, and we all need party hats!” As Pinkie said each thing, it blurred into reality. Or what passes for reality in dreams.

Twilight gazed in awe as primary-colored balloons tied to strings bounced around the ceiling. A streamer bearing the words “Get Well Soon!” hung over the doorway, and a small end table appeared near the door, bearing paper hats and cheap blow horns. Twilight giggled and said, “This is colorful.”

“I know, right? So much better than hospital white. I hate all-white rooms,” Pinkie replied with a sigh. Twilight nodded, then blinked as she watched Pinkie’s sigh turn into multicolored vapor and drift away.

“Did you see that?” Twilight asked, pointing in the air where the vapor flowed into the apple.

“See what?” Pinkie asked.

Twilight tilted her head at Pinkie. “I don’t know, some kind of colored smoke. You made it, didn’t you notice? It sort of looked like that black smoke that Fluttershy made earlier, but this stuff—”

“That’s crazy talk, Twilight! I’ve never done that sort of thing! You’re the one making all that black smoke!” Pinkie exclaimed.

Twilight shook her head as if she’d been slapped. “What? What are you talking about? I’m the only one who hasn’t made that stuff. It’s okay, I don’t blame you. I don’t think anypony made it on purpose. I think it’s—”

“Excuse me? Twilight, you were breathing nothing but black smoke when Nightmare Moon was about to… I don’t know, possess you? We were all scared for Applejack, but if that black smoke is fear, then you were the biggest scaredy-cat of all of us!” Pinkie said with a smile, as if she reported the weather.

“That’s… fascinating! So each pony cannot see the emotions they generate, but they can see the emotions of others.” Twilight rubbed her temple with a hoof. “Maybe that’s how Nightmare Moon could tell what each of us were thinking. She could just look at the color of our… smoke, or aura, or whatever it is?” Twilight looked around, and a lightbulb literally flashed into existence above her head for a second. “And if I put your emotions in context, I can almost read your mind! You’re feeling happy right now!” Twilight exclaimed.

“I am!” Pinkie said, and her breath turned yellow!

“Incredible!” Twilight watched the vapor dissipate. “That means I can sense things by the colors in the air…!” Twilight had to squint her eyes. The transparent air suddenly burst with colors she hadn’t noticed before. Vapors of almost every color swirled in little eddies, circling around objects, and especially Pinkie. The only area that looked clear existed around Twilight herself, at least, as far as she could tell.

Twilight watched the yellow vapor that Pinkie breathed spread into her balloons. She could see an assortment of yellow, blue and pink leaking from the door leading into the room with her friends. She could also see the rainbow vapor from earlier cling tightly to the apple Pinkie once again set on her head. Pinkie waved a hoof in Twilight’s face again. “Hello? Did you get lost in thought again?” Pinkie asked with a giggle. “You shouldn’t get lost in there, it isn’t foreign territory for you!”

Twilight blinked, and watched as a sickly, green vapor flowed into the hallway from the crack at the base of the double doors. That’s coming from outside. Wait… are those Nightmare Moon’s emotions? Okay-okay, calm down. What does green mean? Green means envy, right? I guess Nightmare Moon wants something we have… Friendship? No, probably just a living body. If I follow that stuff, I’ll find Nightmare Moon. Does that mean she can find us the same way?! Twilight’s eyes went wide. She glanced at the hospital room where her friends lay injured. “We need to hide!” As soon as she said it, a gurney with a sheet draped over it appeared just inside the hall, near the double doors. Twilight dove under it and held the sheet up, beckoning Pinkie inside.

Pinkie looked at Twilight with wide eyes and her mouth slightly open. With each breath, Twilight could see a thick, black mist escape. “Twilight, you’re scaring me,” Pinkie whispered. Pinkie crawled under the gurney with Twilight. She gulped and whispered, “If we’re hiding, we should be in the dark.”

The lights went out.

Twilight lit her horn, but let out only a tiny speck of light. Twilight glanced at the sheet, and imagined it thick enough to contain the tiny light, then she used her magic to carefully pull the sheet so they were completely hidden. Twilight watched as Pinkie, curled into a ball next to her, breathed out more black vapor. No! Don’t give us away! she thought.

