The world swirled around me as everything solidified into a shape I never wanted to see again. First a skyline and a cracked window, then a red-flecked carpet, then a coffee table filled with pill bottles, and finally, standing across from me and grinning, a younger version of me.
“Oh my gosh, it worked,” she said, laughing and dancing around in a little circle. She looked just like a younger me, the only real difference was her cutie mark was a pink heart with a purple brain on it. “All the variables, all the planning, all the contingency plans, and it all led you back to me. Tell me, Trottingham or Hoofington?”
“Uhmm… Hoofington?” I said, frowning. This wasn’t exactly what I’d imagined, but then, what had I imagined?
“Thank you, so you and Scootaloo, then. I just… I can’t believe it worked, I did my best to stack the deck in my favor, but there was always that chance and there was so much waiting.” She rolled her head around at that. “Just sitting around, counting down the hours until the book unlocked and you came back to me.”
She smiled and conjured up a painting of me. Uhmm… modern me, not old me. “But look at you, so perfect and here. Passed through the crucible and forged anew, ready to see your glorious purpose... but first, I know you have questions.” She bowed. “So ask away, my creation.”
“Are you… completely crazy?” I asked. Didn’t Apple Bloom say that most ponies who saw the future went kind of nuts?
A barking laugh burst from her throat. “To lesser minds, perhaps. Minds who haven’t seen all the branching paths the future takes.” Her eyes glinted. “Minds who haven’t seen every betrayal and horror life possibly has in store for us.”
“And…” I took a step away from her and tumbled down into a chair that hadn’t been there a second earlier. “What was that, exactly?”
“They all betray us, in the end, Sweetie,” Smartie said. “I’ve seen it. All our loved ones, all our friends, they end up hurting us, they end up letting us down, they end up leaving us.” She blinked and looked away before flashing me a grin. “So I decided to change our future. To make sure nopony can ever hurt us again.”
“Well, I’ve got some news for you,” I said, pushing myself out of the chair as Smartie started to pace. “The last three years, they haven’t exactly been pain-free.”
“Of course not,” she said, shaking her head. “Passing through a crucible shouldn’t be painless. Being broken and forged anew hurts, but it’ll be worth it in the end. Once everypony adores you, the cost will seem trivial. You just had to suffer to gain the fortitude and strength needed to do the necessary things.” She smiled again. “But here you are, almost finished. Ready to–”
“Enough of the weird destiny talk, can you please just tell me what’s going on?” I asked. “Why you had to do… everything to me. And don’t say it was to prepare me for something.”
“But it was,” Smartie said, tilting her head at me. “Everything that’s happened since you’ve taken that potion has been preparing you for this moment. Preparing the world, preparing your mind, and giving you the power needed to exact change.”
Powers? I thought for a minute before realization struck me down. The Dreaming. What did the doctors say the odds were? A million to one? But what did odds matter when you could see the future?
“Your overdose was one of the… trickier things to engineer. Making sure Mom found the journal today? That was a cinch. Make sure to carve a gouge in the castle at the right point and give Mom and Twilight the nudge they needed to end up together. But the overdose? First I had to make the drug, mail the recipe to the right pony, make sure you fell into Bright Lights’ grip, and then make sure you lashed out at her at just the right moment.” She laughed. “The breaking was inevitable, but the timing? Now that’s a trick.”
“Wait… Lashed out?” I asked, an article suddenly springing to mind as a memory burst out of my head and projected itself on the apartment.
“Sweetie, what is this?” Bright Lights said, storming into the living room and waving something under my face. “You auditioned for Book Smart? After I explicitly told you not to? That was going to be my debut role.”
“Yeah, well, they didn’t ask you to audition, did they?” the third me in the room said, rising to her hooves. “They didn’t want you, they wanted me. I’m the star, you’re just my assistant.”
Bright Lights glared at me, but the other me didn’t back down. “Everything you are is because of me. Because of my generosity, so when I tell you to do something, you do it.”
“Maybe I shouldn’t,” I said, laughing. What drugs did she have me on then? “Maybe you can’t give–”
“Sweetie,” she hissed. “You were nothing but a neurotic filly when I found you. I made you a star, and without me, you’ll go back to being that stupid lonely–”
My hoof flew out and she froze in shock as a smack echoed through the room. Why? Why had I done that? I looked into the other me’s eyes searching for some emotion. Something recognizable. I found nothing. “I see,” Bright Lights finally said, rubbing her cheek. “I suppose it was too much to expect gratitude. That’s what I get for loving somepony so selfish.” There was a pause as she turned to the door. “Well, we’ll see exactly what you are without me.”
