Nightmare on Stirrup Street

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 2

Chapter 1

Golden Harvest trotted happily through the garden, pleased with how well the crops were growing. She had put a lot of effort into making sure there was more than enough for winter, so that she could share with her friends and family if it became necessary. It was her own personal little plot so that she didn’t have to pay the Apple’s exorbitant prices all the time. There were some vegetables she just didn’t have the time nor resources to grow because they needed more care than usual, but this time, it had all worked out. Giant carrots. Massive lettuce. Colossal cabbage. It was everything she’d ever dreamed of it being. She should be able to save up enough bits this winter that she might be able to buy those fancy gardening tools she’d been eyeing. If only her pumpkins would get bigger before autumn was over. The running of the leaves had already happened and her pumpkins still hadn’t grown beyond the tiny green bulbs. She looked at the weak little squash sadly and poked one with her hoof.

Suddenly it shook, bulged slightly, and grew a few inches. Golden harvest jumped back, startled, but after it looked like it was done moving, she approached it again. She looked it over, but it looked like a regular pumpkin. She gave it a sniff, checked the vines and the roots, and couldn’t find anything out of place that might have caused the sudden burst in growth. Why did it grow, then? She leaned closer and gave it a lick. It tasted normal. Nothing weird on it. She spat just in case it was tasteless, but as soon as she did, it twitched again, bulged, then grew another few inches.

“What in the world?” Golden Harvest said in alarm.

It was growing so spontaneously! She looked around at the rest of the garden, and suddenly everything started growing! Carrot tops burst out of the soil, tossing dirt everywhere. Cabbage leaves spread wide, blocking the sun above her. The pumpkin turned a rich orange and grew larger and larger, reaching her own size, and continuing to swell. It got twice as big as her. Three times as big. Four times! Finally, once she had been dwarfed by her produce, the vegetables stopped growing. Golden Harvest slowly pulled her hoof away from protecting her head, and looked around. Her garden was filled with vegetables that would feed Ponyville for months! If these were properly chopped up and preserved, they’d last for years! A single happy tear rolled down her cheek and she reached out a shaking hoof to the pumpkin.

“Okay, don’t grow anymore please, but this is so amazing! I won’t have to buy anything from the Apples all winter!” Golden Harvest said. “I’m going to need help canning all of this, but if I share with everypony, I can get enough help. I’ll need to ask the flower sisters, for sure. Caramel might be willing to help out. Oh! I might even be able to get jars from Filthy Rich in exchange for some of the food! I could even take you to the fair, pumpkin. I’d surely win!” She said, hugging it as best she could. She felt it shift under her hooves, and pulled away in alarm. “No no! Please stop growing! You won’t fit in my garden anymore!” She pleaded.

The pumpkin didn’t grow, but it spun around to face her with a massive carved face, through which she could see a single candle burning with a blue flame inside it’s hollowed shell. The face was still for a moment, a wicked and frozen rictus grin gazing out at nothing. Golden Harvest was confused. It had just grown, why was it already carved?

Its eyes eventually moved, twisting, the chunk of pumpkin making up the pupils spinning in the empty sockets to point at her.

“Ah, Golden Harvest.” A cold, feminine voice said. “You spend so much time in the sun, trusting it. Loving it. Relying on it for your livelihood and well-being. I trust you appreciate what it has done for you today? Your vegetables are bountiful, giving of themselves in order to see that you might live.”

Unsure how to respond, Golden Harvest simply nodded.

“Of course. You are grateful, are you not? The sun provides, and you take from it. Praising it. Food grows in the moonlight as well, you know. There is more than one way to feed ponies. Why don’t we have a look?” The pumpkin said coolly.

As Golden Harvest watched, the pumpkin withered and rotted. As quickly as it had grown, it collapsed in on itself. Mold grew, spreading to the other vegetables as they all collapsed in on themselves.

“No, no, no! Please! I need those to eat! I can’t afford winter otherwise! The Apples will take everything!” Golden Harvest cried.

The remains of the plants disappeared into the soil, and night suddenly fell. The moon’s glow cascading down on her garden. As she watched, various mushrooms sprouted on the corpses of the plants. Morels, chanterelles, maitake, and many other varieties grew, even if they shouldn’t have been able to in such a spot. They grew massive and towered over her, replacing the greens and oranges of her lovely crops. One of them turned to her and smiled what might have been an attempted comforting smile, but only came off as creepy. Golden Harvest whimpered and began crying, falling down on the ground underneath the mushroom forest and covering her eyes with her hooves. She started sobbing and the world around her started wobbling as the poor mare woke up, leaving Luna alone in a twinkling void.

Applebloom’s head jerked away from her pillow. She sat up straight and panted hard. She looked out the window at how high the sun was and groaned. “Aw no! Ah slept in!” She leaped out of bed, quickly tied a bow into her hair and dashed down the stairs.

Granny Smith called out as she passed. “You be careful out there Applebloom!”

“I will Granny! Love you! Me and the Crusaders were gonna try our hooves at road construction!” She yelled back. Granny just shook her head and smiled as Applebloom disappeared off into the orchard. Applebloom waved to Big Mac, who silently waved back. Applejack wasn’t in sight, but she was probably on the other side of the farm. Applebloom dashed up the steps to the clubhouse and kicked open the door, startling the other two ponies who were already there.

“Applebloom, you’re late! We were supposed to meet ten minutes ago!” Sweetie Belle scolded.

“Ah know girls, ah’m sorry. Ah didn’t sleep too well last night so ah guess ah slept in.” Applebloom said sheepishly.

“Aw, it’s cool. We’ve all had days like that. So are you ready to become cutie mark crusaders road workers?!” Scootaloo said, holding up a hoof. The other two swung their own hooves up to meet hers and they yelled together: “Cutie Mark Crusaders road workers! YAY!”

The idea was Sweetie Belle’s. She’d seen some construction going on in Canterlot when she went with Rarity on a business trip. It had been incredibly boring even though she’d been told they’d go see a lot of cool sights. She’d been killing time staring out the window at the ponies rushing about. Taxi’s buzzing by. Unicorns strutting past with their noses in the air. Couriers dashing to and fro with packages. She’d finally latched on to a group fixing some broken cobblestones and had the epiphany! Road workers!

The majority of roads in Ponyville were dirt. This meant that whenever they had rain scheduled, nopony wanted to go outside because there would be mud in the streets. It would get splashed everywhere, messing up clothes, gunking up carts, and generally just being a nuisance. So the Cutie Mark Crusaders could fill a need, improve Ponyville, and get their cutie marks all at the same time! It was foolproof. The first they needed were cobblestones.

“Ah did some research, and ah figured out how cobblestone streets are generally made. We gotta find a big pile of round stones and then we just stick ‘em real close together in the dirt!” Applebloom said.

“Okay! I know where we can get a lot of good rocks!” Scootaloo said excitedly. “Everypony come on!” The three piled out of the clubhouse and down to where Scootaloo had parked her scooter. She attached Applebloom’s wagon to the back and the other Crusaders piled in, putting on their helmets. With a buzzing roar, Scootaloo revved up her wings and they were off.

They sped through town, Scootaloo deftly avoiding the ponies, carts, and obstacles as they went. While they rode through, Sweetie Belle held onto Applebloom with a pensive look on her face.

“What was your nightmare about Applebloom? If you want to share.” Sweetie asked.

“Ah don’t remember all of it, but ah remember ah was alone for all of it, except this… thing, following me around talking to me.” Applebloom said.

“A thing? What kind of thing?” Scootaloo called back, shouting to be heard over the buzzing of her wings.

“Ah don’t remember. Ah know ah didn’t ever get a good look at it at the very least. It kept telling me to spend more time outside at night.” Applebloom said, her brow furrowing.

Sweetie Belle tapped her chin with a hoof in thought. “That’s kinda similar to the one I had last night. Mine had a dress telling me it would shine best in moonlight.”

“That’s kind of weird.” Scootaloo called back.

“Well they’re just dreams, ain’t they? Other than the mention of night, there’s really nothin’ connecting ‘em.” Applebloom said.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Scootaloo said. “No time to really wonder too much, either. We’re here, girls!” Scootaloo skidded to a stop and the Cutie Mark Crusaders pulled off their helmet, looking out at the sight before them.

It must have once been a riverbed, as it was a deep, stony channel cutting through a section of land outside Ponyville. It was about as deep as Sugar Cube Corner was tall, with soft, rounded banks that sloped gently down on either side. In the dirt scattered all around were a bunch of rounded stones, worn down by the time they must have spent in the long-gone river. Scootaloo smiles proudly and held out a hoof, pointing at the river.

“I found this while I was looking for good places to jump off of to practice flying!” She said.

“Wow Scoots, this has the perfect kind of rocks we need! Now we just gotta collect a bunch of ‘em!” Applebloom said happily. “Okay! Let’s create a chain and start bringing them up!” Applebloom said. She hopped down off the bank and slid down a short distance. She picked up the first few rocks she found that were rounded and held one up, waving it at the other two fillies. “C’mon you two! We need to start collectin’!”

Scootaloo jumped down after her and grabbed the rock from her hooves. She turned and tossed it up at Sweetie Belle, who panicked and tried to catch it. She kicked it back up into the air, dashed around in small circles trying to figure out where it would land, and accidentally kicked it back down over the edge. Scootaloo and Applebloom watched it roll down the hillside and frowned up at Sweetie Belle. “Oops.” She said with a sheepish grin.

“Next time hold onto it a bit better Sweetie Belle. Just put ‘em in the wagon.” Applebloom said.

Sweetie Belle nods and catches the next rock and dumps it in the wagon. The three fillies dig up a good load of them, seeking out only the smoothest rocks they can find, and before long the wagon is full of stones and the Cutie Mark Crusaders are dirty and tired.

“So now we gotta drag all these back to town?” Sweetie Belle whined. “I’m tired!”

“Oh come on, Sweetie Belle. All you did was toss the rocks into the wagon. You didn’t even do any digging.” Scootaloo retorted.

“Don’t get so upset girls, complaining won’t get us nowhere. Scootaloo get on your scooter and start pulling, me and Sweetie Belle will push. I already know the place I want to fix up, and it’s not too far away.” Applebloom said.

With a groan and a roll of her eyes, Scootaloo put on her helmet, got on her scooter, and started flapping her wings. Applebloom got on the back of the wagon and butted her head against it, pushing with all her might.

“Ohhh, Rarity’s going to be so mad at me for messing up my mane.” Sweetie Belle complained, but she still started pushing as well.

It took the three fillies a while, but they eventually reached their destination; a small section of dirt road just across from Sugar Cube Corner. They flopped down to the ground, breathing hard. A few stray stones fell out of the wagon. Applebloom plodded to one side of the wagon, put her shoulder against it, and tilted the whole mess onto the packed dirt road.

“Alright girls, now, we just, -phew-, need to start digging.” Applebloom panted. She plopped down onto the ground, leaning against the upturned wagon.

“Do we have to? I don’t think I want to be a construction worker anymore.” Sweetie Belle whined.

“Me neither. My wings are sore, and my hooves still ache from all that digging from earlier. Maybe we should have brought a shovel.” Scootaloo said. She stretched her wings out with a light crackling sound.

Applebloom sat there in the dirt in silence for a moment, before letting her head lean against the wagon. “Yeah, maybe you’re right, Scootaloo. Whaddya say we take a break and maybe come back to this tomorrow? With a shovel.”

“I’m okay with that.” Scootaloo said.

“Can we get milkshakes?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Yeah! Milkshakes for the road workers!” Scootaloo crowed.

