Heirs

The guards eventually searched the entire grounds, inside and out.

“We found nothing Princess, what will you have us do?” Celestia sighed.

“Have an extra patrol out for now, we wouldn't want to be taken by surprise.” The guards nodded.

“Yes Princess.” It was already turning getting late, the search had taken all day. Celestia turned to Holo and Taiga.

“Well I’m sorry that you two didn’t get to play today like you normally do, but I hope you understand that this was necessary for safety.” Holo responded, because Taiga was almost falling over from sleepiness.

“It’s fine, I understand that safety is the number one priority here. Now if you’ll excuse us I need to take Taiga to bed.” Celestia nodded and left for her room as she was exhausted as well.

Holo entered their room with Taiga on her back. Despite them seeming the same age, they were clearly not. It showed when it came to how they acted. Holo tucked Taiga in and kissed her goodnight. Taiga smiled a bit as Holo tucked her in. When she finished she pulled a chair over to the window and sat down. The guards hadn’t found anything, but she knew she had seen something and Celestia had also seen it and it scared her. Holo had a feeling that Celestia knew what it was and that was why it scared her so much. Holo watched out the window for a few minutes. After seeing nothing for what seemed like ages she finally decided to call it a night and went to bed.

A pony stood alone in the darkness. Slowly the darkness began to swirl around and take form. The pony stepped back and questioned the dark form.

“What!? No, you’re gone, I-i made sure of that.” The form hissed.

“Did you really think that I would simply disappear? I will never, can never die.” The pony found her confidence.

“You have no hold here, no hold on me, leave at once and let me wake up from this nightmare!” The darkness made a sound that only somewhat resembled a chuckle.

“Oh but I do have hold here.” The pony's newfound confidence vanished and she backed up once again. “You see? Even you know the truth.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” The pony turned around and ran from the form, but it simply swirled around her again.

“Come now, you know that I can help you with your…problem.” The pony was now in a mad dash trying to escape but reaching no such point.

“I don’t have any problem! Just leave me alone!”

“Now we both know that you resent your sister, don’t we?” The pony stopped.

“Ahh, now there we go. Now that we understand each other we can…” A stern look came across the pony's face and she faced the dark form.

“We don’t understand each other. And I don’t resent my sister, not in the way you think at least.”

“Oh really? It seems you’re right that we don’t understand each other. You clearly don’t understand what I am capable of.” The pony simply stood there with their eyes closed. “You resent you sister because she has what you’ve always wanted, to be adored. You know that it’s true because after all, we are in your head.”

“No, it’s not like that.”

“But it is. Nopony has ever actually cared about you before. They pretend they do, but deep down you know they’re afraid of you. They don’t trust you and they never will. They accept your rule only because they are afraid not to.” The pony looked up, there were tears in her eyes as the words of the form began to reach her.

“She has everything I’ve ever wanted.”

“Yes yes, let it out.”

“I just wanted one pony to care for me, just one. She has it all and she doesn’t even see the pain in my eyes.” She looked straight at the Nightmare. “She needs to know how much it hurts.”

“Then wake up and let’s show her.” She felt her bed materialize around her body. Slowly Celestia opened her eyes and breathed in the hate that the Nightmare stirred up.

“LUNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” Celestia screamed her sister’s name with anger. Of course more than just Luna heard the scream. Within a minute he bedroom door slammed open and Luna ran through followed by Steven, Holo, and Taiga.

“Tia, what is it!?” Celestia just stood on top of her bed with her head down. Tears dripped from her face onto her sheets. Luna stepped closer. “Sister, tell us what’s wrong so we can help you.” Celestia interrupted Luna.

“I’ll tell you what’s wrong…” She looked up and her eyes flashed dark for only a second. “You, you’re what’s wrong.”

“Wha…what are you talking about?” Luna stumbled over her words.

“All I ever wanted was for ponies to like me, and they don’t.”

“Tia, you aren't making sense.”

“None of them actually care for me, they only fear me.”

“But what does this have to do with me?”

“You have somepony that does care for you.” Her mane and tail burst into flames. “That’s all I ever wanted and you have it!” The four alicorns stepped back from Celestia. “Now I’m going to show you how much it hurts me to be the only pony in all of Equestria to not be loved.” Her eyes shone bright orange and looked straight at Steven. Luna quickly pushed Steven behind her. Celestia just stood there staring. Slowly Holo and Taiga moved behind Luna on their own accord. Seeing this Celestia became even angrier. “And now you take away the only ponies that were even close to caring for me. I’ll kill you all!” Her horn shone brightly and there was a flash of light. When Steven opened his eyes he saw Celestia shooting a beam of fiery energy into a shield of magic that Luna was holding. Luna was grimacing.

“I’m sorry sister…” Her words trailed off as she cast a second spell enveloping Steven, Holo, Taiga, and herself. The room filled with light from the spell and when it disappeared Celestia was the only pony in the room.

Steven opened his eyes and worked his way out from beneath Luna’s wing. He looked around in all directions and saw empty gray dust.

“The moon?” He turned around and looked at Luna crying there. “You took us to the moon!?” Holo and Taiga were just lying there, in shock from what had just happened and being comforted beside Luna.

“It was the only way to save us from her.” Steven shook his head.

