The sun was setting. Rainbow Dash looked distantly out the window to her left in her hotel room, just watching the light grow orange and dim, the shadows reaching longer and darker with every passing minute. Right now, she sat at the table she had played cards at with Pinkie and Fluttershy earlier, just relaxing and letting her meal digest.
After thoroughly embarrassing Twilight over her ‘that’s mine’ remark, Rainbow had led everypony else out into town to find somewhere nice to eat. She had stated in no uncertain terms that she wasn’t going to get a present for just herself. They found a restaurant that Rainbow knew of, one that had had a branch in Cloudsdale when she was a filly, and so they ate there. It wasn’t as good as she remembered it being, but to be fair, the food wasn’t the highlight for her at all.
It was spending time with her friends and feeling so much better in light of Twilight’s assurance that Starlight was not a threat. Just getting to sit down and eat some food with her friends without worrying in the back of her head about all of it being completely obliterated and overwritten… it was a surreal and peaceful setting.
After that they had returned to the hotel, where Pinkie Pie had started a low-key, quiet ‘party’ in the room she had been sharing with Rarity, Applejack and Spike. To be blunt, it was closer to just a bunch of snacks and board or card games. No loud music, no dancing. The antithesis of a typical Pinkie Party, to be sure, but it worked. Rainbow and Twilight had been there for a good long while.
But then, Rainbow had silently and wordlessly excused herself. Even if it was a quiet affair compared to Pinkie’s usual work, it was still a very active room with a lot going on at all times. Rainbow, now removed from the festivities, was enjoying her newfound quiet.
There was a soft knock on the door before it gently swung open to reveal Twilight on the other side, peering at Rainbow Dash with a small amount of concern hidden behind an inquisitive smile. “Hey, Rainbow. You kinda disappeared on us, there. Some of us got worried about you.”
Rainbow leaned back in her chair and chortled. “Nah, I’m good. Sorry for running off like that. I kinda just wanted to relax and enjoy some quiet time, you know? I didn’t wanna disturb Pinkie’s party, either, so that’s why I left so quietly.” she explained before smiling a bit more softly and gesturing to the seat across from hers.
Twilight’s worry melted away a bit before she made her way to the chair, closing the door behind her. “Well, a word to me would have been nice, at least. I could have told everypony what was up before Pinkie started looking under the alarm clock for you.”
Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “Wait, seriously? Did she do that?” she asked skeptically, to which Twilight giggled merrily and sat down on the other side of the table.
“Rainbow, you and I both know not to try and figure out what that mare does.” she pointed out before glancing out the window.
Rainbow shrugged and joined Twilight in observing the world outside. For a good, long time, the two were silent. The orange-red glow of sunset gradually gave way to pink, which slowly dulled into a purple color that would soon be replaced by the deepest blue of night. Rainbow glanced at Twilight and smirked. “Hey, it’s your namesake.” she said abruptly.
Twilight snorted. “Yeah, yeah. That joke’s existed for longer than I’ve been alive,” she replied with a small roll of her eyes.
“Oh yeah?” Rainbow asked before remembering and slapping a hoof to her face. “Oh, yeah. Your mom is Twilight Velvet. My bad.”
Twilight snickered behind a hoof before shaking her head. “Apparently, my dad made that very joke on his first date with mom,” she explained casually, glancing out the window again, looking up at the sky. Just a few stars were starting to appear amidst the fading blue.
“Sounds corny,” Rainbow commented dryly before leaning back and staring up at the ceiling.
Twilight shrugged. “Maybe. But, according to mom, that was when she realized that dad was the pony she was going to marry someday.”
Rainbow hummed slightly before letting her head lower again to look at Twilight. “...So…”
“Hm?”
“Why did you say ‘that’s mine’ earlier?” Rainbow asked a bit more quietly and seriously, looking down a bit. “You know, when you thumped Pinkie with the pillow?”
Twilight blushed somewhat and looked away. “Oh, uh… heh. I guess it just kinda came out?” she tried weakly, shrugging as innocently as she could.
Rainbow looked unconvinced. “Dude. Twi. C’mon.” she said flatly with a small gesture of her hoof.
Twilight’s fake grin grew immensely before falling away with a sigh. “I don’t know, honestly. I guess it’s because I practically grew up with you. We were joined at the hip more or less since you showed up at Canterlot.”