The three jumped up in a sudden burst of energy, leaving their mess of rocks in a pile, and disappeared into Sugarcube Corner, coming out much later licking their lips.

“Well girls, it’s been a productive day, but ah gotta get home and help Applejack with some chores. Same time tomorrow morning? Ah’ll bring a shovel this time.” Applebloom said.

“Yeah! I’ll bring some reflective vests!” Sweetie said happily.

“I think I can score some road cones from somewhere.” Scootaloo said.

“Fantastic! See y’all tomorrow!” Applebloom said, as she dashed off for home.

Applebloom arrived back to find Applejack and Big Mac cleaning up the barn and the farm, and she got quickly put to work running errands here and there, delivering tools among the shed and her siblings, and eventually was sent inside to help Granny cook supper. She set the table, called in her sister and brother when it was ready, and they all ate a pleasant meal together. Afterward, Applejack insisted her little sister bathe to clean herself of all the dirt and dust she’d accumulated during the day’s efforts, then tucked her into bed with a kiss on her forehead.

“Y’all sleep well little sis.” Applejack said, flipping off the light.

“You too, Applejack.” Applebloom said. She snuggled into her blankets and was asleep within moments.

Chapter 3

“Applebloom, wake up! We appreciate you trying to make up for yesterday, but now you’re holding us up by sleeping in the clubhouse.” Scootaloo said. She shook Applebloom again to try to wake the filly up.

Applebloom awoke with a shout, jerking upward and sending Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle sprawling. She patted herself all over, checking to make sure she was in one piece. When she was certain she was solid and not a mess, she sighed with relief and flopped backward on the clubhouse floor. “Oh mah stars, what a nightmare.” She said.

“Have another one of those dreams again?” Scootaloo asked.

“You have no idea. Two in one night. Every time ah go to sleep there’s this stupid mare acting crazy!” Applebloom said, pulling herself into a sitting position.

“Really? What does she look like?” Sweetie Belle asked.

Applebloom furrowed her brow as she tried her best to remember. “She was blue, and she was an Alicorn! She had a big starry mane that floated constantly! Like the princess!” Applebloom said. Then she gasped. “Girls! Ah think ah’m bein’ haunted by Nightmare Moon!”

The two other fillies gasped as well and leaned in close.

“But, didn’t Rarity and her friends defeat Nightmare Moon? How could she be back?” Sweetie Belle squeaked.

“It was Rainbow Dash and her friends, and yeah, the whole town heard about it.” Scootaloo said. “Are you sure they weren’t just- what’s that on your cheek Applebloom? Are you bleeding?”

Applebloom reached up to her cheek, poking around. She winced as she found a small spot near her nose that was sensitive. She wiped at it and sure enough, her hoof came away with blood on it. Her hoof shook a little as she looked at the blood, and was suddenly acutely aware of the pain on her cheek. That was when she noticed that she felt tiny pinpricks of pain all over her body.

“That’s what you get for sleeping on a wooden floor. Splinters everywhere.” Scootaloo said.

Applebloom looked herself over, and she found that she had tiny scrapes, abrasions, scratches, and yes, splinters, all over the right side of her body. “Girls…” Applebloom began. “ah was dreaming about being in a runaway carriage, with Nightmare Moon pulling it. She pulled it in front of a train, and right before you woke me up, the carriage got hit. Ah… ah think these are from that. Because – because the nightmare before that, she tried to drown me, and ah woke up soaking wet!”

“Are you sure you didn’t just… you know?” Scootaloo asked, pointing down between her legs.

Applebloom rolled her eyes. “Yes ah’m sure! It didn’t smell like that!”

“But how could a dream possibly hurt you? It’s just a dream.” Sweetie Belle said quizzically.

“Maybe Nightmare Moon can do that.” Applebloom said. “Ah think we need more information, girls. To the library!”

“But what about being road workers?” Sweetie Belle said.

Applebloom sighed. “Fine. Bring the shovel, then. We can go dig after ah find out what ah want to know.”

Applebloom and Scootaloo headed outside, walking down the ramp of the clubhouse. Sweetie Belle grabbed the shovel and stumbled after them, trying to wrangle the hefty tool with her hooves. They all piled into the wagon and Scootaloo took the reins, pulling them off toward town.

“Do you think the library has many books about Nightmare Moon? I heard Twilight had difficulty interpreting the pro- uh, prophet-see? about her coming back because it was all missing.” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Ah’m sure there’s something. Or maybe we can find out some more about dreams in general. There must be something.” Applebloom said.

“I just don’t see how a dream could hurt you. Or why Nightmare Moon would want to attack you, Applebloom.” Scootaloo said.

“Well, the story from Nightmare Night says she wants to gobble us up. Ah’m not sure how hitting me with a train would help with that.” Applebloom said.

The three eventually arrive in town, to a huge hubbub. Ponies were crowded around in front of one of the houses. The library was just ahead, but their curiosity got the better of them, and the three stopped and crowded into the back of the milling ponies, trying to see what they were all looking at. Unfortunately for them, Rarity caught sight of them and pushed them back.

“Sweetie Belle! What are you doing here? I thought you were going to the clubhouse?” Rarity said, shoving them further away.

“We wanted to go to the library and find out more about dreams!” Sweetie Belle said.

“Well I’m very sorry, but you’re just going to have to go another way. Something has happened, and it’s not safe for you to be here at the moment.” Rarity said.

“But-“ Applebloom began.

“No buts! Please go find another way to the library.” Rarity insisted.

“Fine!” Sweetie Belle said.

The three got back into the wagon, and Scootaloo buzzed off a different direction. Applebloom peeked back at the crowd, and she saw a police pony and Nurse Redheart coming out of a break in the crowd, carrying a black bag of some kind. They moved to a carriage that had been parked out in front of the building and then Scootaloo turned a corner and she lost sight of it.

“Ah think somepony got hurt real bad, girls. Ah saw Nurse Redheart.” Applebloom said.

“That would explain why Rarity didn’t want me to see.” Sweetie Belle said. “I can probably find out what happened later tonight when Rarity starts drinking. She talks to the dress horses about her day when she doesn’t know I’m listening. I’ll let you know if I find anything out.”

Scootaloo pulled them around the pony blockade, and they eventually came to a stop in front of Golden Oaks Library, where the new pony, Twilight Sparkle had recently taken up residence. They rapped on the door and waited. Soon enough, Twilight opened the door.

“Well hello my little ponies. Please, come in, the library is currently open, so you really didn’t need to knock.” Twilight said, stepping aside and motioning them in.

“Sorry. It’s a little weird having somepony live here now.” Applebloom said.

“I understand. Well are you looking for anything in particular?” Twilight asked.

“We wanted to look at some books about Nightmare Moon.” Applebloom said.

“Or dreams!” Sweetie Belle piped in.

“Oh certainly.” Twilight said. She used her magic to pull several books off the shelf and piled them up in front of the Crusaders. “These are all the books that detail the rise and fall of Nightmare Moon 1000 years ago. We don’t yet have any books on her recent return and defeat, but I’m sure they’ll come out soon.” She pulled a couple of other books off the shelves and put them in a separate pile. “These are all the books about dreams and the possible interpretation of them. Some of them are empirical, while a lot of them are entirely theoretical, so take those ones with a grain of salt.”

Scootaloo looked at the pile with dismay. “Uhhh, we were specifically wondering about whether or not it would be possible for somepony to hurt you in your dreams, and have the hurt be real. Like, could Nightmare Moon do that?”

Twilight put a hoof to her chin in thought. “That’s an interesting question. Nightmare Moon could easily influence a pony’s thoughts in their dreams, but actually injuring somepony? That I don’t know. That doesn’t really seem possible.”

While the Crusaders were reading and debating dreams with Twilight, Luna floated in the realm of dreams, seeking and searching. With the coming of the day, her realm was black and empty, save a very few points of light. One of these was particularly bright, and she sped toward it, a toothy grin reaching her face.

Rainbow Dash flew faster than ever. So fast you’d think she was teleporting like a unicorn, but no, she was just, that, fast. Why wouldn’t she be? She was the greatest Wonderbolt ever. Barely spent a week as a rookie before they recognized she was the best flyer Equestria had ever seen and promoted her to Captain of the squad. Spitfire was allowed to stay on, but she was demoted to Rainbow Dash’s old position as rookie. Unheard of, yes, but so was Rainbow’s skill at flying. The current show was a solo performance by Yours Truly; Rainbow fucking Dash. She did loops, cartwheels, barrel rolls, aileron rolls, and even this impossible new trick she’d come up with where… well… it was impossible so you’d have to be there to see it. She had everything and she was the most popular flyer ever. She left her latest performance and went to shower before she went out to meet the cheering crowd. She checked her mane, spread her wings, made sure her uniform was impeccable, and stepped out to a raucous cheering crowd.

She let them cheer for a bit before raising a hoof, her bodyguards held the crowd back as she cleared her throat to speak. “Thank you! Thank you! I know you all came to see me, and thank you for doing so. I’ll take a couple questions from the crowd. Hmmm… you! The tall blue unicorn!” She pointed at Luna.Luna was wearing a baseball cap with Rainbow’s cutie mark on the front. She feigned surprise at being picked and motioned to herself in bewilderment.

“Yes, you. Say the first thing that comes to your mind. How about: ‘Oh Rainbow, I’m your biggest fan!’ I always love hearing that.” Rainbow said. It was a dream, so it didn’t seem odd.

Luna smiled a wicked smile and spread her own wings. They grew impossibly big, dwarfing her body, until they were almost as wide as the entire crowd. “Oh! Rainbow Dash!” She said sarcastically. “I’m your biggest FAN!” When she spoke the last word, she flapped her giant wings down, creating a massive gust of wind that blew the entire crowd away. Ponies screamed as they all disappeared into the distance, the only pony who managed to stay grounded was Rainbow herself.

“Wha-*huuck*, what?” Rainbow said, the wind making it difficult to breathe or speak.

Luna walked over to where Rainbow was pressed against the ground. Her wings had shrunk down some, but were still oversized. “Oh, did you not hear me? I said I’m your biggest FAN!” Luna said again, flapping down at rainbow, the wind was directed straight at her, and it pressed her into the ground. “Your performance simply takes my breath away!” She said, as she kept flapping, the strong winds pushing Rainbow harder into the ground, crushing her ribs.

Rainbow tried to move away, turning away from Luna, she attempted to drag herself away, but the impossibly strong winds pressed her against the ground. She spread her wings, to catch some of the wind and maybe escape, but the sheer forced dragged her along the ground, rolling her with it until she came to a forceful stop at a wall of the stadium. She felt her left wing break as it was folded unnaturally between her and the wall. “Gaaaaaaah!”

“Oh no! Are you hurt? Here, let me help you. Anything for my favourite hero.” Luna said. She pulled Rainbow from the wall, and tossed her roughly back inside the locker room. Luna’s wings were their normal size again, and she followed after the tumbling blue Pegasus. “Surely there’s a first-aid kit here somewhere.” Luna said.

Rainbow pulled herself standing, finally able to catch her breath. She grimaced at her broken wing, and at the back of her mind she faintly wondered why it hurt so much. This was a dream, right? Nopony can make their wings grow that big in real life. She scrambled away, Luna mocking her as she stumbled away back into the locker room.

“Come back! Can I have your autograph?” Luna called.

Something stabbed into her right flank right before she slammed the door of the locker room. She looked and saw a quill stabbed deep into her thigh. She felt a thumping on the door as she tried to hold it shut against her rabid fan. Again Rainbow felt like she should know who this was, but couldn’t fully pull the memory to the fore. Dreams, blue alicorn. “Nightmare Moon?” She said.

