Dreams and Bonds

Chapters

I

Twilight crashed halfway into the cloud, just in front of Rainbow Dash. Her lungs burned and she had a stitch in her side, but she gritted her teeth and tried to force a smile. She physically felt like she’d been run over by a stagecoach or two, but mentally, she felt like it was a fleet of stagecoaches, which was exactly what she was going for. She dragged her gaze up to Rainbow and forced out, “One more time?”

Rainbow sat down on the cloud and crossed her hooves over her chest.

“C’mon,” she tried to say, but the only sound that came out was a wheeze. She forced more air into her battered lungs. “I thought you liked racing me.”

“Twilight …” Rainbow had a disapproving edge in her tone. “We’ve already done all this.”

She forced herself to swallow, despite her mouth being dry, and her throat feeling like sandpaper. “It’s just a few races.” A stab shot up her ribs, and she couldn’t help pressing a hoof against the stitch. “I don’t exercise enough. This is good for me.”

Rainbow’s glare drifted to a look of resignation. She sighed and rubbed her neck. “Okay, okay, I get it. We tried our best, but that doesn’t mean it had to work …”

Twilight rubbed the sweat out of her eyes. “Huh?”

“I mean, it’s obvious.” Rainbow gestured vaguely at Twilight. “You still don’t want to sleep in the castle.”

“What? No …”

“It’s cool, I’m not angry or anything. Like I said, I get it.” Rainbow looked down off the side of the cloud. “Us decorating stuff can’t, like, magically make everything feel like home right away.”

Wincing, Twilight sat down and took several controlled, deep breaths, trying to force her heart rate back down to something normal. “Really, Rainbow, the castle is better now, I swear.”

Rainbow turned back to Twilight and frowned. “So what’s going on?” She stood up and paced around Twilight, looking at her from all angles. “And don’t say nothing. I was pretty sure this was what was going on before we even started racing.”

Twilight grimaced. The constant throbbing pulse in her ears had gone away, and she was pretty sure she wasn’t about to pass out, which normally would be a good sign, but meant she didn’t have an easy way out of the conversation. Twilight had picked Rainbow specifically, thinking she’d be the most likely not to notice what was going on. Either Rainbow was more perceptive than she thought, or she’d been really obvious. Probably both.

“C’mon, Twi, you can tell me.” She sat down and crossed her heart with a hoof. “I promise not to laugh, if that’s what’s bugging you.”

She sighed and sat down. “It isn’t. I just … haven’t been sleeping well.” She searched Rainbow’s face, hoping that answer would be enough. Rainbow raised her eyebrows slowly and cocked her head to the side. It wasn’t enough. Drat. “Um … can this … just stay between us?”

Rainbow shrugged. “Yeah, sure, lips are sealed.” She mimed locking her mouth shut.

Darn, she’d promised to keep it quiet, too. Twilight would probably have to tell her after that. She flattened her ears and tried to find some sort of escape in Rainbow’s face, but all she got back was concern. She withered under the look and felt her willpower failing. If nothing else, once Rainbow broke her promise not to laugh, she might have the excuse to stop talking about it. And if not, maybe getting it off her chest might help somehow. Probably not, but her options were running thin.

Twilight took another breath and said, “I’ve been having nightmares.” She braced for a snicker.

Rainbow didn’t snicker. Instead she frowned. “Like, super bad ones?”

Twilight clenched her jaw and nodded. “The better phrase might be night terrors.”

Knitting her brow, Rainbow cocked her head in the other direction. “Which are … super bad nightmares?”

“The kind of nightmares where you wake up screaming or crying. Or both.” She looked away and rubbed her shoulder with a hoof. “They’re … really vivid.”

“What happens in them?”

Twilight looked back at Rainbow. Her lungs were burning again, but not from racing. She felt a wash of heat on her face as a wave of panic struck her. Just trying to not think about her dreams made her feel like throwing up. “Bad things.” She blinked and a tear escaped her eye. She swiped it away before it could roll down her muzzle. “I-I don’t know if I can talk about it.”

Rainbow’s concern developed into a deep worry colored with compassion. She rubbed the back of her head and fidgeted. “You, uh, want to grab a coffee or something and try?” She gave Twilight a pained smile. “If you really don’t want to talk about it, you don’t have to, but, I mean, I’ll listen. Maybe talking about it’ll help?”

Twilight returned Rainbow’s smile as best she could, then stood up. “Okay. I’ll try.” She stood up and opened her wings, which screamed at her with jolts of pain. She bit the inside of her cheek and silently promised them that she was only going to glide. She dropped off the side of the cloud, and Rainbow followed her, drifting down in a slow arc back into Ponyville.

“Where we going?” Rainbow asked.

“Um.” Twilight frowned. Her eyes settled on the top of Sugarcube Corner for a moment, but she wasn’t really feeling like having a breakdown in public if she could help it. “Let’s just go to the castle. I’ve got drinks.” She angled her wings despite their protests and banked off in the direction of the glittering canopy of her home. They didn’t have enough height to make it the whole way without needing to flap, and Twilight touched down on the ground to walk the rest of the way. Rainbow landed with her and followed without any snark. Twilight grimaced. Rainbow must have been really worried about her.

They went inside and made their way into the kitchen. Rainbow sat at the wood table set back from the counters in the nook of the room, which Twilight guessed would be called the servant’s hall, if the castle had any servants. Applejack had put it there when she redecorated the kitchen, and Twilight liked eating there more than she did in the dining hall. She put a kettle on to boil and turned to Rainbow. “What kind of coffee do you want?” She opened a cupboard. “I have instant, pour-over, Prench Press …”

Rainbow shrugged. “What kind are you having?”

“The kind that’s tea.”

“Gross.” Rainbow chuckled. “Whatever kind, doesn’t matter.”

Twilight nodded absently and set about making their drinks, letting her mind grow quiet through the busywork. She floated everything over to the table and sat down with her steeping tea. Rainbow filled her mug about a halfway with coffee, then drowned it in cream and sugar.

Rainbow took a loud slurp and smacked her lips. “So, uh …”

Twilight took a deep breath, then sipped her tea. The confused flurry of images ran through her mind, bringing with them another wave of dread. She pushed them back as hard as she could, focusing on a knot in the wood of the table, trying to center herself, detach her brain from reality. If she could think of it clinically as just a series of events, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. She took another sip of tea. “So … you remember Tirek.”

Rainbow raised her eyebrows. “Well, I mean, yeah, it’s not like you can forget a guy like that.”

The corner of Twilight’s mouth twitched up in a ghost of a smile. “That wasn’t really a question.” She leaned back in her chair and sunk down. She felt beyond tired, as if her ears were stuffed with cotton until it clouded out her brain. “The dreams are about him. About my fight with him.”

“Oh man, you were so cool in that fight.” Rainbow cleared her throat and took another gulp of coffee. “Sorry. I bet it was really scary.”

Twilight waved her off and took a sip. “When it was happening, I didn’t really have time to be scared or not, I was just fighting. The dreams start out the same. Exactly the same.” She rubbed an eye and leaned against the table. “So much the same that they don’t feel like dreams, they’re just … me fighting him. Like the first time never happened.” She inhaled the steam from her tea, then downed half of it over her sore throat. “Or rather, that they are the first time I’ve fought him, over and over and over again.”

Rainbow fidgeted in her seat and put together a second mug of coffee. “That does sound kinda bad to go through every night, yeah.”

