Ten years later.

Chapter 6 - Rarity

Rarity had a very, very busy time lately. She has a boutique in Canterlot, so she actually lives in Canterlot, her parents are running Carousel Boutique, but the wite unicorn still makes the dresses, of course. They just sell it and so Rarity comes to town once in a while, it's been more times in the last few days and she had awful nights and especially dreams. The letter from Twilight made her see that everypony suffers from this pain.

The unicorn sighs while she's sweing the fabric together. She still looks around, looking for her cat, but Opal died about a year ago. She sighs, it feels like she's getting old. She had that cat since she was a little filly.

Suddenly somepony knocks at her door:"I'm coming" she says. She slowly lays her things down with her magic and trots to the door. She can think about who's at the door and it is who she expected. The fashion pony smiles brightly and hugs her four friends:"It's lovely to see you all! Where's Fluttershy?" she frowns.

Rainbow shrugs:"Twi said she couldn't come because of her baby, well I had to cancel a show with the Wonderbolts too, but I guess the princess is more important" the pegasus giggles, she takes off into the sky and flies to the castle.

Twilight sighs:"Of course the orders of the princesses are more important than some show with the Wonderbolts" she smiles at Rarity:"We should go now. Nice to have you here!"

Pinkie Pie hops around her friends:"Yep! Yep! Yep! You missed something Rarity! After Flutter got Autmn Blaze we had a big, homungus, terrific, super-duper awesome party at Sugar Cube Corner...!"

Rarity tries to ignore her friend. It's not like she's that annoying, but Pinkie Pie talks so much an so fast, that she can't follow her anyway, not with all those thoughts in her head. She thinks about the nightmares, about the weird creatures showing up all over Equestria and she worries what will happen next. They're not safe at all. Everything could happen, they could be close to a disaster. Oh you worry too much Rarity! It could be anything! It may not be that bad after all!

But her worries were entitled. As they arrive the palace and the throne room, only Princess Luna sits there, with a weird look on her face. It looks worried and sorrowful.

Twilight bows and looks at her with big eyes:"Princess! What happened? Where's Princess Celestia?" she frowns.

Luna sighs and closes her eyes:"Celestia sleeps. She slept for the last two days. I have to explain something. I can enter dreams of ponies, that's something I usually don't do. Only to cure terrible... bad dreams of my subjects. My rose the sun and then she fell asleep, this morning the sun rose again, but she still sleeps! It seemed to raise itself! I tried to get into her dream, but it didn't work, I don't know why it didn't work, but I'm worried. It's not natural" she opens her eyes again and looks at their scared and disturbed faces.

Rarity can't believe it, just like Princess Luna couldn't believe it. She looks at the floor and thinks about all this:"But why did you want us to come princess?" she asks, she seems to be the only one who can say something at all. "I know we're the spirits of the elements of harmony, but what can we do?"

Luna walks over to the unicorn, but she actually talks to Twilight:"I need you to activate the elements of harmony so that you can release her or the nightmare disappears. I don't know what it is, but the elements can help... maybe"

Twilight smiles and nods:"I think we can do it, but we need Fluttershy for this!"

Luna nods:"No problem, I will get her, if you would be so kind and wait here" she smiles and suddenly teleports.

Twilight sighs deeply and lays down:"I can't believe this. What is going on here?"

Applejack looks at them:"I think I know it"

Everypony gasps and looks at them:"WHAT?!" they shout like in a choir. Applejack frowns:"Some days ago my daughter ran off into the Everfree Forest. I got caught by creatures called nightmares, well I've heard of them, I wasn't sure they really were those kind of creatures"

Twilight gasps:"Oh no... I read about them... that's horrible, we've got to do something about this! Before they infiltrate our minds! These monsters create nightmares until we are caught in them" she explains.

Rainbow growls:"Hey, we're gonna get through this! We made it through worse things, guys! We can do it!"

The ponies nod and agree with Dash when suddenly Luna reappears, together with Fluttershy, both have such a serious look on their faces.

The alicorn gallops to the throne and picks the casket with the elements of harmony up:"Let's go" she urges on them and gallops to Celestia's chambers. The other six ponies are right behind her.

They enter Celestia's room, but they seem to be too late. A nightmare stands right in front of the white alicorn, but it seems to be much taller, bigger and more powerful than the creatures who attacked Applejack in the forest.

He looks at them and his eyes glow in a deep red that looks like blood. A deep laugh clangs through the room:"You're too late little ponies! The princess is under my total control now! And soon, SOON you'll be mine too. I gained the power of so many different creatures" Suddenly Celestia's body lifts, but it looks like she was a puppet on loose strings. Her eyes begin to glow and he just laughs.

Lunja and Twilight stomp their hooves on the ground at the same time, they form a powerful force field around the ponies. Twilight growls:"You won't get away with this, we have the elements of harmony and we ARE the spirits of the elements!"

Rainbow starts to fly:"Yeah, exactly!"

But suddenly everything happens far too fast to react. The floor starts to shake and the monster and Celestia start to glow in a red light. He growls deeply:"HOW DARE YOU! I'M GONNA SHOW YOU MY STRENGTH!" the sound seems to come from everywhere. It almost smashes you down.

Rarity's hooves get all wobbly, everypony's hooves get wobbly. First Fluttershy, then Pinkie, even Rainbow breaks down.

Rarity starts to cry, she thinks about her life. How she left Ponyville two years ago to live in Canterlot, how her parents take care of Carousel Boutique, how her sister left the town too and everything started to disappear. The floor shakes heavier and the ceiling seems to fall down in a few seconds.

She doesn't even realize what's happening anymore. "YOU ARE GOING TO PAY!" he shouts, his big claws grab the six elements of harmony. Rarity looks around, her vision gets blurry, but she sees that herself, Twilight and Luna are the last ones standing. "Twilight, do something" she breaks down, but tries not to get unconscious.

She sees how Twilight's horn glows, it sparks, but she can't do anything. The monster seems to suck her dry. Of course, we all suffered from the nightmares, he takes our energy, Twilight knows that... and still... she fights back the white unicorn thinks.

She sighs and groans and the last thing she sees is a mighty ray that fires at them, but Twilight finally manages to use some magic. She uses her last magic to perform a teleportation spell, so that they all get away from here and then Rarity faints.