Twilit Nightfall

Twilit Nightfall

Chapter 1

'Get Out Alive'

Twilight Sparkle ran faster than she even knew possible in her fatigued state. She could still hear the ragged breathing of the things behind her and that was all she needed to keep the adrenalin and fear coursing through her like the venom of a snake. Her rational mind had all but shut down a long time ago, leaving her running on near total instinct. A small part of her mind had at least tried to keep rational though going, but it was losing fast. The rational part of Twilight thought that if given a moment or two to stop and take in her surroundings, her current location would be quite breathtaking. She was galloping at full speed down a hallway of some sort. It was most likely wide enough that three of four ponies could run side by side, with the wingspan of a pegasus between them and still have enough room between them and the wall for a young colt or filly. It was probably decorated as well, but Twilight couldn't tell in the darkness outside of her small field of vision. But the instinct driven part had countered with the fact that if she stopped, even for a moment, she'd be dead. So the rational part kept quiet, and the instincts ran wild.

Eventually, Twilight found a set of doors. Forgetting that they were solid and would most likely hurt upon impact, she ran straight, gathering speed, then hurled herself shoulder first into the doors, which burst open at the hinges and collapsed under the weight of pure fear. The lavender unicorn hit the ground and groaned in pain for a moment. Then she got up and started galloping again, headed for another door on the opposite side of the small room she was in. Thankfully it was not locked, but it had a key sticking out of the keyhole, so, Twilight grabbed the key in her lavender colored magic, opened the door, then quickly walked inside the new room. She turned around and locked the door with the key, then, leaving the key so it would get stuck in the lock, she broke it and ran down a new hallway. It was a bit brighter in this hallway, due to the fact that it overlooked some form of courtyard and the moon was still high in the sky. Just ahead she could see another door and a grand, if a bit faded red carpet leading towards it.

Twilight slowed down and opened the door as she reached it. She noted the emblem on the doors, which was a single draconic looking eye. It split in half along the slit-like pupil as she pushed with her uninjured shoulder. She took a look around and for a moment forgot what was chasing her. The room before Twilight was set up similar to the throne room in Canterlot, however, the architecture was slightly different.  Whereas the stained glass windows of the throne room in Canterlot depicted Celestia, Luna, and Twilight and her friends, these windows were dark and foreboding. The throne itself looked comfortable, but instead of white marble, it was made of a black stone that seemed to shine in the pale moonlight leaking in from the windows. The throne room itself was far from inviting. It looked more like the kind of room Twilight expected and evil monarch to reign from. The walls below the windows were jet black. The pillars that led up to the high ceiling were of the same color and were made with sharp angles that looked almost like six-pointed stars. The brackets that held torches were made of a dark colored metal and looked like they could skewer a pony if they had the misfortune of being on the receiving end of the ire of the ruler of the building.

Twilight slowly made her way up to the throne. When she got to the small flight of steps leading to the imposing piece of furniture, she stopped, suddenly more terrified than she had been in her entire life. She tried to turn and run, but found her body would not listen to her anymore. Fear blotted out any and all rational thought in the lavender mares mind as a bluish-purple mist suddenly began coalescing around her and the throne. Suddenly, the mist formed a tail. Then a set of legs and a body. Then a slender neck and mane. Then the head and a familiar looking helmet. The being in front of Twilight Sparkle flared its wings and brandished a horn before opening its eyes to reveal teal colored eyes with draconic slits in them.

Nightmare Moon glared down at Twilight, who was still paralyzed with fear. The Mare in the Moon bared her vampiric fangs, then swooped down on her victim, aiming for the neck. As the Dark Alicorn sank her fangs into the lavender mare, Twilight Sparkle woke up, screaming in terror and drenched in cold sweat.

--

Twilight almost immediately calmed down as she took in her surroundings. She was in her room in her library, safe and sound. Spike was sleeping in his basket close by. She marveled at how the young dragon could still be sleeping even after all the noise she had just made.

