Eventide

The first thing Twilight did was light up her horn in the murky, foggy darkness, which didn't help at all. The pegasus instinct of hers was telling her to fly away, but the earth pony instinct told her to stand her ground and wait for help.

She didn't know where to fly off to, anyways; and she wasn't sure if she was going to get help either.

"Hello? Is anypony there?" she called out, walking forward a few paces, trying to make out anything in the darkness. It echoed back to her mournfully, the tension in her stomach turning into ice about the fact that she was alone. She sat down, and tried to cover her head with her wings, but she was too afraid to deprive herself of her vision. So instead, she stared at the ground.

Loneliness. It never plagued her mind, before she became the Element of Magic. When she did become one of the bearers, she gained five new friends in the cozy, tight town of Ponyville. Even Spike, who was only her assistant, felt like a son to her now.

But now, she was alone in the dark.

Wait. How did she get here in the first place?

She stood up, thinking hard. She came here when.. she had just fallen asleep.

"Could this be a dream?" Twilight murmured to the endless, foggy world.

"Twilight. It has been so long since I've seen you."

The alicorn's horn flared as she turned around, ready to strike down whoever snuck up on her. She was really on edge now.

Her eyes boggled, and her magic faded as she stepped back. "Nightmare Moon?! I thought.. I thought we had gotten rid of you!"

Even when Twilight grew a few inches above her friends, Nightmare Moon still towered over her like she did many, many ages ago. The same fear and hopelessness caused her to choke up, and she could only stand there, shocked to the core.

The dark alicorn chuckled softly, her voice reverberating in the endless realm. "You did. I am not Nightmare Moon, Twilight Sparkle." Her icey blue dragon were unblinking as they bore into Twilight.

"P-Princess Luna?" Twilight said, letting out a breath like an opened dam. "You..you scared me! I thought you had returned, and I-"

The lavender alicorn grew silent as she noticed the look in Nightmare's eyes. They blinked once, and she started to talk.

"The world you are in is the Dreamscape. As you know, my ability is to dreamwalk and guard my subjects dreams, and I finally remembered something when I came upon you dreaming about the Tree of Harmony one night."

"You knew I was dreaming about my cutiemark on the tree, Princess Luna?" Twilight interrupted.

"I was going to ask about it, but it seems my suspicions are correct," the older alicorn replied gently. "Has my sister not told you anything about the tree?"

"Er.. No." When she tried to bring it up with Celestia, there was almost always an interruption. "Well, now that you mention it.."

The fog cleared as Nightmare Moon walked past her. "Alas, Sparkle, my sister is not the one for being honest. It was I who wielded the Honesty shard, after all."

"Being honest, your Highness?" Twilight Sparkle hurried to catch up with her, fumbling for words. Princess Celestia was the most kindest, generous pony out of all of Equestria put together. What does Luna mean?

"Celestia does not like to put blame on ponies, let alone prophecies, but of course, she had to choose you."

"Prophecies? Blame?" Twilight was fumbling with her words. Princess Luna chuckled.

"Remember the prophecy that the stars would aid in my escape, Twilight?" She gently reminded the alicorn princess.

"Oh! Yes. What about it?" She looked eager to understand the entire situation.

"Well, what if I told you you were the stars, Twilight Sparkle?"

Twilight stopped following her, a suspicious glare on her face. "What? But I didn't want you to escape! Nopony did!"

"You were the only pony that had witnessed the stars coming towards the moon. You simply needed to look up into the sky at the moon, and the stars did the rest. Celestia countered this prophecy with her own, that you would defeat me. She gave you the Elements of Harmony when she could no longer wield them, and you and your friends connected to them instantly. Both of us had seen the cutiemark thousands of years ago, and we both laid a prophecy onto you, a Flare in magic."

Twilight looked at her in amazement, but then shook her head. "What is your point, Princess Luna?"

"My point is that, your also my student. Instead of friendship magic, I could train you in all kinds of magic. I could even let you dabble in dark magic, or let you experience love magic, like Cadence had done."

Twilight looked at the ground. "Is there anything else I should know about?" she said, choosing her words carefully.

"I could go on, Sparkle. Your family forged my armor and named their children with night related words. Twilight Velvet, Night Light, Twilight Sparkle.. You see my point? They worked for me, a thousand years ago. They wanted to bring eternal night."

Twilight Sparkle was sent reeling. "W-what?! My family would never do that!"

Nightmare Moon faced her, and laughed. "Night Light and Twilight Velvet are not loyal to me, anymore. They probably don't even know they supported me at some point in their bloodline's history."