The Nightmare's Nightmare

“Sleep well, dear sister. I’ll see that nothing comes of it.” Celestia had been surprisingly understanding once the initial problem had been dealt with. She’d apologised to the parlour owner, the foals and the various ponies who had witnessed her rage, and she’d managed to keep the journalists away from it all with a few healthy bribes. Truly, she was the greatest sister a pony could wish for.

Civil Silver had, unsurprisingly, not been seen or heard from since he’d stormed off, so as far as she was concerned, he’d exiled himself- few ponies took a direct insult to the princesses well, after all. The Guard had struck him off for improper conduct, and no-one in Canterlot would dare employ him after word got out about his rudeness.

As the sun dipped below the horizon, and the brilliant streaks of purple and orange finally faded away, Luna bade her sister goodnight and retired to her chambers to begin preparations for court. She was more than a little tired, having been awoken far too early by her nightmares, but she had a duty to perform for her ponies, and she knew full well that Celestia would never let something as insignificant as tiredness get in the way of it.

“Princess Luna! Ah, finally, I haven’t been able to find you anywhere.” Her skittish aide popped out from a side-passage, as she was oft wont to do, a stack of papers and various letters and packages balanced on her back.

Nightblossom was a pale, blue-green earth pony, small in stature, though with a vibrant air about her that commanded ponies without question, regardless of the fact she often barely reached up to their muzzles. Supposedly, she was distantly related to one of the Thestral nobles of old, which somewhat explained her strange slit eyes and her affinity for the night, though she certainly lacked any of the quiet, calm grace any of them exuded. Still, she made an excellent aide for the nightly trawl.

“Nightblossom, fair night.” Luna replied with a smile. Though it quickly became strained as she was led away from her chambers and towards a growing line of impatiently-queueing ponies. “May I not rest awhile before court? Just a quick moment to catch my breath and don my jewels, please?” She motioned to her unadorned chest and head.

“Sorry, Princess, no time.” Nightblossom held out a note speckled with red scribbles and chicken-scratch writing. “You’ve been requested by a sizable crowd.” She looked over the assembled line they were passing, then back to her notes, “A very sizable crowd.” She blinked, then added: “The guards are getting antsy.”

“And these ponies are all here for my court?” Luna cocked a dubious eye at her assistant and the crowd. Normally she had some three or four cases across the whole night, and more often than not, ended up having their discussions in cosier surroundings. Actually using the court seemed strangely daunting.

“Yup, every last one. Am I to assume there’s trouble brewing?” Nightblossom smirked, “A little birdie told me about an incident in town earlier…” She was cut off by a firm glare.

“I do not think such a minor incident would draw such a crowd.” Luna wondered aloud as they reached the courtroom doors. There truly was a very large crowd. The sort of numbers her sister might command, perhaps, though they radiated irritation and malcontent. She took a deep breath and pushed through the large twin doors. She was in for a busy night, that was for sure, and as another yawn forced itself up her throat, she had to force herself to remain standing upright and alert. Tired or not, she had a duty to these ponies, and she would serve them as best she could.

“Bring the first, please.” She muttered as she passed the door guards, before trotting up the steps and assuming her position on the ebony throne at the head of the courtroom.

Her tired eyes were growing sore and weepy as the night crawled by. The cool breeze that drifted in through the windows both helped her keep awake, sending not-unpleasurable shivers down her back with every new gust, but also dried her eyes out all the quicker. She had to stop herself rubbing at them every few moments, because that would be unacceptably rude, to appear so tired and bored in the faces of her citizens.

The first few ponies were little more than the usual crowd- the several who had missed Celestia’s hearings, and had come to her for royal permissions or legal papers. She dealt with them without issue, managing to hide a few yawns that escaped her control using various sets of paperwork whilst under the pretense of reading them.

It was the fifth pony through the door that began her longest night.

A young mare, a new mother, it seemed, judging by the fidgeting, tired foal on her back and the tell-tale stretch marks on her sides, trotted in. She pushed her way by the guards, and stood almost defiantly before Luna, her eyes hard and unwavering.