“I swear, there could be a tornado going on right above him and he wouldn't notice a thing...” Twilight said with a shaky laugh. She looked over at her clock, which read two thirty in the morning and sighed. She resigned herself to another day of being tired as she got up and went to take a shower.

“Three weeks...” Twilight sighed as she turned on the water, “Three weeks this has been going on...” she had been keeping track of the number of days she had been having the same nightmare and it was adding up quickly.

“Because of this recurring nightmare, I can't study like I used to...” Twilight lamented to herself, “It's even beginning to affect my relationships with my friends...”

Twilight had, at first, just written the nightmare off as a bad case of nerves, but when she had started snapping at her friends over the little things, like when Applejack and Rainbow Dash, her competitive friends had started a friendly hoof wrestling match on the kitchen table and had accidentally knocked over one of the cups Twilight had set out for them. She would have chastised them normally, yes, but she wouldn't have picked them up by their tails with her magic and tossed them into the river that ran through Ponyville. When Rainbow Dash had flown back to yell at her, she found Twilight passed out on the small couch she kept in the basement lab, twitching and crying out in fear and pain.

It was then that Twilight had taken to shutting herself in and studying as much as she could about recurring dreams and nightmares. The unfortunate things about this were that Spike was almost always helping out his big sister with her research and on the receiving end of Twilight's temper, which was growing shorter and shorter with each passing day and that, while an excellent repository of knowledge, the Golden Oaks Library just did not have too many books on the subject of dreams. Twilight figured that she would have to go to Canterlot or one of the other large cities to find what she needed.

Twilight turned off the water and stepped out of the tub and her thoughts turned to how she could make things up to both her friends and Spike. Spike was easy enough. With him being a baby dragon, Twilight figured that taking him to go see a movie or letting him go to one with Rarity would be good enough, but the rest of her friends were a different story.

“Ugh... I'll cross that bridge when I come to it,” Twilight said matter-of-factly as she dried herself off and left the bathroom. She walked into the kitchen and started making herself some coffee. Eventually, when it was finished brewing, she lay down in front of the fire place and started reading the most recent book on dreams to help calm her nerves.

Twilight shivered at the memory of her nightmare, and unconsciously put a hoof to her throat. She could almost feel those fangs biting into her neck. It scared her to think that such a thing could have existed, once upon a time. In addition to research into dreams, Twilight had taken it upon herself to research vampirism. As time passed, Twilight still had no luck in either subject, her books failing her when she needed them.

“Ugh...” the lavender mare sighed tiredly, “I think I need to write Celestia about this...”

She resigned herself to asking for help, then levitated a scroll and quill over to where she lay and wrote her letter:

Dear Princess Celestia,

Lately I have been having trouble sleeping. Due mostly to a recurring nightmare that's been bothering me for the past three weeks or so. I've tried looking through every book I can about the subject of dreams and I have come up with nothing that even looks like it could help me with my problem.

I was wondering if there was anything you knew of that could help? I'm getting desperate and this nightmare is beginning to affect my relationships with my friends. Thank you in advance for any help you can give.

Your Faithful Student,

Twilight Sparkle

Twilight finished writing the letter, rolled it up, and tied it with a bit of red ribbon that had an emblem of her cutie mark attached to it. She then set the letter on a nearby table for Spike to send later.  A few hours later, Spike walked down stairs. Twilight looked up at her assistant and gave a tired smile.

"Ok, that's a weird smile," Spike said, "It's creeping me out a little bit..."

"Oh..." Twilight said sheepishly as her smile faded, "I'm sorry... I'm just tired...."

Twilight tried and failed to stiffle a huge yawn as she said, "There's a letter over here I want you to send... Alright?"

"You ok, Twi?" the young dragon asked, "I'll send the letter, but you look like you saw Nightmare Moon again..."

"I... don't... know..." Twilight said slowly, her exauhsted mind processing what Spike had just said. 'What if it IS Nightmare Moon?' Twilight thought to herself, 'This could be a big problem if it is her...'