“It isn’t the bad part.” Her voice caught, and Twilight rubbed her mouth. The bad part was filling up her thoughts, and she could feel the pricks of tears jabbing at her eyes. She swallowed hard and took a deep breath. “The part after the fight happens the same way, too. He can’t beat me, and I can’t beat him. So he stops, and he offers to trade with me. He shows me that he has you—all of you, and says he’ll let you go in exchange for all the alicorn magic. And I say yes, and he takes it from me and …” Her throat seized up all the way. She tried to clear it, but couldn’t force air through at all. She took a drink and dribbled down her chin.

“… And then Discord gives you his necklace thingie, and we go to the locked box, right?”

Twilight closed her eyes. She could see the dream behind her eyelids, just as fresh as if she were asleep, just as vivid as if it was real, as if it were the truth. “… And he doesn’t let you go. He’d lied. He takes the magic from me …” She opened her eyes and looked at Rainbow. She could feel the tears coming, welled up and blurring her vision. “And then he kills you. All of you. Right in front of me. One by one.” The thread of her voice grew weaker and weaker as she spoke, until it snapped. She slammed her eyes shut and felt the tears spill down her face.

“Twi!” Rainbow’s chair scraped away from the table.

Twilight held up a hoof in protest, then wiped her face angrily, sniffling and gritting her teeth. “It’s stupid! It’s just a dream, it doesn’t mean anything! It doesn’t—!” A sob tore its way through her yelling and she slammed a hoof on the table. “It isn’t real!” She took deep breaths, her eyes screwed shut and her jaw clenched, forcing herself back to being calm. When the worst of it passed, she looked up. Rainbow stood frozen next to her chair with a hoof raised halfway towards comforting her, looking indecisive and worried. Twilight sniffed again and wiped her face. “It’s stupid.”

Rainbow lowered her hoof and chewed her lip. “It’s not stupid …” She glanced at Twilight sidelong, then awkwardly went back to her chair. “I mean, yeah, it’s a dream, but dreams can feel really real.”

Twilight nodded and poked at her teacup. “It does feel real. Every time.”

Rainbow fidgeted and drank her coffee. “How long’ve they been happening? Like, has this been going on for two weeks straight?”

Twilight shook her head. “It didn’t start right away. Of course, it wasn’t like they had a chance to start right away. After we sent him back to Tartarus, we had this castle here, and then the map, and Starlight Glimmer’s village …” She rubbed her face. “They started once we got back to Ponyville. I thought maybe it was because of how I felt about this place, at least in part. But …” She sighed and shook her head. “I didn’t have the dream last night, but that’s because I practiced transforming an orange into everything I could think of, over and over, until I fell unconscious.”

Rainbow raised her eyebrows.

“It took two hours. And when I got up this morning, I could barely lift my toothbrush.” She smiled weakly. “I’m still getting a headache whenever I use magic, so I thought I better alternate and just race you until I passed out today. You see how well that worked.”

Grunting and sinking down into her chair, Rainbow gave her a pained look. “Jeeze, Twi. That can’t be good for you.”

“I know.” She groaned and rested her head on her forelegs. “I’m just at the end of my rope. I either can’t sleep, or I wake up feeling like somepony dropped me down a cliff.”

“Have you tried talking to Princess Luna?”

Twilight nodded glumly and sat back up. “I wrote her a letter. She said she could cast a spell from inside of a dream to change it into something else, but that the only way for them to stop for good is if I work through the feelings that are causing them. I thanked her for the offer, but asked her to stay out of the dreams, because …” She shivered. “I don’t really want to share them with anypony. The problem is, I know what feelings are causing them, but I don’t know how to work through them.” She looked at Rainbow. “How do you work through being afraid of losing all your friends?”

Rainbow shifted in her seat and rolled the mug back and forth in her hooves. “I dunno.”

“I keep thinking they’ll stop after it’s been long enough. One of these days my heart will realize that my brain is right and you’re all still here.” She leaned her head on her legs and felt the weight of exhaustion fall over her like a suffocating blanket. She was no stranger to being tired. She spent half her academic career pulling all-nighters studying, and the trend hadn’t slowed down all that much in her adult life. She’d always been able to bounce back, though, after a power-nap and a good night’s sleep. Things she couldn’t do anymore, regardless of what she did or when she went to bed. She felt like her mind was crumbling bit by bit, fraying away at the edges with each passing night of terror. “I don’t know what to do until then.”

Rainbow tapped her hoof nervously on the table and looked around the room in thought. “Well, uh … you, uh, want me to stay over tonight?”

Twilight sat up and raised an eyebrow.

“Like, if your heart’s freaking out because it thinks everypony’s dead, you’ll feel better if somepony’s with you, and you can prove your heart wrong right away, right?” Rainbow winced. “Sorry, I said that weird.”

Twilight frowned in thought and tapped her chin. “I appreciate the thought, but I wouldn’t want to ask you to do that.” She looked away and rubbed her cheek. “I’m a grown mare, I shouldn’t have to ask my friend to foalsit me …”

“I don’t mind, really.” Rainbow sat forward in her chair. “If I can help, I wanna help. I hate seeing my friends feeling bad. And I can see you’re feeling really bad.”

Twilight smiled weakly. “Well … I really do appreciate it, but I don’t know if it’ll help.”

“Wouldn’t hurt to try, though, right?”

Fidgeting, Twilight met Rainbow’s gaze. Part of her wanted to say no. She didn’t want to share the actual dreams with Luna, and she didn’t want to share their aftermath with Rainbow Dash, either. It had taken enough work to shield Spike from it while he was several rooms away from her in the castle.

On the other side of the coin, she was too tired to say no.

“It won’t be any fun, but if you want to try it, I’d be grateful.”

Rainbow nodded firmly. “You got it, Twi.” She stood up, gulped down the last dregs of coffee, and took her mug to the sink. “I gotta go get some stuff done before the day’s over, but I’ll be back tonight, okay?”

“Okay.” Twilight walked Rainbow out, then went back to the kitchen to wash the dishes. “I’m going to regret this,” she muttered to herself.

Twilight pulled back the corner of the covers on her bed with magic, then blinked and pulled back the other side as well. As she circled the bed and fluffed up the second pillow, she could hear Rainbow Dash in the master bath loudly brushing her teeth.

“I’m sorry this slumber party doesn’t have much of a party to it,” she called, rubbing her forehead. Her body had recovered from the flurry of races she’d had that evening, but the mental exhaustion had only sharpened, stabbing her behind the eyes and making her horn throb like a bruised muscle.

“Wha’ev’r,” Rainbow gargled back. There was a loud spit, followed by rushing water from the sink. “I had a long day, too. This crazy friend of mine wanted to race for, like, an hour.” She stepped out of the bathroom and smiled at Twilight.

“That does sound pretty crazy.” Twilight grinned, then walked to her side of the bed. She tucked the canopy away and strapped it to the bedpost, blinked again, and did the same on the other side. “Do you need anything? Glass of water?”

Rainbow gave her a leveled look. “You don’t snore, right?”

She shook her head. “Not unless I have a cold.”

Rainbow’s glare turned distrustful for a moment, then she nodded. “Good, because I don’t have earplugs.”

“Mmf.” Twilight rubbed an eye. “You might want them, I don’t always wake up screaming, but …”

Rainbow waved her off. “I don’t mind you waking me up that way, that’s why I’m here, right?” She crossed the room to her side of the bed and climbed under the blankets. “Ooh, swanky.”

Chuckling, Twilight crawled in on her side. “I’m glad you approve of my bed.”

“It’s not as comfy as my bed, but I’ve slept on worse.” Rainbow punched her pillow and flopped down against it, letting out a contented sigh. “Okay, it’s almost as comfy as mine.”

Twilight shook her head, smiling, and turn off the lights. “Thanks for doing this, Rainbow. I really do appreciate the offer.”