“And how may I help you this night, Miss?” Luna ventured gently, wearing the small confident smile of Celestia as best she could. It was remarkably good at defusing even the most tense and angry of situations, if applied correctly.

“Two days!” She said, her voice coarse and accusing, “Two days have myself, and my little one here, been kept awake-” She yawned, not even attempting to hide it behind a hoof, “-by nightmares! F-feathering nightmares! Everytime I lay her down to sleep, either in her cot or with me, she starts screaming and crying the moment she drifts off.” She stomped furiously, and a glint of moisture shone in the corner of her exhausted eye, “And-” She choked up, freezing for a moment before clearing her throat and continuing, albeit in a somewhat more sullen tone. “-A-and I’ve seen why. I see the things you’ve thrown at me! Burning cities, suffering families- Do you disapprove of me so much you would torture us?”

Luna was stunned, Did this mare assume that she had given her the nightmares? And her brief description sounded disturbingly familiar. If she didn’t seem in such a fragile state, then perhaps they would have been able to discuss things further. If another pony was sharing the visions…

No, she would have to look into it at a later date. She had ponies to serve, and she needed to appear strong, untouchable- be the princess they envisioned, not the pony she was.

“I assure you, these dreams are no work of mine, my little pony.” I too suffer these horrendous things and haven’t the slightest clue why, she wanted to add, but her reputation would be unsalvageable by even Celestia after that, no doubt. “But you have my heartfelt condolences for the troubles caused, and I shall personally see to it that you and your little one have a fair night’s rest.”

The mare recoiled at Luna’s heartfelt assurance, but seemed placated, if a little nervous, judging by the flat hint of a smile on her lips. “Thank you, Princess.” She said, bowing her head, “Celestia couldn’t have said it better. May you watch over our dream and guard us in our time of need.” And then she walked out, much calmer and slower than she had entered.

“Well, that wasn’t too difficult.” Luna leaned down to her aide, who had taken up her position by the side of the throne.

"Only another thirty-nine left, Princess. Shall I call the next?" Nightblossom chirped, ticking off the first in a long list of names on a scroll which scraped the floor. Her upbeat manner was refreshing, if not a little annoying at the late hour.

"Thirty-nine? My ponies are ill at ease, I fear. That so many should stray from their beds at such a time..." She trailed off, gazing up at the ceiling, unseeing for a moment as she pondered the sudden rush. "It shall be a long night, 'Blossom. I suggest you call on the servants for a goodly amount of food and coffee, there'll be no stopping until we are done."

She stomped her hoof on the wooden floor, clacking it sharply. "Next!"

And thus, the night wore on, pony after pony, from sleepless foal to tired soldier, clueless colt to wizened old mares. Even a few non-ponies mingled in the steady stream of agitated citizens, from familiar thestrals to the single changeling who had braved the spiteful and suspicious Canterlot crowds to have his plea heard.

"There were these scary noises! There was this big, nasty thing, and the school was all broken and weird- an' Miss was really super mean!" The filly cried.

"I felt quakes, saw this strange silhouette- looked like those featherin' Changelings- Whole battalion downed by a single featherin' charge!" The stallion grunted, a haunted look in his eye.

“It were that strange thing my husband saw in his dreams- his last dreams before he sank into his madness! I saw it too! The beast!” The cowed old mare wept.

And once and again, Luna granted them her blessing and watchful eye, and they were pacified.

Many hours later, as the first hints of dawn scratched at the dark skies, Luna sat back, her duty finished for the while.

She let out a long, exhausted yawn and splayed herself in her cushioned seat. Beside her, her tireless aide was happily looking through the lists upon lists of those who had come to the court, chewing delicately on apple as she worked.

"How many?" Luna moaned, stretching her legs out above her like a foal. The platter of food before her had long-since lost its appeal- not that she'd had an opportunity to eat a thing anyway- but her stomach rumbled and whined all the same. She plucked a bunch of slightly dry grapes from the silver tray with her teeth and proceeded to consume them in a juicy mess without a care for who might witness her lack of refinement.

