Twilight walked through the hall of Canterlot castle, her mind calm and a little nostalgic.
She knew Celestia was going to try and deny her the truth, but she wasn’t going to ask this time.
Twilight took some air and opened the doors to the throne room.
Celestia was sitting on the throne, as regal and perfect as always. Her assistant was giving her some reports while the guards stood at the ready.
“Twilight, it’s nice to see you,” Exclaimed the monarch when she saw her, giving a gesture to her assistant to hold the report for later.
“It’s nice to see you too princess.”
“What brings you to the castle today? Do you need some advice?”
“Something like that. Could we do it in private?” Celestia looked surprised and a little confused.
“Yes. Could you please leave the room?”
The guards and assistant gave a little reverence and quickly marched through the door, leaving them alone.
“Twilight is this about a friendship problem?” asked Celestia, getting down from her throne to walk in front of Twilight.
“I want to wake up.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I want to talk to you Nightmare, in the real world.”
Celestia extended her wings, and the whole throne room started to tremble, and then shift over itself.
Twilight was calm, she could feel the walls of the castle coming towards her, while Celestia seemed more and more distant.
She closed her eyes, waiting for her awakening.
When she opened them, she waited for the sleep-pod to open, feeling her bones and muscles aching along the numbness all over her body.
“Just like last time.”
She shook her body to alleviate the numbness and get some heat in her body.
Nightmare Moon appeared without any kind of grand entrance like the last time. She could see the confusion in her eyes.
“You knew…”
“I did,” responded Twilight, walking towards the alicorn. “It was a thought at the back of my mind. It evolved over the time it took me to achieve my story one more time.”
Nightmare Moon looked at Twilight with a pained expression.
“I’m so sorry Twilight, I should have made sure you forgot all of it.”
“Don’t be sorry, it helped me to… cope with it… at least enough to make a decision.”
“What decision?” asked the alicorn, confused at the new attitude of the mare.
“I don’t want to dream anymore.”
Silence fell between the two for some time, while Nightmare Moon tried to process the words.
Never before did the unicorn request something like this. She had been accustomed so much to their routine over the centuries that she felt like she was in a dream this time.
“Why? You don’t deserve to live in this frozen world. You don’t deserve to carry the weight of my failures.”
“But they aren’t only yours.” Twilight looked at the ground with a sad expression. “If I had stopped you that night, none of this would have happened. We would all be happy, like in the dreams. I have as much guilt as you.”
“No, Twilight, you don’t have to-”
The unicorn put a hoof over Nightmare’s mouth.
“I don’t want to live a life of lies. If there is truly no hope of fixing all of this, I want to at least pass my last moments in the real world. No matter how horrible it is.” Twilight smiled. “Besides, you seem to need the company.”
Nightmare Moon could feel tears coming to her eyes.
“Twilight. Thank you. I don’t deserve this kindness.”
“You are getting it anyway, and I have some questions.”
Nightmare Moon wiped her tears and teleported them to her room in the castle.
“What do you want to know?” she asked while taking a seat in her bed.
The mattress had frozen long ago, but it was the best she could offer.
“Have there been others who have awakened?”
“Awakened, no. But your friend Pinkie Pie managed to figure out it was all a dream and abused it to make ponies happy. I started to mess with her a little, but she’s a very cunning mare.”
“That explains her Pinkie Sense!” exclaimed Twilight with both frustration and relief.
Nightmare Moon laughed. It felt strange after so many centuries but being able to do it again filled her with joy.
“So, you can modify the dreams?” Asked Twilight.
“Yes, but I have found a routine that made everyone happy at the end. It has been a long time since I have made some modification.”
“Interesting, question for later.” Twilight’s voice took a sadder tone. “Is it true that Starlight and Discord never existed?”
Nightmare Moon gave a heavy sigh.
“I’m sorry, but yes. I thought that a pupil and a reformed villain would make you happy.”