The thumping on the door stopped, but Rainbow didn’t let go. She held on and waited to hear hoofsteps moving away. She heard a few tentative steps, the clopping going down the hall, and she held her breath, waiting to see if she was truly going to leave. She heard a suddenly rapid clopping, and panicked as she realized Luna was going to charge the door! She leaped to the side as Luna’s horn speared through the wood as though it were paper, and the whole door came off its hinges! Luna grinned down at her, a wild look in her slit pupils, her sharpened teeth gleaming in the light.

“Heeeeere’s Moony!” Luna crowed, and tossed the door off her horn. She advanced on Rainbow, her horn pointed down toward the frightened Pegasus.

Rainbow dashed down an aisle of lockers, and Luna walked calmly after her. In her panic, Rainbow was looking for a window, or a back door, or anything she could use as a weapon, but all that was in the room were harmless objects like soap, clothing, and towels. She picked some of these up and threw them anyway, hoping maybe one would cause her to stumble. Luna simply caught them with magic and tossed them to the side.

“Oh come now. You’re supposed to be the best Wonderbolt ever. Strong, powerful…” Luna gave an evil smile. “…FAST.”

Rainbow was acutely aware of her broken wing. She was fast on hoof, but not as fast as she could be in the air. Not even by a long shot. She led Luna in a large circle around the locker room, throwing anything and everything she could get her hooves on, all of which Luna just tossed to the side. Eventually, Rainbow was back at the entrance to the locker room, and leaped out into the hallway. She galloped down the empty hall, hoping she could outrun her pursuer. She sprinted for some distance, then turned around with a smile to see how far behind Luna was. To her dismay, Luna was walking casually behind her, keeping up with her full-bore run.

“Wh-what? How?!” Rainbow said.

Luna grabbed her hind legs with her magic, and yanked, knocking Rainbow to the floor. Her chin smacked into the hard ground, and she felt a tooth chip from the impact. Luna didn’t pull her anywhere, but Rainbow felt her right hind leg twist painfully.

“AHHHHH! Stop, stop, stop!” Rainbow cried.

“Rainbow Dash, you’ve let me down. I thought you were the FASTEST. WONDERBOLT. EVER!” With every word, Luna twisted harder, until Rainbow’s leg snapped with the final syllable. Rainbow laid on the ground, sobbing and trying to pull herself along the ground.

“We… we defeated you. Nightmare Moon was supposed to be gone.” Rainbow sniffled, slowly crawling away.

“Oh, my dear little Rainbow Dash. You did. Nightmare Moon is super gone, and very defeated. This isn’t Nightmare Moon doing any of this at all.” Luna stood over Rainbow Dash and leaned down, looking her in the eyes. “This is entirely Luna. Sweet widdle Woona. Forever forgotten, ignored, and feared. Even after one thousand years ponies still ignore me and fear me all because I rule and live in the darkness. Even in their dreams, my very realm! They dream of my sister. I came back for this? You took away all my power as Nightmare Moon, all for this?!” Luna said. She stamped on Rainbow’s back, making the Pegasus cry out in pain again.

“Being loved by ponies isn’t everything.” Rainbow gasped.

Luna’s face twisted into smirk, a grimace, a frown, then she barked out a hideous laugh. “Hah! The pony who was dreaming about being loved by ponies tells me that being loved isn’t everything?! Oh! Oh my! Hahaha! HAHAHAHA! The sheer, disgusting, audacity!”

Rainbow Dash slowly and painfully lifted herself to her hooves and hobbled slowly away, knowing she couldn’t possibly outrun Luna once she began chasing her. Rainbow dove into the nearest room she could find. It was a restroom, and she flipped out the lights, climbed into the first stall, and lifted her hooves off the ground. She curled up, her right leg and left wing throbbing. She didn’t hear anything, but soon felt a breath on her left ear. She whimpered, but didn’t move. It wouldn’t help.

“Welcome to my world, Rainbow Dash.” Luna said, and struck.

Chapter 4

The Crusaders left the library much later in the day, looking far more tired than they had when going in.

“Ugh, I’m exhausted and we didn’t even do any digging.” Scootaloo said.

“And we didn’t even learn anything useful.” Applebloom said.

“I learned that you can tell if a pony is dreaming by checking to see if their eyes are moving behind their eyelids! That means they’re in a state called REM, or ‘rapid eye movement’!” Sweetie Belle interjected.

The other two turn and glare at her.

“I thought it was interesting.” Sweetie grumped, kicking at the ground.

“Well it doesn’t answer any questions about whether or not you could hurt another pony in their dreams, so we’re no further along now than we were before.” Applebloom muttered.

As they trundled back to Scootaloo’s scooter, they saw Applejack galloping over to the treehouse. She barged inside, and there was some heated shouting, then both Applejack and Twilight dashed back out and headed in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack yelled at her sister as she galloped off. “Applebloom, stay here inside the library! Ah’ll come getcha later!”

“What’s goin’ on?” Applebloom yelled at her sister as the orange pony cantered away down the road. “Well ah ain’t waitin’ here the rest of the day! Ah already spent the entire mornin’ in there! Scootaloo! Follow those ponies!” Applebloom commanded.

Without needing further prompting, Scootaloo revved up her wings and took off, dragging the wagon behind her. When they turned onto the road leading to the orchard and the trees started to get thicker, they could see off in the distance, Applejack and her friends all gathered around a single tree, with the same police pony and Nurse Redheart from earlier that morning. Scootaloo felt her heart leap into her chest when she saw a blue, rainbow-maned form lying on the ground under the tree.

Scootaloo jumped off her scooter, tossed her helmet to the side, and amidst calls from her friends to stop, ran toward the small crowd. “Rainbow Dash! No! Did she crash? Is she-“ Scootaloo began to ask, but stopped short as she was blocked by Rarity. She could faintly see Fluttershy sobbing into Big Mac’s shoulder, Twilight was talking to Nurse Redheart, and Applejack was saying… something to Rarity. Scootaloo saw her hero, her wing broken, leg twisted, and a hole in her neck. She was no longer bleeding, but there was a large trail of blood leading up the trunk of the tree to Rainbow’s favourite sleeping branch. She dimly felt somepony lift her off the ground, and she was dragged bodily away from the scene.

Everything was kind of a daze for Scootaloo after that. The three fillies were kept together at Rarity’s boutique. She brought they food they barely ate, talked to them about some things Scootaloo didn’t register, and when night came, she stayed with them in the room with the light on.

“Are you going to be okay if I go to bed, dears? It’s very late, and despite the excitement of the day, my body is only going to continue for so long.” Rarity said. Her eyes were droopy. She had removed her makeup earlier following the incident with Rainbow Dash and had never reapplied it. It allowed the redness from crying to show through.

“We’ll be okay Rarity. Thank you.” Sweetie Belle said quietly.

Rarity gave the three a sad smile and stood up from the bed. “Did you want me to leave the light on?” She asked.

“Yes, please.” Scootaloo mumbled, her own eyes wide and haunted.

Rarity nodded and stepped out the door, closing it behind her. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle then sandwiched Scootaloo in a big hug. “You okay, Scoots? You’ve been real quiet all day.”

“I can’t believe she’s gone. She was my hero, and I was hoping eventually we could become the best of friends if only I could get her to notice me. But now she’s gone.” Scootaloo said.

“I heard Rarity say to Twilight that that makes two ponies murdered today.” Sweetie Belle said.

“That’s horrible! But how? Rainbow always sleeps really high up. Only a Pegasus could reach her, but there was a hole in her neck like a unicorn stabbed her with its horn!” Scootaloo fumed.

“Nightmare Moon.” Applebloom said.

The other two looked at her in confusion.

“That’s Rainbow’s favourite sleeping tree. She always said that branch had the best shape in the whole orchard, so that means she was sleeping when it happened. Nightmare Moon is an alicorn, so she has wings and a horn.” Applebloom said, her face deadly serious.

“But Rainbow is the fastest Pegasus, and a hardy fighter, how could anypony sneak up on her?” Scootaloo said.

“Because Nightmare Moon got her in her sleep!” Applebloom said, poking her cheek where her scab was.

“I don’t buy it.” Scootaloo said.

“I’m sure Rainbow Dash would have put up a fight.” Sweetie Belle said.

“Well we’d need to see the scene of the crime to determine that.” Scootaloo responded.

Applebloom slapped the blankets with her hooves. “That’s it! We’ll go investigate!”

“What, now?” Scootaloo said.

“Yeah! We sneak out and go to the tree and see if we can find any physical evidence of another pony being there!” Applebloom said.

“That’s a great idea!” Sweetie Belle squeaked. “I’ll get my flashlight! We’ll need to sneak past Rarity, though. She’s probably down in the boutique drinking. Especially after a day like today.”

“No problem. Cutie Mark Crusaders sneaky investigators!” Applebloom said.

The three waited a short while before Sweetie Belle cracked open the door and peered both ways down the hall. Seeing nothing, she motioned to the other two and they all snuck out toward the stairwell. Sweetie Belle went down a few steps, and sure enough, she spotted Rarity lying on top of one of her dress horses, an empty bottle of wine next to her on the floor. She beckoned Scootaloo and Applebloom to follow her, and the three snuck out the door, with Sweetie Belle grabbing a nearby lantern as they left the building. They opted not to take the scooter, as it was too dark to travel that fast, and instead trotted to the scene of the crime. Upon arrival, Applebloom lit the lantern and they saw that the spot had been cordoned off, with yellow tape surrounding the spot they had seen Rainbow laying on. A dark brownish stain covered the grass and a good portion of the tree trunk.

Scootaloo gulped and sniffled a little, but kept her face as stoic as possible. “Okay girls. Let’s… examine the scene.”

“What are we looking for again?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“We need to find out whether or not Rainbow was attacked in real life or in her dream. She’da fought back if she could have, so ah think she was attacked by Nightmare Moon in her dream!” Applebloom said matter-of-factly.

“That seems like a bit of a stretch, but okay. So let’s look at this.. She’s always in that branch, and we saw her here on the ground, so if there was any fighting, it would have happened up in the tree. Gimme a boost, girls.” Scootaloo said, propping herself up on the tree.

Applebloom slipped underneath Scootaloo, boosting her up on her shoulders, then Sweetie Belle crawled underneath Applebloom and with some difficulty lifted the two fillies up.

“Please… hurry!” Sweetie Belle said through clenched teeth.

Scootaloo pulled herself up onto the branch, then reached down. “Pass me up the lantern.” She said.

Applebloom lifted it up, and Scootaloo grabbed it. She then searched around, looking at the branches and the bark of the tree for any sign there had been fighting. The leaves of the tree, even on the branch itself, were relatively undisturbed. None of the smaller branches had been snapped or bent at all, and there were no markings on the bark of the tree beyond the bloodstains. Disappointed, Scootaloo looked down at her friends.

“I don’t think anything happened up here. I mean, I’m looking, but I’m starting to think you’re right Applebloom. Nothing is broken, there’s no gouges in the bark, or even broken branches. Her… well, the blood just starts and that’s that.” Scootaloo said.

“Not even a scratch anywhere?” Applebloom asked. “Look harder, there’s gotta be somethin’. A ripped leaf or somethin’? Cause ah really don’t wanna be right.”

“Nothing.” Scootaloo responded.

“Applebloom, I can’t-“ Sweetie Belle collapsed before she could finish, falling to the ground and dropping Applebloom. “Uff! Sorry.”

