Twilight sat, humming softly to herself, eyes glued to the book in front of her. She glanced up as she heard the old tree around her creak in displeasure at the howling winds outside, but she knew she was safe in here. The Golden Oak had stood for decades, and it would take more than a bit of wind to bring it down.

She looked down once more at the book on the table with keen interest. She wasn’t entirely certain what the book was about, or even what the words on it’s pages were. Whenever she tried to think of that, her mind seemed to grow fuzzy. Be that as it may, it wasn’t important, and she kept reading with rapt fascination.

She wasn’t sure how much time passed as she read, before she became aware of a feeling, a sensation she wasn’t overly familiar with, but which something inside her told her was that of being stared at. She lifted her head and glanced around, frowning. Upon seeing nothing, however, she lowered her eyes once more to the book in front of her.

She read for several minutes more, when she heard a sound, another creak. She at first attributed it to the tree settling around her again, but something in her mind whispered that it had sounded different. Off, somehow.

She glanced up, ears flicking as she cast her large, lavender eyes around the interior of the tree. “Spike? Is that you?” She called, softly. Only silence answered her, ringing in her ears. Even the wind from outside seemed to have stopped. Looking around, she realized that it must have been much later than she thought it was, as the light from her lamp was throwing a golden halo on the floor around her, and outside that illumination, was nothing but pitch black darkness.

She cleared her throat softly, standing up, and lifted the lamp in her magic, licking her lips softly. “S . . . Spike?” She called again, and again nothing answered but the ringing, deathly silence that had fallen over the Golden Oak.

She swallowed and started walking in the direction she felt the stairs should be in, uncertain of her bearings in the total darkness. She could not understand why she was unable to see anything outside of the circle of light; she couldn’t even see the outline of the library’s windows. She walked, and walked, and then stopped, feeling a chill run up her spine and her breath grow short. The stairs weren’t here, and she had walked far enough that, even had she been going in the wrong direction, she should have hit a wall.

“K-Keep calm, Twilight. There must be a rational explanation for this.” She muttered to herself, looking around. The wood lay beneath her hooves, the floor so familiar to her after so many years of calling this place home. The thought brought an odd sensation of melancholy to her heart, and she wasn’t sure why. Trying to think of it made her head spin.

There was a sound, from behind her, a breath being drawn, short and sharp, and she spun, eyes wide, holding the lamp higher in her magic, trying to spread it’s light farther. “Who’s there?!” She snapped, readying a defensive spell in her mind, just in case. She wasn’t sure what was going on here, but something was wrong, she could feel it.

“Sp-Spike?! If that’s you, you’d better come out! This isn’t funny!” She said, loudly, her voice falling flat in the darkness. She swallowed again, setting out into the darkness, casting about, looking this way and that for some answer as to what was happening, but again only silence and darkness met her.

Silence as she walked across the hardwood floor.

She turned her eyes down, and they widened as she saw, rather than wood, a soft carpet of moss or lichen covering the ground at her hooves. Looking up, she realized she was somewhere in the Everfree Forest. She spun, biting her lip, seeing trees everywhere, and three paths through the trees. She was no stranger to the Everfree, but this place did not look familiar. It certainly wasn’t on the way to Zecora’s hut, that was for sure.

“Spike?! Are you out here?!” She called, and, taking a gamble, set off down one of the paths.

The forest had an unearthly silence to it, wrong even in this place that was always strange. Strange or not, this was still a forest, it still had weather and animals. She could see the branches of the trees, faintly outlined above her, moving in the wind, so why could she not hear them? Why were there no sounds of the forest animals moving about. Even this late, there should be some scurrying about here and there.

“F-Fluttershy? Are you here?!” She called softly, voice cracking in fear as she moved through the trees. The silence was broken again by a drawn breath, from somewhere to her right, and she spun, lifting her torch above her head, it’s flickering light glowing across the faces of the trees around her. But there was nothing there.

She shook her head. “Get control of yourself, Twilight!” She snapped, turning and continuing at a faster pace down the forest trail, looking for any sign of somepony she knew. Any sign that she wasn’t lost in the Everfree at night.

She found nothing. Nothing but more darkness, more silence. More path. She turned around at some point, hoping to make her way back to the nexus of paths that she had started at, but after walking what seemed like for ages, much longer than she had going the other way, she still had not found it.

“Fluttershy?! Where are you?!” She called, loudly, voice laced with panic. “Applejack?! Starlight?! Rainbow Dash?! Is anypony here?!” She felt like her heart was running a marathon in her chest, and this was only made worse by the continued, occasional noises around her. A twig snap here, a breath there. At one point, she even thought she heard a masculine voice whispering her name.