The double doors creaked open. Twilight’s heart hammered in her chest. Heavy, shod hooves tromped into the hallway. Without warning, a lithium-laced laugh ripped down the corridor, like nails on a chalkboard. Twilight heard a bored sigh. Then Nightmare Moon’s voice sing-songed, “Come-out come-out wherever you are!” Twilight heard a breath being sucked into a nose. “I know you’re here somewhere, I could smell the insanity! Delicious! Fear tastes wonderful, but insanity… that’s a special treat!” Twilight heard a sniff, like a bloodhound trying to pick up the trail, and she shuddered.

Twilight looked at Pinkie, her heart pounding in her chest. Twilight almost cried, she felt so happy. The black vapor Pinkie breathed out didn’t flow out into the hallway. Instead, it floated up and got absorbed by the apple sitting in Pinkie’s mane. I’ve got to distract Nightmare Moon! Twilight thought. She peered out under the sheet, and stifled a scream.

Nightmare Moon stood less than a stride away, fully armored, and surrounded by green and red vapor, like fire. Light from a single bulb hanging from the ceiling outside the open doors spilled into the hallway, backlighting Nightmare Moon. Her eyes searched up and down the hallway, but she didn’t seem to find anything in the dark. Twilight glanced at a blank spot on the opposite wall behind Nightmare Moon and squeezed her eyes shut. I hope this works!

When Twilight opened her eyes, her heart skipped a beat. Now, an open laundry chute waited for her on the wall. Twilight took the apple in her magic, and silently floated it behind Nightmare Moon and into the laundry chute. Then she released her magic, and the apple fell into the abyss. “Not going to come out and play?” Nightmare Moon asked. Another bloodhound-like sniff. “Hmm? What’s this? You’re not on this floor, you’re below?” Nightmare Moon turned and sniffed the open laundry chute. “Oh, a hospital basement! This is too easy. Well, if you’re going to imagine a hospital, I’ll make sure you get the full treatment!” Another laugh ripped down the hallway, and the double doors banged closed behind Nightmare Moon.

Twilight let out a shuddering breath. She turned to Pinkie and realized they were both soaked with sweat. Still shaking, Twilight crawled out from under the gurney, and Pinkie followed her. “Why did you do that?!” Pinkie cried. Twilight glanced at the double doors, her eyes wide, but they didn’t move. Nor did she see the form of Nightmare Moon appear on the other side of the glass.

“I had to get rid of Nightmare Moon. What if she found our friends?” Twilight replied.

“But did you have to sacrifice Applejack to do it?” Pinkie asked.

Twilight blinked, then realized Pinkie referred to the apple. “Pinkie, that’s just a figment of your imagination. It wasn’t really Applejack.”

Pinkie sniffed, on the verge of tears. “But what am I going to do without any candy or my special friends?” As she began crying, Twilight watched in horror as Pinkie breathed out a psychedelic miasma of vapors.

“Pinkie… look at me,” Twilight said softly. Pinkie looked at Twilight and sniffed. Twilight hugged Pinkie, who returned the gesture. “It’s going to be alright. I’m going to help you.”

“You will?” Pinkie asked, her sobbing easing.

“Of course I will, I’m your friend.” Twilight smiled, and gently pushed Pinkie on the gurney. A notepad, pencil, and pipe which blew bubbles appeared around Twilight. “Now, I have a theory, and I want you to help me. Will you do that?”

“Okay,” Pinkie replied. “Are you going to psychoanalyze me?”

“Well, sort of. I’m trying to figure out why that apple seemed to… absorb emotions. Tell me about that apple,” Twilight commanded.

“Applejack,” Pinkie deadpanned.

“Alright, Applejack.”

“Well, when I get nervous, I used to eat candy. But my Mom and Dad didn’t want me to get fat, so they told me not to do that. The trouble was I’d get so anxious I’d start breathing really fast, then I would pass out. Dad just told me to calm down, but that didn’t help. After the third time, Mom made Dad took me to this place they called a ‘sanatorium.’ The doctors there helped me a lot. They told me I should just put my bad thoughts into my new friend! You know, Mr. Alligator,” Pinkie said.

Twilight scribbled furiously in her notepad as Pinkie spoke. She nodded a few times, then asked, “Mr. Alligator, you mean Gummy?”