“No sweat.” Rainbow yawned and stretched out, jabbing Twilight in the side. “G’night, Twi. Shake me if you need anything.”

“Good night.” She settled down on her pillow and stared up at the canopy over her head. With blankets up to her chin and darkness around her, the creeping anxiety invaded her thoughts. She knew what would be behind her eyelids when she fell asleep, and she wanted no part of it. As much as she felt that, she also felt the weight of a week’s worth of sleep deprivation crushing her to the mattress. It’d been all she could do to keep from nodding off through dinner, and she’d read the same paragraph over and over again in a fog. It was a hopeless battle to fight. She closed her eyes.

A buzzsaw roared to life right next to her head.

She sprung halfway up in bed with a jump and wheeled around. Rainbow Dash lay spread out on her back, snoring like a dying bear. Twilight lowered her ears and glared. “Do I snore?” she muttered to herself. She dropped her head back down and clenched her teeth, squinting her eyes further with each passing moment, trying to get used to the demonic grinding. “Yeah, no,” she muttered, then turned and prodded Rainbow gently, but insistently until she rolled over onto her side. The snores tapered off from terrifying down to the sorts of noises a pony made, and she let out a breath of relief. “Thank Celestia.”

She stared back upwards and let out a breath, then giggled to herself. Of the possible causes of her not being able to sleep, haunted snoring was not one she’d expected, and it felt like the power of her anxieties had broken. She smiled up into the darkness, then rolled onto her side and closed her eyes.

“It appears we are at an impasse. How about a trade, Princess Twilight? Their release for all the Alicorn magic in Equestria. What’s it going to be, Princess?”

Twilight stared up at the hulking monster holding her friends in front of her. They all shouted in protest behind bubbles of magic, telling her not to give in, to keep fighting regardless of the cost. She couldn’t, she knew she couldn’t. She squared her chest. “I will give you my magic, in exchange for my friends.”

“As you wish.” Tirek’s eyes glowed bright and his mouth opened.

Twilight felt the pull of his breath, grabbing at her, grabbing through her, pulling the essence of her being out of her body. The borrowed magic of the strongest ponies in Equestria gave way first, with her own magic clinging to her heart, squeezing her as if betrayed. It tore free and she sunk to the ground, hollow. “O-okay,” she said, forcing her heavy head up. “You have my magic, now give me back my friends. All of my friends.”

“If that’s what you want.” His smile twisted into a leer, cruel and sharp. “Take them.” Magic swirled in his hand and he brought her friends forward, one by one. Crimson light flashed out, jeering and incessant. Fluttershy first. There was a tiny squeak of fear and the bubble shredded into nothingness. Then Applejack. Twilight could see the x-ray of Applejack’s bones through her silhouette before she vanished, cutting off her shout of defiance with sudden silence. Then Rainbow Dash.

“No!” Twilight shouted. “NO! NO! NOOOOOOOO—!”

“No,” Twilight hiccoughed. She sat forward, eyes staring into the darkness, but the images still burned into her mind. The darkness swam and tears flowed down her cheeks. “No, take me,” she sobbed. “Take me…”

Rainbow flinched awake, muttering, “Whuzzah?” She tossed the covers off and scrambled up on the bed. “Twilight! Twi, I’m here, it’s okay!”

Twilight turned her head and saw Rainbow’s face in the darkness, her expression still dulled with sleep, but full of worry. Twilight still had the last images of her dream tattooed on the inside of her eyelids. Rainbow slammed her hooves against the bubble of force before lighting up in a flash of magic and ripping away into a cloud of dust. But there she was right in front of Twilight, half asleep and a little frightened, but alive. Before she could process anything, Rainbow pulled her into a hug.

She slammed her eyes shut and sobbed into Rainbow’s shoulder. She returned the hug, clinging tight, crushing, suffocating. “I’m here,” Rainbow said, “I’m right here.”

“You were …” Twilight mumbled into Rainbow’s shoulder.

“I know. I’m here now, though.”

Rainbow stroked her mane with a hoof in slow circles while she cried, until her tears dried up and her thoughts drifted into nothingness.

II

A beam of sunlight fell on Twilight’s face and she grimaced. She felt wrapped up and overly warm, and cracked her eyes open a sliver, squinting against the light.

She found herself lying in Rainbow’s embrace. Rainbow had her around the shoulders and neck, with her own forelegs circling Rainbow’s middle, them both on their sides and facing each other. Rainbow grunted, a crease forming between her brow, and then an eye slid open. “Mmf, mornin’.” Rainbow stretched and rolled out of the hug onto her back. “Sleep okay?”

Twilight rubbed her face and rolled the other way. “You’re kidding, right?” Her throat felt sore and creaky, almost as if she’d woken up crying in the middle of the night or something.

Rainbow snorted and bumped her shoulder. “I meant after all that, dummy.”

Twilight gave a faint smile and rolled her eyes. Aside from the dregs of sleep still working their way out of her head, she had to admit she felt better than she had in weeks. The gnawing fog of exhaustion eating her brain and crushing her body had left, and she felt like a real pony again. “That’s the first time I’ve ever gotten back to sleep after a nightmare,” she mumbled. She turned and looked at Rainbow. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”

Rainbow stifled a yawn halfway through and flashed Twilight a half smile. “No sweat, Twi.” She sat up and stretched again, letting out a satisfied groan. “Glad I could help. Feeling better?”

Letting out a breath, Twilight nodded, then forced herself upright. “I need some tea, but yeah.” She stepped out of bed and stumbled over towards the bathroom. “Ugh, I shouldn’t have raced you so many times.”

Rainbow chuckled and hopped out on her side of the bed. “I’ll go start the coffee.”

“Tea,” she said as she closed the bathroom door.

“Coffee!” Rainbow called back.

She chuckled and shook her head before looking at herself in the mirror. Her mane snaked upwards in a mess, but the bags under her eyes looked far lighter and less puffy than they had the day before. After a few minutes and a shot of caffeine, they’d probably disappear entirely. She brushed her teeth and let out a long, deep sigh of relief. She rinsed her mouth and brushed out her mane. “Okay,” she told her reflection, “no regrets. No regrets at all.”

Part of her had been convinced that regardless of Rainbow’s intentions, she’d still greet the morning as the subject of endless teasing, and yet Rainbow barely even mentioned what had happened. Maybe Rainbow needed an influx of caffeine first, before her sharp tongue could get going for the day. Even if that were the case and she needed to brace for an avalanche of jeers, she felt nothing but gratitude towards Rainbow. She hadn’t even noticed just how much she’d needed a full night’s sleep until she’d come out the other side of it. Following Luna’s advice of letting herself move past her fears seemed much more manageable with a clear head. She watched over at the kettle while Rainbow took her turn in the bathroom, then came back to a steaming mug of coffee across from Twilight’s tea.

Rainbow flopped into a chair and picked up the cream. “So want me to come back over tonight?”

Twilight choked on her tea. She dropped the cup back on its saucer with a rattle and cleared her throat. “Huh?”

“I mean, last night worked, right? But, like, the nightmares probably aren’t just gonna stop now. So we should do what works until they do stop. That makes sense, doesn’t it?”

Twilight took a long sip, then wiped her mouth as she thought. “You … I couldn’t ask you to do that, Rainbow, what you did last night was already a lot to ask. Coming back again …”

“But you didn’t.” Twilight knit her brow as Rainbow stirred up the mountain of cream and sugar and took a sip. “You didn’t ask. I offered.”

“Well, I mean …”

“It makes sense for me to come over again, right? Or am I missing something?”

