“Fuck you!”

The shadows coiled and rolled voices echoing from the fog, “You abandon us for these creatures of magic and wonder, are we not enough anymore Carl!? Are we too simple, normal even?! Galavant across the world with your pony princess, see how that works out for you.”

“I didn’t abandon you, I am trying to help them. You are all still my friends even with all this going on.”

“And you're not tempted by immortality, forever is a long time you know.”

“That’s not what this is about!”

“Oh? What else could bring romantic feelings for a horse if not for personal gain.”

A different voice cried out from the throng, “You may as well be a child in her eyes. A thousand years is a long time!”

Leiring, jeering shouts surrounded me belittling and baiting me into arguments I could never win.

“He’ll never love you, you’re a monstrous creature of another species and you truly think. You truly think he would ever pick you, he can pick from all with his newfound status.”

“He treats me like a normal pony, you can’t dissuade me from this!”

“You’re a normal pony? You are taking advantage of him right now sister.”

“Don’t you,” I choked on the words, “Don’t you dare. I told you she is off limits!”

My own creation tormenting me, all my hate and sorrow compiled into this one manifestation. My dream cracked and popped as it bumped into another dreamscape, the creature of nightmares making itself scarce.

Shouting filled the dark space between, “Enough! I shall not deal with this bullshit, get out!

The roiling vortex of faces and names laughed at Carl, “You’re even talking like her now and you tell us you have a healthy relationship.”

“Speak of the devil and she shall appear.” Screamed another voice.

The dream cleared with a flick of my horn, ~~Our~~, my safe place materializing. The tall trees of the Everfree forest, a place once safe no longer due to my own hubris.

Carl’s anger reverberated in the fabric of the web, “Luna! I thought I told you to stay out of my nightmares!”

I shied away, “I’m sorry, I lost control of my dream and it collided with yours,” I waved to the sky, “with our proximity considered it is no surprise.”

Carl turned walking into the trees, calling back flippantly, “Well then get out, I was having fun with my demons.”

I trotted to catch up with him through the trees, “Well… I can’t. Not until I figure out what was causing your nightmare, my, my Cutiemark won’t let me.”

Carl facepalmed, whispering something under his breath. Turning with a flourish he sighed, “Well I guess we have some time to chat then, 'cause you’re going to be here for a while.”

“I guess we do.”

He sat down at the base of the largest tree around staring at me with a scowl, “So wise one what do you wish to teach the child today?”

I reeled, “Is that really how you see our friendship? That I’m humoring you like a child, how dare you!”

“Ha! With our gap in experience that’s the only way I could even envision it. You want me to pretend you aren't a thousand years older than me!” Do you think I’m stupid Luna?”

I cracked, the waterworks flowing as I wailed, “We only lived two hundred and twelve of those Carl! The world is so different now we may as well be starting over from scratch! You’re the only pony to not treat me like a volcano ready to erupt in the last decade! Do you truly think us so shallow as to think you a child, Is that the truth you believe, or is that what the thoughts in the dark tell you?!”

He growled at me through clenched teeth, “They haven’t failed me yet, Luna.”

The world shifted and swirled castle walls shaping themselves around us, phantoms of Celestia and myself in between us.

My clone laughed in the face of the phantom, “‘They haven’t failed us yet, Celestia.”

“That mentality will kill you, sister, the ponies don’t shun you. You have failed to give them a reason to believe in you.”

As the mirage faded I spoke, quelling any qualms, “Don’t preach to me about lessons I’ve learned the hard way, down that path lies ruin.”

He was silent for a few moments before trying to argue, “I don’t hav-”

I interrupted, “We both know that is a false equivalence. You may not be able to end the world, but a few actions can harm the well-being of the many. However my time here is done, another dream calls for me and my work here seems to be, handled as it were”

The ceiling was very interesting this morning, more because it let me ignore the blue pony draped across my chest. She is awake as much as I am but neither of us wants to move. Not because it is particularly comfortable or not, but because a discussion in the real world will have to happen. I know I don’t want to have it, but based on her false sleep she doesn’t either. So here we are at a stalemate of awkward avoidance.

“Carl?”

“Yes?”

“Why are you poking me?”

I coughed, “Without getting into detailed human anatomy, it just does that while I’m sleeping.”

“Oh,” She responded matter of factly, then continued, “Sooo, how are we handling last night's revelations?”

“Do we have to do this right now?”

“If not now, When?”

“Later.”

“Today, tomorrow, next week after we’ve been angry at each other for so long we don’t even know why we are angry anymore.”

“Fine. You have a point, what first?”

“It’s not that simple Carl, how do you feel about it?”

“Luna, I dunno honestly. I, it’s complicated and I have my own issues to resolve before I can answer you.”

“I think that’s all I need to hear,” She said exasperated as she slid from under the covers. Looking back at me she quipped, “You’re still poking the sheets.”

“Well that’s what happens when you hav-” I clamped the bag shut, the cat already having escaped.

She shot me a knowing smile, a sway in her hips far too obvious as she walked away.

“That’s not fair!”

Her laugh cut off as she closed the bathroom door.

Chrysalis Face-hoofed, “There is no way you are both that oblivious, how did this not prompt some kind of discussion?!”

“Oblivious is not the word I would use. Luna and I knew what was going on, choosing to not acknowledge it is more apt.”

Celestia piped up from the other end of the table, “I thought this whole escapade into history started when you two were trying to figure out why you ‘picked’ each other. Is this not the answer?

“Ha!” Luna laughed at the idea, “It’s spiraled into the question of why we did not… acquiesce to the idea earlier at this point.”

“‘Cause Carl’s dense,” Roko tittered from the kitchen.

“Hey! I resemble that remark,” I said, tossing a spoon through the serving window.

Popping his head back around the corner he threatened, “You keep throwing shit at me I’m boiling the stew.”

“You wouldn’t dare!” a three-person chorus called back as Celestia turned her nose up at our meal choice.

“I would,” he called back, “Hell you might get a well-done steak next time.”

“Roko, you serve me a well-done steak I’m having chrysalis fuck your mom.”

“I wish her luck with an urn.”

I laughed, Chrysalis gagged and Celestia reeled.

Luna shook her head in disappointment, “You two are terrible.”

Roko strode out of the kitchen platters in hand grinning, “I can’t be that terrible, I have the food.”

I chuckled, “In order, let's eat food, sort out the garbage fire Luna and I started, Then more story time.”

Author's Note

More interaction bait incoming because numbers going up makes monkey brain happy. I see you guys favoriting the story but not liking it.
Also, I'm aware that this chapter and the last chapter probably could have been one but I'm bad at this. Also, Also, Do y'all want chapters as I write them even if it means week-plus long waits between bursts of chapters, or space them out weekly with more consistent uploads?