Up at the highest tower of Canterlot, where a beautiful sun ignited the sky with orange began to set with prosperity floating all around the clear air, Luna awoke. She looked up from the balcony where she rested and muttered, “I saw her... she was right there... and I was so close.”

For all of the day’s time, she’d been asleep, attempting to reach somepony who she soon became sure was having one of the worst nightmares she could’ve ever thought possible to fabricate within one’s own mind. With hardly any luck, she shook her head, and peered out at the town of Ponyville. “I won’t give up... That mare needs my help. We won’t... ugh, I mean, I won’t let her down.”

Just as her head rested on the floor once more, the glass door behind her opened, and her sister entered. “Luna?” Princess Celestia asked, hoping to get her attention. “Have you been out here all day long?”

“We are sorry, but we... agh, I keep doing that. I’ll never get used to this new day and age’s style of speaking.”

Celestia walked up to her side with a smile, lowering her frame to rest with her fellow princess and said, “It’s okay. You can use the old way of speaking with me... After all, we still miss it sometimes as well.”

Luna smirked her way. “Thanks, but I prefer to get used to the norm of things.”

Celestia tugged Luna with her hoof, and with a calm voice, asked, “So, what are you doing out here? Sleeping?”

Luna looked onward. “Just passed through Ponyville, and there is somepony who’s going though the worst of dreams I’ve ever had the displeasure of looking into.” She looked Celestia in the eyes and continued, “Torture, interrogation, and it’s all been spurred on by her very own guilt.”

Celestia’s jaw hung ajar as she listened, but found the time to ask, “Do you know who it is?”

Luna shook her head. “I do not... She’s different, not like anypony I’ve ever tried to get in contact with through sleep. It’s challenging, but I’ll break through somehow.” For a few more seconds, Celestia and her sister sat with each other looking out at the setting sun. Luna smiled and said, “Quite the sunset you’ve made this day.”

Celestia seemed to miss her sister’s words and instead offered, “Perhaps... When I had your job as dream helper, or whatever you call it, I would often have this sort of trouble as well. In this case, if I couldn’t reach somepony, I’d simply bring them into my own dream.”

Luna blinked, brought her hoof up to her muzzle and said, “That... might work, but I’ve never really tried it.”

As Celestia stood, she reminded her sister, “There’s a lot you haven’t tried yet.”

Once the daytime princess left, Luna yawned and brought up her moon the same way she always did, but this time, she made it a little bit brighter for the being out there having such disturbing nightmares. Once her evening task was done there was her other service that had to be confronted. This time with her hoping what Celestia had offered would work.

Meanwhile, down below in the Canterlot cell, Queen Chrysalis watched idly at the working doctor. He seemed to be preoccupied with the chemical that was shot into her not too long ago. He turned his head so that the right glass eye could be seen, and asked, “Any nauseating sensations?”

“No.”

“Do you feel different at all except for the numbing?”

Chrysalis looked down to say once more, “No.”

He had one final question, but this time, the voice leaving his mouth was not his own. It was the same voice from before, when she was first brought into the interrogation room. The vision she experienced recently held an all too recognizable feel to it, and the emotions she witnessed were suddenly returning. “Does thine eyes hurt?”

She didn’t answer, but instead, looked at him with widening eyes. Her back was chilled from the sudden winds breezing against her wings and mane. As she turned around, hearing nothing but silence and smelling fresh pond water, she watched as the decaying stone bricks of her cell vanished along the middle point, and opened up a whole different setting.

She was now in a midnight field with blue grass, a starry sky, white glowing trees all around her, and crimson red bushes lining in a row to seemingly lead her along the way where she was apparently meant to go. Before walking the path laid out for her, she called out, “Hello? Doctor? Where’d you go?”

Nopony answered. Her voice echoed among the wildlife, eventually waking several fireflies. One lit itself up, and then another. In hardly any time at all, the changeling was surrounded by glowing insects freely giving their love to her. So much of it, in fact, that Chrysalis soon believed she’d be at full strength by the time her travel down the road ended.

She brushed her mane behind her ear, and realized it was no longer scorched. “What the...?” Her tongue slid between her teeth, and she found out not only had her mane returned to normal, but the part of her tongue that was bitten off was back, along with the numbing effects of the injection she had gotten having utterly vanished.

Despite being profoundly confused and curious as to why this was happening, she found herself much more interested with venturing down the road to where this hallucinatory place wanted her to travel.

Along the gravel road, Chrysalis trotted, the fireflies swarming in circles all around her and buzzing with contentment as they did. As for her, she began to contemplate the possibilities of where she was and how she’d gotten there, but the truth never occurred to her. Until she reached the end, Queen Chrysalis simply assumed it was the mysterious drug in her system making her see things within the cell. Regardless, once she approached her destination, all that was soon forgotten.

A murky pond with mystical shimmers created from the abnormally bright moonlight was what she found at the end of her journey. Calm waters without any ripples, so that it almost seemed solid, if it weren’t for one of the bugs flying over and landing itself in it, causing a small but very noticeable ring to form and expand, then bounce off the edges, only to disperse after a moment of Chrysalis watching.

She looked back up and saw somepony on the other end turned with her back facing Chrysalis. She stood perfectly still, almost as if petrified, that is, until the queen called out to her, “You’re the mare from before...” She trotted through the pond, disturbing its peaceful state. “Why do you look so much like Princess Celestia?” The mare didn’t answer. She merely shuffled a hoof on the dirt and resumed ignoring Queen Chrysalis. Thoroughly aggravated by the insulting behavior, Chrysalis demanded, “Tell me who you are!”

The mysterious being quickly turned Chrysalis’s way, and startled her back into the cell. The stone walls of grey and black came soaring through the sky and sealed her within. The bars ascended from the ground, and the water around her hooves evaporated into the sky, for the face she saw belonged to the bird masked stallion who’d been keeping watch of her. He stood beyond the gate, his eyes examining her closely.

“Who were you talking to, my dear?”

Chrysalis huffed, glanced from left to right, unsure as to how she would answer him. “I... think I need to see a psychologist...”

He giggled rudely and stated, “You’ll have no such thing. Now, come with me. Your next interrogations are ready to be carried out.”

The creaky bars keeping her sealed inside opened, and she left, but just as she turned to face the two guards, the doctor gripped her mane. “What is this?” She looked towards him. “Where’d the disintegrated locks go? Your hair was burnt when you came in here, now it’s as if you’ve been to the beauty salon.”

“What?” Chrysalis asked, feeling her mane calmly.

He let go and backed away. “And... your tongue... it’s...”

She stuck it out and looked at it. Where the piece was missing just a little while ago, a new slither was replaced. No scar line, not even a visible cut could be seen by either of them. Chrysalis gulped and said, “I honestly haven’t the slightest clue of what happened.”

The stallion nodded and said, “I think I do...” She watched him search through his bag and pull out a green bottle filled with the chemical. “This has healing properties... but those weren’t very potent when used on the average pony. Obviously, thanks to your physical attributes, you’ve accelerated the perks of it, and healed your tongue. As for your mane... Well, it doesn’t matter. I’ll get the facts from you once you're dead and I can investigate your corpse. Hehe.”

Chrysalis scowled at him. “Can we get this over with?”

He looked up at her, tempted to slap that expression clear off her muzzle, but didn’t overreact. He knew Commander Static would take care of it for him, so leading the way, he and Chrysalis trotted back up the stairs, back to where the second round of pain and misery would commence.

Author's Note

Coauthored with RainbowBob