“But why did she do that?” Luna looked at him.

“You didn’t see the Nightmare in her eyes?” Horror spread over Steven.

“But…but…”

“Steven, I don’t know how, but with the Nightmare pushing her onward there is no pony strong enough to stop her destruction.” She turned and looked at Equestria. Steven hadn’t noticed it before. It just sat there in the sky. Holo finally began to comprehend what had happened and spoke up.

“W-why does Equestria have orange spots on it?” Luna renewed crying.

“It takes a while to get to the moon, those spots are the places that my sister had already ravaged in her rage.” Holo

“So…so they’re all going to die?” Luna nodded.

“Even if I had brought more ponies with us, they would die before her.” Steven couldn't believe what he was hearing.

“So this is it, we’re just going to wait here for thousands of years until she dies?” Luna didn’t respond and just sat there sobbing.

Luna sat up in her bed gasping for air. She looked around. Steven was still asleep beside her.

“It was all a dream.” She laid back down beside Steven. Thank goodness the Nightmare wasn’t actually within Celestia because that was exactly how it would play out. She opened her eyes and sighed. Slowly she got up from the bed and went to her sister’s room to check on her.

When Luna reached Celestia’s room she raised a hoof to knock, but stopped short. If her sister were fine then she would be waking her up for nothing, while on the other hand if her sister were indeed being controlled by the Nightmare right now she would lose the element of surprise. She didn’t like the thought of invading her sister’s privacy, but if everything was fine then she would never know. Slowly she cracked the door open and peeked inside. Celestia was lying in her bed fast asleep. Luna exhaled at the sight of Celestia sleeping peacefully. She was about to leave when something caught her eye, the window was ajar. She opened the door further and stepped in, looking around. Nothing looked out of place. She carefully closed the window and headed back toward the door.

“Ummmph, Luna?” Luna stopped in her tracks and turned to face the sleepy Celestia. “What are you doing here?” Luna sighed. She didn’t want to tell the whole truth, but she wouldn’t lie.

“I couldn’t sleep so I just wanted to make sure that you were asleep. Usually we both can’t sleep right before disaster strikes, you know.”

“Mhm. Alright then.” She laid back down in her bed. Luna was almost at the door when Steven, Holo, and Taiga pushed past her into the room. “What are you three doing? Tia is trying to sleep.” She was almost whispering to try and avoid disturbing her sister. Steven turned his head toward her.

“Stay back, she isn’t your sister anymore.” Before Luna could respond there was a chilling laughter. Everypony looked at Celestia as she stood up. Steven motioned to Holo and Taiga and they fell into a formation in front of Luna. Luna cringed at the sound of Celestia’s voice, but the three younger ponies didn’t even flinch.

“It’s all her fault. She had to pay.” Her mane and tail burst into flames and her horn glowed. Luna closed her eyes when her sister let loose a beam of energy at them. After a few seconds she opened them to see the three young alicorns in front of her easily holding a magical barrier between the beam and them. Luna didn’t understand.

“Where did you learn to do that?” Without losing any concentration at all Steven turned his head to look at Luna. His eyes told her he was sorry.

“I wanted to tell you Luna, I really did. It was never part of the plan for me to actually fall in love with you that was real.” Luna was even more confused.

“Wait, what? What plan?” Steven looked Luna in the eyes.

“Luna…Holo, Taiga, and I are from the future. We were sent here to stop Solar Flare before she became evil.”

“What? No, Steven I brought you here, remember the dreams?” Steven shook his head.

“Luna, it was all set up so that Solar Flare, Celestia, wouldn’t become suspicious.” A roar made Steven look back at Celestia who was still trying to kill them. Steven turned to each of his sides and nodded to Holo and Taiga.

“It’s time, we have no choice.” Luna watched as the three alicorns pushed the energy beam back and advanced on Celestia.

“Wait, what are you going to do!?” Celestia’s eyes widened when she realized that she wasn’t going to break through the barrier. She stopped the beam, but before they could capture her an explosion happened right on top of her. Everypony was blown back. When Luna regained her senses she looked up to see her sister flying away. On the ground in front of her laid the three ponies that had just saved her life. Without their barrier they all would have surely burned up. “Steven!” Luna ran to him. She looked over him and noticed that his cutie mark was gone. Steven opened his eyes and saw Luna staring in awe.

“It was fake Luna.” She turned to his face.

“Steven, are you going to be okay?” He shook his head. Luna’s eyes teared up.

“Go Luna, to the moon. It’s the only safe place now that we failed.”

“Wait, how did you know that I can teleport to the moon?” Steven only smiled.

Luna gasped for air as she jolted up in her bed. She looked around, everything was fine.

“It was all, a dream? Again?” Steven was asleep next to her. She looked at him, pulled down the covers and stroked his cutie mark. It was solid. She tried to remove it with magic but it didn’t budge, it was real. She sighed. “Why must I dream these things?” She plopped back down and Steven instinctively cuddled closer. Luna closed her eyes. Dreams were the worst because they could make you think they were real life, which is why she had first started helping ponies in their dreams. “Is this a dream too?” She stroked Steven’s fur. It was soft under her hoof. She laid beside him and pulled him closer to her. “No, this is real, it has to be.” She slowly drifted back to sleep.