“It’s alright, I’ll get down by myself.” Scootaloo said. She gripped the lantern in her teeth, hugged the tree, and shimmied down. Once there, she set the lantern down and looked at her friends. “Well, I’m forced to admit, I have no idea what happened here. There nothing up the tree, and there’s too many hoofprints around to say that somepony snuck up on her. Even if there were, the pony must have had wings. I think Applebloom is right.”

“So… Nightmare Moon is back?” Sweetie Belle said fearfully. “She’s gonna gobble us up!”

Applebloom rolled her eyes. “She’s not gonna gobble us up. If she was gonna do that, she’d have done it to Rainbow. We do gotta stop her though. Ah am plum out of ideas, though.”

Twist was working in the shop downstairs, organizing the jars upon jars of sweets. She didn’t have too many responsibilities yet, having just recently got her cutie mark, but she wasn’t going to let her parents down. She’d made a few candies, and she was working on learning more of them, but until then, her responsibility was organizing the jars. However… if she could make something amazing, then maybe she’d be allowed in the kitchen more often. Maybe a really big candy cane!

Twist pulled out the ingredients, and started cooking the two separate colours. She deftly separated the ingredients, mixed them together, and without much effort, she was rolling the candy cane in no time. It was coming out perfectly! She had the shape down, the colours were separate but melted into each other. It was the best candy cane possible! Her parents would be thrilled!

She had just finished when she heard a rattling sound. She turned away from her candy cane to look at the shelf of different hard candies behind her. She heard the rattling again and saw movement on the upper shelf. She got out the step ladder and climbed up to the top, trying to see the source of the noise. The door chime jingled as she was reaching among the jars, and she turned to look briefly. A tall blue unicorn mare was there.

“Oh, be right with you, jutht a thecond.” Twist said.

The mare said nothing, but watched as Twist fumbled among the jars. The ladder jiggled ominously, but she almost had it. Somewhere among the humbugs? She grasped the jar and pulled, and the ladder shook dangerously. Twist lost her hoofing and fell toward the counter. The mare had picked up the candy cane she had just made, and Twist fell right on top of it.

Luna looked at poor Twist, her jaw impaled on the candy cane. She idly lifted something white off the counter, and looked at it. “Oh look Twist, I found your thweet tooth!” She said, and giggled.

The three Crusaders slowly make their way back to the Carousel Boutique. Their little lantern casting a flickering glow around them as they walk. All three of them are quiet as they walk, seemingly lost in deep thought. Sweetie Belle looks up and opens her mouth, then shuts it again and looks back down. Then she looks up again and stops walking. The other two turn to her in confusion.

“What’s up, Sweetie Belle?” Applebloom asked.

“Yeah, what’s up?” Scootaloo added.

Sweetie Belle puts a hoof to her chin in thought. “Well I was wondering, if Nightmare Moon is attacking ponies in their sleep, does that mean we can’t ever sleep again?”

“Until we figure out a way to stop her, yeah.” Scootaloo said.

Applebloom’s eyes widened as she realized exactly what Sweetie Belle was implying. “Applejack! Granny! Big Mac!”

“Rarity!” Sweetie Belle squealed.

Applebloom dashed off back toward the farm, while Sweetie Belle scurried to the boutique, leaving Scootaloo alone. The Pegasus first made to follow Applebloom, then turned back to Sweetie Belle and galloped after her. Her scooter was at the boutique. That would be more help than simply running.

Chapter 5

Rarity found herself in the decrepit castle they had run to when they stopped Nightmare Moon. She looked around in a daze, clucking her tongue at the broken décor. Fallen tapestries, crumbled walls, soiled carpets. What a dump. Why was she here? She started wandering about drunkenly, unable to go in a straight line. She really needed to stop drinking so much. Sweetie Belle always chided her for it every morning. But what was a mare to do when no stallions worth their while lived in Ponyville? Such a Podunk little town. Why did she even live there to begin with? Oh yeah, rent was yet too expensive for her in Canterlot. She was working her way up, like a strong, independent mare.

She stumbled and caught herself on one of the suits of armor lining the walls. She looked up at it and gave it a drunken smile. “Hello there, my good fellow. How would you like to keep a classy horse company tonight, hmm?” She slurred. “I promise, your lance will be well-polished tomorrow.” She laughed and patted the chestpiece of the suit with a hoof, shaking her head in mirth.

She didn’t see it turn its head to look at her, or see it raise the hoof holding the spear. All she noticed was the ringing in her ears when it clubbed her on the back of the head with the butt of the weapon.

“Ouch! Oh, what in Equestria?” She said. She touched the back of her head with a hoof. It came away clean, but it hurt quite a bit. She stumbled away and finally noticed the suit pull itself off the stand it had been mounted on. Parts of it tore as it yanked away from its fasteners with a screech of metal.

“So desperate for a good lay that you’ll proposition statues, Rarity? Well if it’s something long and hard you’re after, I definitely have that.” The statue said, lowering its spear to point at her.

With a gasp of alarm, Rarity scrambled to her hooves and started running. She didn’t really know where she was going, but there was a pony with a spear where she was, so she wanted to be anywhere else. Her vision swam as she cantered away, the alcohol in her system making things much more difficult than they otherwise would have been. She turned down corridor after corridor, seeing nothing but dark room after dark room. Finally, she decided she’d have to enter one of them eventually, and with much concentration, lit her horn up and stepped inside the next one she passed.

She found herself in her own boutique, but the walls were made of stone instead of her familiar wood. Her dress horses were here, covered varying amounts of cloth, some finished, some barely begun. Rolls of fabric lay everywhere, with pins, scissors, and ribbons strewn about the floor.

“What is going on here? This isn’t my boutique!” Rarity said.

“No, most definitely not. But I wanted you to feel at home.” One of the dress horses said. It turned to her, and Rarity watched as the head started warping and shifting. A blue bulge appeared on the back of its head which erupted into the starry blue mane of Princess Luna. The rest of the face eventually shaped itself into the muzzle of Celestia’s younger sister, which regarded Rarity with amusement.

“Princess… Luna?” Rarity mumbled. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh, I came to pay one of the other elements of harmony a visit in these trying times, following the death of poor Rainbow Dash.

“Rainbow…” Rarity’s face fell as her drunken brain remembered the death of her friend.

“So very sad, wouldn’t you say? But if you’re in mourning, shouldn’t you ‘dress’ for the occasion?” Luna said, her horn lighting up.

Rarity felt a prick on her leg and winced in pain. She looked down and saw a pin sticking out of her forelimb. She tugged it out with her own magic, staring in confusion. She felt another prick and saw another one sticking out of her leg, next to the bead of blood drawn by the other one. She pulled that one out as well, then felt several more. She finally left them in there and looked up to see where they were coming from, and saw every pincushion, pair of scissors, and seam ripper in the room floating in the air, pointed at her. She looked to Luna and saw the alicorn’s horn alight with magic.

Rarity squealed and turned tail, she leaped out the door and dove around the corner as quickly as she could. She felt a stinging on her flank but didn’t stop to investigate the damage. She knew she needed to get as far away from Luna as possible. She limped as quickly as she could down the halls, hunting for somewhere she could hide, somepony to help, or something she could use as a weapon. She eventually found more statues, their spears still held at the ready, and she quickly nabbed a weapon as she cantered past. Her breath was heavy in her ears as she entered what must have been the throne room once upon a time. It was wide open. Too wide for safety, but the hall she’d just left likely had Luna following behind her. Rarity quickly looked around, didn’t see anypony, and dove into the room, and hid behind the throne. She curled up behind the massive seat, held the spear in front of her, and tried to calm herself. She listened for any sound that might be out of place, and waited.

Rarity’s breathing eventually slowed. Her ears swiveled back and forth as she tried to hear any hint of Luna: The clopping of hooves, the beating of wings, or even just breathing. When nothing made itself evident for several minutes, Rarity risked a peek. As soon as looked around the throne, she came face to face with Luna, bumping noses with her.

“You can’t hide, Rarity.” Luna grinned, her sharp teeth filling her smile. Her cat-like eyes were filled with a humorless mirth. “We’re in your dream, and here, I’m the ruler.” Luna laughed, and she and the throne grew impossibly large, spinning in place so that Luna faced Rarity, blocking off her escape. Rarity would have to fly to get out, and that was impossible.

Luna slammed a massive hoof down on either side of Rarity, shattering stone and throwing the white mare to the ground. Rarity was pelted with shards of rock. She covered her head until the stone shower ended, then looked up at the huge blue mare towering over her. Luna opened her mouth wide, a long and pointed tongue falling out of her maw. Rarity watched as her teeth changed shape into massive pins and scissors, her tongue changing into a coiled length of thread. Luna leaned down, her now button-eyes looming large in Rarity’s vision. Rarity covered her head again and curled up, not wanting to see her death coming. She felt Luna’s hot breath on her body and waited.

She cried out as she felt an impact on her head “Noooooooo!” She felt it again, and knew she was going to get chewed up. It hit her again, then again, but she didn’t actually feel any more pain beyond that in her flank. Something hit her in the head again, something blunt. She shook her hoof at it, trying to drive Luna away. It hit her again, and she realized somepony was calling her name.

“Rarity! Wake up right now! Please!” Sweetie Belle shrieked in her ear. Her hooves kept smacking Rarity about the face and head.

Hesitantly, Rarity peeked out between her hooves. She was in her boutique. Sweetie Belle was here. Luna was not. She swiftly sat up and enveloped Sweetie Belle in a huge hug. “Oh thank Celestia! Sweetie Belle! I’m so glad it was just a nightmare. Oh! That was simply awful!” Rarity exclaimed. She rocked Sweetie Belle about, then winced as she rolled onto the right half of her flank. Something was hurting her. She put Sweetie Belle down and stood up, trying to get a good look at her rear end. She walked gingerly over to her standing mirror and turned to get a better look. There, embedded in the flesh around her cutie mark, were several pins, a seam ripper, and a pair of scissors.

“Oh Rarity I’m so glad you’re okay! She came after you!” Sweetie Belle cried. Tears were rolling down her cheeks, and she clung to her sister as tightly as she could while Rarity worked to pull the items out of her sensitive rear. Blood streamed down her pure white fur, staining her entire leg red. Scootaloo was sitting silently in a corner, watching the two, while Sweetie explained the situation. “Nightmare Moon is attacking ponies in their dreams, and it’s REAL! That’s what killed Rainbow Dash!”

“Sweetie Belle, I admit your argument is sound, seeing as how there are several items in my posterior that I remember being hurled at me in my dream, but it’s much more likely I just rolled onto them in the sleep.” Rarity chided.

“No! Nightmare Moon attacked you, and she’s going to attack other ponies if we don’t stop her! We need Twilight’s help! She can get a message to Celestia, and Celestia can stop her!” Sweetie squealed in frustration.

“Sweetie Belle, I’m very sad that Rainbow is gone, too, but we can’t just jump at ghosts. Nightmares aren’t real.” Rarity said.

“Rarity, how could you possibly have rolled onto the scissors like that? They were several inches deep!” Sweetie Belle insisted.

“And that will teach me a valuable lesson about drinking. But it’s not something to get so worked up over. I really think you need to go to bed. Where’s Applebloom?” Rarity asked.

“She went to go save her family from Nightmare Moon, and we need to help her!” Sweetie Belle shouted.

“Sweetie Belle, stop raising your voice, that’s not how you ask nicely.” Rarity scolded.