“How could you have planned all that?” I asked, staring straight into nothing. Was that real? Had I really– Did I cross the line first?
“Haven’t you heard of the butterfly effect, Sweetie?” she asked before rolling her eyes. “Wait, nevermind, I know you haven’t. Anyways, it’s simple. A butterfly flaps its wings in Las Pegasus and a hurricane hits Mareami. To get my hurricanes, I just had to flap the right wings and give them time.”
“But–” She cut me off.
“Look, I don’t want to explain the complex web of causality and how moments careened off of each other leading us to here. It’d take an eternity, and you wouldn’t understand it anyways. We have more important things to discuss.”
“You manipulated me,” I said, earning another eyeroll.
“Yes, I know.” She said. “I manipulated the world, played ponies like fiddles to get us here together now.” She smirked and snarled at the same time. “Or cellos, that seems more fitting considering we’re only here because of one stupid cellist and her meeting with Princess Luna.”
She shook her head. “I could see it, Sweetie. A bright happy future for the Crusaders. We’d stay friends, we’d get our cutie marks togethers, and everything would be beautiful, but that didn’t happen. It couldn’t happen, because of her,” she screamed. “She took our best future away from us. Left me to work with the chaff.” A few strands of her mane popped loose. “But she’ll get her due. Obstacles in our way will be brushed aside, and she’s standing firmly in the route to our ascension.”
Okay, so, crazy and evil. Definitely not a great combination, but– “Sorry, back on track,” she said. “It’s so hard to regulate your thoughts after spending a few years alone. Yes, I manipulated you. I made you hurt in ways nopony should hurt, but you’ll see. You’ll be happier in the end because of me. We’ll reforge that perfect future that she stole from us.”
“So…” Why was I playing into her game? Maybe kindness? If I’d been stuck with myself for the last four years, I’d probably want to monologue too. “You wanted me to get Dreaming powers, why?”
“Oh? I thought that would’ve been obvious, but I suppose we can’t all be super-intelligent and omniscient.” And completely amoral. “Remember the first night you had your powers? How you got that song stuck in Scootaloo’s head the next morning? It’s the same concept, but upscale it, and instead of getting songs stuck in a pony’s head, you’re putting in ideas. It will take some time, but I think in a few months, you can have Scootaloo completely devoted to you. Unable to even dream of saying no to you. Or hurting you. Or leaving you.” A smile struggled to consume her face. “Won’t it be nice? Not having to worry about anypony hurting you ever again?”
That was… I just stared at her. “But Luna–”
“I know, I know, Luna won’t let you mess around with ponies’ minds. She’ll stop you. But guess what? Luna’s not going to be a problem for much longer. She’s running off to fight the Night Terrors, and she’s going to lose. Funny, she could’ve saved herself if she stopped your nightmares, but she had her little code. Well now, she’s going to spend the next few centuries without a connection to the Dreaming, leaving you its sole warden.”
“You can’t,” I shouted, jumping up to my hooves. “Luna’s my friend, I… wouldn’t even be able to control my powers if it wasn’t for her.”
Smartie rolled her eyes. “Well, you can keep being her friend,” she said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “She might get suspicious once everypony starts idolizing you, but we have plans for that, too. I have future plans written down in all the notebooks for you to peruse at your leisure. Once you leave here, Sweetie, there won’t be a pony alive who can stop you from getting what you want.” She beamed. “It’s all so perfect, I could just scream.”
Scream. That’s what I wanted to do. “You’re a monster,” I said to the phantom who’d spent the last four years controlling my life. She hurt me, she hurt my mom, she hurt everypony I cared about. She twisted the world around to get exactly what she wanted and justified it as being for some greater good.
Oh.
“...And so am I.”
She laughed. “Only if you call yourself one. Believe me, I saw the futures, I know how little stock to put in morality. You could leave here and hurt a dozen ponies in ways that would make your mind break, and because of your actions, we’d be living in a utopia before you had your first grandchild.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not,” I said, matching her stare. “So you can just let me out and forget about whatever you had planned.”
“Oh, is that all?” she asked, smiling not-so-sweetly. “I’ll be happy to let you free.” A little laugh from her. “I have no intentions of letting your body waste away soulless.”
“Really?” I asked, tilting my head.
