I woke up and opened my eyes and jerked around, throwing my sheets off. Sweat soaked the bed under me and made me feel itchy and freezing at the same time. Slowly, the sheet settled down. Slowly, I sat up and hugged myself.

It wasn't the first time I'd dreamed of that place. The darkness. The emptiness. Every time, the dream ended with the same feeling of falling away, unable to move or breathe.

Of dying.

I shuddered, listening to my breathing echo off the castle walls. Only a few feet away, Spike snoozed in his own bed. He rolled over and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, "Rarity..."

I sighed. Partly exasperation, but far more in relief. I was fine. Equestria was fine. I was home, with my friends close by and my faithful assistant even closer. In the morning, Celestia and Luna would move the heavens; Pinkie would make all of Ponyville smile; Rainbow would still be an amazing flyer, Rarity would design fabulous dresses, Fluttershy would care for critters, and Applejack would run Sweet Apple Acres, the same way they all had every single day for years now. Spike and Rarity would still be dancing around the issue of their mutual, if unequal, affection for one another.

I lay back down and looked out the window. Seeing the glowing orb in the sky, I remembered Nightmare Moon, and everything that had happened since then. All the things that my friends and I had done, together.

I smiled and closed my eyes.

I lay on the ground staring at the red sky, my broken life pooling on the ground. The other me rose up. Her eyes dripped salt that stung my wounds, even as she tried to pull me back together. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm so sorry!" The world fell away in shattering fragments-

My eyes snapped back open.

That dream.

It had been haunting me long as I could remember. The same empty space, tormenting me, until it was too much. My stomach, pulling itself apart. My throat closed up and dry. My neck, snapped from a great fall.

The end was always the same: the end. My end.

But this was different.

It had never been this violent. This vivid. I looked- yes, my hooves were shaking.

I wasn't going back to sleep, I realized.

I got up, careful not to wake Spike. Tip-toeing down the hallway, I slipped into the library and lit a lamp. I pulled out a scroll, quill, and ink. I would write to Princess Luna, I decided. I would tell her everything about the dreams, everything I could remember. This wasn't natural, and if anypony could help me figure out what was wrong, it was Luna.

Rrrr-rr-rrrrngh!

I stopped and grimaced. That empty feeling in my gut hadn't been just the dream after all. I tried to recall the last time I ate, and decided on yesterday's breakfast. Starlight had to drag me out of my lab. Spike had made waffles.

Well, if I wasn't going to sleep, I might as well eat. I closed my eyes and concentrated on the kitchen.

In a flash, I disappeared.

I opened my eyes and saw a red sky, dark and oppressing. This was wrong. This was... familiar.

I tried to look around and realized I couldn't. I could only stare straight ahead.

As I watched, I saw something... grotesque. The air bent and shimmered, dust collecting into bones; red gel bubbled outward into muscles. Skin flaked into existence. Fine purple hairs and feathers grew.

It was me. Another me. And just as I realized it, she disappeared into thin air.

And I fell.

Into a pile of death that swallowed me in a rotten fog...

I reappeared in the kitchen and turned on another lamp. I shook off the wooziness of the teleportation spell. I was here for... for...

Food. Of course.

I made myself a bowl of sugar-oat cereal and practically inhaled the mountain of grains. Then I poured another, and decided to walk back up to the library, taking small bites along the way.

By the time I got there, the bowl was half empty and I couldn't for the life of me remember why I was going to the library. I frowned at the paper on the table. Did I leave that there? I must've, but I couldn't remember why. I remembered having a nightmare, coming to the library, and teleporting to the kitchen. Other than that...

Huh.

I put the writing tools away and pulled down my favorite Daring Do novel. I'd read while I ate the rest of my cereal.

Minutes later, I put my bookmark between the pages and slurped the milk from the bottom of the bowl. I yawned. I was tired and the sugar wasn't kicking in yet. I put out the lamp and stumbled up the hallway, back into my bedroom. I slipped under the covers- Spike rolled over again- and closed my eyes. Everything was fine.

It was just a silly nightmare, after all.

Author's Note

The fuck it was.