Twilight shifted uncomfortably in her seat, letting feelings of shame and gratitude fight each other for dominance. “No, you’re right, it does make sense. It’s just …”

“That you don’t want to bother me?” Rainbow gave her a crooked, mischievous smile. “Well, good, I’m not bothered. I’ll come over again tonight.”

Twilight sighed and smiled despite herself. “You really don’t have to. I’m sure last night was stressful for you, and you’ve already helped me a lot just getting one night of sleep. I don’t need to drag you down with me on all my rough nights.”

Rainbow shrugged and her smile disappeared. She looked down at her coffee for a moment, taking idle sips. “I mean, yeah, it was kinda hard seeing you that sad.” She looked up at Twilight. “But that doesn’t make me want to not help. Plus …” Rainbow trailed off and grimaced, then looked down again.

Twilight’s brow knit. “What is it?”

Rainbow sighed and turned her attention back to Twilight, her expression guarded. “Know how I said you were really cool when you were fighting Tirek?”

Twilight nodded.

“It’s because I could see you.” She wobbled her coffee mug back and forth on the table. “He had me … us, I guess, trapped. I was there, but also kinda not there, or, like, anywhere. I couldn’t move, or blink, just … see what was happening. Which was you fighting him. I kept telling myself that you looked really cool—and don’t get me wrong, you did look really cool, but I had to keep telling myself that because …” She shrunk into her seat and stared off into space. “Because I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was making me watch how one of my best friends was going to die.”

A stuffy silence filled the room as Twilight looked at Rainbow with her eyebrows raised. Rainbow broke it, clearing her throat and refocusing on Twilight. “I’ve had some dreams about that. Nothing like what you’re having but, well … it’s nice waking up and seeing you’re still there, too.”

Twilight looked down at her tea and took a long drink. “I suppose it’s been self-centered of me to think that I was the only pony affected by him.”

“I can deal.” Rainbow shrugged and cracked a begrudging smile. “We always deal. This isn’t the first time some scary monster’s crawled out of a hole and tried to destroy Equestria. I mean, right after that we spent a couple days locked up by a crazy cult.”

Twilight chuckled without much humor and hid her face in her hooves. “What is going on with our lives?”

“Crazy junk, that’s what.” Rainbow grinned and sat back up. “Listen, I’m not trying to be a downer or anything.”

“I know that.” She straightened out and finished off her cup of tea. “You’re just telling me that I’m not the only pony who got something out of the saddest slumber party ever.”

“So … see you again tonight?”

Twilight put her foreleg on the table and rested her cheek against her hoof, looking off at the sink. “I still don’t feel comfortable asking you to come back, but if you’re offering …”

“See you again tonight, then.” Rainbow got up, swept up her and Twilight’s mugs, dropped them into the sink, and headed out the door without another word.

“See you tonight,” Twilight muttered to herself.

“They didn’t!” Twilight gasped.

“They did. I dunno what they were thinking.” Rainbow grabbed the corner of the bedspread in her teeth and yanked it down, then winced. She rubbed her neck. “I mean, yeah, speed drills are good, but it’s not like we were flying over the Everfree Forest, they knew there was gonna be a thunderstorm.” She huffed. “Well, somepony knew there was gonna be a thunderstorm. Cloudsdale’s always like that.”

“I can’t believe any system could be that disorganized.” At Rainbow’s flat look, she sighed and nodded, “Okay, fine, I can believe it, but still.” She grabbed her corner of the covers and folded them down.

“So how’d your day go?”

“Better. I didn’t get struck by lightning.” Twilight grinned. “No, but it was better, I actually got some work done.”

“Awesome.” Rainbow stretched out her back and yawned. “Dang, I’m beat.” She flopped down on her back. “Mmf, your bed’s awesome.”

Twilight giggled again and shook her head, then headed for the bathroom. “Is that an admission that it’s better than your bed?”

“No. Yes. Maybe. Shut up.”

Twilight brushed her teeth and ran a comb through her mane before returning to the bedroom and clicking off the light. “I wouldn’t know, I’ve never tried your bed.”

“It’s super soft. Made out of clouds.”

“That does sound soft. Maybe too soft.” She climbed in on her side of the bed, appreciating the firm resistance of her mattress.

“Psh, too soft, like that’s a thing. Oh, yeah, I was thinking about something.” She jabbed Twilight’s side with a hoof. “Should we hug?”

Twilight blinked, then looked at Rainbow in the darkness of the room, squinting at her in confusion. “Um … If you want a hug, I’m happy giving you one …”

Rainbow snorted and jabbed her again. “I’m not talking about me, Twi, I’m talking about if it’d help or not. Last night when we fell asleep without hugging, you woke up crying, but when we fell asleep hugging, you slept through the rest of the night. Just doing the thing that worked first makes sense, right?”

Twilight raised her brows and frowned in thought. “I suppose that does make sense.”

“Plus if you still wake up, it’ll be way harder not to notice that I’m there.” Rainbow stretched out a foreleg. “C’mere.”

“Oh no, if we’re snuggling, you’re not lying on your back.” Twilight pushed at Rainbow’s shoulder to roll her over, facing the other way. “I’m not sleeping three inches away from an angry Ursa Major.”

Rainbow resisted, batting at Twilight’s hoof. “Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing. Just roll over, we’ll snuggle on our sides.”

“And don’t call it snuggling, that’s weird.”

“But that’s what it is.”

“Ugh, fine, but I get to be the big spoon.” Rainbow sat halfway up and rolled in Twilight’s direction.

Twilight huffed. “But then if I wake up, I’m not going to see you right away, and I might end up panicking that somepony’s got me or something.”

“But you’ll want somepony to get you. Here.” Rainbow grabbed ahold of Twilight’s shoulder and dragged her into a hug. Twilight blinked, finding herself staring eye-to-eye with Rainbow from less than an inch away. “… This is weird, huh?”

Twilight giggled. “Yes.”

“Okay, what if …?” Rainbow grunted and scooched upwards on the bed. Twilight ended up at chest-level and pulled in even closer. “This is how we slept last night, I think, this work?”

Twilight unpinned a hoof from being pressed up in-between their bodies and wrapped it around Rainbow’s middle. “Yeah, this is fine.”

“Awesome.” Rainbow patted her head like she was a dog, then snuggled into the pillow. “G’night, Twi.”

Twilight scrunched her eyes shut and tried not to laugh, or scream, she wasn’t sure which. She took a breath and said, “Good night,” through a grin. A combination of the previous night’s success and the ridiculousness of bunkering down worked to completely destroy any remaining tatters of apprehension about falling asleep, and before Rainbow could even threaten to keep her up with snores, she drifted off.

The magic ripped free and Twilight staggered on her hooves. Her strength had gone with the energy. “Okay,” she said, forcing herself to stay upright. “I held up my end of the deal.”

Tirek let out a contented sigh as the alicorn magic ran through his body, lifting him further into the sky with added height and strength. “Well, now, about my end, Princess Twilight,” he said. “I lied.”

Rarity floated forward, and he reached out with his hand. The imprisoning bubble popped as his fist closed in around her body. Rarity’s face went wide with shock as the snap rang out over the treetops. Twilight couldn’t process the depth of the sound, how dry and sharp it started and ended, like a twig underhoof. She could see the light leave Rarity’s eyes.

Twilight lunged forward as Tirek’s hand opened and Rarity began to fall. “N—”

“—uhh …” Twilight gasped out as she startled awake. Something heavy kept her from springing up, and she flinched, her eyes popping open.