“Hmmm? No, Mr. Alligator is a stuffed toy they had at the sanatorium, silly! I got Gummy after I left, because they wouldn’t let me take Mr. Alligator with me. He ate all my fears, chomp-chomp! Just like that!” Pinkie replied, making the chomping motion with her mouth. “That’s why we need to get Applejack back! Who’s going to eat all my fears if I she isn’t here?”

Twilight jotted down more notes. “Why don’t you imagine Mr. Alligator? He can help you, right?”

Pinkie gasped, “And take him away from the other patients who need him? I’d feel super bad about that, Twilight. I guess I could share him with the other ponies—”

Twilight cut Pinkie off as quickly as she could. “NO! Don’t think about mental ponies! Think of something else!” Twilight furtively glanced around the hallway, but nopony appeared. “Let’s just go home.”

Pinkie gasped at Twilight. “We can’t leave! You promised!” Pinkie’s hair went flat.

Twilight facehoofed. “Of course, we won’t leave. Let’s think about something else.”

Pinkie’s hair got poofy again. “Okay, but what about Applejack? She’s already got my fears, right?” Pinkie asked.

Twilight screwed her face up in concentration. “Let me think for a moment. If the apple—”

“Applejack!” Pinkie corrected.

Twilight sighed. “If Applejack has your fears, does that mean you’re not scared of anything? Are you fearless?”

Pinkie shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe? I’m a little surprised I’m not scared of all that sanitorium stuff over there.” Pinkie pointed to the double doors at the end of the hall.

“Sanitorium stuff? Pinkie it’s just a hall—!” Twilight’s eyes went wide when she followed Pinkie’s hoof and saw the hallway beyond the double doors through the little windows. Where there had been a plain hallway, now there existed some kind of bustling hospital, complete with doctors and patients! “Whoa! Pinkie, did you imagine all that?”

Pinkie shrugged again. “I don’t know, I don’t think so. I hated that place; it was all boring and calm. Except for that one time—”

“Stop!” Twilight stuffed a hoof into Pinkie’s mouth, silencing her. She looked sheepish and withdrew her hoof. “Sorry, I just don’t want you to be afraid. That’s dangerous in this place.”

Pinkie nodded and replied, “Yeah, but I’m not scared of that one time the sanatorium went into lockdown and that psycho with a bone saw got loose.”

Twilight’s eyes went wide. “Pinkie… That’s dangerous! Like, finding-an-alligator-in-your-bathtub dangerous! How can you not be scared of that?”

“Ummm…” Pinkie looked at the strange hospital on the other side of the double doors and sat on her haunches, with a hoof to her chin. “I was super scared at the time, but I’m not scared now. I know my good friend Applejack is here to help me!” Pinkie giggled while her eyes briefly looked in different directions.

Twilight shuddered as she watched Pinkie breathe out a little more rainbow-colored vapor with her giggling. “Pinkie, I think we should find Applejack before Nightmare Moon does. We wouldn’t want her to… hurt Applejack.” I can’t let Nightmare Moon get ahold of that apple. Who knows what she’ll do with it! Plus, I need to test a theory. If it works, we can beat Nightmare Moon! Twilight thought.