“Of course, just as soon as I’m sure Luna’s lost. An inability to resist temptation is one of your defining traits, and without Luna to police you, I’m sure you’ll intervene in others’ dreams in the name of ‘the greater good’ and helping ponies you care about.” A dreamy look crossed her eyes. “Oh, the opportunities that will open to you. If Luna had half a brain, she could have dethroned Celestia in a month with an army of devoted slaves.She could have made Celestia grovel on her hooves before her.” She shrugged. “But she didn’t, and it’s her loss. Now it’s our turn to use the Dreaming.”
I turned away from her and lashed out at the apartment walls with my magic, trying to find some little crack I could use to escape, to get out of here and save Luna. Smartie popped in front of me. “That’s cute. Sweetie, this place’s tied to me, nopony gets out without my approval. Nothing happens here I don’t want. Now, you’re going to sit down and we’re just going to watch the hours tick down.” She poofed a grandfather clock next to her. “By my count, we have about five more hours. Maybe a little more, so let’s round it up to seven to get rid of any nasty outlier possibilities. After that, I’ll be happy to open the portal for you.” I ignored her and kept probing with my magic, looking for some give, any little… I sighed. I didn’t even know what I was looking for. Luna hadn’t exactly taught me how to escape from mind prisons.
“You won’t win,” I said trying to think of some out. Some way I could beat her. The more she was monologuing, the less she was focused on me.
“I’ve seen the future” she said, staring up at me. “I know all the things that can happen when you leave here and I chose this moment for a reason. Your loss is just a formality.” She kept talking, but I ignored her, thinking of what I could say to convince her.
“If you don’t let me leave now, then the minute I get out of here, I’ll–”
“Kill yourself?” she asked, tilting her head at me. “No, you won’t. You love your mother too much to put her through that pain, and with Luna gone, you’ll be too overcome with guilt to abandon the Dreaming. Besides that, at the end of the day, we both know you’re a coward, too accustomed to creature comforts to do anything drastic. It’s a nice bluff, though.”
I rubbed my head. Think. Think think think think think. “Is there any way I can get out of here early?” I asked.
“Theoretically, yes. Practically, no,” she said, smirking. I just stared at her. “The gem is tied with my consciousness, if that were to be disrupted or destroyed, you’d be able to open a connection back to your body. However, the only way you could destroy my consciousness would be by destroying me, and that means you’d have to fight me. Which you’d lose because I know all your moves.” So I had a chance? I dug my hooves into carpet.
She sighed. “Which means I also know you’re going to try to challenge me because you don’t know what the words ‘practically impossible’ mean, so allow me to nip that in the bud.”
Something pulled sharp inside me, and I launched through the air, flying out the apartment, out the window, and into the destiny I’d cheated months ago.
Falling wasn’t as fast as I thought it’d be. In my head, it was always like a crash, fall, splat. Over in a second. This wasn’t that at all; it was like everything had just slowed down. Sure, I was falling, but the ground wasn’t rushing up towards me, it was inching. Who knew falling to your death gave you so much time to think?
“Not that you can do anything with your thoughts,” Bright Lights said. I sighed and poofed her out of existence for probably the last time. I wanted my last thoughts to be of ponies I loved. I wanted them to be about Scootaloo and Mom, and not some crazy evil version of me or Bright Lights.
Scootaloo.
I’d never get to apologize for her for being so stupid and selfish. To tell her I was wrong for being like evil-me. For not being honest with her. Maybe we wouldn’t get back together, but we deserved a better ending than me just storming off and dying.
And Mom. I’d never get to hug her again or tell her how much I loved her. My body would probably just wither away on the floor, slowly shutting down while–
My body. I laughed. My body was still out there. There wasn’t anything physical in the gem, just me and my thoughts, and that meant – I closed my eyes as wings erupted from my back – I wasn’t dying here. One flap of my wings slowed my fall. Another flap stopped it. On the third flap, I started to climb up again.
I could climb back to the penthouse and challenge myself to a magic fight, or I could hit her with the Sweetie Suckerpunch that allowed me to beat Luna. Easy enough choice. I looked up at the penthouse as a ball of fire smashed into it, sending flaming bits of debris raining down past me, while a shield sprang to life to keep me protected. Above me, a mare slowly descended, clapping her hooves as she came down to my level. “Well done, Sweetie,” she said in the most patronizing way possible. “That would have worked if it wasn’t for the whole, you know, omniscient thing. Still, I’ll give you points for creativity. Now, are you going to give up and be a good mare?”
“A good mare wouldn’t give up,” I said, launching a blast of energy at her. Smartie just laughed and brought a shield up to deflect it, blowing a hole in a nearby building and sending more debris raining down.