Rainbow Dash slept peacefully next to her. They’d drifted apart as they slept, but remained wrapped up in a tangle of limbs, and she was once again face to face with Rainbow. The terror and sadness caught in her throat as she watched Rainbow’s eyes move behind her eyelids, her snout forming the barest hint of a crease with each little snore.

Rainbow’s expression tightened for a moment, thanks to Twilight’s heavy breaths and twitches, and she cracked open an eye. “Mmf … dream?”

“Mm-hmm,” Twilight forced through her throat. No tears had fallen yet, but she could feel them there, waiting for her shock to dull, and the dam was crumbling around her. She sniffled.

Rainbow pulled Twilight into her chest and buried a hoof in her mane. “Mmf, I’m sorry.”

Twilight hugged Rainbow back and cried silently. She’d leave a weirdly shaped cowlick in Rainbow’s coat, she was sure. Somehow, she didn’t think either of them would mind all that much. “Thank you,” she mumbled.

“Mmf.”

A loud snort jolted Twilight awake, and she pulled the blanket over her head. Rainbow wriggled against her, extracting various legs from their embrace, until she could roll away. Twilight grumbled and lowered the blanket until she could see the room.

Rainbow dropped out of bed and craned to pop a kink in her neck. She looked back at Twilight and winced. “Urgh, sorry, gotta use the bathroom.”

Twilight rubbed the sleep out of her face and sat up. “It’s all right. I’ll go start the tea.”

“Coffee,” Rainbow corrected darkly as she tromped off to the bathroom.

Twilight slid the covers aside and got down on her hooves. She took a deep breath and shook out the stiffness in her shoulders. She still felt overly warm from spending the night pressed up against Rainbow, and the cool air of the room was wonderful against her coat. Sleeping next to somepony else had some real disadvantages, but she had to admit her head felt even better than the day before. Full nights’ worth of sleep were a treasure she’d taken for granted until she stopped having them.

“Jeeze, Twi, what, did you blow a raspberry on my chest?” Rainbow called from the bathroom.

Twilight giggled and shook her head as she headed out of the room and off towards the kitchen. Sleeping next to somepony else wasn’t all bad, either.

“Listen, I’m not saying I won’t do it,” Twilight said through a mouthful of toothpaste. “I’m just not used to working out very much. It might end up being awkward.”

“You’re thinking about it too much. Nopony at the gym’s gonna get all on your case or anything, nopony’s that big of a gym rat. Except Bulk Biceps, I guess, but he’s just super excited all the time, he’s really a nice dude.”

Twilight spit and rinsed out her mouth. “And you’re not going to give me a hard time for getting worn out too fast?”

“Would I do that to you?”

Twilight came out of the bathroom and gave Rainbow a flat look.

“… Okay, yeah, I might, but I promise I won’t.” Rainbow grinned and crossed her heart with a hoof. “Everypony’s gotta start somewhere, so I can’t give you that hard a time, and you’ll get better at it after a while. You’re the one always saying you don’t get enough exercise.”

Twilight sighed, feeling her objections wither. “Okay, I’ll try it.”

“It’ll be a blast.” Rainbow crawled into bed and rolled on her side, holding a hoof up in invitation for Twilight. “Plus working out’s really good for helping you sleep better.”

“I said I’ll try it.” She hit the light switch with her magic and slid into Rainbow’s embrace. “So long as you keep your promise about coming with me to Canterlot.”

“Oh, psh, to go to a bookstore? You don’t even need to ask, I’m totally there. I’m still missing that Daring Do first edition.” Rainbow yawned and nestled into the pillow, resting her chin on top of Twilight’s head. “I promise not to trade anypony into slavery for it this time.”

Twilight laughed and shook her head against Rainbow’s chest. “Probably a good plan. Good night, Rainbow.”

“G’night.”

Twilight woke up screaming.

She twisted and writhed, pinned in place by sheets and hooves, strangling and suffocating. Her mane matted itself to her forehead and she could feel an icy line of sweat running down her spine. She pulled free and lunged up to sitting. The scream at last broke as she dragged in a breath of air.

“Twi! Twi, hey, Twi …” Rainbow babbled, looking dazed and bleary. “What’s—” She winced and shook her head, then fumbled upward and put a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder.

Twilight’s body shook. It felt like every nerve ending was on fire. There was no strength in her muscles and all she could hear were her ragged breaths and her heartbeat pounding in her ears.

“Hey, c’mere.” Rainbow pulled her into a hug, and she fell into it limply. “This one was different, huh?”

“Th-they’re all d-different,” she stammered. “This one …” She let out a shaky breath and found the willpower to wrap her hooves around Rainbow’s back. “This one was bad.”

“You wanna talk about it?”

“I don’t know.” She swallowed hard, tasting acid in the back of her throat. She felt raspy and burned, worse than after she’d raced Rainbow over and over again. “I need a drink of water.”

Rainbow let her go and got out of bed. She closed her eyes and focused on slowing down her heartbeat as she heard the bathroom sink turn on and shut off. Rainbow came back with a cup, and she gulped it down. “Thank you.”

Rainbow climbed back in on her side and sat on her haunches, facing Twilight with a look of concern on her face.

Twilight wiped her bangs away from her forehead and steadied herself. “Okay, so…I told you that Tirek always …” She swallowed again. “In all the dreams, but it doesn’t always happen the same way. What he says, or I say changes, and what he does …” She pinned her ears back and pawed at the covers. “This time he … he brought all of us together as a group and he …” The images flashed through her mind and a wave of nausea and panic raced up her back, making her shudder. “… I can still sort of smell hair burning.”

Rainbow grimaced and shuffled in place on the bed. “Yikes. That’s … yeah.”

She rubbed her eye and nodded. “I’ve watched him burn us all, crush you in his hands, disintegrate you, eat you … it’s always upsetting, but the level of detail sometimes …” she shivered and wrapped her hooves around herself. “It’s terrifying.”

Rainbow slid forward and pressed her side against Twilight’s, wrapping a hoof around Twilight’s shoulders. Twilight leaned into the warmth. “Is it … are you scared he’s gonna get back out again? I mean, we know he’s back in Tartarus and everything, but …”

Twilight took a deep breath and gave Rainbow a pained smile. “Not really. If he did get out, it won’t happen the same way as it did before, we’ll be able to stop him a lot faster because we know how to beat him. It wouldn’t get so far.” She shivered and pressed in closer.

Rainbow dug the cover out from under them and wrapped them both up in it. “So it’s just, like … thinking about what might’ve happened, even though it didn’t? I mean, I get it.”

“It isn’t really that, either. Tirek let you all go. He might have been a liar and a thief, but he kept his word to me, even though he didn’t have to, and even though it meant he lost in the end. There’s … nobility in that, I guess.” She frowned and stared off into the darkness of the room. “I think … I think I’m afraid of whoever we need to face next, and if they figure it out.”

“Hmm? Figure what out?”

“Tirek stole our magic, all of the magic innate to our bodies, but he couldn’t take any of our friendship magic. He couldn’t match that power, couldn’t even touch it, and he’d never be able to. Nopony, no creature will ever have the strength to destroy the magic of friendship.” She turned to Rainbow and looked her in the eye. “They’d only be able to destroy the friends.”

Rainbow’s eyes widened with understanding and her expression turned grim. She turned and looked off into the room and they sat in silence, huddled in the blanket and holding each other.

“… Well,” Rainbow said at last, breaking the quiet. “Anypony who comes after you, or any of the others looking to tear our friendship apart’s gonna need to get one thing straight.”

Twilight raised a brow.

Rainbow’s jaw flexed. “They’re the ones who’re gonna get torn apart. Limb. From. Limb.”