"Hello! Equestria to Twilight! Are you home?" Spike said loudly.

"Huh... What?" Twilight asked sluggishly, "What did you say?"

Spike looked at his mother figure with concern and said, "I said I sent the letter, then I asked if you wanted some breakfast, but you were completely zonked out... It almost looked like that impersonation of your brother you did when he got hit by that mind control spell Chrysalis hit him with...."

Twilight shook her head to clear it, then said, "Thank you, Spike. Some food would be great right now... Pancakes if, that isn't too much trouble..."

"Not at all!" Spike said, giving a crisp salute, "Some pancakes and a pot of coffe, coming right up!"

"Thanks again, Spike, I'd be lost without you..." Twilight said, giving the dragon a quick hug, "I have a few things I need to research, so would you mind bringing the coffee to my study when it gets done?"

"Uh.. Sure thing," Spike said, still looking at Twilight with concern as she left the kitchen, heading towards a book case.

When she got to the book case, Twilight began looking for anything that her library had concerning the pre-banishment era. 'If I can't find anything about what's going on in my head in the newest books on the subjects, then I might as well go to the oldest ones and see what I can find,' Twilight reasoned, 'Besides, I should be hearing from the Princess soon, so this will pas some time...'

About half an hour later, Spike walked back out into the library to see a huge mess of books stacked, tossed, and just left around the room.

"Whoa, Twi..." Spike whistled, "No luck, huh?"

"ARGH!!!" Twilight yelled in frustration, "I've combed through every single book in this damn tree, but I can't find a single thing about what's going on with me!"

"It's alright, Twi," Spike said, picking his way carefully over to his mother, "You wrote the Princess, she should be able to help, right?"

"I... I'm just so scared..." Twilight said as she turned towards her assistant, her eyes tearing up, "I haven't been able to get any decent sleep because of these nightmares... I just don't know what to do anymore..."

Spike pulled his mom in for a hug and said in the most soothing voice he could, "It's going to be alright, Twilight...."

Twilight hugged Spike for a few minuets before the little dragon broke the hug, turned his head away from the books and the mare in front of him, and burped a tounge of green flame. From the flame came a letter, emblazoned with a royal seal that Twilight didn't recognize. She levitated the scroll to reading level, and opened it.

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

I am sure that this letter comes as a bit of a surprise to you, however, Celly does not have the experience with dreams that I do. If you have not already guessed from the seal on the letter, it is I, Princess Luna who is writing back to you.

Celestia did in fact recieve your letter, and is quite worried about you. If fact, as soon as she recieved it, she came straight to my chambers and asked me to contact you as soon as I was able.

Regarding your recent bout of bad dreams, I will be coming to Ponyville shortly after you recieve this letter to speak with you about the matter. I would like all of the details before I try anything to help.

I hope that your friends are well, please give them my regards.

HRH, Princess of the Night, etc.

Princess Luna

"Well... I wasn't expecting that," Twilight said as she finished reading the letter.

"Neither was I..." Spike said, "But Princess Luna is ruler of the night, so I guess she must have some power over dreams or something?"

"I guess so."

The two looked around and Twilight said, "Would you stack these as best you can? I'm sure that Luna wouldn't want to come into a messy place like this... I'm going to get another cup of coffee."

"Sure thing, Twi," spike said with a quick nod of his head and a crisp salute.

Twilight made her way to the kitchen and pured herself another cup of coffee. As she finished pouring, she looked out the window and saw that the weather patrol had pushed together some clouds and were preparing for a rainy day. She took her first sip of the liquid as the first drops of rain and claps of thunder started. Just then, a knock sounded at her front door and she heard Spike say, "I've got it!"

Twilight walked out of the kitchen and found, standing in the doorway, framed by the lightning and rain, wearing the cloak she had come to Ponyville on Nightmare Night, Princess Luna.

"Twilight Sparkle," the lunar princess said, "I would have words with you. May I come in?"