“Of course.” she said. “Really, there was only the slimmest possibility that would work, but if it would save us more silliness, I thought it was worth a try.” She shrugged. “So, are you just going to keep throwing more attacks at me for me to deflect? Because if that’s how you want to spend your next seven hours, that’s fine with me.”
Ugh, why did omniscient ponies have to have an answer for everything. I closed my eyes. Think. So, you’re fighting an evil insane version of you who also happens to be super intelligent and omniscient. She doesn’t want to kill you, she’s just stalling for time. Because she’s omniscient, she can predict all your moves, so trickery’s out, and that just leaves brute force. I tilted my head. A magic duel? No, she was probably way better at me with magic. Something told me knowing everything made you a pretty good spell caster, bringing me back to pure brute force.
Or pure will.
My eyes went wide as I remembered my duels with Luna. So Smartie was smarter than me, more skilled, and could predict all my attacks, but in a battle of wills, I probably wanted out just as much as she wanted to keep me here. Now, I just had to convince the omniscient pony to agree to it.
“I challenge you to a will duel,” I said, summoning a medicine ball. Probably not my best pitch, but in my defense, this day was not going in the direction I’d imagined.
She laughed as we both descended towards the street, her floating in the air, me gliding. “And why in Equestria would I ever accept? As long as I keep you here, I win. Yes, I’d win our duel, too, but that victory wouldn’t gain me anything.” Bad news, she was too smart to just accept the duel. Good news, she was arrogant enough to think it wouldn’t be a contest.
“Because…” I tried to think of what she’d want. What would make the teeny possibility of loss worth it for her? “I’ll let you come back with me.” Yeah, that’d probably be worth it.
“Tempting,” she said, tilting her head as she levitated around me. “Very tempting, but also lethal. Having infinity crammed in your head tends to cook your brain. When we placed a copy of ourselves in this emerald, we were about two minutes away from suffering permanent neurological damage. You frying your brain doesn’t really advance my goals.” She paused and looked at me, swishing her tail. “However… You could take a fragment of me back with you. Not much of the knowledge, but the drives, ambitions, and wants.” She shrugged. “What’s one more voice in the cacophony of your skull?”
I took a breath as my hooves touched the pavement.. “And if I win, how do I know you’ll just let me go?”
“A fair criticism,” she said, landing a few hooves away from me. “We’ll have to make sure that the other party can’t cheat.” A few hoof lengths in front of her, a black ball bubbled and hissed and grew until it was almost touching her horn. Once it’d finished forming, she floated it away from her to sit between us.
“And that should do it,” she said, inching the orb towards me. “Please, feel free to investigate it with your magic.”
“Great,” I said, grabbing it with my magic to try to probe into it and keep her from moving it closer to me. The second thing was easy enough, but the first one was a bit harder. A quick examination revealed the thing was made out of magic and that it had more spells in it than I knew.
“Oh, are you having a hard time?” she asked mockingly. “I forgot you didn’t understand advanced thaumaturgy. Allow me to explain.” A faint current of magic ran through the orb and ignited half the spells. “That one’s for me. It’s a targeted oblivion spell. If it touches me, it activates and everything I am disintegrates, meaning you can freely leave the gem. Actually, you’ll be forced out as the entire complex sustaining the spell will collapse in less than a second.”
“Wait,” I said, shaking my head. “If you lose, you’re going to die?” Okay, she was crazy and evil, but she didn’t deserve that.
“Yes. My death being the price of failure is the only way I’ll consent to the duel. If you don’t want me to die, don’t accept the duel.” Oh, that was cheap. She knew I wouldn’t want to… I didn’t want to hurt her, I just wanted out of here, and actually killing somepony? I narrowed my eyes. She was trying to attack my will before the duel even started.
I took a few breaths as I investigated the spells she’d highlighted. I didn’t know what an oblivion spell was supposed to look like, but the spells just felt mean. They clung to my magic and tasted like I imagined rotted ponies smelled. Sure, that didn’t mean much; it was something, though. You wouldn’t find them in a unicorn’s first spell book, at least. “Alright,” I said. “And the other spells?”
Her magic highlighted the other spells. “They contain a rough impression of my personality. Similar to the spell that keeps me in the gem, but… looser. When it touches you, the spells will activate and implant that version of me in your psyche. I promise, the process is completely painless. It won’t even alter your personality, you’ll just have a little adviser in your head, constantly giving you tips.” A little devil in my ear, talking non-stop. Not bad at all.
