Discord sat stretched out on a couch in his home, news paper spread out in front of him. A pen hung from the corner of his mouth as he chewed on it. In his lion's paw he held a yellow pumpkin flavored candy rope, twirling it back and forth between his toes.

"Hmm," he said to himself, "a ten letter word for 'a small pest known for eating all food,' that starts with a P.... Pinkie Pies." He brought the candy rope to the paper.

"P-1-#-OW!"

A stinging sensation suddenly shot through his forelimb, causing him to drop the candy rope and jerk in surprise. As he looked, two puncture marks appeared, blood starting to ooze from the spots.

"Where did this come from? There is nothing that can actually physically hurt me." He poked at it, letting out a slight hiss of pain with each touch.

"Wake up! Wake up already!"

"Rainbow Dash," Fluttershy said gently, "shaking and shouting like that isn't going to help."

"But we need them," Rainbow Dash replied, dropping the unconscious Applejack. "We can't use the power of friendship without them. And I don't think Twilight can keep her shield up much longer."

"No, no," Twilight panted out. "I'm fine." She wiped the sweat from her forehead. "I can keep going for a while."

"You are wasting your energy," King Sombra called out from the outside of the shield. "Give up, and your death will be quick."

Before any of them responded, Twilight Sparkle let out a scream of pain. The shield and the magic around her horn dimmed for a second before bursting brighter. A cry escaped from King Sombra as he was pushed back.

At the same moment, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Rarity all suddenly jerked away, gasping as they stood up.

"What in tarnation happened?" Applejack asked as she looked around.

"The three of you got hit by Sombra's fear spell," Fluttershy said. "Are you okay?"

"I suppose that explains what I was dreaming about," Rarity said, tapping her chin. "But... just before I woke up, I felt... something."

"Me too," Pinkie Pie added. "It was kind of like when we first used The Elements of Harmony."

"I'm fine," Applejack answered. "Though I feel like I've been shaken like one of Winona's toys."

"Hey," Rainbow called out. "Can we talk about this later?" She pointed toward King Sombra. "Looks like he's coming in for an attack again."

Princess Luna sat at a desk in the library, several books spread out before her. Something was bothering her, but what? It would help if she had at least some idea what it was related to.

Something had the dream world on edge. More and more ponies were having bad dreams. It was small at first, and especially odd since most ponies tended to have pleasant dreams around Hearth's Warming (when it had started), but it kept getting worse and worse. Things were reaching the point that Princess Luna was unable to keep up with them. She had actually been late lowering the moon a couple times because she was still busy helping ponies deal with their nightmares. That did not include the ever-growing number of those that she was unable to visit and assist.

So now she was spending her free time trying a different method, something she found incredibly boring and tedious, something that Celestia would suggest and Twilight was a master at: researching.

It was boring and she hated it.

With a groan, she dropped the book, causing the opossum on her lap to look up at her.

"This is frustrating Tiberius," Luna said, moving to stroke the creature gently. "Something is disrupting our ponies' dreams and there seems as though there is nothing we can do about it. Celestia has no dreamwalking ability and I don't know what the cause is."

Her horn glowed as she lifted up one of the books, glaring at it.

"These books do me no good either. There are dozens of them, even on the same subject matter. I would need at least some concept of what was possibly occurring in order to have some idea where to even begin."

She had to resist the urge to throw the book at the wall in her annoyance.

"It seems as if you have to know what is going on to figure out what is going on, and I don't." Picking up Tiberius in her hooves, she looked at him face to face. "How am I to help the ponies if I can't even figure out what the problem is enough to seek an answer?"

Tiberius look at her with his black eyes, saying nothing.

Sighing heavily, Luna set the opossum down and reached for another book.

A gasp escaped the princess as the magic vanished from around her horn. Her entire body tensed, wings flaring out from her, and her eyes turned white.

At what was commonly referred to as "The Castle of Friendship," Chocolate Cherry collapsed against one of the walls with a heavy sigh. Her ears and tail drooped and her mane was hanging limply. Moving her head to the windowsill, she looked out through it toward the town.

"How does Pinkie Pie do it?" she asked aloud.

"A lot of sugar and years of practice," a feminine voice said from behind her.

Cherry jumped, gasping slightly as she turned around. Standing there was a thick bodied earth mare with a pale blue coat and swirling pink mane. Smiling gently, the mare turned sideways, showing a tray of treats on her back.

"It probably also helps that is what she is most passionate about. Care for an apple turnover?"

"Thank you, Mrs. Cake" Cherry said as she grabbed one of the offered turnovers and took a bite.

Oh, Celestia did it taste good. So warm, gooey, and sweet. Right now it was like a little piece of heaven exploding in her mouth. She was not even aware that she had closed her eyes until she felt a hoof on her shoulder and had to open them.

"My advice," Mrs. Cake said gently, "don't compare yourself to another pony. Especially one as unique as Pinkie Pie. You're doing a wonderful job." Her smile faltered as she looked out the window. "All things considered."

The turnover suddenly tasted nowhere near as good as it used to. Swallowing the mouthful, Cherry turned and looked out the window again. She took another bite regardless as she stared up at the dark clouds and strange looking windigos.

"We'll be fine," Mrs. Cake said before continuing on, but Cherry thought that she heard a note of doubt in the voice.

Maybe I just imagined it, Cherry thought. After all, Mrs. Cake had plenty of reason to be confident, more so than she did. Cherry had only moved here shortly before the events with Lord Tirek, and that had been an attack on all of Equestria that had pretty much ended in Ponyville when he came for Twilight Sparkle. Mrs. Cake had lived in Ponyville for years and had stayed through it all: Nightmare Moon, Discord, Tirek, parasprites, ursas, dragons...

Now that she thought about it, maybe it was not the best town to move to after all. It was like the place was a magnet for trouble. Maybe that was why not as many ponies had moved there after Twilight Sparkle's ascension as she had expected. She thought more would come here, especially after a castle had shown up.

Which they were now using to keep safe from strange windigos -- something that all of them had only seen in Hearth's Warming plays -- that were covering Ponyville in ice and snow on the day that winter was supposed to end and spring begin. In the story, it was the friendship and kindness between the ponies that had saved them from being frozen.

Turning, she looked at the crowds of ponies spread through out the room. Most of the foals were all gathered in one area, watching what looked like was some sort of impromptu play. A small number of them seemed to have dozed off. Several different groups were set up around different musicians, including: Vinyl, who was playing a record on a singular turntable; Octavia, who was demonstrating how to string and rosin a bow; and Lyra, who was giving a music lesson to several ponies. Several ponies with skills in cooking -- like Mrs. Cake -- were moving among the groups, checking on them and making sure that everypony there had plenty to eat and drink.

It was kind of comforting to see. It was less like an emergency and more like some sort of big get together for friends and family. Maybe that was one of the advantages of living in a smaller place like Ponyville. Ponies could get to know each other and everypony who lives there, making them all more like friends. Pinkie Pie probably helped with wanting to make friends with everypony, which means she would probably introduce them all to each other if she could.

A bright flash and loud boom caught everypony's attention. Everything turned quiet as they all looked around.

Chocolate Cherry looked out the window. The clouds flashed with lightning, thunder echoing with each electric blue explosion. With each flash, the clouds grew thinner and smaller before disappearing. Soon the skies were clear.

The moon appeared in the sky, moving quickly. It continued across until reaching the sun, sliding in front of it. Soon only a faint ring of light could be seen around a dark spot in the sky.

"What's going on?" one pony asked.

Chocolate Cherry turned to look at the others, eyes wide as they looked at her.

"I don't know."