Nightmare on Stirrup Street

“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.