Rainbow nodded slowly. “I guess that makes sense…”
“Yeah.”
The two fell into a long, awkward silence. Rainbow looked down a bit, fidgeting uneasily. “So… uh…”
Twilight glanced away as well, looking just as uncomfortable. After a moment hse started to stand up. “Uh… maybe I should go back to the others. They, uh… they should know you’re okay-”
“N-no!” Rainbow suddenly blurted, reaching out and grabbing Twilight’s hoof. Both of them froze at the contact before, sheepishly, Rainbow let Twilight go. “I-I mean… I’m liking this. Can you, you know, s-stay? Just a little longer?”
Twilight blinked and glanced at the hoof Rainbow had latched onto. She turned it over slightly, studying it before returning her gaze to Rainbow, who was now looking away, her wings ruffling on her back. Twilight’s look of surprise slowly filtered away to be replaced by a warm, charmed smile. “...If you enjoy being with me that much, you can just admit it.” she said gently.
Rainbow locked up, her eyes widened a bit and her ear snapped to attention. The way Twilight had said that… she glanced back to her friend and gulped. “Uh… right. Okay… u-um… Y-yeah, I really like being with you.” she said shakily before coughing into her forehoof.
Twilight eased herself back into her seat, folding her front hooves over each other on the table. “If I’m staying for a little while… what do you want to do?”
Rainbow got a somewhat more grouchy look on her face. “Please don’t…”
Twilight smirked. “Well, I need to know what the plan is. I need to make sure that I have a good reason for being away from everypony else for so long.”
Rainbow grunted. “I… I just want…” her words came out as more of an annoyed grumble, most of them muffled and lost.
Twilight made a show of leaning over and perking up one of her ears. “What was that? I can’t hear you over you being bad at expressing your thoughts.”
Rainbow scowled. “You want me to express my thoughts? Okay, fine!” she then reached out, hooked her forelegs around Twilight’s barrel and dragged her forward. Twilight yelped in surprise before coming to a rest against Rainbow Dash, held close in a very tight hug. Twilight’s face heated up a bit when she felt Rainbow nuzzling her mane. “There… expressed enough for ya?” Rainbow then whispered.
Twilight, after a moment of processing, shifted a bit to get more comfortable and snuggled into Rainbow, humming happily. “Yeah, this is good. For now.”
Later on, when the last of the sun’s light had faded below the horizon, Fluttershy stopped by the room to see if Rainbow was there. She then silently departed, closing the door behind her when she saw Rainbow Dash and Twilight, sleeping in each other’s embrace in one of the beds, content smiles lighting up their faces.
“Where are you, my niece…?” Luna asked herself while moving through the Dream Realm, gracefully gliding along slowly waving wisps of pale blue light, searching through the many hundreds of thousands of dreams around her. She had been expecting Rainbow Dash’s dream to, like before, be exerting immense darkness from another Nightmare, but she was both relieved and irritated to find no such landmark. She paused and took a deep breath, trying to relax her mind so she could focus on narrowing down her search.
There were so many dreams that it was typically impossible for her to narrow down which dream she was looking for if the pony wasn’t having a nightmare. She did have spells to help with such a search, but she found she was still somewhat weaker than she had been before her banishment, meaning such a use of magic could very well kick her out of the Dream Realm from exertion.
“If nothing else, it seems you aren’t having nightmares tonight…” Luna muttered under her breath. Silver linings, and all.
Luckily, however, she finally caught sight of something out of the ordinary. She turned her attention down and spotted a dream that was glowing brilliantly with light, reaching dozens of others around it. While not her destination as of now, it was worth investigating. Leaping from one wisp of light to another, Luna soon got a good look into the dream. A small smile came to her face when she saw whose it was.
“Oh, my niece… it seems you’ve recovered…” she said to herself, looking into the dream. In it, she saw Rainbow Dash, the dreamer, and Twilight Sparkle, a recreation of her, anyway, playing a game of dodgeball. They seemed to be having so much fun… Luna’s smile faded somewhat. “...I hope you can forgive my interruption.” she said before stepping through the bubble and into the dream.