I gave a nod and took another breath. She had to die. Yes, it was terrible, and I’d be killing a pony, even if that pony was technically me, but if it was either destroy her or become her? That choice was easy enough. “Alright,” I said. “So, are you ready?”
She shook her head. “Since you challenged me, there’s really only one weapon we can use, and the time is as soon as possible, but I believe I’m allowed to pick the location for our duel.”
“What do you mean? The location’s here, right? It’s not like we’re getting out of your emerald, that’s the whole reason we’re having a duel.”
“Yes, I know,” she said, rolling her eyes and lighting her horn up, causing the landscape around us to shift and transform, leaving us as the only solid points in the blur. “But we’re not having our duel on a rubble-strewn Manehattan street.” The world solidified and I was standing in a treehouse. Apple Bloom and Life Bloom were sitting off over a potion kit, Melody held a vial of liquid in her hooves, and Scootaloo and Socket were sitting to the side as spectators. “On the off chance I lose, I’d like to be surrounded by reminders of my friends when I go. You can give me that at least, right?”
Yeah, now she was being sympathetic. Anything to make me feel bad enough that I couldn’t find the will to kill her. And it was working. I shook my head and tried to clear out those thoughts. I needed to win. What would Scootaloo say? Probably something like “Do your best, Sweetie, I believe in you.” Well, that’s what she would to.
“Enough pity,” Mom said, appearing next to me. “If you wish to patch things up with Scootaloo, use that as another incentive to win this battle.” She smiled at me. “I know this might come across as terribly uncouth, and I do loathe violence, but I’m pro–” She popped into nothingness and Smartie just glared.
“No. No, no, no. No pep talks from inside your head, this has to be between you and me,” she said, trotting to the far end of the treehouse, which was a lot farther away than it should’ve been. She must’ve enlarged the place for our duel. I trotted to the opposite side.
“Can’t you just let me go?” I asked as we moved the orb to the middle of the clubhouse. “I don’t want to hurt anypony.”
“I know,” she said, smiling. “And that’s why I’m going to win. Now, is there anything else you want to ask me before we start this. Any last questions you want to ask me before we do this? Any burning little mysteries you want resolved?”
“N–” I stopped as a question popped into my head. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t that important, and it ate up precious time, but at the same time... “What was up with that note? The one you gave me about checking the whatever for the whatever? It didn’t really help me not get stuck in the time loop.”
“That?” she asked, laughing. “Really? That’s your big question? The last mystery you want explained?” She shrugged. “Alright, the note was a diversion. You’d remember the warning, recite it to Socket prematurely, and then, while he was double-checking the calibrations, he wouldn’t notice the fact that Twilight was overcharging it. I wasn’t warning you about the time loop, I was ensuring you’d get stuck in it.”
“Why the heck would you do that?” I asked. “What possible good would getting stuck in a time loop do me?”
“You got your cutie mark in there, didn’t you?” she said, looking at me. “And woke up the next morning to find nopony remembered it. It was the first little wedge driven between you and everypony else. The crack to grow and grow and show you how fragile and fleeting friendship is. I think the letter did its job perfectly.” Had I already said she was crazy? Because I needed something stronger than crazy or insane to really properly describe her.
“Alright,” I said, nodding my head. “Now, I really won’t feel that bad about obliterating you.” Well, I’d feel a little bad. She was still kind of a pony, just one who was indirectly responsible for every bad thing that’d happened to me since she was born.
She curtsied before bracing herself. “I admire the braggadocio, Sweetie, and if you’re ready… On your mark.” She lit up her horn and I reached out with my own magic to touch the ball floating between us.
“Get set,” I said, doing my best to clear my head of any distracting thoughts like Luna’d taught me. Distracting thoughts like how I was getting ready to kill somepony. It’s her or you. It’s her or you.
“Go!” Smartie shouted. Our wills collided and the ball inched forward. Inched towards me. I gulped and tried to push more of myself against the ball.
“Huh,” Smartie said as the ball hovered closer to me. “I didn’t think you’d put up this much of a fight.” She grunted. “Well, don’t worry, it’ll be over soon, and you’ll have a great new voice in your head to listen to.”
The ball loomed larger. In a few more seconds, it would blot out my vision, and a second after that, it would be over. She’d win, and I’d go back to being her. Maybe not at first, but she’d insinuate and mimic and manipulate and do what she always did, and soon enough, I’d be agreeing with her. Heck, even Bright Lights’ voice got me agreeing with her, and she just made fun of me most of the time.
