Even Nightmares Have Urges

Chapter 4

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Silence returned to the forest. The moans and groans of the alicorns died down as they fell asleep, and the natural inhabitants continued to doze in their trees or bushes or tunnels. The wind whispered, tickled the leaves, and went on it’s way again.

The silence lasted for several minutes until a certain black alicorn stirred. She felt the warm, large, breathing object in front of her, it’s flank nestled in hers, and wrapped her front hooves around it’s white chest, holding it tight to her. Her face nuzzled it’s withers, smiling at how the soft fur felt on her face. Nightmare layed her head down on the pony’s shoulder and closed her eyes, breathing deeply, content and happy for the first time in her long life.

A single, happy tear rolled down her cheek onto Celestia, and Nightmare Moon fell into a peaceful slumber.

Princess Luna jerked awake sometime after, giving a sleepy “What?” as her memories slowly returned. Raising her head, still spread-eagle on the forest floor, she saw that Moony had her hooves wrapped around Celly like her sister was a security blanket. With the magic from Celestia’s horn still having an effect on Luna’s mind, a large, dopey grin came to her face as she chuckled quietly and stood.

The alicorn walked rather unsteadily over to the two, plopping down in front of Celly after stumbling the last few feet. She layed down facing away from her sister, curling up into a ball like a child scared of monsters hiding under his blanket and putting her back up against Celly’s stomach. But Luna was not afraid, rather the contrary; she was very happy and satisfied with what had happened earlier.

“I made Moony happy!” She giggled to herself. Celestia groaned in her sleep and her front leg draped around Luna’s shoulder, rubbing it softly and putting Luna back to sleep slowly.

Celestia woke up with a moan as Luna giggled, and looking down she saw her little sister curled up in a ball and laying against her. Smiling softly, Celestia reached down with the leg that wasn’t pinned and rubbed Luna’s shoulder softly. Luna began breathing in a slow, steady rhythm, and eventually the blue alicorn drifted off to sleep.

The white pony then turned her head to look behind her, seeing Nightmare Moon holding on to her and resting her head on the white shoulder. Planting a feather-light kiss on Moony’s nose and giving the black snout a gentle nuzzle, Celestia laid her head back and let sleep overtake her.

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Twilight Sparkle was outside on the library’s balcony, staring at the night (day) sky for the fourth consecutive hour. “Three days,” she thought. “It’s been three days already. Why won’t the Princess let me - us - help?” Remembering the conversation she had had with her mentor three days earlier, Twilight couldn't help but shake her head in shame and embarrassment at what had happened...

Three days ago, in Canterlot castle...

Twilight was enjoying her rare visit to the castle immensely. She had gone to visit her old tower, finding all of her bookshelves empty, their contents having been moved to Ponyville, but other than that everything else was still in it’s place. She had (reluctantly) visited the Royal Kitchens, the new decor reminding the purple pony of a particular night a few years ago when she had set the place on fire during a cooking accident.

That was the first time she had ever been genuinely happy to see Princess Celestia. Sure, for the past six months she had been happy to be the personal protege of the ruler of Equestria, but it was also very nerve-racking and awkward. Twilight never felt comfortable around the alicorn, and she was sure that the older pony had felt the same way.

After everypony had been evacuated, Twilight looked towards the setting sun, then did a double take; the sun seemed to be rising again, getting brighter and brighter and higher and higher. After a few seconds, a figure could be made out in the center of the light, but nopony noticed as it hurt to look at such a bright light.

In truth, the sun was not rising once more, but rather Princess Celestia was flying so fast that her contrail had appeared. A letter from Canterlot had reached her in Phillydelphia, urging her to come quickly due to a fire in the kitchens. “I could give a flying buck about the kitchens; my little ponies are in danger.” Celestia had thought after reading the letter, flying out of the nearest window and heading for Canterlot. “Oh, BUCK! TWILIGHT!” The alicorn yelled, remembering her student saying something about learning to cook earlier that day.

Then the Princess really started to fly, pushing herself to her limits. After several moments of flying at top speed, Celestia saw the castle in the distance, as well as a small crowd of ponies gathered near the entrance to the kitchens who were glancing in her general direction.

Slowing down, the sonic cone that had formed dissipated before breaking. Celestia had immediately extinguished the fire inside the castle with magic and scanned the crowd for her student, finding the unicorn running towards her, tears and a fearful look in her eyes. Reaching her teacher’s hooves Twilight sank into a bow and began babbling on and on.