“Oh, absolutely. You’re such a special friend, Twilight!” Pinkie replied. Pinkie produced another bag of candy from nowhere and stuffed her face again. “Do you want some?” Pinkie asked, offering Twilight a hooful of colorful candies. “They taste great!”

~~~~~

Twilight stepped past the double doors right behind Pinkie. They had explained to their friends Twilight’s plan to recover ‘Applejack.’ Nopony wanted to join them. Rarity and Dash had injuries, while Spike and Fluttershy didn’t want to leave their charges. Fluttershy weakly objected to Twilight going on her own, so they agreed Twilight should take Pinkie along. Twilight gulped as she looked down the hallway and into the strange hospital.

This hospital looked like none Twilight had ever seen, or ever hoped to see. It was more of a cross between a hospital and a carnival funhouse. The patients being pushed in wheelchairs or wandering down the hallways looked vacant, their eyes unfocused, their heads bowed. The doctors and nurses all seemed to be carrying the filthiest equipment imaginable; grimy scalpels, broken stethoscopes, chipped clipboards, and rusty syringes seemed to be the only things they had. The white medical uniforms all seemed to be splattered with a combination of blood and what Twilight hoped was dirt. While the patients seemed docile, the medical staff hurried about the hallways with manic grins.

The lights overhead flickered as another doctor brushed past Twilight, pulling a mare wearing a filthy hospital gown into a side room with a dirty mattress strewn on the floor. His maniacal laughter cut short when the door closed. “We shouldn’t stay here,” Twilight whispered to Pinkie.

Pinkie seemed totally unperturbed by the things around her. “Yeah, what if one of the nurses tries to give us medication? Then we have to fake swallow it, wait for her to leave, find a planter, and spit it out. What a waste of time!”

Twilight’s eyes tracked a nurse who pushed a cart with trays, calling out, “Lunch time!” Twilight only glanced at the plates before turning away. The plates held moldy hay, the cups held muddy water, and the ‘dessert’ consisted of one-half a wormy apple. Twilight put a hoof to her mouth and kept herself from retching.

Pinkie glanced over her shoulder. “Oh, I know, hospital food is so gross. I couldn’t wait to get out so I could eat candy again!” Pinkie ate another hooful of candy. “So good...”

They trotted down the hall, which seemed to go on forever. Twilight felt in her gut Nightmare Moon’s influence over everything in the hospital. It was a funhouse carnival designed to parade the worst a pony could experience in such a place. In one room, Twilight saw a surgeon with a bone saw hacking off a screaming unicorn’s horn. In another, a mare strapped to a gurney was having her mouth sewn shut by a giggling nurse. Her struggling caused for some rather uneven needlework; she got stabbed repeatedly in the lower half of her face. A sobbing mare with a torn hospital gown curled into a ball while another patient, a gray stallion, threw himself at her. He licked her neck and ears, while grinding against her with lewd laughter. The nurse who walked by nodded at the stallion and mumbled, “Get it all out, there’s a good boy.” The lights continued to flicker and the walls got progressively dirtier as Twilight and Pinkie proceeded.

Pinkie pronked down the hallway with Twilight close behind. Twilight’s stomach did a backflip at several of the sights, but she shook her head at everything. “That isn’t sanitary… what kind of procedure is that…? No real doctor would do such a thing… Now that’s just silly…” Pinkie and Twilight walked by a pegasus mare in a wheelchair who repeatedly, violently, banged her head on the wall. “Pinkie, are you scared of this stuff? Because… I’m not. Not really. I mean, seriously? What kind of nurse would be allowed to work in a hospital looking like that?” Twilight asked, as she pointed to a nurse wearing a blood-spattered skirt and a stupid grin, holding a rusty syringe. “Are ponies really afraid of this sort of thing? Because logically, this would never happen. Not in a million years. I’m more grossed out than scared. Even ponies without any medical training at all wouldn’t do this. It’s so…”

“Silly?” Pinkie asked. “I know, it’s like somepony is trying to scare us without really knowing what scares us. This would make an awesome haunted house at the next Nightmare Night, though, don’t you think?”

Twilight almost bumped into the elevator doors. “Oh, I guess we’re here. Wherever ‘here’ is.”

With a pleasant ding, the center elevator opened and three white fillies wearing little nurse uniforms trotted out. Each carried a basket of slimy apples. “Time for extra dessert,” the fillies called out, as they passed the apples to the hooves of several eager patients.

Twilight looked away and stuck her tongue out. “Gross, but not really scary. At least not to me. Nightmare Moon is going to have to be more creative if she wants to scare us.”

“C’mon, Twilight. We’re almost there!” Pinkie pronked into the elevator.

Twilight followed and glanced at the buttons. She snorted and thought, Of course. Of the dozen or so buttons in the elevator, only two worked. The rest were either missing, or badly smashed. Instead of floor numbers, the buttons held labels. The floor they were on had the label, “Floor full of friendship idiots.” At the bottom, the button which should have led to the basement instead held the label, “The autopsy of Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight gulped. “Okay, I’ll admit, that’s ominous.”

Twilight pushed the button. As the elevators doors closed, the three white fillies trotted down the hall and sang, “One, two, she’s coming for you…”

The lights didn’t flicker as the elevator slowly descended, smooth jazz playing in the background. Pinkie flattened her ears at the sound. “So boring…”

Twilight sighed. “Well, this isn’t really scary. Maybe Nightmare Moon really isn’t that powerful without being fed some kind of fear from us.” A pencil and notepad appeared in Twilight’s aura. She scribbled a few notes and smiled. “More evidence for my theory…”

~~~~~

“He-he-he,” the three little fillies giggled as they entered the room. “Hi there, we’ve been looking all over for you.”