“URRRRRGH!” Sweetie Belle grunted, and marched to the front door. “Come on, Scootaloo, we’re going to go see Twilight, before she gets killed by NIGHTMARE MOON!” Sweetie Belle shouted. “AND DON’T GO BACK TO SLEEP WHILE WE’RE GONE!”

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle climbed on the scooter and were off into the night as Rarity limped out the door, shouting after them. “Sweetie Belle come back here this instant! It’s the middle of the night!” She huffed as they disappeared, the tiny speck of light getting further and further away. Rarity growled to herself in frustration, but shuffled back inside, fussing with her bandages.

Twilight was reading quietly in her library. Books lined the many, many walls, extending far into the distance. Farther than her library could actually go. Golden Oaks was big, but this was impossibly huge in all directions except down. Row upon row of books, and she was planning on reading every single one. Even in her dreams, Twilight’s appetite for reading was insatiable. It was only unfortunate that she never remembered what she was reading when she woke up in the morning. This time, however, she was distinctly aware of the book in front of her. It was an old copy of Predictions and Prophecies, and it was open to the page about the myth of the mare in the moon. She remembered reading this the day Nightmare Moon came back. Why she was reading it again, she didn’t know. The mare in the moon was gone, and Nightmare Moon was defeated. She and her new friends had seen to that.

The mare in the moon grew green slitted eyes and opened a mouth full of sharp teeth. “But is she really gone, Twilight Sparkle?” It said.

Twilight jumped back and dropped the book with a gasp. “Nightmare Moon? We defeated you! We turned you back into Luna!”

The page ripped open and Luna slowly pulled herself out of the page. “Yes, and I’m very upset about that. All that power gone, and for what? So ponies can keep sleeping at night? It’s disgraceful. But if I can’t rule the real world, I’ll simply rule this one. Even Celestia can’t stop me here.”

Twilight’s eyes widened as she made the connection. “You killed Rainbow Dash! That’s why it didn’t look like she’d put up a fight!”

“Oh, you are the smart one! Very good. Smarter than you white friend.” Luna gloated, grinning that toothy smile.

“Oh no, not Rarity too!” Twilight gasped.

Luna simply smiled, and the books around the two started to decay, pages slipping out of rotting spines and fluttering down to the wooden floor. The bookshelves shrank in size, until the library was the size of the real life Golden Oaks library. The tree was rotted, the wood started to stink of mold and fungus. Leaves fell from its dying branches and Twilight could hear the creak of the wood slowly giving way under its own weight. There was a loud snap, followed by a crashing sound outside. Twilight figured her balcony had just fallen apart. She didn’t take her eyes off Luna, though, she was probably the next target, so she didn’t want to give Luna any openings. Her horn lit up, and she stared the alicorn down, waiting for her to make a move.

“You assume this works the same way the real world does, my dear Twilight.” Luna said from behind her.

Twilight spun around in shock, and looked at the two Luna’s that were flanking her. She scrambled up the nearby stairs, trying to put both of them on the same side of her. Another Luna appeared up the stairs, blocking her path. Twilight concentrated, lit up her horn, and teleported outside the library. She appeared in a flash outside the front door and looked around quickly, trying to spot Luna. Luna opened the front door and walked casually out, reading a book. Twilight didn’t waste any more time and fired a beam of purple light at the princess. It burned right through her, but Luna didn’t even flinch. She looked casually down at it, bemused.

“Well Twilight, at least we can say you have a lot of SPINE!” Luna said, and the book she was holding grew massive, and she swung it downward at Twilight.

Twilight flinched and teleported again, appearing behind Luna. She fired another beam, this one piercing Luna’s head. Luna went cross-eyed and looked at the hole in her forehead. She frowned, and her slit-eyes focused back on Twilight.

“Surely my sister taught you better than that. Shooting a princess. Honestly!” Luna chided. “That’s high treason. You know what the penalty is for that, right, ‘My faithful student’?” Luna said, her features twisting into Celestia, with a bleeding hole right through her skull.

Twilight hesitated at the face of her mentor, and she looked away, her mouth a tight line. She didn’t register the snapping sound fast enough, and when she looked up, a heavy piece of Golden Oaks crashed down on her, the rotten wood splintering on her back. She felt something snap, and her vision went white with pain.

Luna kept Celestia’s appearance as she stood imperiously in front of Twilight, looking down at the broken mare. “Oh, my faithful student. For the crimes of high treason, conspiring to take down one of the rightful rulers of Equestria; Nightmare Moon, and the crime of attacking a princess…” Luna said, looking down at Twilight. “…you are found guilty. Do you have anything to say for yourself?”

Twilight could barely breathe. Her ribs were broken, and she was fairly certain one had punctured a lung, as her breathing was difficult, and felt wet. She looked up dazedly, and blood bubbled out of her mouth.

Luna looked down at Twilight, and her eyes and teeth shifted back to being sharp, and deadly. “You’re well-read, I’m sure you know what happens next.” She said. “We throw the book at you!” Luna cackled and brought her book down on Twilight’s head. Twilight’s vision went dark.

Chapter 6

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo raced through the dark city, headed for Golden Oaks Library. Applebloom had a much longer way to run than they did, so they weren’t exactly sure how much time they had, but they knew they needed to hurry. Applebloom would take care of her family when she got there, they needed to be in charge of bringing backup. Scootaloo skidded to a stop in front of the library, jumped off her scooter, and started pounding on the door.

“Twilight! Spike! Wake up! We need help!” Scootaloo shouted.

There was a commotion inside, and they heard the pit-pat of little dragon feet hurrying to the door. It creaked open, and Spike stood there, tears wet on his cheeks and blood on his claws. He sniffled and stared at the two fillies.

“I don’t know what *sniff* happened.” He blubbered. “She was sleeping, then I heard her gasping, so I got up to check, but the next thing I knew, she just… she just…” Spike broke down and started sobbing.

The two fillies looked at each other, and Scootaloo leaned down and put a hoof on Spike’s shoulder.

“Spike, this is gonna sound pretty awful of me, but we know what’s happening. Nightmare Moon wasn’t defeated, she’s attacking and killing ponies in their dreams, and she’s after Twilight’s friends now. We need you to send a letter to Celestia, okay? Tell her that Nightmare Moon killed Twilight, and that we need her help at Sweet Apple Acres, okay?”

Spike nodded mutely, snot leaking out of his nose.

“Do it now, Spike, I know you’re upset, but we need to handle this immediately. We’ll be back after we check on Applebloom’s family.” Scootaloo gets back on the scooter, Sweetie Belle holding onto her tightly. “And if Rarity comes by, tell her where we’re going!” She yelled, as the two disappeared down the road.

Applejack stood staring at the tree in front of her. It looked like an apple tree, but the bark was covered in strange whorls and swirls. The fruit on it, though shaped like apples, were the colour of a clear night sky. The tree itself towered above the rest of the trees in the orchard, dwarfing any of the trees nearby.

“Ah don’t quite know what ah should make of you. Y’all clearly don’t belong here. Y’just smack of magic, and though ah do love my granny, ah never trusted magic.” Applejack muttered.

She looked around at the rest of the orchard. Her regular apple trees looked so small and threadbare compared to this one, and those apples were massive. Easily the size of a pony. They’d certainly sell for a lot, if anypony was interested in buying a dark blue apple. She sighed and turned away from it. She’d talk to Twilight about it tomorrow, ask her why this tree was in her orchard. Until then, she had work to do.

“Oh come on! You’re not even going to kick it? Isn’t that what you Apples do? Kick trees?” A voice said in frustration.

Applejack turned around to see that the tree was gone, and in its place stood Princess Luna. Though she looked a lot more sinister than Applejack remembered. Her eyes were green and cat-like, and her teeth looked kind of sharp.

“Oh hey Luna. Nah, ah ain’t foolish. Ah figured ah’d just leave it for ponies who know that kind of stuff better than ah do.” Applejack said matter-of-factly.

Luna rolled her eyes and grunted. “Ugh. Such delicious irony wasted because of common sense. I even had a delightful pun ready for when you were lying broken and bleeding on the ground under the falling apples.”

Applejack narrowed her eyes and bent low to the ground. “Y’all sayin’ what ah think yer sayin’?”

“Yes, Applejack. I killed Rainbow Dash.” Luna said with a wicked smile.

Applejack leaped as soon as the words left Luna’s mouth. Luna was impacted by the orange cannonball and knocked to the ground. She laughed as Applejack started beating her in the face, her teeth flying out of her now broken jaw. One of her eyes swelled with blood as her brow was cracked. Applejack’s hooves were scraped and covered in blood as she continued pounding Luna’s smug, laughing mug into applesauce. When she finally stopped, breathing hard, she looked down at the mess she’d made and crawled slowly off Luna, spitting on the prone princess.

“Ah figured you’d put up more of a fight or somethin’. Princess and all. Guess ah figured wrong. Ah’m probably goin’ to prison fer this.” Applejack said, turning away.

“Oh no, Prison won’t be where you’re going.” Luna said, wheezing. She stood up slowly, her pulped head lolling weirdly. It slowly began to pull itself back together, bones knitting and bloodstains disappearing before Applejack’s eyes.

“Wut in tarnation…?” Applejack said, aghast.

“I think you’ll find, Applejack, that I’m very upset with you and your friends. You see, like I was telling Twilight not too long ago, yes, I’m Luna again, but I’m still rotten to the core!” Luna crowed, as an apple flew off one of the trees and struck Applejack square in the face.

“Consarn it! That buckin’ hurts!” Applejack cursed.

“It’s supposed to!” Luna gleefully shouted, hurling more at the farmer.

Luna kept the bombardment coming from all sides. Apples that were ripe, rotten, large, small, and average, pelted into Applejack. At first the farmer covered her head with her hooves, protecting herself from the onslaught, but when she realized it wasn’t going to let up, she knew she had to get somewhere else. She peeked out for a moment, feeling a particularly solid apple strike the back of her skull, and spotted the barn.

“An Apple…” *Smack* “…a day…” *Crack* “…keeps the doctor…” *Splat* “…away!” Luna crowed, punctuating her words with apple projectiles.

Applejack could feel the bruises growing. She needed to do something or go somewhere, so she decided to take her chances. She glanced at Luna once more, then kept her head ducked down and ran for the barn. Apples splattered on the ground behind her, more than a few still managing to pelt against her flank and legs. She could hear Luna laughing behind her.

“What makes you think that’s any safer? That’s where you keep all your tools, isn’t it?” Luna shouted after her.

Applejack ignored her and dove inside, slamming the door behind herself. She knew exactly that this was where the tools were kept. That was why she came here after all. She grabbed the axe, a length of rope, and hid in one of the many empty stalls that lined the spacious interior. She wasn’t sure how all this shit Luna was pulling worked. She’d pulped the mare’s skull, and she was perfectly fine, so she didn’t actually think hitting her with an axe would work, but she wasn’t going to sit idly by and die. Rainbow’s death was unfortunate and sad, but at least it gave Applejack some forewarning.

Luna walked slowly down the middle of barn, packed earth hard beneath her hooves, giving off a soft clopping sound as she moved. “Applejack, please. We both know how this is going to end, and I still have three more of you to deal with. I had to practice on some others while I was waiting for all of you to fall asleep, but only two were successful. Your little sister is unfortunately a very light sleeper, by the way.”

Applejack’s eyes widened as she realized that Applebloom had been telling the truth! This was Luna, not Nightmare Moon, but to a filly having a bad dream, they were the same thing. She reared up in anger and leapt out of the stall, heavy axe between her teeth. It impacted the back of Luna’s neck, and the alicorn’s body slumped to the ground as control of her body was severed. Luna merely had a mild look of surprise on her face as her head rolled away on the dirty floor.

