Twilight Sparkle wasn't a pony who adapted to change easily. Was that the reason that, now that her home had been destroyed, she was having trouble sleeping? Was it the hard, unfamiliar bed? The harsh shadows of the castle walls?
Or was it something deeper? Something darker?
As she wanders through the moonlit streets of Ponyville, Twilight is paid a visit by another troubled soul. Perhaps together they can find some solace in the aftermath.
Art commissioned by the lovely and talented Northern Cross. Find more of her work here.
Editing service provided by Imperial Bedlam, to whom I am eternally grateful.
Special thanks to Jack and Lynn Keefe for prereading.
Ta-dah! No more shipping! Should never have included it in the first place, to be honest.
Chapters (1)
I don't understand the romance tag. But good story otherwise
Manages to convey Twilight's loss and remorse quite well despite the short length. Nicely done!
Missing a space there.
4526900
Let's call it Friendshipping with an extra-heavy dose of Shipping Goggles. Could go either way, but with the kiss and the "what I deserve" scene, let that Romance tag be your hint.
4527038 4526900 I did debate the shipping tag. It started out as a more straight up romance story, but other elements forced themselves to the forefront instead.
It's now more up to interpretation, sure, but it think enough elements are there that one could see potential there.
Very good story.
8/10
Good one!
How could they destroy such a wonderful tree-library?
Shame on you, Hasbro.
This is a very nice story. I could actually see this as a mini-episode.
4527423 We will probably be seeing a castle set coming on in time for the new season.
Aww...
Beautifully brilliant. Absolutely fantastic.
A Two-Hundred-Thousand-Four-Hundred-Twenty-Two out of Ten.
This was beautiful. A different approach to the aftermath of the finale, and a great insight into Twilight's thoughts and emotions during the events.
10/10.
Not too bad, but it was hard on my looking holes to read this.
the description suggests this is after season four. if so, why is twilight tag not alicorn twilight?
still reading, but i had to stop to point this out. twilight didn't know about tirek taking discord's magic until after they stopped fighting, not during.
back to reading now
very good. well worth staying up longer than planned to read this.
i saw luna like a caring parent in this, hushing a scared filly in need of comfort
Favorited, liked and you now have a follower
4530986 hmm... Good point, I must have derped on that detail. Very astute of you. I'm going to have to think about how (and whether) to fix that.
I'm glad you liked it, and I hope your nights aren't as sleepless as Twi's, despite the late hour.
4530928 honestly, I don't really get that that tag. It made sense briefly after S3, but now Twilight being and Alcorn just is. It doesn't make her anypony different.
4530414 I'm glad you liked it. Hopefully I didn't also occupy your drinking hole. That would have been terrible!
4531041 it's because some fics are still being written before season 3's finale, or even as alternate universes where twi never became an aliocrn at the end of season 3, because magical mystery cure never happened in them.
4531049 yeah, I suppose. On further research, it appears searches on the Twilight rag show Twilicorn stories as well, so as much as I disagree with the existence of the tag, I will comply with its usage
4531102 thank you!
And fair enough. I just am of the opinion that that shouldn't matter, but I know it does to some folks. Tags are fixed!
one word: phenomenal
4595079 Why thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Honestly, I didn't like it too much... but I liked the part where you tried to put some sense into why Luna said she missed her sister, because if you just saw the show you thought that seemed really vague. So at least you had that going for the story, beside that I thought it was a bore to read. But that might be because I don't really like fics like this that goes into episodes of the show that much.
I liked this story. Liked it enough to register an account just so I can comment on it.
A very interesting character piece between Twilight and Luna, which focused on and gave insight for not just Equestria's newest Princess but also our wonderful and gracious Princess of the Night. I agree with 4721015 in that Luna definitely came across as very motherly here - which does make some of the vague shipping/romance reactions from Twilight come across as...off (especially her reaction to Luna's cheek kiss just prior to the NMM flashback). I definitely feel like Luna's portrayal here meshes nicely with her Dreamwalker episodes, as well. Also agree strongly with 4625903 inasmuch as I felt like the aforementioned NMM flashback gave some extra weight and context to Luna's "I missed you" from the series premiere.
Overall a very solid 4.8
s out of 5, with only the minor bits of out-of-context TwiLuna shipping being a bit of a distraction (and most of those feelings seemed to be on Twilight's part anyway). Which, given you said this started off as a more straight romance story I can easily chalk up to perhaps vestigial remnants of that story, but with what it evolved into I found them an odd departure and even somewhat, well, off-putting with Luna's portrayal - or at least my interpretation of such. 
4828776 Wow, high praise indeed!
To be honest, I debated about whether the shipping label fit or not. Personally, I think it could be read into it, but isn't core to the story. But, in the end, the interest of catching the eyes of people who look at the Romance tag won over my better instincts, I think, and that may have been to the story's detriment.
I'm very glad you enjoyed my story, and hope you can find other stories on the site that you enjoy even more.
I don't care what any of you say—I thought this was breathtakingly beautiful, and easily gets 2000% of all the YES I have to offer
*Claps* well done. Wonderfully done! While short, you perfectly captured Twilight's feelings on that moment and what she had to sstruggle wiht. I love the line "Give up" because it showed that, even if Twilight kept fighting, she would've lost something important, her friends. What was stopping Lord Tirek from killing them if Twilight refused. I also love Luna in here, being so comforting and sisterly. All in all a great fic.
I love reading this story, Luna and Twilight shared almost the same story, and Luna looks almost like a mother to Twilight.
I'm glad I read this before sleeping.
Though I don't support the idea of Twilight tempted by the alicorn power, I read this with pleasure. This fic feels like a warm night.
Maybe it's just me being absent-minded and all, but did Twilight fall asleep at the street at the end?
I really couldn't catch some of the changes of scenery at once and at first I couldn't understand why Tirek was back and all. (Sorry, I realised that it was just because I downloaded the fic and there were no borderlines between the parts of the text haha) But it just adds up to this feeling of being unsure whether this is reality or thoughts or just a dream and I like it.
You can has review!
Hello! Have a review. This seemed like two stories squished together, to be honest. Lots of atmospheric stuff in the first part, and it's perfectly understandable for a 2014 fic to focus on Twi's loss of her tree. But then it veers off into the Luna stuff and I really have to stretch my belief. Maybe this would have worked better as a full-on AU where the limits of canon didn't bump up against it.