Spike and Fluttershy looked across the room at the three strange fillies that stood just inside the doorway. They were dressed in little nurse uniforms. They looked almost identical, with white coats and red, green, and blue eyes, respectively. They had no cutie marks. “What are you doing here?” Spike asked.

“We’re here to help you,” the first filly said.

“Pinkie Pie put all of her good feelings into this apple,” the second filly said.

“Yeah, all of her joy and laughter. Then she imagined us to bring it to you,” said the third filly.

They carried a single, shiny red apple. They brought it to Rainbow Dash, but Fluttershy held out a hoof. “Um… wait, I’m not sure about this.”

“Yeah, nothing is what it looks like around here!” Spike said, as he narrowed his eyes at the fillies. “How do we know Pinkie sent you?”

“Well, I did see those fillies with Pinkie back at Applejack’s barn,” Rarity supplied. “But, how will eating an apple make anypony feel better?”

“You’re right that things aren’t always what they appear to be,” said the first filly.

“But we’re telling the truth. Pinkie Pie is the one who imagined us,” said the second filly.

“And food absorbs all kinds of feelings in dreams,” said the third filly.

“You want to get better, dont you?” asked the first filly.

“This apple absorbed Pinkie’s laughter. Until you eat it, she can’t laugh again,” said the second filly.

“Yeah, and if you do eat it, you’ll feel better, happier. It’s a win-win. It’s what Pinkie Pie wants. She imagined me, so I know what she wants,” said the third filly.

“Really?” Dash croaked. She turned to Spike. “Can you tell what Twilight wants?”

“Um, maybe?” Spike replied. “I felt kinda grossed out a minute ago. Now I just feel… bored and anxious? Maybe that’s just my feelings. I want Rarity to get better. Oh, and you too, Dash. I’m a little anxious about that.”

Fluttershy smiled and squeezed her eyes shut. A banana appeared in her outstretched hooves. She looked momentarily surprised, then stared at it intently. “Darling, what are you doing?” Rarity asked.

“Well, I’m trying to put good feelings into this banana. Then I can feed it to Rainbow Dash, and she’ll feel better.” Fluttershy blinked, and peeled the banana carefully. It appeared normal. She offered it to Rainbow Dash with a smile.

“Really? After all you’ve done, you think a banana is going to fix everything?” Dash replied. She sniffed and looked at her missing wing.

“Please, just try it,” Fluttershy begged.

Dash snorted. “Fine.” She allowed Fluttershy to feed her the banana, with the three fillies looking on, smiling and nodding. Dash sighed once the banana was gone. The welts covering her disappeared, and her eyelids became heavy. “Wow, that worked! My leg and wing don’t hurt anymore.” She glanced under the covers and sighed. “Still gone.”

“That’s because you didn’t think it would work,” said the first filly.

The second filly turned to Rarity and asked, “You believe this will work, don’t you?”

“Please hurry, Pinkie is about to enter a dangerous place. She needs her laughter back,” implored the third filly.

Rainbow Dash yawned, her eyelids growing heavy. “What happens if I sleep when I’m asleep?”

Fluttershy gasped. “Oh my, it worked! I wanted you to rest and feel better! You’ll be right as rain when you wake up.”

“Huh, maybe this food thing will work. What do you think, Spike?” Rarity asked.

Spike put a claw to his chin. “I think… TWILIGHT!” he shouted, and then he vanished in a puff of white smoke.

“Oh no, Twilight is in trouble,” said the first filly.

“You need to help her,” said the second filly.

“Eat this, quickly!” The third filly offered the apple to Rarity.

Dash eyed the apple skeptically, while Fluttershy looked at the spot where Spike was, her mouth agape. “Alright, I’ll eat it. I’ll be the guinea pig,” Rarity said. “If Spike is gone, that means Twilight is in trouble, and she might need help. I’ve got to help my friends, even if that means charging into battle or making a sacrifice.”

The fillies darted across the room and hoofed the apple to Rarity. She took it in her magic and held it to her mouth. “Be careful,” Fluttershy said. “I don’t want to see anypony else get hurt.” Dash nodded off, her head sinking into the pillow.