“Oh! There you are! How very surprising. I did not see that coming at all.” Luna said sarcastically. “If you were that interested in the barn, though, why didn’t you go for something bigger? A lonely mare like yourself surely wants to get ‘plowed’!” Luna giggled maniacally.

Applejack was busy trussing Luna’s body up in rope, but she heard the implication in Luna’s voice and swiveled to look at where she kept the farm’s plow. Sure enough, it was flying through the air toward her, deadly point shining menacingly. Applejack dove to the side, but felt the it slash viciously across her side. She tumbled to the ground, a hoof pressed against her injured torso. She glanced down at it quickly. It seemed to just be a flesh wound, but there was no time to stop and check. She hopped to the side as the plow dove at her position. It missed this time, but the tip dug into the soil, tossing dirt every which way. It got stuck in the ground, and Applejack felt a mild sense of satisfaction. Then she found herself face first on the ground, a ringing in her ear.

“Can you DIG IT!” Luna’s head laughed. She swung the shovel again and swatted Applejack on the ass, tossing the orange mare along the ground.

Applejack’s vision swam. She stumbled to her hooves, falling down the first few times until her hooves finally listened to her. She looked hazily in the direction of the door and wobbled toward it, unsteady, but as fast as she could manage. Luna, meanwhile, had managed to loosen the rope Applejack had hogtied her body with, and her body was pulling itself upright. Applejack exited the barn with as much haste as she could muster, and ran into the orchard. She passed under the canopy of leaves and tried to think properly. Her side was bleeding, her head was probably bleeding, and she had literally chopped Luna’s head off, and hadn’t stopped her. She didn’t know what to do. Pain wasn’t waking her up, and there was no way she was going to win this fight the way it was currently going. Luna could have simply blasted her and been done with it, there was no way she could actually stop a princess even outside of a dream, so what was her game? Applejack wished Twilight was here, but that didn’t seem like it was going to be an option anymore. She felt tears welling up behind her eyes, but quickly forced them back. This was not the time for crying. Once she was safe, and her friend were taken care of, then she could allow herself the luxury of crying.

A mocking voice floated over to Applejack on the wind. “Even if you wake up, you must sleep again sometime, Applejack. There’s never an escape from your dreams. Just as night follows day, so must sleep follow wakefulness. This is my realm, and one where my law is absolute. You will never have rest again.”

Applejack grabbed a branch from a tree nearby, biting off the excess and hid behind a tree, waiting. She closed her eyes for just a moment, breathing heavily.

“Applejack?”

Applejack heard Applebloom calling her name, she snapped her eyes open, and swung her stick in the direction the voice had come from, cracking her younger sister across the head.

“Applejack, stop! You’re okay! You’re safe now!” Big Mac said, seizing her hooves.

Applejack struggled a bit more, but eventually stopped, realizing that he was right, and if she were still dreaming, he’d have hurt her or killed her by now. Applejack let go of the stick, and embraced Applebloom, pulling the stunned filly onto the bed. “Oh ah’m so sorry Applebloom, ah thought you were Luna comin’ to git me.”

“Ah’m fine Applejack. Only slightly worse than a switchin’. Ah’m just glad you’re okay.” Applebloom said, hugging her back.

“It were a close thing, let me tell you.” Applejack said.

“Land sake’s filly! Yer bleedin’! Wut in tarnation have you been up to, and why exactly didja wake us all up, Applebloom?” Granny said, holding the lantern high to get a closer look at Applejack’s bed.

There was a significant bloodstain from Applejack’s wound bleeding onto the bed. Big Mac said nothing, but ran off to fetch some bandages presumably. Applebloom finally let go of her sister to look at the injury. It ran from Applejack’s rib down to her cutie mark, and was a ragged, but fairly shallow, gash. Applejack herself was covered in bruises from head to toe, though most of them were concentrated on her sides and forelegs.

“Wut the devil happened to you?” Granny said, noticing her injuries.

“It’s a long story Granny, but ah don’t really have to get into specifics, but Nightmare Moon is after me and my friends. She already got Rainbow Dash and Twilight, but ah’m pretty sure the rest are still alive. She was gloating about it while hitting me with apples.” Applejack said.

“Apples don’t sound like what I’d use if I wanted to off somepony.” Granny said.

“She was just enjoying the feeling of bein’ in charge, ah think. She attacked with farm implements afterward, which is how ah got this, then I ran and grabbed this here… stick…” Applejack trailed off. “Did you bring this stick inside with you Applebloom?”

“Ah didn’t. Ah came straight to wake all of you up after me n’ the crusaders figured out what was happenin’. You didn’t have it till ah woke you up.” Applebloom said.

“Ah grabbed this here stick to fend off Nightmare Moon, but that was in the dream. This don’t make a lick o’ sense. Ah shouldn’t have been able to bring it with me.” Applejack said.

“Applebloom!” A shout comes from outside in the hall, and Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo come charging in, followed by Big Mac with some bandages.

The two fillies climb onto the bed and hug Applebloom, Applejack Winces in pain as they bump into her wound, and Big Mac scoops all three up and deposits them on the floor. He then begins cleaning and stitching up Applejack’s injury with his teeth.

“Good to *ngh* see you here girls. Ah assume you’ve *ugh* figured out what’s happenin’?” Applejack asked.

“We did, but we were too late to help Twilight. I only hope Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie are okay. Rarity got attacked, but I woke her up in time. As long as she doesn’t go back to sleep, she should be okay for now.” Sweetie Belle explained.

“Well, then we gotta go find the others before it’s too late. Once Big Mac gets me stitched up, we can be on our way.” Applejack said.

“Not in yer condition ye won’t be! You’re gonna stay here and stay immobile, but not too comfy. I don’t quite get what’s goin’ on, but if it happens in yer sleep, then ye ain’t goin’ back to sleep on my watch!” Granny said.

“No buts! I’ll keep ye company. Big Mac, tie that off and get movin’ with these fillies, Wake up as many ponies as ye can!” Granny ordered.

With a nod, Mac tied off the stitches and followed the crusaders downstairs, they stepped out the door and straight into Fluttershy, who was just landing in front of the farm.

“Rarity told me I had to check on you immediately, and she said you’d be here, um, is everything okay? She was limping and bleeding, and she said something really bad was happening. I could tell she was serious because her makeup was smeared. Is everything okay here?” Fluttershy said.

“Well, to make a long story short, Nightmare Moon is attacking ponies in their dreams.” Scootaloo said. “We’re trying to figure out how to stop her, but I guess if you’re here, that’s one less pony we have to wake up.”

“Rarity told me she would go wake up Pinkie, but the walk out to the farm was a bit much for her to make. Is Applejack okay?” Fluttershy asked.

“She’s hurt, but she’ll live for now.” Applebloom said. “We still need to actually stop Nightmare Moon, though, or we’re never gonna be able to sleep again! We can’t touch her in the dream, though. Applejack said she fought back, but nothin’ worked!”

“If there were a way to get her out of the dream?” Sweetie Belle said hopefully.

“Dreams aren’t real for most of us, though. They’re only real places for Nightmare Moon.” Scootaloo said.

“Wait! Come with me!” Applebloom shouted.

She trotted quickly back upstairs and burst into Applejack’s room, scanning around for the stick. She lifted it triumphantly as the rest of the ponies filed inside.

“It’s… a stick.” Scootaloo said flatly.

“It’s a dream stick! Applejack brought it out of the dream when she woke up holding it!” Applebloom shouted excitedly.

“Hey yeah! Rarity had a bunch of sewing tools sticking out of her flank when I woke her up!” Sweetie Belle blurted.

“I still don’t get it.” Scootaloo said.

“So all we gotta do is get somepony to go to sleep, then wake them up once they grab hold of Nightmare Moon!” Applebloom said.

“That… that’s the plan?” Scootaloo said in disbelief. “GRAB Nightmare Moon!?”

Applebloom nodded.

“That’s the dumbest plan I ever heard! She’s been killing us when we get close, and you want somepony to get the closest they possibly can?” Scootaloo said, waving her hooves in the air. “And then how will we know when to wake them up? We could wake them up to soon, or too late, and what if Nightmare Moon doesn’t even attack them?”

“Well, we could watch for REM to see if they’re dreaming, and if they are, we can watch for injuries, then give them a minute or so to grab her, and wake them up then.” Sweetie Belle offered.

“REM?” Applejack asked.

“Rapid eye movement! It’s when a pony’s eyes move under their eyelids indicating they are dreaming! I read about it in the library yesterday while we were learning about dreams.” Sweetie Belle said proudly.

“Well, ah don’t have any other plans, and ah think this sounds incredibly dangerous and foolish, but ah’m willin’ to try it. Ah didn’t have that stick in my room before ah went to sleep, so it just may work.” Applejack said.

“Applejack no! You’re already injured!” Applebloom protested.

“Well somepony’s got to do it, and we don’t know that she’ll actually attack anypony but me and my friends.” Applejack said.

“She attacked me!” Applebloom insisted.

“And ah ain’t lettin’ her do it again.” Applejack said, staring her sister in the eyes. Applebloom wilted under her stare and relented, looking away.

Chapter 7

“I’ll go.” A quiet voice said.

Everypony turned to the small yellow Pegasus who had been silent up until now.

“Fluttershy?” Applejack said in disbelief.

“If… if Nightmare Moon is hurting ponies, it would be wrong of me to try to hide and wait it out. Applejack is hurt, and so is Rarity, and Pinkie will be too hard to find since she’s waking ponies up right now.” Fluttershy said. She took a deep breath. “I’m willing to try to stop Nightmare Moon.”

“Well… if’n you think you can do it, we’ll let you. All you gotta do is grab hold of her and not let go until we wake you up. We’ll give you five minutes or until heavy injury to wake you up. We don’t want you dyin’ on us, but we gotta make sure you got a hold of Nightmare Moon. Think you can handle that?” Applejack asked.

Fluttershy’s breathing was fast and panicked, but she nodded.

Applejack patted the bed in front of her. “Then c’mon up here, we gotta keep close watch on you, and I’ll be here for you while you’re in there.”

On shaky legs, Fluttershy crawled into the bed and curled up in Applejack’s lap. The orange mare wrapped her hooves around Fluttershy and turned to the rest of the ponies in the room. “Now, we gotta help Fluttershy get to sleep, so everypony needs to stay real quiet, and Big Mac, could you go get a glass of warm milk?” Applejack asked. Her brother walked slowly away downstairs while Fluttershy shivered in her grip. “You gotta calm down some there, Fluttershy.”

“I’m sorry, I’m really trying.” Fluttershy apologized.

“S’alright, we’ll help you get to sleep.” Applejack said.

Big Mac eventually returned with the glass of milk, which Fluttershy sipped at slowly. She passed it off to Big Mac when it was half gone, and closed her eyes, resting calmly. She eventually stopped shivering and her breathing evened out. They all waited as patiently as they could for a few more minutes, until Applebloom broke the silence.

“Is she asleep?” She said quietly.

“Ah think so.” Applejack said. “If she weren’t, she’da woken up by now. Sweetie Belle, come closer and tell me when she enters RAN or whatever.”

“REM. It’s when her eyes move under the eyelids.” Sweetie Belle said. She walked over and propped her hooves up on the edge of the bed. Granny moved closer with her lantern so they could better see Fluttershy’s eyes.

“N’whaddya plan on doin’ if she never does dream, hmmm?” Granny asked.

“Then we let poor Fluttershy sleep, and we try again with somepony else.” Applejack said.