And then, you’ll go on manipulating the ponies that love you and turning them into your thralls. You’ll break Scootaloo and your Mom and anypony else you think you can ‘help’. On and on and on until there’s no love left. The ponies who love you the most are going to be your first victims.
No. I closed my eyes. I wasn’t going to do that to them. No more hurting. No more lies. No more manipulation. She wouldn’t touch me. Those four words crystallized in my mind like an immutable fact of the universe. The sky was blue, the sun was hot, and she wouldn’t touch me. I opened my eyes to see the ball further away than before. Not much, but enough and it was getting even smaller.
“Why… are you doing this?” Smartie shouted between grunts as I felt beads of sweat form on my forehead. “Why can’t you just let me help you? Even if you leave now and try to reconcile with Scootaloo, there’s still an eighty percent chance it will end with you two hating each other. No matter what you do, they’re going to hurt you.” There was another shout that almost sounded like a sob. “I saw it, Sweetie. I saw every little pain, every hurt. I saw everypony who’d ever fail me, who’d betray me. I saw everypony who’d ever leave me, and I felt it all. They’ll all leave me, in the end, or I’ll leave them, and I’m trying to stop it. Save us from it.” She ended the speech with a stifled sob as the ball’s advance slowed.
The ball stopped moving just past the halfway point, and I understood Smartie. She wasn’t evil. Or crazy. She was a filly on her first day of school, terrified that all her friends would leave her and getting confirmation of that fear in the worst way possible. Infinite futures dumped in her head, showing her every heartache she’d ever conceivably suffer, but at that same moment giving her the knowledge she needed to change fate. I wanted to cry for her, but first I had to destroy her.
“You’re wrong,” I said, struggling to get the ball moving again. “You don’t need to save me from anything.”
“Yes I do! Things you can’t even imagine will hurt you. Do you know what it will feel like? Losing everypony you love? Seeing the pain of disappointment in their eyes? The pain of not being good enough?” She shouted and the ball jerked an inch closer to me. “Because I do.”
“So what?” I asked and the ball shifted back closer to her. Smartie didn’t see that coming, apparently. “Yes, I’ll probably hurt in the future. Unbelievably bad things might happen to me. Maybe tomorrow, Scootaloo will say she’ll never forgive me, that she can’t stand to look at me again for what I did to her, and yes, that’ll hurt, it’ll hurt a lot. I’ll probably spend, like, a week just crying, and do you know what? That’s okay.”
Another jerk towards her, but she managed to push it back before it got too far. “You taught me that,” I said, drops of sweat dripping down and catching on my eyelashes. “You didn’t mean to, but you did. You taught me that life hurts. That sometimes it feels terribly, unspeakably awful. Taught me that there will be days where I’ll just feel like crying, like, nonstop. Being completely honest, tomorrow’s probably going to be one of those days, but all that’s okay, because it happens and… and…” I stammered and the ball started moving towards me. And what? Ugh, did Twilight ever have this problem when she was trying to give a big speech to a bad pony?
“And that’s what makes it beautiful.” The ball froze. “This afternoon, Mom held me in her hooves and comforted me. She didn’t do it because I was forcing her, but because she loved me. She loved me and wanted me to feel better. And Scootaloo, she saved me from the hell you put me in, and maybe you gave her the time and place, but she still chose to be there, and she chose to be by my side every second of every day afterwards, and Scootaloo leaving’s not going to change that. It’s not going to make that moment any less wonderful. You know what will, though? Forcing her to stay with me. Ruining every last bit of love we ever had because I’m afraid of it ending.”
The ball hovered just a few inches from Smartie’s nose. “Things end, and that’s… that’s okay. It doesn’t change what we had, so maybe instead of worrying about them leaving, I can just enjoy when times are good.”
“But it will hurt,” she said, forcing her head back to keep the edge of the ball away from her.
“I know,” I said, trying to dig my hooves in the wood beneath me. Just because I was winning didn’t mean I could give up. “But I’ll survive, put myself back together, and I’ll move on. Maybe love and friendship aren’t guaranteed forever, but neither is loneliness.” The ball moved forward with one last jump and our duel ended. In an instant, the world around me buckled as a black fire devoured Smartie. She didn’t scream or shout as she burned – surrounded by copies of her old friends, and a clubhouse disintegrating around her – she just whispered one last word as everything went white.
“Run.”