Rarity smiled and said, “Nonsense. You should give ‘til it hurts.”

crunch

Rarity chewed the apple while the three fillies surrounded her bed, whispering into her ears.

Fluttershy looked at the door. “I hope Twilight is okay, and I hope Dash will be better when she wakes up.”

“Why, of course Dash needs my help!” Rarity exclaimed. With a start, Fluttershy spun around to find Rarity standing, her wounded hoof soaking her bandage. Rarity’s grin seemed… strange, like she had just heard an extremely funny joke and couldn’t help but laugh, even if laughing hurt her stomach. “That apple was wonderful! It was full of rainbows and blood!”

Fluttershy blinked several times, her mouth agape. “Wh-what? What are you talking about? Where did those fillies go?”

Rarity tilted her head sharply, popping her neck, as she stared at Fluttershy. “They’re inside of me, just like we’re inside of us! All those coverings, covering the wonderful colors underneath!” Rarity eyed Fluttershy, her manic grin unwavering.

“Rarity, stop it. You’re scaring me. What’s wrong with you?” Fluttershy asked. That’s when she noticed the apple core on the bed. It was full of rainbows! A multi-colored mist quickly leaked out of the apple’s remains. The mist coalesced on the bed and on the floor. Little rainbow-colored candies appeared, like tight knots of rainbow vapor. Fluttershy watched in awe as the candies spread across the bed and floor. “Are those the candies Pinkie was eating earlier?”

Rarity took a step towards Fluttershy. “We have to help Rainbow Dash. Don’t worry, Fluttershy, we’re full of thoughts! Thoughts with blood-and-bone-and-pain-and-unity... and sewing! How could I forget sewing! Fluttershy! We have to sew our thoughts up! Just dress her up again! Zip and stitch, that’s the ticket!”

Fluttershy took an involuntary step back. “Rarity, stop it! What are you talking about? Have you gone—” Fluttershy glanced at the apple. “—crazy?”

“Crazy?! I’m not crazy!” Rarity shouted. “Would a crazy pony go tromping through a hospital with a bone saw?” With a flash, a bone saw appeared in Rarity’s aura. A fearsome, jagged edge just below rusty splotches reflected in Fluttershy’s wide eyes. “Now just hold still, Fluttershy. This will hurt. A LOT!”