“She’s in it!” Sweetie Belle squealed.

“That was fast.” Applejack said, looking down at the yellow Pegasus in her hooves.

“Prob’ly magic.” Granny muttered.

“Alright. We give her five minutes, or until she gets injured, then we wake her up. No buts.” Applejack said. The rest of the room nodded, and they watched and waited.

Fluttershy found herself in her cottage. The lights were on, giving it a warm, homey feeling. Outside it was the dead of night, the darkness being held at bay by the lights in her cottage, and the wind rattled at her windows. She looked around, trying to collect herself. She was… here to stop Nightmare Moon, and they had said she had five minutes once she started dreaming to grab hold of her. She had no idea if time would run the same speed in her dream, but she looked at her cuckoo clock: 3:00 in the morning. She took a deep breath, then slowly let it out, trying to calm down. She swallowed, went to the kitchen to grab a knife, then returned to the living room.

“Come out. I know you’re here.” Fluttershy said sternly.

“Come into my parlor, said the fly to the spider.” Luna said, coalescing in a cloud of deep blue smoke. “Brave words from the coward.”

“I-I won’t l-let you hurt my friends anymore.” Fluttershy said, visibly trembling.

“Oh? I’m not sure there’s very much you could do about it. Your friend Applejack already tried, and look what that accomplished.” Luna said. She pulled on her head with a hoof and it detached from her neck. Blood spurted out of the opening, and Fluttershy could see her open esophagus.

Fluttershy retched onto the carpet, though nothing but saliva and bile came up.

“Awwww, can’t handle a little blood? You know what your animals have to eat, right?” Luna mocked.

“I’m well aware that *hurk* my animals have to eat meat. But that doesn’t mean I enjoy seeing a severed pony’s head.” Fluttershy choked out.

“I simply can’t believe you could sleep so soundly after the death of your friends. You’re quite the uncaring little thing aren’t you? Element of ‘kindness’, my hoof.” Luna chided, putting her head back in place.

“I care a lot! That’s why I’m here. To stop you!” Fluttershy quietly shouted. She brandished her kitchen knife, pointing it at Luna.

“Oh please Fluttershy, I’m not going to fight you with weapons. What do you take me for? An ‘animal’?” Luna said.

At the word ‘animal’, a rustling sound began. It came from all directions, and Fluttershy looked about, trying to find the source. First, a few mice came out of the holes in her cottage walls. They made their way toward Fluttershy, moving with a steady, but determined, pace. Next, cats and ferrets came out of the various perches, shelters, and habitrail tunnels around her home. They, too, made their way toward Fluttershy. Fluttershy was starting to get nervous. These animals had no eyes. They weren’t normal, but she was fairly certain if what Applejack and the rest had said was true, that they could certainly hurt her.

“Please get back. I don’t want to hurt you.” Fluttershy pleaded.

Fluttershy looked up at the clock on the wall, hoping that she was nearly past the allotted time. The clock said 3:01, much to her dismay. Only a minute had passed? It felt like so much more. Maybe time passed slower here or something? But she still moved at the same speed. It didn’t make much sense. But then, sometimes she would have dreams that seemed to take days, and in reality, only a few minutes had passed. So maybe she’d only been sleeping for a few seconds! She felt panic settling in, and started to hyperventilate. She was pulled out of her reverie by a pain on her foreleg. “Ow!” She looked down to see one of the mice on her leg, with his teeth sunk into her leg just above the hoof. She pulled him off of her and put him down gently on the ground, then started flapping to stay above the floor.

“Please don’t do this! I don’t want to hurt any of you!” She pleaded again.

Luna stood silently at the other end of the living room, watching her silently with those cat-like green eyes, a smug grin on her face.

“Why are you even doing any of this?!” Fluttershy cried.

Luna rolled her eyes and sighed in exasperation. “You know, I’ve already explained it three times. I couldn’t possibly ‘bear’ to explain myself again.”

At her words, a thundering series of steps made its way up to the door of the cottage. There was a thump at the door, then a second one, accompanied by the sound of splintering wood, then a crash as the third thump breaks the door down. Behind it stood Fluttershy’s dear tea-time friend, Harry the bear. He didn’t look like he’d stopped by for tea, though. He rampaged past Luna, stepped on several smaller creatures, and took a swipe at Fluttershy with his massive paw.

She floated backward toward the stairs leading up to her room, staying out of his reach, while her eyes were still filling with tears over her angry friends killing each other in front of her. ‘They’re not real. They’re not real. They’re not real.’ Fluttershy kept repeating to herself in her mind. She sniffled and blinked the wetness back. She had to stay strong and help her friends, but what could she possibly do? Now Harry was between her and Luna, and there was no way she was going to beat him in a fight.

Fluttershy was pushed back upstairs, Harry swiping at her in a rage. His swings were directionless, and they were easy to dodge, but getting hit by just one would probably be enough to put her out. She flitted up the stairs, and looked around for something that might help. She saw nothing useful to her except maybe the blanket, so she grabbed that and tossed it at Harry as he lumbered up the steps. He tore it to pieces and she growled in frustration. She looked down at the knife in her hoof, then over at Harry. She could try to fight him, but the moment she took a single big injury her friends would wake her up, and then she wouldn’t be able to get Luna…

Fluttershy’s eyes went wide. Could she do it? Could she really do that?

Harry roared and she was awakened from her brief reverie. She ducked away from his paw, and raced over to the window. She quickly unlatched it, swung it open, and flew outside, going around the house. She zipped around and peeked in the front door Harry had knocked down. There was a continuous stream of animals pouring out of the various holes in her home. They covered the floor, milling about Luna’s hooves and crawling up the stairs.

Fluttershy swallowed hard. She turned away from the door and felt herself starting to hyperventilate. She held the knife in both hooves and looked at the blade. She’d had it custom made specifically for chopping through bone in the meat she sometimes had to feed her animals. They would eat the bones too, but one time, one of the hyena’s she’d been taking care of at the time almost choked to death on a large piece of bone. Since then, she’d had this knife made and she always kept it clean and polished. It was sturdy, and would definitely do the job. She gulped, took a deep breath, then struck. Fluttershy flew in the door, her wings almost silent, and latched onto Luna’s back.

“What in the world? You didn’t run?” Luna exclaimed in surprise.

“Not when my friends need me!” Fluttershy shouted back.

Fluttershy closed her eyes and lifted the knife in one hoof. Her other three hooves held tightly onto Luna’s barrel, making sure the alicorn wasn’t going to run away. Fluttershy squeezed her eyes shut tight… and stabbed herself in the side. She felt the blade sink easily into her flesh, and she nearly fainted at the pain. She focused her thoughts entirely on her hooves, all four now clinging as tightly as she could onto Luna.

“What in Tartarus was that!?” Luna barked in laughter. “What was that supposed to accomplish? What was-“

Luna stopped as she found herself standing on Applejack’s bed, Fluttershy bleeding beneath her, held tightly in Applejack’s hooves, the knife stuck deeply into her side.

“What in Tar-“

Once again Luna didn’t get to finish as Big Mac’s hind hooves impacted her face, blowing teeth out and shattering her jaw. She crashed through the window, shattering the glass and frame, and tumbled two stories to the ground below.

Big Mac thundered down the steps of the Apple family home, and charged out the door to where Luna was pulling herself up. He almost made it before Luna’s telekinesis froze him in mid-stride. She mumbled something, but the blood and broken jaw prevented her from being understood. Her actions were easy to figure out, as she started pulling Big Mac’s limbs away from his body. Her cat-like eyes taking a sick pleasure in his pain.

“Stop it! You’re killing him!” Applebloom yelled, and threw Applejack’s stick at Luna. It didn’t do anything, but it distracted her for a moment. Luna tried to speak again, but all that came out was more incoherent yelling, and her horn blazed with light. Big Mac cried out in pain… then fell to the ground, released.

Luna was grasping with her hooves at something stuck in her throat. Blood was pouring out of the wound and coating some shape in front of her. Slowly, with a shaky white light, Celestia coalesced into being. Her horn was embedded in Luna’s throat, sticking stark red out the far side. Luna’s eyes focused on the princess of the sun, and she uttered a single coherent word: “S-sister…” Then her body went limp.

Celestia carefully lifted her sister’s corpse off her horn, and laid it gently on the ground. She then went to help Big Mac up off the ground and made her way up to Applejack’s bedroom. Granny had already pulled the knife out of Fluttershy’s side and started trying to stem the bleeding.

“Fergive me fer not bowin’ yer majesty. Not only will these bones not do it right, but somepony’s dyin’, and I consider that more important.” Granny said matter-of-factly.

“Do not worry, Granny Smith. I won’t be offended. Here, allow me to help.” Celestia said.

As the ponies all watched, Fluttershy’s pierced side stitched itself up, and Big Mac’s rough job on Applejack was also done much more finely. “My talents don’t lie in healing, but I have studied pony biology extensively. There will be minor internal bleeding, and she should still get to a doctor, but she will live.” Celestia said. She had cleaned the blood off herself while she did it, and everypony looked up at her in awe and amazement. “I know it will not bring your friends, nor my faithful student back, but I am sorry for the actions of my sister. I wanted to believe the power of friendship could bring her back to me, but time, it seemed, had merely allowed her rancor to fester. I only hope that this time, she can find peace in death.”

“It’s alright Princess. We know it’s not your fault.” Applebloom said.

“Maybe not directly, but as I had a hoof in creating her, so too does partial blame for her actions lay on my shoulders. May you all have a peaceful rest.”

Celestia flew gently down to where Luna’s body lay, lifted it up with her magic, and was gone in a flash of yellow light, leaving the rest of the ponies by themselves in the broken Apple Family home.

“Well…” Applejack started.

“Well…” Applebloom began.

The two sisters looked at each other and laughed.

“Ah reckon ah can sleep well enough with just a blanket draped over that hole in the wall, if’n y’could Big Mac?” Applejack asked.

The burly pony nodded and went to fetch a blanket to drape in front of the hole he’d kicked Luna through.

“You three wanna stay with Applebloom, that’d be perfectly fine. Ah’ll send Big Mac out to let Rarity and Pinkie know what’s happened.” Applejack said. Big Mac grunted as he came back in with the blanket.

The crusaders nodded happily.

“After a night like that, I am absolutely beat. My wings are sore from all that racing about.” Scootaloo said as she stretched her wings.

“I think Rarity will probably chew me out for yelling at her, but Applejack and Fluttershy’s word should be good enough to convince her I was right! I could sleep though.” Sweetie Belle agreed.

“C’mon crusaders. We’ve earned ourselves some much needed rest. Fluttershy, are you gonna be okay here with AJ?” Applebloom asked.

The yellow Pegasus nodded from her spot in Applejack’s hooves. Her eyes were red and looked exhausted, like she’d been dragged through the wringer. She didn’t say anything or move much, but she gave the three a tiny smile.

With that, the crusaders, followed by Granny Smith, moved to Applebloom’s room and crawled into her bed.

“Thanks t’you three, Ponyville is safe. You should feel mighty proud!” Granny said, ruffling each of their manes.

“Thanks Granny. You have a good rest of your night.” Applebloom said.

Granny Smith tottered out of the room, turned off the light, and shut the door behind herself.

The crusaders closed their eyes and tried to sleep. After a few minutes of tossing and turning, Applebloom looked over at her friends, who were similarly having difficulty sleeping.

“Ah can’t sleep. Too much excitement ah guess.”

“Yeah, me neither. My wings ache.”

“I’m worried about Rarity.”

“Can you shut the curtains, Applebloom? The moon is shining right into my eyes.” Scootaloo asked.