“It did, and I’m glad you made them. Was Trixie also an invention of yours?”
“Actually no. I found her by chance on one of the roads while I traveled Equestria. She managed to survive quite some time, so I gave her a role in the dream, but you and your friends kind of… made her an antagonist.”
Twilight facehoofed.
“Of course. Of all the ponies, she’s the one that exist.” Then a thought crossed her mind. “Wait, did you make her my rival out of spite for what we did to her show?”
“No, that was her own decision.”
“Look at my eyes when you say that.”
“No.”
They both started laughing again.
“Okay, what about Sunset? Was she really a pupil of Celestia?”
“Yes, but her decision of going to another world was my idea.”
“May I ask why?”
“I thought it could be an interesting challenge to you.”
“So you made the entire world on the other side of the mirror?”
“Yes.”
“Is that why they are all just copies of ourselves with weird bodies?”
Nightmare Moon looked a little offended.
“Oh, I’m sorry for cutting corners while planning an entire dimension for you to play with.”
“Did all of the changes come out of you making me a princess?”
“Curiously, it all just clicked with you. You and your friends were very close even in the dream. You were all eager to help each other with your respective dreams. And that ended up making a chain reaction that helped me connect all the ponies into a single dream landscape.”
“Wow, how do you maintain all of that? What do you eat?”
“It’s extremely exhausting, but I manage. I literally eat my own magic like the changelings do with love, and I sleep a lot while you dream.”
“Do you have dreams of your own?”
“No, actually. I think I can’t even do it.” The alicorn looked out the window, to the frozen wasteland. “I’m sure I would have nightmares if I could.”
Twilight took a few seconds to make her next question.
“The Luna I knew, was what you hoped to be, or what you would actually be if things were different?”
The alicorn took some time to answer but didn’t seem to be thinking about her question.
“A little bit of both I suppose. I really wish I had that reformation, but we never really tested if the elements could actually purify my body.”
“You seem to be a decent mare even as Nightmare Moon.”
The alicorn smiled.
“If you say so.”
“You said you made up Shining and Cadence. Are there any familiars of my friends that don’t exist?”
“No. I looked into their memories to identify every one of them. The Pie and apple ones were a true test of patience.”
“Do changelings exist?”
“They exist even today. The smart little buggers wrapped themselves in their own cocoons to survive the winter.”
“You were going to save them?”
The alicorn looked away.
“I… didn’t save any of the other races.”
“What?! Why?!”
“You were Celestia’s little ponies, and there are a lot of you. By the time I saved them, the other races died of the cold.”
“Even the dragons?”
“They tried to survive under the lava, but it eventually got cold enough to turn it into rock.”
“What? How are we alive?”
“My magic Twilight. I’m constantly fighting the cold, so the shelters don’t freeze and kill the ponies inside.”
“Shelters?”
“Like this castle, there are other places that host the crystals that maintain the ponies sleeping. There are hundreds of them.”
“I see. I guess that’s why you didn’t have time to save everyone.”
“Yes, sadly.”
They stayed in silence for a while, until Nightmare finally asked;
“Do you have any more questions?”
Twilight seemed uncomfortable.
“Can we… change a pony’s dream?”
Nightmare was surprised.
“Of who exactly?”
“Starlight. I want her to have a dream where she stays with Sunburst and they remain as friends.”
“Twilight, I told you she’s not real.”
“She is real for me!” the unicorn screamed. “She’s my pupil. My friend. She has been it for a long time. It may have come from your head, but my friendship with her is real in my heart.”
Nightmare Moon was speechless.
The mare that cried in desperation to forget her life of lies was now trying to make her friends happy even if they were false.
Now she understood why Celestia had made the unicorn her pupil.
She smiled and sat next to her to put a wing over her back and give her some comfort.
“What kind of life would you want to give to your friend?”
And so, years passed.
Twilight and I spent our time designing new events for her friends’ dreams. Bringing them closer together, giving them happy memories, helping them fulfill their dreams.