"Just shy of seventy, Princess. That's about a half more than Celestia usually deals with." Nightblossom tutted as she struck and scribbled a few things from her list, before furling the scroll and tucking it under her foreleg. She let out a tiny yawn, "Well, that'll be me, I think. Good morning, Princess Luna." And she hopped off her perch, leapt catlike down the steps, and trotted away.

"Good day, Nightblossom." Luna called as the doors slammed shut.

Seventy-odd coming to see her? And they weren't the drifting few left behind when Celestia closed up for the day and sent them on to her. No, those ponies had been seeking her help, and her alone. It almost made her proud- to think, so many of her dear little ponies had made the effort to come to her!

There was, however, the disturbing issue which the vast majority of the ponies had presented: Nightmares.

Mostly individual, of course, but the trends and similarities were easy enough for anyone to notice if they listened to enough reports. It wasn't often fourteen ponies in a row mentioned they dreamed of a red-skied plain, painfully dry and dusty, with a low, rumbling growling in the background, or a group of four schoolfoals watched their own schools crumble into the void before them, swallowing friends and family, again, accompanied by the roaring noise.

Shared dreams and nightmares weren't unheard of, but on this sort of scale, and with these similar, horrifying aspects? It was troubling. Even during her brief reigns as Nightmare Moon, or following Tirek's or the Changeling's attacks, the dreams of ponies hadn't managed to become so warped and terrible. At least, not so similarly- ponies’ minds affected how they coped, of course, but the central similarities spoke of something quite beyond her.

Alas, she had little time to dwell on it. For everyone that come before her, she had granted them a safe night's rest under her watchful eye, and she would fulfill that promise, no matter what.

She had to sleep. Come the next evening, her dreamwarding would demand every ounce of energy from her to watch over so many ponies. And if something truly was at the heart of it all, then she may well have a fight on her hooves.“

She had to rest, to get away from the waking castle before another swarm of troubled sleepers stumbled her way and requested her divine blessing- how many more could she possibly watch over in a single night? Half of Canterlot, and a fair few from the surrounding areas, had secured her promise so far, and she could not afford, on her honour as a princess of Equestria, to let them down.

It was time to push aside her own petty fears. She was a princess- the Princess of the Night, and she would be damned if she would let ponies once again grow scared and wary of the dark hours. She could deal with her own problems another time, she was strong enough that she could wait it out. But her little citizens wouldn’t last, not with nightmares of the calibre she had experienced, and by their descriptions alone, they sounded awfully similar.

Time would tell, she supposed, as she wandered the lonely hallways of the castle, the muted light of dawn breaking through the clouds and illuminating her path with strange swirls of colourful light and dusty golden beams. She would face their nightmares alongside her own, and she would triumph over them and cast them aside. She had to. It was her duty.

The only problem was: She wasn’t quite sure how to do that. In theory, a single spell should be able to banish any terror of the night, save the most deeply-ingrained or repressed fears. But the blatant fears these dreams played on felt quite unlike anything she had dealt with prior. There was little of the symbolism which usually plagued the troubled dreamers- no sense of the themes and events she had come to recognise and interpret perfectly over her many years of experience.

A stray purple leaf drifted down from a wall bracket, drawing her from her troubled thoughts as it alighted on her nose. The lavender was dry and dead, she noticed.

The Royal Guard were late switching over too. Her Thestral few were just about being relieved by a few bleary-eyed whitecoats. And, she noted with a mixture of royal disappointment and exhaustion-fuelled amusement, the dozen or so pony guards who had volunteered for night-duty that week had managed to fall asleep with their eyes open. It was a convincing façade, aside from the loud snoring as they leaned against the hafts and stocks of their spears and crossbows, and the occasional yelp as one of them lost balance and clattered to the floor.

It would not do for the ponies of Equestria to witness the pitiful display, especially given how troubled many of them had been by their bad dreams.

Enough was enough. It was unnervingly infuriating, these ponies neglecting their duties so. There was something of a crisis going on, and Celestia would employ such poor-quality guards? Suddenly, Chrysalis’ infiltration seemed all the more feasible.

