Night of Dreams

Ch 3. Isolation

Ponyville looked so different tonight, maybe it was because an announcement had been made that royally admitted that Luna was missing and this night may not end.

Maybe it was because normally the sun would be rising, and the light would be warming the place.

Maybe it was because her friends were not here.

Twilight dropped Silver Steam off at the first point she could, taking her own belongings to the library and wrestling the door open with her hooves. Inside she sat dejectedly in the center of the tree that had become her home, and stared up at the windows.

"Where would the princess go?" She asked out loud, before listing off the known locations she might visit.

"The ruins in the Everfree Forest, The highest point in town to observe the Moon. Fluttershy's house where we first began helping her adapt, if she was scared."

Twilight looked to the side, expecting to see Spike taking down a list.

The pang that shot through her heart shook her out of her reverie, and she growled angrily, tossing on a cloak as she knew it was going to start getting cold, and storming out the door.

As the door closed behind her, she stopped, struggled out a quill and paper, and slowly dipped it using her teeth.

"GoIn To Fin NMM" was all she could write out on the paper, before sticking it halfway into the mail slot, and leaving.

She just prayed the little dragon would find his way home and be able to decipher the crudely written message.

<ΩΩΩ>

Spike sat, coughing up water at the edge of the river, a grim look on his face as he heaved the wet and immobile form behind him a little further out of the lapping waves.

"If I didn't know how to swim, I sure do now." He said in a huff. "I need some hot chocolate after that."

The form he had pulled from the river groaned behind him, and he lit a fire within a few minutes, finding as much scrap wood as he could to burn along with the branch they had clung to for support in the river, and dragging the unconscious pony a bit closer to the flame.

"Of all the ponies I had to rescue, did it have to be you?" he said, rolling his eyes.

The form stirred and opened one eye to look at the familiar little dragon with a mixture of shame, indignation and regret.

"The great and pow..... I mean I... Thank you." She said, looking away and coughing some more.

"You better have a good reason for why you were following us in the first place." He said, waving a stick at her.

"I do. But I will tell only Twilight Sparkle." She replied, still not looking at her savior, still caring for her wounded ego.

"Go ahead and sleep Trixie, then we can make our way to Ponyville and find her." Spike sighed and looked up at the star strewn sky, wondering if it could really be that easy.

<ΩΩΩ>

Twilight first visited Fluttershy's house, feeding the animals like she had promised the shy Pegasus, and checking that the house was truly empty, which it was.

"Next stop, highest point in the Ponyville area, the Mountain."

She looked to where the black plume of smoke had once carried across the town, swallowing nervously and closing her eyes before she galloped to the base of the mountain.

So she began to climb hoof by hoof up the mountain. She had done it before so she made pretty good time, guessing it had only been a few candlemarks by the time she got to the large cave they had evacuated the dragon from before.

Twilight looked around, calling out for Luna several times before calling out for nightmare moon, hoping to receive silence in return.

The moon shone down on her, giving the small outcropping an ethereal glow, except for one spot next to a rock to the side.

Twilight approached the inky spot cautiously, knowing she had so little magic she wouldn't be able to fight off an attack right now.

On the stone lay a feather which seemed to exude a black shimmering smoke. A feather of Nightmare Moon.

This shocked Twilight, and for a moment she stared at it in horror.

Then she noticed it was bent, broken and torn out by force. What creature would dare rip a feather from Nightmare Moon?

And seeing no ponies laying around, apparently not be harmed in the event?

Twilight turned, the feather now in the corner of her mouth like a farmer with a hay stalk, to look out upon the Everfree forest, which lay dark and foreboding below her.

Far in the middle of the dark green expense lay the ruins in which she had first defeated Nightmare Moon, but she wondered why the alicorn would ever return there, if it was a site of such a failure.

A flash of blue light from the ruins broke her out of her thought and spurred her into action, galloping down the slope as fast as she dared while keeping her balance, she didn't have enough magic to stop her descent if it got out of hoof.

Despite stumbling and rolling the last bit of the rocky path, Twilight made it to the bottom of the mountain with only a few scrapes and bumps, and making good time.

In the distance she could see the apple trees and lights that made up Sweet Apple Acres, and she wondered why her friends couldn't be here, why she had to be so alone.

As she thought it over, scared and a bit angry, she kept up the dash to the everfree forest, finally entering the tree line and cantering past the scary trees, through the fog and monster dens, and over thin rope bridges.

The ruins loomed above her, great walls of crumbling stone and rotten wood towered out of the dark, silhouetted by flashes of black and dark blue magic, sometimes interspersed with a violent green.

Twilight scrambled over fallen walls and through broken archways until she could hear voices, loud and backed by magic, echoing through the place.

"Please surrender, that we may help you! Have you no understanding of what you have done?" Lunas voice pleaded.

"We don't understand, why did you fight this power? Why would you leave it unattended for so long, and not take it up as it rightfully demands?" A voice answered, calm and bored, but curious like a lion playing with its meal.

Twilight knew this second voice was Nightmare Moon, but it sounded wrong, as though she were listening to two speakers talk at once.

Finally they came into view around a pillar, Nightmare Moon's back was to twilight, her graceful horn and catlike eyes slightly aglow with green light, she tossed a blast of energy towards Luna who sat across from her at the throne end of the hall.

Luna was practiced in magical defense, and seemed to still have energy to use, deflecting it without flinching.

"You hath stolen a great and dangerous thing, and it will destroy you as it almost did me!" Luna replied, fear in her eyes not for herself but for the figure in front of her.

Twilight didn't understand until Nightmare Moon laughed, A buzzing, disharmonious laugh.

Chrysalis.