Chapter 1: Nightmares and Prophecies
Darkness. That was all that Twilight could see. She couldn’t even tell if her eyes were open; she waved her hoof in front of her face, only to be met by pitch black nothingness. Something was definitely wrong here.
She looked ahead and began to walk. Why was it so dark? All she could do was keep moving and hope she didn’t run into something.
That was when a faint green light appeared ahead. Thankful for some light, Twilight rushed forward through the darkness to meet it, not paying to attention to her surroundings revealed by the light. She approached it.....15 feet.....10 feet.....then stopped. What she saw made her nearly want to throw up.
It was her friends: Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy. But they.....they were--
Hanging.
The sight of her friends hanging from thin ropes and swaying in the wind made Twilight turn around and retch. Her stomach revolted at the sight, and she wanted to throw up, except she couldn’t. For some reason she just couldn’t. She turned back to her friends. Confusion spread over Twilight’s mind. They weren’t there anymore. She turned around. and jumped when she saw her five companions.....but they weren’t the same. Something was different; instead of being their own ambient colors, their eyes were all a sickly green--the same color as the light.
“Rainbow...Applejack....Fluttershy....” Twilight said, whimpering. “Rarity....Pinkie Pie....What’s happened to you?”
Rainbow Dash smiled a smile that wasn’t quite her own. “Oh nothing really, Twilight.” Her voice was the same...but it was almost as if another one had been mixed in with it. “We just wanted to surprise you.”
Twilight shuddered, and almost turned back towards the green light, but Fluttershy flew over her in a very un-Fluttershy way and snapped at her. “Just where do you think you’re going?!”
“Yes, dear....” Rarity said, here eyes twinkling . “The party is just about to begin.”
“YES! The PARTY!” Pinkie Pie cackled, bouncing around them while laughing insanely. “We can’t let you go without that!” She stopped next Twilight, and grabbed her head so that the two were facing each other. Pinkie’s hair was straight as can be, and drooped down over her shoulders. Her eyes were bloodshot and changed focus every few seconds. “We’ve each had one!”
Twilight pulled away from Pinkie’s grasps and attempted to run away, but soon tripped after she felt something grab her leg. She looked down to see a rope tightly secured around her hind hoof. She got pulled back to the group, who smiled maliciously at her.
“Why Twi, it’s mighty rude to run out of a party without excusing yourself.” Applejack chuckled, her voice too mixed in with somepony else’s. “We ain’t gonna hurt ya....” Each of her friend’s eyes glowed with sick delight as they edged closer to the lavender unicorn. Suddenly, she let out a dark cackle. “At least, not too badly.” With that, they began to play with her, and Twilight could only do one thing.
Scream. Scream in the dark.
Twilight bolted up from her bed, gasping for breath. Her friends....they wouldn’t ever do those things to her. Still, some heavy sense of foreboding lingered in the back of her mind. They looked very much like they did when the fell to Discord--sickly and gray. But this time, each seemed even more, malicious, more chaotic. It wasn’t just fun and games, like Discord would’ve liked. It was pure evil.
Something about this dream just sent a chill down her spine. It seemed too real. No dream that Twilight had before had been so vivid. Her friends....or rather, or the ponies that looked like her friends, seemed too detailed to be figments of her imagination. The way they cackled as the tortured her, the terrible glint in their irises as they surrounded her, the way the sickly light seemed to pulse from them
Other than the dopplegangers of her friends, the thing that disturbed her the most was the green light. It gave her memory a slight jog, causing her to delve her mind for what memory the dream had triggered. Suddenly, it came to her. Another prophecy she’d read, a little before the one about Nightmare Moon arriving.
See the world in turmoil eternal,
the spirit of chaos heralding the rest loudly.
Then see the land invaded
by those who pretend, though are not.
Finally, see the return of the crystalline kingdom,
restored, complete, in full glory.
Once these three come to pass,
The last act will become reality.
The Dark Dragon will return at last,
The Lord of Chaos, to be feared by many.
Twilight suddenly began to feel that maybe this dream of hers.....wasn’t much of a dream. It almost felt like a glance into the future. She couldn’t shake that feeling.
The shivering unicorn glanced at the clock and groaned. 7:30 am. It was her day off, and of course, on the one day she could relax and sleep in, she wakes up early. Go figure.
Well, would you rather be awake in the real world, Her mind asked, or stuck in that dreamscape with your “friends”?
She immediately shivered and made her decision. Twilight couldn’t fall back asleep, so instead she went downstairs to make some breakfast. She tiptoed passed Spike and made it into the kitchen soundlessly.....that is, until she opened the kitchen door to see Pinkie Pie bouncing all over it.
“Pinkie?!” Twilight yelled. “What in the wide world of Equestria are you doing here?”
“Why silly, I’m making us some pancakes!”
Twilight’s belly grumbled, but her mind won over her stomach. “Well.....why?!”
Pinkie Pie giggled. “Oh! I guess Gummy didn’t send the message Iike I told him to.” She hopped over to the fridge and got out some eggs. “My Pinkie Sense was telling me that something important was going to happen soon, like in the next few days! So, I decided to come over and cook us a GINORMOUS breakfast!”
Twilight’s anger faltered. Something important? Could this in anyway be connected to her dream?
“Pinkie.....” Twilight said, afraid of the answer. “How important is it?”
“Oh! Super-duper-completely-over-the-top-with-sprinkles-on-top important!”
As her pink friend hummed along to a nameless tune while cooking pancakes, Twilight went and sat down at the table. Something important was going to happen soon. If Pinkie felt it, then surely it was going to happen. After the last time Twilight doubted her friend’s spontaneous predictions, she was in no hurry to blow off her warning.
“Actually Pinkie Pie, I may need to take mine on the go.” Twilight said, walking out of the kitchen.
“Why’s that?”
“I am going to visit the Princess.”