She stomped a hoof. “Waken!” She barked, her shout echoing along the hallway, prompting a ripple of sleepy moans and groggy sighs. “’Tis morning!” A slow train of ponies wended their way past her as she continued on her way, slowly changing from the black and purple armour of her guards to the gold and white of the dayguard.

“Dear sister, why are you shouting?” Celestia called softly, stepping from a side-passage and taking a place by her side. “It’s far too early to be ordering these tired ponies around like this, hm?” Her calm, serene voice and warm smile did a lot to calm the quiet annoyance, but she couldn’t help but notice the slightly off-white look of her face. And the sky-blue shadow around her eyes.

“Celestia, are you wearing make-up?” Luna stopped and stared dumbly. If the embodiment of beauty as far as Equestria was concerned felt the need to pretty herself up, well, something wasn’t right. Perhaps it was simply a show for a foreign diplomat?

“Ah, yes. Yes I am.” She hesitated. Celestia did not hesitate. She was hiding something.

“And nothing is the matter? I could not help but notice that you are up a little early.”

“No, no. Nothing's the matter, Luna, I assure you.” Her radiant smile, however forced it may have been, still managed to cast its spell over her and make her assurance seem perfectly genuine. Truly, Celestia had mastered the arts of conversation and body-language to a degree most ponies did not know there was.

Luna shared a quick, loving nuzzle with her. Celestia’s problems could wait until she would admit them, or at least, until she had dealt with the worried masses first. She was awfully tired and had a long night ahead of her. “I shall see you tomorrow, ‘Tia.” She called as they drew apart. Perhaps she would benefit from a little dream-delving too, if she had time.

Her body moved automatically as she reached the corridor leading to her private quarters, crying out desperately for rest. Her bedchambers were beautifully dark and cool as she stepped inside, her hooves sinking into the plush carpets as the heavy door slammed shut behind her. The sheets had been replaced, and lay neat and fresh on her bed. Her lovely, welcoming, comfortable bed.

Tiredness overwhelmed her. She stumbled forward, spreading her wings for balance.

“Good day, Celestia.” She whispered, before collapsing into bed, letting out a long yawn, and falling into the welcome darkness in an instant.

Searing heat, blistering winds tearing at her wings as she fought to stay aloft, away from the yawning chasm that had torn the town in two. Glimpses of the infernal depths redoubled her helpless efforts, but to no avail…

Shrieks and screams echoed all around her, drilling themselves into her mind as the land burned and ruptured. Tiny black dots covered the ground, rapidly growing larger, like insects scrabbling to survive as a ring of unnatural fire closed in around them.

The towering silhouette on the horizon turned a single eye, huge, ferocious, ancient, cutting deep into her with a second’s glance. The dark earth rushed up to meet her, oblivion awaiting with its terrible, flame-riddled maw open wide-

Ice.

A bitter chill.

So welcome, and yet, so eerily familiar…

“Miss me?” A ghostly voice echoed around her, filling her ears, blocking out the raw, bestial roars of the world breaking. The skies, crimson and swirling with violent storms, turned quickly to a complete, chilling blackness. So absolutely dark.

The burning heat turned almost instantly to a cold so sharp it stung, glacial breaths of air biting at her body. Her terrified sweats turned to ice, crackling and shattering into tiny clouds of frost as her chest heaved.

The fires below turned to crooked spires of malignant purple crystal, and the rushing winds subsided, depositing her somewhat gently onto the freezing ground in a small cloud of frosty dust.

“Nightmare, no more- Or shall’t be?” The whole world began to fade away, thick darkness creeping rapidly across the gloomy ruins of the once-great land of Equestria, serenaded by the icy, shrill voice. “Thou talkst of Nightmares? And yet, ‘tis not a thing ‘pon one…Shamed in thine delusions, ha!”

The freezing air stole her breath and stilled her inquisitive tongue.

“My namesake births troubles only the attuned may fear, for now.”

A grey-white wall of pockmarked stone, wreathed in freezing vapours and strange, dark blue growths, loomed out of the darkness before her as the ground beneath her hooves shifted and turned. She was pitched into the air like a mere feather, carried on a gusting wind away from the relative sanctuary of the solid earth, broken though it was.

