The Nightmare Before Hearth's Warming Eve

"Twilight... my faithful student. You need not blame anyone but me... I was the one who sent you into harm's way knowing just what an icy fate may await you. I thought I was ready in case the worst came.

I was wrong."

☼☼☼

A field of flowers swaying in the breeze...

Lonely planes stretched out in all directions...

She read a book. She read another book. Books and books and books stacked around her...

Spike was there. He shared a laugh. For a second, there was nothing but the moment.

'I promise I will keep you from dying...'

'B-But you said it yourself, Twi. You won't live forever... and well...'

'Spike..."

Though for some reason... she felt sad.

☼☼☼

"The day you died... the very moon itself screamed the name... 'Twilight.'

So loudly I hoped it would pierce your ears even in heaven."

☼☼☼

She glanced down upon a world of green and blue. A princess stood watchful over a kingdom of prosper and peace.

She looked down upon a world of brown and black her kind shared in simple joy. Both were good.

'...We're just stagnant beings floating, but not paddling in the sea of time...'

No...

All that mattered in the end was whether or not someone was happy or not...

She was happy... for now. She was happy then too, though...

☼☼☼

"Who is to say when someone's time is up? Who's to say that one was want 'meant' to live or die. And who's to say what heaven truly is? I don't know. I never will. I'm bound to this world for all of eternity. I will never grace whatever reward awaits me for my struggles. Who knows what one could see beyond the veil? Would they even want to see it, though?"

☼☼☼

She sailed through the cosmos. She saw the universe. She saw the universes before that universe, a time beyond time. A city of gray and black. Another holiday very much like her own being celebrated by strange beings...

'I have seen into null space. I have seen the universes that have come and gone before the current one. Some with many worlds in them...'

She saw joy...

She saw revolutions...

She saw a planet twisting in the solar breeze...

And she saw mushroom clouds rising into the air...

The world stood as a shattered monument to destruction...

'And on every single one of them... do ya wanna know what happened to them? When those with brains on em’ started getting a little too brainy? Kaboom... and they did it to themselves, too...'

Tears danced in the solar breeze...

A star expanded... in its last minutes truly being something in the heavens...

Ash in the solar breeze...

A star died.

A galaxy dispersed. The universe followed.

A phoenix rose from the ashes...

A troubled explorer moved back into the ash...

She wondered if it would be another phoenix...

☼☼☼

"Was this part of the reason I brought you back? That I envied you? I do not know... I do not know... But I do know one thing was for certain: I couldn't bear to lose another person I loved to fate. Not one who I loved like a daughter."

☼☼☼

She saw Nightmare Moon. She sat upon a throne as the moon twirled across the heavens over and over and over... The world changing around her. One hundred years... two hundred years... one thousand years of being truly alone...

And she saw her happiness when she finally found someone to lift her spirits.

'Heh. You know. You were never this goofy before, Princess.'

'Yeah well... times change. And so do students.'

She felt sad.

☼☼☼

"It wasn't complicated. It just took a lot out of me... I struck a deal with Death on a lonely road. Half of you could come back. The other half would stay. It was the only way... there's no such thing as a true resurrection. She would not be cheated."

☼☼☼

She stood on the planes of death. Rainbow Death stood before her. She glanced into the distance.

"You've been given a chance to come back... though, I should warn you... it will come with a price."

Twilight gave a shudder.

A nervous nod came.

"I-I'll take it... just promise me... promise me I'll be able to come back some day..."

"Some day," Rainbow nodded, still not bothering to face her. "And when that happens, I'll be waiting for you..."

☼☼☼

"I just hope you'll... find it in your heart to at least not hate me. For my moment of weakness. For that moment when I decided that fate could step aside."

☼☼☼

Memories faded... memories returned. She was in Terrorsville... now she was in Necropolis. Nightmare Moon smiled down upon her. Tears dripped down on her.

She felt cold.

But she felt... content.

Her friends were there. Each had an odd mix of joy and waryness upon them.

Rainbow Death turned her back on her. It was as if she wasn't meant to be.

She brought herself before a mirror.

Her eyes widened. She gasped. She swallowed a bit of saliva hard.

She was dead.... but she was alive.

Her eyes were two pools of solid white. Her fur was decaying. Part of her skin was gone revealing bits of bone hidden underneath.

She was an abomination. Death thought so. Even in a land of freaks... she was a freak.

But she was... in a partial way... alive.

She gripped her mentor in a hug. For only after being where she had been could she feel true empathy for her.

Both felt happiness.