Fluttershy screamed.

~~~~~

Twilight sighed as the smooth jazz continued. “Wouldn’t I be dead if they were doing an autopsy on me? That might be scary for my friends, but how is that scary for me?” The bell dinged, and the elevator stopped. “Oh finally, we’re here!” Pinkie cracked an eye open, and pulled her tongue back into her mouth. It had only been a few minutes, but Pinkie acted like they’d been in the elevator for years.

“AHHHH!” Twilight screamed as she stepped out of the elevator and fell into space. Tumbling end over end, she fell for what felt like miles. She slammed onto a cold, hard surface, and something snapped over her limbs, stretching them taut. Groaning, Twilight opened her eyes. She found herself in the middle of an amphitheater, on a cold, sterile, metal table. Straps held her legs, wings, torso, and head.

Twilight coughed once, and a bit of blood spattered onto her face. Focusing, she took stock of the situation. She looked ‘up’ and saw the open elevator door. Pinkie stood in the elevator car, looking at the short step to the amphitheater. Pinkie stepped down and stood next to Twilight. “Seriously, Twilight? It wasn’t that far.”

“Get me out of here!” Twilight cried. “We’ve got to find Applejack, remember?”

Pinkie sniffed… and breathed out a black vapor. “I hate being tied up. They call ‘em restraints in the sanitarium, but they just tie you up. I wasn’t trying to hurt anypony! Why did they do that? Why did they lock me in those little rooms, like a padded elevator, playing boring music? It was so boring, I thought I’d go crazy.”

“I’m… sorry about that, Pinkie. Please, just get me out of here!” Twilight replied.

Pinkie sniffed, then bit down on the straps holding Twilight. She pulled and pulled, but they didn’t budge. “I can’t do it, Twilight. I’m sorry.”

“Shall we begin the autopsy?” Nightmare Moon followed her own question with another high-pitched laugh. “What’s inside Twilight Sparkle? Is she full of fear? ... Or maybe there’s a little crazy in here!” Nightmare Moon stepped out from the shadows high on the edge of the amphitheater. She wore a surgical mask, and stood near a cart piled with surgical implements. Several identical brown stallions, all wearing doctors’ scrubs and surgical masks, filed in from behind her and took seats around the amphitheater. They all sat and stared at Twilight.

“I’m not afraid of you!” Twilight shouted. “As soon as I get off this table, I’m going to banish you right back to the moon!” Twilight glanced around, trying to find the missing apple.

Nightmare Moon flitted down to alight at the foot of the metal table. Pinkie quivered and backed away towards the elevator doors. “Hmm… interesting. You don’t smell frightened— that’s more like curiosity. Are you sure you don’t want to let me in, Twilight? Even if I trade Applejack?” With a flash of her horn, Applejack appeared in a cloud of white smoke, strapped upside down to a similar table as Twilight, but this one was bolted to the ceiling. Twilight could see Applejack stretched out, as if on a torture rack. The look on her face told Twilight how frightened she was.

“Not a chance! That isn’t Applejack, that’s just a figment of your imagination!” Twilight growled back.

Nightmare Moon looked momentarily thunderstruck, but she recovered quickly. “Oh my, Twilight. Impressive, most impressive. I thought distracting you with a little fall might make you scared, but all it did was break your concentration. A pity. I hope you weren’t imagining any figments to help you.” She noticed Twilight looking around for the apple, and smiled. Nightmare Moon ran a cold, shod hoof over Twilight’s chest and up under her chin. She forced Twilight to look at her; her grin did not show joy, only sharp teeth. “Looking for that little food item full of Pinkie’s fear and insanity? I’m afraid dropping it into subconscious space is a poor way to hide it. I found it just floating in the void here.” She ran her hoof down past Twilight’s chest and over her soft belly, slowly working her way lower. “I’m going to enjoy getting inside of you. And when I’m done, you’ll like it, too,” she whispered.

Pinkie slapped Nightmare Moon’s hoof away. “Leave her alone! What are you, crazy?”

Nightmare Moon put her hoof down and let out a long, lithium-laced laugh. “Crazy? CRAZY!” She suddenly stood and snarled. “You’re the crazy one! Holding down your friend Twilight like this! All I did was put her on the table and strap her down. It’s your fear that’s keeping her there.” Pinkie backpedaled and looked at Twilight with tears in her eyes. “It’s you who’s afraid of a psychopath with a bone saw, not me.”

“Leave her alone!” Twilight shouted. She watched the black vapors Pinkie breathed out, and the crimson stuff that surrounded Nightmare Moon, especially when she looked at Twilight. Nightmare Moon watched Twilight intently, but Twilight turned to Pinkie Pie instead. “Fight back, Pinkie. What about the party we’re going to throw?” Pinkie slowly brightened, and the doctors seated around the amphitheater suddenly had yellow smiley faces drawn on their masks. Twilight wiggled a hind hoof as one of the straps loosened. “That’s it, Pinkie— think about our friends!”

Nightmare Moon flapped her wings once and laughed again. “Yes, Pinkie. Think of your good friends, Fluttershy and Rarity. I need an assistant for the autopsy anyway!” She trotted in place, her metal shoes echoing on the tile underhoof. “Bring them here, right now. Oh, they’re so close, they could be down that hallway!” Nightmare Moon pointed a hoof at the entryway beyond the foot of the metal table. The strap loosened enough so Twilight could pull her head up and look ‘down’ at the darkened entryway.

Like looking into a camera rapidly focusing, Fluttershy came into view. The macabre hallway surrounded her as she tore down the hallway as fast as she could. Doctors, nurses, and patients all looked at her and laughed. She cried, tears streaming down her face, black vapor billowing out around her.

But it was Rarity, behind Fluttershy, that caused Twilight’s breath to freeze in her throat. Rarity stumbled behind Fluttershy, psychedelic vapors clouding around her. Her bloodshot eyes locked onto Fluttershy’s back. She hobbled on three legs! Her previously injured leg had been hacked off just above the knee, blood spurting from the stump. It didn’t seem to bother Rarity, who dragged a bone saw in her aura along the wall near her. It made a terrifying screech, like metal scraping against metal.

“C’mon, Fluttershy. It’s just a little ripping and tearing! I need some material to sew up Rainbow Dash!” Rarity called out.

Twilight screamed.