Twilight blinked slowly as the silence resettled around them. After a moment she rested her head on Rainbow’s shoulder and gave her a little squeeze. There wasn’t anything to say.

Rainbow yawned and nuzzled the top of Twilight’s head. “You doing better now? Wanna try to get back to sleep?”

“Okay,” Twilight said.

III

“No freaking way,” Rainbow said, hiding her giggles behind a hoof.

“Yes, freaking way.” Twilight sighed and shook her head. “I told him it was a bad idea to try and bench that much. Thank the stars I was ready to catch it with magic, if I was only spotting him with hooves …”

“If you were spotting him with hooves, we’d have to change his name to Broke Biceps.” Rainbow’s giggles got the better of her and she flopped down on her lightning bolt bedspread. “Oh man, I can just see the face he made.” She sat up to look at Twilight, flattened her ears, and put on a sheepish, guilt-filled smile. She even managed to force dots of pink into her cheeks.

Twilight snorted and covered her face. “Yes, that’s exactly it, yeah. Honestly, isn’t he big enough already?” She sat down on the edge of Rainbow’s bed, which sunk down like cotton candy, then sprung back into shape. “Oh, wow.”

“What?”

She lay down across the cloud mattress, which bounced her back up. It had a lot of give to it, molding around her body, but supported her weight with a perfect evenness. “Ohhh …”

“I told you my bed was better.”

“You win. This is amazing.” Her muscles all burned as she moved them, a feeling which she had gotten used to from hitting the gym, but that she hadn’t quite grown to like the same way Rainbow and the other regulars did. The perfect cloud cushioning relieved every little bit of stress in her body. “Can I replace my mattress with one of these? Do they break up if you get them too close to the ground?”

Rainbow sighed wistfully. “Yeah, they do.”

“Mmm, drat. Maybe I can enchant my bed frame somehow.” She rolled over onto her back, ending up with her head resting on Rainbow’s stomach. Her bed might not have been as comfortable, but it was larger. “This was a cruel trick, Rainbow, I’m never going to be able to enjoy my bed the same way again.”

Rainbow patted her head condescendingly, then stroked her mane. “I’m sure you’ll live through it. Or we could just sleep here all the time. I dunno why it took us this long to come up here instead.”

Twilight frowned to herself. “I don’t know why, either,” she said, though she knew that wasn’t true. They hadn’t switched to Rainbow’s house because they’d been operating under the assumption that her nightmares would be a short-term problem. She shuffled her hooves together. “I suppose if I was already taking advantage of your kindness to spend the night with me, I wasn’t exactly pushing to take more advantage of your space.”

“Oh, psh.” Rainbow wriggled to work the blanket out from under them and Twilight sat up. “C’mon, I bet you’re all beat up from the gym and ready to crash.”

“It’s getting easier.” Twilight rubbed her neck, which twinged in anger at her. “I haven’t really noticed any changes from it yet, but it doesn’t hurt as much anymore.”

“Well, you maybe don’t notice, but it’s totally there.” Rainbow slipped under the blanket and poked Twilight in the shoulder. “I could bounce a bit off those delts.”

Twilight giggled and rolled her eyes, then slid into place next to Rainbow. Under the blanket, the mattress felt even better, and she sighed in happiness as she snuggled into Rainbow. “I love your bed.”

“Careful, you’re making my bed blush.” Rainbow settled in and hugged Twilight closer. “Sorry I missed the gym today.”

“Oh, it’s fine.” She reached out with her magic and clicked off the light, sending the room into darkness. “It’s not like you could skip academy training to go. It’ll happen sometimes.”

“Yeah, but …” Rainbow paused for a moment, the shrugged. “I dunno. It just feels like it’s our thing. It’s cool you went without me, I was half thinking you’d ditch it.”

“I’m not going to lie and say I didn’t think about it.” Twilight grinned. “But I knew if I did, next time we went I’d be too sore to move afterwards.”

“See, I knew you’d start liking it.”

“Liking it and tolerating it while getting something tangible in return for my trouble are very different things.” She prodded Rainbow’s stomach, then hugged her again. “Now shut up and go to sleep, you’re probably tired, too.”

Rainbow chuckled and stretched out in Twilight’s embrace. “Yeah, yeah. G’night.”

“Good night.”

Twilight opened her eyes. Sunlight filtered in through the window at a strange angle thanks to how high up in the air they were, casting light beams across the ceiling. Rainbow lay in front of her and rumbled a steady stream of snores. Twilight’s lip trembled and she closed her eyes, feeling tears run down her face and into the pillow.

The snores hitched and Rainbow muttered something, then Twilight felt strength come into the embrace. “Mm, Twi, you okay?”

“It’s the first,” she forced out through her sniffles. “The first time I slept through the night since …” She pulled a hoof away and wiped her face, then beamed at Rainbow. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”

Rainbow grinned brightly and hugged her close. “Oh, awesome! That’s great!”

Twilight nodded and hugged Rainbow back. “Is … do you think it’s over?”

“Uh …” Rainbow leaned back with a grimace on her face, then slowly sat up. “Maybe? You, uh … might still get ‘em for a while, just not every night.” She looked away. “Trust me.”

Twilight wiped her eyes again and nodded, dragging herself up to sitting. “Still, I haven’t made it all the way to morning for …” She let out a breath and shook her head. “It’s at least almost over, thank Celestia.”

Rainbow nodded and wrapped a hoof around her shoulders. “This is totally great!” She lowered her voice and gilded her tone with a mocking edge of admonishment. “And before you even say anything, I’m not going anywhere until we know they’re gone for good. And you’re not asking, I’m telling. Got it?”

Twilight smiled and nuzzled into Rainbow’s neck. “Got it. I won’t dare to argue.”

“Damn straight. Now lemme go make some coffee.”

“Please tell me you have tea.”

Twilight frowned and crossed her legs over her chest. “Surely that’s against the rules.”

“For new sign-ups, maybe,” Rainbow groaned. She crossed Twilight’s bedroom with ginger hoofsteps. Her wings were half open and droopy, as if she didn’t want to close them all the way, which was probably true. Her mane looked frazzled and she had bags under her eyes. “I guess it’s something the ‘bolts do every year, or something.”

“What, try to kill themselves?”

Rainbow gave Twilight a pained smile and stepped over to the bed. “No pain, no gain, Twi.” She planted a hoof on the frame, just above one of the deep scorch-marks left by a backfired spell, and carefully hauled herself onto the mattress. “Ugh, I get why they call it Tartarus Week.”

Twilight’s look of outrage softened to concern, and she climbed in on her side, feeling the cloud mattress spring into shape under her weight. “Here, lie down.”

Rainbow blinked with dopey confusion and settled her head on her foreleg, still sprawled half on her side.

“No, Rainbow, on your stomach.” Twilight grabbed Rainbow’s shoulder and guided her down, then settled on Rainbow’s lower back. “Sit still, jeeze.”

“What’re y—ohhhh …” Rainbow’s face sunk into the pillow as Twilight pressed her hooves into the mass of sore, mistreated muscles that used to be shoulders. “Oh man, that’s amazing.”

“Let me know if I’m pressing too hard.” She slid up Rainbow’s neck and worked her way back down in little circles. “You’re going to be in a lot of pain tomorrow if I do this wrong.”

“Mmf, you’re perfect.”

Twilight smiled and rolled her eyes. “So other than your commanding officers trying to kill you, how’d training go?”

Rainbow lifted her head and repositioned herself on the pillow, so her mouth wasn’t blocked. “Good. There’s some new fish. This guy named Comet Tail looks pretty promising, but they’re all pretty rough, gonna take a while for everypony to figure everything out. Oh, yeah, right there, ah, Celestia …”

Twilight shifted and paid special attention to the knotted up ball under rainbow’s shoulder blade. “Well, you have a whole week to get them into shape.”