We made a dream where Sunset stayed with Celestia and became the princess of friendship with Twilight as her pupil.
We made a dream where Rainbow Dash became Daring Do’s partner during all her adventures.
One where RaRa and Applejack never had to lose contact with each other.
We made a few adventures for Spike to complete and feel like a superhero.
We made Trixie the most powerful magician in Equestria’s history.
We remade the changelings, so they became allies of Equestria. We made Tirek reunite with his brother.
We even indulged in a little… shipping.
Twilight also looked at her friends to know more of them, discovering how much they cared for her even when she wasn’t looking.
When we weren’t manipulating the dream, Twilight was spending her time looking at her friends in the crystals.
I offered her to wake them up, but she always refused.
She was doing it right now, so I decided to make the announcement.
“Twilight Sparkle!” I called out while standing firm.
Twilight looked at me confused but got closer to see what I had to say.
“Ever since your awakening, you have dedicated your life to ensure your friends happiness, real and false alike.”
Twilight was now more intrigued at what was the point in my speech.
“You have demonstrated, kindness, loyalty, generosity, honesty, and laughter. So even though I can't make you an alicorn…”
I pulled a crown like the one Twilight had received in her ascension out of my saddlebag.
“…as the Queen of Equestria, I proclaim you as The Princess of Friendship.”
I put the crown on Twilight’s head, a looked at her dumbfounded expression.
Tears started rolling from her eyes, and I was suddenly hug-tackled to the ground.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.”
I hugged her back and stayed with her for a good hour until she could cry all her emotions away.
More years passed.
Twilight asked me one day if we could roam the country.
I knew we wouldn’t find anything more than snow, but I couldn’t say no to her.
Since she didn’t have wings and I wasn’t in shape for long range teleportation, we walked through the entire adventure, spending an entire year on the march.
I quickly discovered what Twilight really wanted; we visited every one of the hundreds of shelters.
She looked at every one of the crystal coffins, and I was pretty sure she was making a long mental list in her head of every one of them.
When we returned to the castle, she simply told me:
“I want to make more dreams. This one’s for the ponies we visited.”
I simply smiled.
“You are living up to your title princess.”
More years passed.
I was too weak to leave the castle, and Twilight was too old to continue by my side.
“Please Twilight, let me put you in the dream again. Live your last moments with your friends.” I begged her, but she shook his head.
“I told you when I woke up Moony, I want my last moments to be in the real world.” She took my hoof in hers. “And I won’t leave a friend behind.”
Tears ran down my eyes.
“You can’t continue at my side Twilight; I don’t even know how much I can continue maintaining the world in check.”
“Then don’t do it,” she told me, wiping some of my tears away. “We made everypony happy, every single one of them. They lived happy lives, thanks to your sacrifice.” She put her forehead against mine. “You have paid the price for your mistakes. It’s time for you to rest, with all of us. In peace.”
I hugged her with all my strength.
“Thank you, for everything.” She whispered in my ear.
“Thank you, Twilight, for being my only friend for so many years.”
I slowly deactivated my magic, feeling the cold increase with tremendous force.
The warmth in Twilight’s body started to fade form our embrace, but mine remained.
My alicorn body, as weak as it was, could survive this cold, but I didn’t want it to.
I forced my magic to surrender, and the cold invaded my body, until the last of its warmth faded away.
Author's Note
So, this is the end of this little story.
It may not have so much of the horror of the first, but is what I consider the most appropriate ending for it.
I know some would have liked the story to be longer, but the only way would be to tell the dreams Nightmare Moon and Twilight created, and I feel they would be a little hollow knowing they are happy dreams.
As a final note, I will say that this story’s popularity took me completely by surprise, as I made it with no great intention like previous stories, so I’m not sure if I can reliably top or equal this, but I will try.
I hope you enjoyed it, and remember.
I will be watching you.