The word echoed in my ear as I felt myself lurch back into my body and my eyes flicked open to see Twilight’s vaulted ceiling. Really? Run? I’d just beaten an omniscient crazy version of myself, and she was ending with a threat? “Run? That’s i–” I couldn’t finish the thought as a pair of forehooves wrapped around my neck.
“Oh, Sweetie, you’re back,” Mom said. “I was so terrified. Are you alright?”
“Can’t... breathe,” I gasped, and her grip slackened so I could think. Run. Run? Why would her last word be–
“Luna!” I shouted, springing from my back to my hooves and sending Mom onto the floor as I scanned the room. Mom was still on the floor – I could apologize to her for that later – a fire was crackling, there were a bunch of extra blankets on the couch, and… Twilight was sitting at a desk, towers of books rising around her.
“Twilight,IneedyoutocastasleepspellonmerightnowsoIcangototheDreamingandsaveLunafromNightTerrors.I’llexplainitallwhenIgetback,Ipromise,” I said, sprinting over to her and getting the words out as fast as possible. “Now,now,now,now,gottorun.”
“Alright,” she said, getting to her hooves and thoughtlessly lighting up her horn to pick Mom up. “Just lay down on the couch, you’ll go out as soon as I cast the spell, and I don’t want–”
“Cast it now,” I said, laying down on the couch. She nodded, lit up her horn, and I stumbled into the hub. Step one, done, I sat down and closed my eyes, reaching out with my magic to look for any disturbances in the Dreaming. Nothing much going on. Young and old ponies were settling down for the night, and foals were just now having their first dreams. I flicked through the usual stuff searching for anything odd, like–
Like a whole bunch of the Dreaming being blasted apart. Either Luna was still reshaping or the battle had just started. Either way, I jumped in the air, willed myself a pair of wings and flew off after her.
I flapped as hard as I could, and then I flapped harder. The nice thing about the Dreaming was that you didn’t really have to worry about being out of shape or getting exhausted. Not physically exhausted, at least. Below me, shifting patchwork landscapes grew and shrank, while I focused on the threads of dreaming taking me to Luna. As fast as I could fly, the Dreaming was doing its best to keep up with me as more ponies turned in for the night and had their minds touch the Dreaming, feeding it with more energy. It was like trying to fly across the surface of a balloon while it was being blown up if the balloon was also constantly rearranging itself and going from a sphere to a cube to some crazy shape that needed a few extra dimensions to express itself.
So, I flapped faster, pushing myself past whatever the pegasus-speed record was and then probably doubling it. While regular ponies had to deal with with wind speed, friction, flying so fast you disintegrated, or whatever it was that made it impossible to go past a certain speed, the only thing holding me back was willpower, and I had a whole bunch of that tonight.
Minutes turned into hours as I flew, pinging the Dreaming every few minutes to check on the fight and make sure I was still following the right thread. Finally, a canyon loomed up in the distance as beams of moonlight rained down, and I spread my wings to catch non-existent air and come to a stop.
Below me, a blueish speck blasted wave after wave of magic at an army of shambling… I dropped down to get a better view of the pony-esque things Luna was fighting. They had white coats, purple and pink manes, and looked kind of like a wax model of me left under a heat lamp for a few too many hours. She could’ve saved herself if she stopped your nightmares. I blinked as the full meaning of Smartie’s words clicked right into place.
Still – I scanned the battlefield – Luna seemed to be doing fine. She was taking out Night Terror-Sweeties as soon as they could appear, and it didn’t look like they were gaining on her. Maybe Smartie’d been wrong? In the corner of my eyes, a speck of something moved, and I tilted my head to see two Terrors standing at the lip of the canyon as one of them licked its lips while it looked down on Luna, which wouldn’t have been so bad if its mouth hadn’t been split into four parts, and its tongue wasn’t long, brown, and spiky. Good thing I didn’t have nightmares anymore.
The Sweetie-things pounced, plunging towards Luna, mouths open wide, and I didn’t have time to think, just react. I reached into the Dreaming, finding the little snarl of nightmare in one Terror’s heart and grabbing it, feeling my horn in the real world light up as I brought my own magic into the Dreaming and ran my mind through the motions of the spell. The snarl tugged apart and the thing collapsed into itself with a shriek
Luna’s head shot up at the sound and an instant later, the second one collapsed. Our eyes met, a nod was exchanged, and I flew down to stand next to her, keeping my eyes focused on the skies as we faced the tide of Night Terrors.
♪♪♪
Hours later, the two of us sat slumped against the canyon walls, drenched in sweat. Physical exhaustion wasn’t a thing, but once your mind got tired enough, it started to feel the same. “Well, Sweetie,” Luna said. “I suppose I owe you my thanks.”