“I’M SO SORRY PRINCESS PLEASE DON’T BANISH ME IT WAS AN ACCIDENT AND I SLIPPED AND I PANICKED AND SET THE FOOD ON FIRE AND -” Twilight might have continued for hours had not a gold-adorned hoof touched her withers. The purple pony hesitantly glanced up, finding her teacher crying silently.

“I don’t care if you crumbled the castle into dust; as long as you’re okay, I’m happy.” Celestia said as she wrapped her neck around Twilight’s, a pony version of a hug. Twilight was dumbstruck for a moment, still unable to process what the alicorn had said. Then they hit her, and Twilight leaned into the embrace, sobbing into the pristine coat of fur with relief and a new emotion, one she had never felt before...

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“Twilight...hello, anypony home? Twilight!”

Speaking of Celestia, the Princess was standing in front of her, trying to get her attention as the unicorn’s eyes snapped back into focus. Chuckling softly, the alicorn lowered the waving hoof from her student’s face. Twilight blushed a deep scarlet, smiling sheepishly while apologising.

“You never have to say sorry to me, Twilight Sparkle.” the alicorn said, gesturing for her student to follow her. “So, my faithful student, why have you decided to visit all of a sudden? You usually send a letter beforehand.” No response from Twilight, only more looking away and blushing. “Is everything okay, Twilight? You are very quiet.”

“No, no, everything is fine! Nothing to worry about!” The unicorn said with a nervous laugh and a less-than-convincing smile. Celestia was wholly unconvinced, but let it slide, sure that whatever was bothering her student would present itself in time.

After a few minutes of awkward silence, Celestia stopped, spinning to face the purple pony who was mumbling to herself. “Twilight, I can tell that something very troubling is plaguing you. If you wish not to tell me, I understand, but please don’t act like everything is...Twilight? What is the matter?” Celestia asked in response to the look of horror dawning on the unicorn’s face. No sound. “Twilight, you’re starting to scare me!” the white pony almost yelled, lightly shaking her already-shaking student’s shoulder.

“P-p-princess...” Twilight stuttered, pointing to the sky behind Celestia with a trembling hoof at the same time Luna’s voice yelled inside her sister’s head;

“Celestia, the moon is rising!”

Cold, heartless laughter echoed throughout Canterlot from the castle as the moon climbed higher and higher, darkening the sky and pushing the sun down under the horizon as the celestial white orb reached the top of it’s arc.

The next time Twilight blinked, she was back at Ponyville Library with her mentor standing directly in front of her.

“Twilight, you must stay in Ponyville. The Elements of Harmony will not work on Nightmare Moon if she is a separate entity from Luna. You and your friends must promise not to interfere in any way, lest Nightmare obtain the Elements and...” Celestia trailed off, not wanting to say those last few words. Twilight understood all the same, but quickly retaliated.

“Princess, I understand why you don’t want us to join, but I speak for myself and my friends when I say that we are ready to fight her again. Even if we don’t have the Elements-” The alicorn shaking her head at the ground, a slow drip of tears running off her face made the next words die in Twilight’s mouth.

“Twilight Sparkle,” Celestia began after a moment, “You are willing to risk your life, not once, but three times for Equestria. Now, without the weapon that has won you both previous battles, you still stand right by me.” Twilight saw the smile on her mentors face as she looked up, but that only wanted to make her cry, too. “She is stronger than me, stronger than Luna. I only managed to defeat her with the Elements by sheer luck the first time, and you with friendship and love the second. Now...” Twilight sat back, tears brimming in her eyes while she waited for her mentor’s next words, the words she dreaded. “Twilight, you can’t go with me. You can’t fight. I’m sorry.”

Kneeling down onto the ground, Celestia kissed her student’s forehead lightly as Twilight’s tears flowed unrestrained before teleporting back to the castle to fight Nightmare Moon.

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“Idiot,” the purple pony thought. “You should have told her. What if Nightmare Moon wins, and she-”

“No.” replied the other side of Twilight, the side that kept her going through tough times, stressful times, hopeless times. The real Twilight Sparkle. “Celestia will not lose. She can’t lose. Period.”

The unicorn went blind suddenly, a strong, golden glow from over the forest burning her eyes.

“YES! THE SUN! TOLD YOU CELESTIA WOULDN’T...wait...” For the second time in her short life, Twilight saw something most ponies never even dream of seeing: the Princess’ contrail. Knowing (or interpreting badly) a sign when she saw one, Twilight bade a hasty farewell to Spike before trekking in the woods, her destination the point in the sky where the golden path last shone in the midnight sky.

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