“Yeh, sure.”

But as she moved to get out of bed, bars slammed down, surrounding the bed on all sides. The moon, meanwhile, opened like an eyelid, revealing a single, cat-like eye, staring right into the bedroom window.

“Sleep tight, little ones.” Luna’s voice said, as the bed began sinking into the floor.

The three crusaders clung to each other and screamed in terror, Luna’s cackling laugh accompanying them into darkness.

THE END.

Chapter 2

Applebloom found herself at the edge of a dry riverbed with the hot sun beating down. It was almost like the riverbed the Cutie Mark Crusaders had been digging in earlier that day, but the stones were much bigger, and there were many more of them with far less dirt covering them. Happy that she’d found even better rocks than they’d tried to use earlier in the day, Applebloom jumped down into the river with a gleeful cheer. She grabbed the first one she reached, and despite it being as big as her, she easily lifted it above her head. She laughed and spun in a circle, then tossed it up into the wagon that suddenly appeared on the riverbank. She picked up more and more of them, throwing them up to the wagon with ease. The wagon never seemed to get full, either, no matter how many of them she threw. She was enjoying herself immensely, knowing the other Crusaders would be ecstatic to see the stones she’d found. Maybe she’d get a cutie mark in geology or digging!

“Geology? How very droll.” A cold voice said.

Applebloom stopped and looked around. “Who’s there?” She asked, not seeing the source of the voice.

A tall, dark blue alicorn appeared next to her wagon, which was piled high with rocks. She shimmered into existence, her mane and tail looked like they were made of the night sky, and she smiled at Applebloom. The smile itself looked warm, but it never touched her eyes.

“Tell me little filly, why do you dream of digging in the daylight?” The tall mare asked.

Applebloom was confused. The mare was an alicorn, but only Celestia was an alicorn. Unless... Applebloom’s eyes widened in alarm. “Ahhhh! Nightmare Moon!”

The Alicorn’s eyes flashed in anger. The sunny sky slowly darkened, the moon appearing high above, looming large with the mare in the moon prominent. “I am NOT Nightmare Moon!”

She stamped a hoof on the ground and a rumbling began. Smaller stones around Applebloom’s hooves started bouncing and shaking on the ground, and a hissing sound could be heard. The alicorn spread her wings and her horn began to glow with magic. Some of the stones lifted out of the ground, tearing themselves free from the dirt. One erupted from beneath Applebloom, carrying her into the air.

“I am Princess Luna, ruler of the night and of dreams! My dearest sister would have me believe that I will be welcomed back with open hooves. Too many dreams tell me that is a lie. Still, ponies do not enjoy my beautiful nights, and still they fear me as they feared Nightmare Moon!” Luna said sternly, looking at Applebloom.

Applebloom cowered on top of the floating rock, and watched Luna’s pupils turn to slits, then back again. Luna saw the fear apparent in the filly and sighed. She slowly lowered her to the ground. As soon as Applebloom was on the ground again, she screamed and ran away, trying to climb the far side of the riverbank.

“Stop running! Stop screaming! Stop being afraid of me!” Luna yelled. She stamped her hooves on the riverbank, and the hissing in the distance became the rushing roar of water.

Applebloom saw the roaring flood in the distance up the river, and she tried harder to climb the riverbank, but it was proving far too steep and loose after Luna’s assault on it.

“Every time I attempt to speak with my subjects they scream and run or cry in terror! ‘Nightmare Moon’, they call. Well if I can no longer be loved, then there will be no welcome for you in my realm! I will remind you all why you once feared the dark!” Luna shouted. Her voice was an imperious hammer on Applebloom’s ears, and the filly started crying as the water bore down on her. As it impacted her poor body, she awoke, her sheets soaked, screaming out loud in her bed.

“Applebloom?! What’s wrong?”Applejack burst into the room, her mane loose and flying in her face. She dashed over to Applebloom, who grabbed onto her and started crying into her chest.

“There-there was a *hic* scary pony who-who yelled at me be-because it was daytime, and then she tried to drown me!” Applebloom sobbed.

Applejack stroked her mane slowly, letting her cry herself out. She murmured reassuringly to her little sister until the filly had calmed down, her sobbing slowing to sniffling until it was gone altogether.

“It was just a dream, Applebloom. It’s scary, but it can’t hurt you.” Applejack said.

“Ah know that! But that mare was so mad, and she took away the sun, then tried to drown me! For no reason!” Applebloom said.

“Well, it’s a dream. They ain’t usually known for makin’ sense. Ah once dreamed ah was bein’ chased by a giant apple with teeth! The dang thing was tryin’ to eat me!” Applejack laughed, but Applebloom didn’t join her.

“Well anyway. It’s still just a couple hours too early for us to be getting’ up. Let’s get your bedding changed, and you might want to go rinse off in the shower right quick. You sweated up a storm! You and your blankets are soaked!” Applejack said, lifting the filly out her bed.

Applebloom realized that she was indeed soaking wet. Her mane was damp, her fur was damp, and she’d left an incredibly large wet spot on the bed. She slowly walked into the bathroom and turned on the tap, but as she was waiting for the water to heat up, she sniffed her leg out of curiosity. To her confusion, it didn’t smell like she had been sweaty. It smelled like she was just wet, in fact. Like she had been doused with water.

When she had rinsed and dried herself, she got back to her room, where Applejack had switched out her bedding already. “Now do you think y’all will be okay sleeping alone, Applebloom? You can come stay with me if you like.” Applejack offered.

“Ah’ll be fine Applejack. Thanks fer comin’ to check on me.” Applebloom said, climbing back into bed.

“Alright then. Y’all sleep well. See you in a couple hours.” Applejack said, and left the room, flipping the light out on her way.

Applebloom lay there in the dark, staring at the bed’s canopy above her. She didn’t know what to make of it. She wasn’t really afraid anymore, but she was definitely confused. It had been a dream, but she distinctly remembered parts of it feeling incredibly real. The feel of the dirt under her hooves, and the water when it struck her. She shuddered a bit at that. It hadn’t really hurt, but the fear of imminent drowning dredged up some unpleasant feelings. She couldn’t remember the pony’s name for the life of her, though. She had been a mare, that she was positive of, but why was she positive it had been a mare? Something about her had triggered that feeling. She had been… unique, somehow.

Applebloom twisted and turned in her bed, trying to fall asleep, or remember the pony’s name, or something. Anything to help her get this weight off her mind. When she’d lain there for maybe fifteen minutes she gave up, kicked the blankets off, and went to look out the window. She stared off into the night sky, admiring the moon. Then it hit her; Nightmare Moon! She dashed into Applejack’s room. “Nightmare Moon! It was Nightmare Moon that tried to drown me in my dream!” She yelled.

“Nightmare Moon? Oh Applebloom. It couldn’t have been her. Me n’ my friends defeated her. Go to sleep Applebloom.” Applejack muttered drowsily.

Annoyed by her sister, Applebloom grumped back over to her own room and rolled onto her bed. She rolled back and forth in frustration both at her inability to sleep, and at Applejack. Eventually, she gave up and decided to just head out to the clubhouse early and wait for the other crusaders. It was only an hour until dawn anyway. She tied her bow into her hair, cracked open the door, and slipped outside. She scurried over to the clubhouse, got the promised shovel she was going to bring, and waited. She tried to keep herself busy, but the clubhouse was empty, and she was all alone, and she still had a good hour or so to wait. She tried drawing pictures of what the roads would look like when they were all cobbled, but she’d been woken up early, and that wasn’t particularly exciting. She started nodding off. She slapped herself in the cheeks, trying to keep herself awake, but it was no use. Eventually, despite the hard, wooden floor, Applebloom slipped off to sleep.

She was on the streets of Ponyville at night, with a single lamp post gleaming in the darkness, shining its beam down on her. She held in her hoof a single apple, and on her back were her saddlebags, filled up with schoolbooks of all sorts. Applebloom looked around, and she saw next to her a sign that said ‘CARRIAGE STOP’. She was... going to school? She must be, or else why would she be waiting for a carriage with her schoolbooks? She was confused why she would be waiting in the dark, though. Was it near morning, or was it the evening? She didn’t know what else to do, and there was nopony else around for her to ask, so she waited.

She heard the clopping of hooves in the distance, and she turned to look. Out in the darkness, a swaying light could be seen, plodding slowly toward Applebloom’s carriage stop. Still holding her apple, Applebloom waited while the yellow and black carriage came toward her. The pony pulling it was a dark blue mare, wearing a bus driver’s uniform. She was an alicorn, strangely, and seeing her tugged at Applebloom’s brain. She was sure she remembered this pony, but she couldn’t think of where, exactly.

“Going my way, young filly?” The driver said, tipping her hat at Applebloom.

“Uh, yeah. Ah think so.” Applebloom said, and hopped in the back.

“Well, you just let Luna take you to your destination.” Luna said, winking at Applebloom.

She started off, Applebloom sitting in the front row of carriage seats, and rocked back and forth as it crossed the cobbles. Cobbles? Ponyville’s streets weren’t cobbled. Applebloom looked around in alarm. She was suddenly in the middle of a busy intersection, with carriages going to and fro incredibly quickly. She couldn’t identify any ponies around as their faces were blurred by the speed at which they were passing. Luna picked up speed, pulling the carriage and a swift canter.

“Can, can you slow down, ah think we’re at the wrong place. This isn’t mah school.” Applebloom asked.

“Why whatever do you mean? I’m taking you to your destination.” Luna said, not looking back.

Applebloom sat back in her seat. They didn’t seem to be in any danger, and Luna had the carriage well under control. She could probably calm down and wait it out without any trouble. She rocked back and forth as Luna expertly drove them in between carriages, weaving back and forth, buzzing past some, and speeding alongside others down city street after city street. Suddenly, they burst out of the city and onto some desert plains, akin to those described by Applejack near Appleloosa.

“Wait, wait! This definitely isn’t anywhere near my school! Ah don’t even know where this is! Are we near Appleloosa?” Applebloom said, scrambling to the front of the carriage.

“I never said I was taking you to your school. I said I was taking you to your destination. Your FINAL destination! AHAHAHAHA!” Luna looked back at Applebloom and her eyes, where they had been normal before, now had cat-like slit pupils, her green eyes glowing with a terrible inner light. Her wide grin had dangerous fangs filling it, and a long, thin tongue snaked out, licking her lips.

Applebloom pulled back in fear. “Ahhhh! Nightmare Moon!”

“Hahahahahahaaaaa! If that is what you wish, then that is what I am, but I think you have more pressing things to worry about! Your stop is coming up!” Luna said gleefully.

Applebloom heard a train whistle, and she looked up ahead where they were going. The road they were on crossed the railroad tracks, and there was the Friendship Express, chugging merrily along.

“Stop! You’re going to crash!” Applebloom pleaded. Luna merely laughed harder.

“Don’t worry, young filly, we’re right on track!” Luna cackled.

Applebloom looked around desperately. The carriage was going far too fast to jump off safely, but she might survive that fall as opposed to getting hit by a train, which she definitely wouldn’t survive. She tugged on the harness Luna was attached to, trying to pull it off the carriage so she could coast to a halt, but the harness was expertly attached, and without tools it wasn’t going to be possible to remove.

“Please stop! We’re going to get hit!” Applebloom cried.

Luna was galloping along at an incredible speed, the ground whizzing past. “Sorry, little Applebloom, but you don’t want to miss school! It’s time for you to catch your train!”

Applebloom put her hooves up to shield her face as the train impacted the carriage, and she was sent flying.