I waved a hoof before using it to wipe sweat off my forehead. “Don’t worry about it. You would’ve done the same for me.”
“Well, your timing is certainly impeccable, and while you should have followed my orders, I can’t find it within me to be too upset considering the outcome,” she said, shaking her head. Around us, the canyon hall was littered with little bits of Night Terror dust.
“Yeah,” I said, rubbing the back of my head. “Tonight was kind of sort of my fault.”
“Don’t fault yourself for the crimes of creatures born of your nightmares,” she said, conjuring up a glass of water to drink. I created my own glass. Might not be real, but it still tasted good after a long night’s work. Not that I did that much. I just took out the one Night Terror and kept my eyes on the sky for anymore. “You handled yourself well for your first time in real combat.”
I laughed. “Uhmm… funny you say that, because that wasn’t my first time in real combat. It wasn’t even my first fight of the night, which is kind of why I’m apologizing.”
“Oh?” Luna asked, raising an eyebrow. “I believe it would be best if you told me what transpired before your fortuitous arrival.”
“Probably. It’s kind of a long story.”
♪♪♪
I finished telling Smartie Belle’s story and stared at Luna, waiting to see how she’d react. For a long time, she just returned my stare. Then, she clapped, which… wasn’t the reaction I was expecting. “Well done, Sweetie. You fought the manifestation of your own dark side and managed to prevail through your own cunning and willpower. It’s not every mare who can say that. Some of us had to rely on the aid of others.”
“Well, I couldn’t have done it without you and Mom and Scootaloo,” I said, closing my eyes and trying to focus on the part of me that was still sleeping on a couch so I could feel cushion against the back of my head instead of stone. “Without all of you helping me out, supporting me every step of the way… It’s funny, but if it wasn’t for all the stuff she put me through the last four years, I think I might’ve taken her deal. Maybe she wasn’t as smart as she thought.”
“Maybe,” Luna said next to me, not bothering to hide the doubt in her voice. “Perhaps in her hubris, she couldn’t imagine that you’d change. That you’d learn something from her lessons that she missed. Arrogance is often the downfall of those who believe themselves to be gods.”
“But you have your doubts?” I asked, peeking an eye open to see her in the corner of my vision.
“Your arrival was timed too perfectly, but then, fate does seem to have a flair for the dramatic. For instance, having the first five mares Twilight met in Ponyville be compatible element bearers strains credulity,” Luna said.
“So…” I took a breath. “Am I a bad pony? For having her in me? For killing her?”
“Are Twilight and her friends bad ponies for destroying Nightmare Moon? Am I a bad mare for having the impulses that birthed her? We all fight with our darker natures, Sweetie, your fight was just a bit more literal than some,” Luna said, not needing to pause to think over her answer.
“Still, I… I don’t know. I killed her. Maybe it wasn’t murder since she wasn’t real, but… I don’t know. Maybe there was some other way?”
“She chose the terms of your duel, Sweetie. Perhaps death was always in her plan. It’s entirely possible she intended to terminate the spell tying her to the emerald the moment she released you. I doubt she planned to spend all eternity as a mind removed from the rest of Equestria.” I hadn’t thought of that, and… yeah, living alone forever didn’t seem like the type of thing Smartie would enjoy. “Either way, I don’t think any pony in Equestria would fault you for your actions.”
“Thanks,” I said. Next to me, Luna slid down and moved to lie down on the canyon floor. “So, what now?”
“I believe,” she said, spreading her wings out and transforming the floor into a mattress. “That the two of us have earned a few hours off, and I did promise we’d speak more of your issues with Scootaloo, although something tells me they don’t press as heavily upon you as they did this afternoon. Or yesterday afternoon, I suppose.”
My horn lit up and a cloud bed formed underneath me, lifting me a few hooves off the ground. “Definitely,” I said, kicking my back hooves off the edge of the cloud. “Is there any chance I can just kind of sit back and listen? Maybe you have a few stories to tell?”
She laughed. “Alright, I think you’ve earned that, and I suppose I picked up at least a couple of interesting tales in my centuries. Did I ever tell you about the time I seduced the Neighponese Emperor?”
“Nope,” I said, shaking my head.
“Ah, well, it was long before my sister and I came to rule. We were touring the world to learn more of its people and their forms of governance, and…” I closed my eyes and listened as she wove her story, letting myself get lost in the moment and letting the moment stretch until sunrise.