The wall was titantic. So enormous that her perception was completely thrown off. She could hardly comprehend the size, as the edges faded off into the dark, or the mists of distance, she could not tell which.

It was far, far away…

But growing closer, at an alarming clip.

The rushing of bitter, scentless air surrounded her, buffeting her wings until she had to furl them out of fear they would break. Faster and faster, the great mass of stone grew near.

“Gah! No!” She gasped, before the rush stole her words from her and the edges of her vision were taken by strange red and black spots. But the air was all around her, all she had to do was breathe! Her lungs prickled and burned with the tight feeling of suffocation- every breath, however strong, was a mere choked gasp.

“Blessed sleep.” The voice said.

And the wall crushed her.

“Sweet Tartarus!” Luna shrieked as she bolted upright. She lay trapped in a cocoon of frozen blankets, with her bed in a mess of glistening, frosted splinters and fabric across from her. All around her room, patches of dark ice and various smashed pieces of furniture and glass littered the walls and carpets.

The curtains had suffered, torn apart as if a wildcat had clawed them, and yet, no harsh sunlight greeted her.

With her heart still thumping in her chest, she ripped herself free from her luxury bindings and strode unsteadily over to the window.

“How curious…” She whispered, as a cool, soothing breeze blew in, carrying an array of wonderful scents. Had she accidentally brought the night whilst she had been trapped in that nightmare?

A knocking at her door spun her around, “Luna! Are you alright?” Celestia’s tired call came, muffled by the wooden slab between them. She yawned loudly, “Dusk was an hour ago.”

“Oh! Yes, ‘Tia, I shall be right out. I must have overslept.” She panicked, throwing a quick spell across her room to hide away the damages in a shroud of shadow. Celestia did not need the added stress of worrying about her, after all. She was far too caring for her own good at times- caring for all those under the sun and moon. She really should pass over all responsibilities of the night, but after a thousand years of ruling both, perhaps the habit was a little tricky to break. She could forgive that- at least until this Nightmare issue was sorted.

Her matted mane and lacklustre, ill-groomed coat would warrant explanation. The ‘Princess of the Night’ carried a whole lot less of her characteristic beauty and mysterious grace when she looked like she hadn’t groomed in a month. She could hardly appear before her court without-

“Hck!” She coughed as a sudden spike of dry pain ran up her throat. It felt as if someone had rammed a rough steel bar through her neck, and was twisting it viciously. She choked and gasped as she struggled to her bathroom, flailing for the tap that she might sooth the pain. The water flowed out as she wrenched the handle around, but as she reached out towards it, it froze in place with a soft crackle.

“Wha-“ Her every muscle cramped up in a sudden jolt, and she collapsed, stiff as a board, to the floor, landing thankfully on a pile of bundled towels. Frosty mists began to roll off of her fur, turning the moisture on her coat to cracked ice

A foul feeling slithered through her chest. She would have retched if she still had control over her muscles, as was, her head ached and a small spasm ran along her back.

“We are quite fine.” An icy, silvery voice spoke from her lips, high and commanding, and yet eerily similar to her own. Her horn began to glow, a strange gaseous darkness coiling off in place of her usual blue aura, and a chilling feeling ran down neck where the rolling waves of magic touched her coat.

“Okay then. Good night, Lulu, I’ll see you in the morning.” Celestia sighed, her hoofsteps clopping slowly away down the marble floors.

The moon burst into the skies from beyond her frozen gaze, bathing her room in white light, and hiding the stars behind its luminescence. A glimmer of darkness shot across the sky, and then it was gone, and the tense lock on her body began to fade.

She curled up tight, holding herself in a small ball as the unearthly chill retreated from her, shivers wracking her body. She panted lightly in stress and breathlessness- it wasn’t a cold night, and yet, her breath curled off in clouds of vapour. It was horribly unnerving- terrifying, even.

She couldn’t begin to comprehend what had just happened. Something had seized her whole body in an icy grip- had she suffered a stroke of some sort? A sudden collapse, loss of control, and then strange reactions that felt unlike her own…