“If I live through Spitfire’s training, anyway.”

A pang of guilt made Twilight wince. “I imagine it would be easier on you if you were staying at the academy, instead of coming back every day. I’m still surprised they’re letting you do that.”

“They probably wouldn’t if I wasn’t a lead pony.” She let out a long sigh and straightened her wing out the whole way as Twilight worked her right side. “If I’d known how hard it’d be, I would’ve thought twice about not staying there.” Her eyes shot open, and she flinched. “Um, I mean—”

Twilight sighed and nodded. “No, I know, it’s okay. You staying with me was a lot to ask when you were here the whole time.”

“It’s cool, Twi, I swear. I don’t mind.” Twilight touched her wing and she flinched, sucking in a breath of air, then relaxed again. “Okay, I kinda mind, but this is still more important.”

Twilight used her magic to carefully straighten and preen Rainbow’s feathers as she massaged the muscles underneath. “I’m through arguing with you about whether or not you should be staying here, you always yell at me when I do.” Rainbow chuckled. “The dreams are less common now, though, so it’s okay if you want to go finish out the week on the academy grounds, I can manage until then regardless of how things go.”

“Yeah, I know you can,” Rainbow admitted grudgingly. “I’ll think about it tomorrow. I’m already here tonight, though.”

“That you are.” Twilight giggled and switched to Rainbow’s other wing. “I can tell by that tone that you’re probably gonna keep coming here regardless of what I say, so I’ll just promise you more massages like this if that’s what you decide.”

“See? Flying back’ll be totally worth it.”

A pleasant lull settled in as Twilight worked the kinks out of Rainbow’s wing and kneaded her back until she lay fully relaxed. Twilight clambered off and Rainbow rolled onto her side, the discomfort drained from her expression. “Feeling better?”

“So much.” Rainbow yawned and rubbed her face. “Ugh, this week’s gonna kill me. At least you got a good bed.”

Twilight chuckled and turned out the light before sliding into Rainbow’s hooves. “The old bed was good, too. This one’s just better.”

“Mm-hmm,” Rainbow muttered, resting her chin in Twilight’s mane. Her breaths evened out and turned to snores in a matter of seconds.

Twilight closed her eyes and snuggled in close to Rainbow’s chest. Another pang of guilt made her frown even as she enjoyed the sense of familiarity and comfort she always felt from Rainbow’s presence. While she had gotten good at dealing with the worries that she was taking advantage of Rainbow’s generosity, she wasn’t used to feeling like she was being a true burden. The Wonderbolt Academy wasn’t that far away from Ponyville, but it was certainly much further than Rainbow’s house, and leaving academy grounds at all was a stretching of the rules. The situation had progressed beyond generosity into Rainbow bending over backwards for her benefit. She didn’t like feeling like somepony’s burden to bear, regardless of whether they took it in stride, and she especially didn’t want to be Rainbow’s burden. Rainbow had enough on her plate already.

She sighed and hugged Rainbow’s sleeping body with gratitude, then tried to clear the jumble of thoughts from her mind, waiting for sleep.

“It appears we are at an impasse. How about a trade, Princess Twilight? Their release for all the Alicorn magic in Equestria. What’s it going to be, Princess?”

Twilight flexed her jaw as she looked around at the floating bubbles filled with her friends. She had so much power coursing through her body, but in the end it didn’t matter. Rainbow Dash hammered on her prison and yelled out, “Don’t do it, Twilight!” but she knew the answer deep down, before anypony had the chance to object.

“We aren’t worth it!” Fluttershy insisted. Twilight’s mouth set more firmly. Of course they were worth it. Nopony in Equestria could convince her they weren’t.

Discord slumped in his bubble. “Oh, but you are, Fluttershy. You're the pony that taught me that friendship is magic. I had magic and friendship, and now I don't have either.”

“Enough!” Tirek roared, “I want an answer, and I want it now!”

Twilight grimaced and turned her eyes from one pony to the next. There wasn’t anything to debate. The answer was inevitable. “I will give you my magic in exchange for my friends.”

“As you wish.”

He snapped his fingers and five ponies, the best friends in Equestria, settled on the ground. She glared back up defiantly. “All of my friends.”

Tirek grinned and leered at Discord. “After the way he has betrayed you, you still call him a friend?”

“Release him!”

“If that's what you want.”

Discord landed next to them, subdued and defeated. “Thank you, Twilight.” He turned to Fluttershy and whispered, “I'm sorry.”

“I know.”

Tirek looked at Twilight. “Your turn.”

The winds ripped at her magic, grabbed her very essence, and pulled. She gritted her teeth, screwed her eyes shut, and trembled against the force. She hadn’t held all that magic for very long, but she’d had enough time to really feel it, understand it. Celestia’s magic was the first that pulled free. It felt powerful and wild, as if filled with limitless potential. As soon as she’d held it, she understood how easy it was for Celestia to lift the sun every day. The sun and Celestia’s magic were both born from the same source. Using one to lift the other carried no effort at all. It tore away, leaving Twilight feeling cold.

Rather than wild and bouncy, Luna’s magic was ordered and calm. If Celestia’s was a summer fire, all strength and energy, Luna’s was an underground lake, vast, deep, obstinate. Luna’s magic wasn’t a twin of the moon, but they both understood each other’s logic and austerity, as if the moon only permitted Luna to move it thanks to carefully applied physics and geometry. As much as Twilight appreciated how easy it was for Celestia to move the sun, she couldn’t imagine the strain of moving the moon with that magic for a thousand years. Twilight felt an innate affinity for Luna’s magic, which clung to her more tightly before being shredded away, leaving the world feeling like it made a little less sense than it did before.

Cadence’s magic bonded so tightly, Twilight didn’t know where it ended and her own began. She hadn’t fully comprehended love’s domain in comparison to friendship before, thinking of it as something further along and more extreme than what friendship could be. She’d discovered that she was wrong. Friendship began and ended inside of love. Love flowed out far and wide, encompassing everypony, every creature in Equestria and beyond in a firm, benevolent glow that didn’t need bonds or even awareness to shine. Everypony everywhere earned love without condition, and that love could only grow in the presence of bonds. Twilight’s magic was built upon those bonds. Love also extended beyond friendship, growing to something newer and brighter, something that had the power to expel all the changelings out of Canterlot, once those bonds became unbreakable. Cadence’s magic was her magic, and her magic was Cadence’s, not twins, not separate entities that understood each other, they were simply the same thing looked at through different eyes. They both ripped away from her together, too enmeshed to ever be separated.

Twilight fell to the ground on shaky legs.

“Yes!” roared Tirek, growing larger, stronger, turning into something they couldn’t hope to face. “I am now complete.”

A bubble of magic formed over them, knocking them all to the grass.

“I suppose I could let you go,” Tirek mused. “A deal is a deal, after all. And you hardly pose a threat to me anymore. There’s no reason for me to not let you go.”

The force increased, and Twilight felt herself crushing against the earth. She couldn’t open her eyelids from the weight, couldn’t get breath in her lungs. Somewhere around her she could hear strangled screaming.

“But then again, I don’t suppose I need a reason to have fun.”

Twilight could hear her own bones breaking.

Twilight took in a breath and sat up in the darkness of her room. She blinked a few times in confusion, then knit her brow and rubbed her forehead. “Ugh,” she grumbled.