“Who’s there?! What do you want from me?!” She screamed, her panic and fear finally getting the best of her.

”Twilight.”

With a scream, she spun, her lamp flaring, and it lit up a nightmare; a bright red face, monkey like with obscene proportions, cowled in darkness and with a large, bristling white mustache above a mouth filled with fangs. She screamed again, spinning around and running through the woods.

Flames licked at her tail and mane as she leaped through the fire that burned all around her, clearing a fallen log. Somewhere in her mind, her logic center made the connection that she must’ve dropped her lantern, but it was a fleeting thought, as she could hear whatever that thing was behind her, in front of her, all around her.

Occasionally, it would appear from no where, towering above her, red face wrapped in a cloak of shadow, and she would turn and run, and run, and run, and run. . . .

She ran until she tripped, falling, tumbling, sliding down a slope and to the bottom of a ravine. She looked up, finding herself on the Pie family farm, and she scurried to her hooves, running as fast as possible for the end of the ravine. She could see the farmhouse, in the distance, on the opposite side of a field, past the end of the ravine. But, no matter how hard she ran, flew or even teleported herself, the end of the ravine never grew any closer, and behind her she could feel that thing growing closer, closer. . . .

She felt it reach out, felt it’s hand like a brand on her flank, and she screamed. With every breath she could take, she screamed. . . .

. . . . . . . . . .

And then she woke up.

* * * * *

Luna sat back in her throne as Twilight finished regaling her and her sister with the tale. The Lunar Princess ought to have been in bed, now, fast asleep in her own dreams, but Celestia had called for her, telling her that Twilight was in need of help. Her sister’s tone made it clear this was no trifle, and Luna had hurried to the throne room.

Twilight sat, along with her friends, in the middle of the room. Aside from Starlight and Trixie, the other five all looked exhausted. Even Spike looked like he’d had a bad night’s sleep. Luna simply could not understand it. All five stated that they had received similar nightmares, the night before. That they had been doing something peaceful, or normal, or relaxing. Normal dreams, but which had shifted to nightmare upon them each becoming aware of a sensation of being watched. Upon going to investigate, the dreams had fallen apart, becoming chaotic and terrifying, as the ponies were stalked by an unknown horror. Of the six, only Twilight had actually seen this entity, but to Luna’s mind there was no doubt the same creature was involved.

It made no sense. How could something have stepped into any of her ponies’ dreams without her being aware? She had not even sensed that any of the Element Bearers had any dreams, the night before, which in itself had struck her as strange, though not unheard of. Six ponies sharing a night of dreamless sleep is one thing. Six ponies, and all close friends, bonded by love as well as magic, all sharing a night of nightmares, however? That was more than mere coincidence.

Luna stood, looking down at the friends beneath her and nodded. “My little ponies, fear not. I will, with your permission, enter each of your dreams this evening, and try to get to the bottom of this.”

Twilight and her friends all looked at her with relief and hope, knowing that if anypony could help them, it was Luna. “Oh, thank you, Princess Luna. Thank you so much!” Twilight said, smiling, and her friends all seconded her statement.

“Yeah, thanks, Princess, you’re awesome!”

“Super-dee-duper-dee!”

“Thank you ever so much, Your Highness!”

“Oh, if it’s not too much trouble, Princess, that would be lovely.”

“That’d be a mighty fine thing, ta have yer help, Princess!”

Even Starlight, Trixie and Spike all smiled and showed their appreciation. After that, the exhausted crew all left, talking softly amongst themselves. Luna sat in quiet contemplation at the task ahead of her, chewing her lip.

She was interrupted by the feeling of eyes upon her, and turned to see her sister staring at her.

“I have not seen you this withdrawn in a long time, Sister. What is the matter?”

“I am not sure, Tia. This. . . . It reminds me of the Tantabus, but that being is gone, brought back inside of me and put to rest where it belongs. I don’t know what this is.”

“You did not sense their nightmares?”

“No, Sister. There are only a few things that can do that. If we are lucky, it is something simple, an excitivit somnus, perhaps, although I doubt it. It would take a lucid dreamer of some power and skill to do this, and I am fairly certain there are none of that magnitude alive anymore.”

“And if we are not lucky?”

Luna looked up at her sister, chewing her lip. “I do not wish to think about that, dear Sister.” She said, and left it at that.

Standing, Luna shook out her mane and nodded to her sister. “Wake me early, tonight, if you would, Tia. I must get my rest. I have a busy night ahead.”

Author's Note

;) Hope you all enjoy this little tidbit, and you can expect more like it in the future, as we enter a New Dawn for Pony Plots.