The mostly still air of the Dream Realms gave way to a subtle breeze, warmed by evening sunlight. Twilight and Rainbow were far below on a tall, grassy plateau. The elevated terrain was surrounded on the left by an enormous forest that smothered rolling hills. Further in that direction were tall, gorgeous mountains. To the right was a seemingly endless ocean with the sun hanging motionlessly over it, maintaining a perpetual and serene scene.
Slowly, Luna lowered herself down to the grass and looked on at Rainbow expectantly, waiting for the pegasus to notice her. This happened when Twilight’s ball shot past Rainbow, who in turn turned around and ducked to grasp it. Her eyes spotted Luna, and she froze, the dream around them going still. Rainbow stood upright and smiled brightly. “Aunt Luna! Heh… figured this was too good to be real.” she said before looking back at the dreamt up Twilight, only to find she was gone.
“I am pleased to see you have conquered your nightmares, my niece,” Luna said with a smile before a frown overtook her features. “Though I am also deeply concerned by the fact that you have gone missing.”
Rainbow tilted her head in confusion. “Wait… ponies think I’m missing?”
Luna’s frown deepened. “You vanished from Ponyville without a trace while your friends were out of town. Nopony there has seen any sign of you all week, and Celestia is growing rather worried about you.”
Rainbow flinched and looked away. “Oh… uh, okay, I can explain,” she said, a small amount of nervousness creeping into her voice.
“I should hope so. After seeing you suffering from such horrific Nightmares so routinely, I am also rather concerned by your abrupt disappearance.”
Rainbow sighed and rubbed the side of her leg with another. “Yeah, sorry about that… We should be home sometime tomorrow.”
“Wait… ‘we’?” Luna echoed, her eyes narrowing somewhat.
Rainbow cringed. “Er… yeah. I’m with the girls…” she admitted nervously, taking a step back.
Luna’s expression hardened even further. “I see… would you like to explain to me why your friends lied to my sister about you?!” she asked sharply, taking a step forward.
“Look, if mom knew what we were up to, she would have ordered us back by a royal decree and none of us could have said no!” Rainbow shot back, her eyes narrowing a bit. “Yeah, I am technically going against her wishes here, but you know what?” she tapped the side of her head. “At least I’m not having nightmares anymore thanks to this little trip.”
Luna paused and wilted slightly before taking a deep breath. “...My apologies, I did not mean to anger you,” she said, her voice losing almost all of its strength.
Rainbow’s own tension swiftly gave way to a small sag. “...Yeah, me too. Look, I’ll fill you and mom in when I get home, okay?” she said solemnly, knowing she was probably in for a harsh scolding and possibly even some form of punishment. Celestia was a kind ruler and a loving mother, true, but it didn’t quell the fears in the back of Rainbow’s mind.
“Fears...” a new voice suddenly spoke, an ambiguous whisper of several tones and dripping with malevolence.
Rainbow felt her blood run cold and the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. She looked up to Luna, who’s eyes had widened with shock and horror. “Luna… what was that?” Rainbow asked anxiously.
Luna turned her eyes to the sun, her pupils shrinking and her wings snapping open. “Oh, no… how?!” she asked before launching into the air on her wings, her horn lighting up with magic.
“Luna?!” Rainbow called after her aunt before spreading her wings to follow her. She then looked at the sun and froze, the blood draining from her face.
The sun was eclipsed, little more than a yellow ring of fire in the distance. That ring soon spluttered, flickered, and faded entirely, plunging the world into darkness. The wind, once warm and gentle, turned frigid and harsh, rushing by and tearing at Rainbow’s mane. She closed her eyes and shielded her face as grass, pebbles and dirt was torn away from the plateau and hurled past her.
“Begone!” she heard Luna’s voice calling from above. “Begone from this peaceful dream and return whence thou came!
“Fear… anger...” there was that voice again, stirring the most primal of emotions in Rainbow’s gut and filling her with dread. “I see it… I taste it… I shall consume it…”
Rainbow managed to open her eyes just enough to catch sight of Luna’s face, twisted with despair and guilt, partially obscured by a cloud of dark purple magic that was now reaching out to Rainbow like a hungry octopus looking for its next meal.
“TANTABUS! NO! LEAVE HER ALONE!!” Luna screamed out, though her words were lost to Rainbow. The cloud smothered her, drowning out her adoptive aunt’s shouts and the roaring winds of the windstorm beyond.
Rainbow screamed, but her voice was lost within the darkness.