The images had been so fresh and terrible in her mind just a moment before. She could still feel her heartbeat in her ears from it. As she frowned and massaged at her headache, whatever it was that had hit her so hard turned confused and diffuse in her brain. She’d seen … something. Something bad. Discord had been there, she remembered that. And her friends. And … Tirek. She felt a few puzzle-pieces click in her head, and she turned to look at the rest of the bed.

Rainbow was there. She had rolled over in her sleep to face the wall and lay sprawled across the rest of the mattress with one hoof pinning the pillow to her face. That explained why she hadn’t woken up wrapped up in hooves at least. Rainbow snorted out a half snore, mumbled something, and buried her face in the pillow.

Twilight smiled and shook her head. She settled back down and snuggled into Rainbow’s back. She never had the chance to be the big spoon. Rainbow muttered something again and pressed into the embrace. It felt nice and natural, and plus, when they woke up in the morning and Rainbow discovered she was the little spoon, Rainbow would hate it. That made it even more worthwhile.

Twilight chuckled to herself, pulled the covers up around them both, and fell back asleep.

Rainbow stretched out her back against Twilight, then rolled over. Twilight grimaced in annoyance as she was dragged into wakefulness, then lifted her head for Rainbow’s foreleg, settling back down against Rainbow’s shoulder.

“Mmm,” Rainbow muttered.

Twilight slipped a hoof around Rainbow’s middle. “Do you need to get going?”

“Nah, I got a bit.”

“Mm, good.” She slid her hoof over Rainbow’s wing, which sprung open for her, and she stroked the feathers. She felt Rainbow’s foreleg curve around to cup her head and lightly touch the tip of her ear. She focused on keeping her ear still and not flicking at Rainbow’s hoof and giving Rainbow the satisfaction.

Rainbow yawned and stretched against her again. “’Nother good night, huh? That’s, like, four in a row now, right?”

Twilight opened her eyes and frowned. Her ear flicked at Rainbow’s hoof without her thinking about it. “Actually … I did have a dream.”

“Eh?” Rainbow moved away from tickling her and slid the hoof down her back. “Why didn’t you wake me up? Tartarus Week isn’t beating me up that bad.”

Her frown deepened as she tried to piece together the bits of her dream that were still left in her memory. What she remembered from the middle of the night had grown hazy, too. “I … didn’t wake you up, because I didn’t need to.” She lifted her head and looked Rainbow in the eye. “The dream woke me up, but I was more … annoyed by it than scared or upset. I just went back to sleep after.”

Rainbow raised her brows, then grinned. “Twi, that’s great!” She hugged Twilight close and nuzzled the top of her head. “What changed? What was the dream about?”

“I’m … not sure.” It felt like trying to hold onto sand when she thought about the dream, with confused images, sounds, and smells running over her hooves in a cascade. “It started the same, I think. And he had us. He was … crushing everypony.” She knit her brow. It hadn’t been as bad for a long while, but her Tirek dreams usually stayed so fresh in her mind and recounting them always upset her. She could still remember Tirek looming over them, pinning them to the ground with pure force, but it felt disconnected, unreal. “It just didn’t bother me that much. I think …” She pulled back from the hug to look at Rainbow again. “I think it’s over.”

Rainbow’s smile grew wider and she got pulled into an even stronger hug. “Oh man, this is awesome! I knew you’d get through it!”

Twilight giggled with relief and relaxed into the embrace. “I’m glad you knew, I was afraid I’d be stuck with it forever.”

“No way,” Rainbow said, relaxing back against the pillow. They settled into the positions they were in before, with Rainbow on her back and Twilight resting against her shoulder, though far more awake and bathed in a glow of happiness and relief.

As the glow settled in, Twilight felt her smile loosen. The relief was heartfelt, but there was something else buried underneath it, a sense of loss and emptiness that ate away at her mood. She suddenly felt less like she lay in pleasant silence and more like she was clinging to Rainbow for dear life. “… I don’t want to stop. Is that bad?”

“Huh?”

“I don’t …” She hugged Rainbow tighter. “I don’t want to let this go. I don’t want it to end.” She felt selfish and demanding, and embarrassment warmed up her cheeks, but she knew it was the truth, staring boldly and undeniably in her face. She felt Rainbow’s hoof on her chin, gently directing her up. She steeled herself to meet Rainbow’s gaze, not knowing whether to expect anger, annoyance, or pity, and not sure which would be worse.

Rainbow was smiling. “Me neither.” She leaned forward until their lips met.

Twilight closed her eyes and returned the kiss, and everything changed at once, yet everything stayed exactly the same. The empty pit in her stomach filled and her relief redoubled in force. It all felt natural, familiar, warm and comforting. Hooves around her back, the feel of Rainbow beneath her, the touch, the smell, it was all part of her life in such a fundamental, expected way. Nothing about that changed. Everything about it changed. It was the same thing as it always was, looked at with fresh eyes.

Rainbow pulled back and nuzzled Twilight’s cheek. Twilight returned the nuzzle. The same nuzzle as always, and yet not. “Yeah?” she whispered.

“Yeah.”

She snuggled in, lying across Rainbow’s chest. “I didn’t know if it was just me.”

“Me too. It didn’t start out that way, it’s just, like, at some point it started making sense.” She stroked Twilight’s mane. “First I got used to you being there. Then I started expecting you to be there. Then I liked having you there. Then I wanted you there, and I wanted to be there with you. Know what I mean?”

“I do.”

“I wasn’t gonna say anything until …” She fidgeted. “I didn’t want it to be just me, and make stuff all weird while you still needed help, y’know?”

“Yeah. I was afraid to change anything, too. Part of me was afraid the dreams were never going to stop. I didn’t know what changing things would do.”

Rainbow chuckled and shook her head. “I knew for sure you’d make it, at least with, like, Tirek, though maybe not …” she trailed off, then fidgeted in discomfort.

“What?”

Rainbow grunted, then shrugged. “It didn’t happen, so it’s not jinxing anything, right? I’ve just … I remember you talking about worrying about the next pony, or monster or whatever who comes along and comes after us, y’know?”

Twilight nodded. “… I am still worried about that, I guess. There are a lot of things that the six of us can do together, and somepony wouldn’t need to think about it for that long to come to the conclusion that the best way to face us would be by getting rid of that together part. And they wouldn’t even need to try and kill any of us necessarily. We’re sort of talking about what Discord tried to do the first time. Somepony else could do that again and maybe try and make it like we were never friends in the first place.”

Rainbow’s hoof in her mane tightened for a moment, then she sighed. “Jeeze. That is scary to think about.”

“It won’t happen that way, though. They might try, but it won’t work. I know it won’t.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” She kissed Rainbow’s neck. “Some bonds can’t be broken.” Rainbow relaxed and stroked her mane. Twilight chuckled suddenly. “I suppose this makes the rest of your week easier, huh, not needing to come back to Ponyville every night to help me.”

Rainbow laughed. “I dunno, might still be way too worth it, especially if those massages are still on the table.”

“Always.” Her smile widened. “So … see you again tonight?”

“You know it.”

Twilight settled further into the embrace, feeling warm, safe, and happy. The way she always felt with Rainbow. The same, but different. “Speaking of the academy, you probably need to get going soon, huh?”

“Nah, I still got a bit.”

“Mm, good.”

Twilight pressed into Rainbow’s neck and closed her eyes. Rainbow would need to leave eventually, but she had her for the moment, and in Rainbow’s hooves, she drifted back to sleep.

Author's Note

Hey, pony peeps!

It feels really good to have this story finished. The basic concept of this story has existed for five or so years in the form of different half-finished outlines and story notes, and I'm glad I finally figured out how to write it. I hope y'all enjoyed it. Thanks a ton for checking it out.