The lead nightmares came in for a landing. It was Nacht and Skaad, their armor battered and scored, their coats and tails singed in several places, but otherwise unharmed.

They inspected the charred remains of the Princess. Then they trotted over to Twilight, and knelt to her, as the other nightmares likewise came in for a landing and assembled in ranks behind them.

"You are the Acolyte of our Lunar Court. We are yours to command now, Mistress. All of us."

"That really puts the final nail in it!" Twilight said. She looked at Derpy, then at the nightmares. "I suppose I'll take them to Dark Town, see if I can find sanctuary there. Or maybe I should send them home..."

As if reading her thoughts, Nacht nodded to her. "Our home is with thee, Mistress! Where thou leads us, we will follow!"

Twilight grimaced, feeling she was being treated far nicer than she deserved. Then she thought for a bit. "It doesn't matter what happens to me. But at the very least I can take you all home."

She looked fondly at Spike. "I have to leave now, Spike. Stay here with Derpy. She'll look after you!"

Twilight wasn't listening. Taking a deep breath, she concentrated really hard. She'd only seen the place once, but she'd had a good long look at it, and she'd always been good at observation. And if Luna could create a dream like that, maybe Twilight could recreate it, or something like it.

She spoke the dreamwalking spell in the privacy of her thoughts, and then triggered it.

And in a soundless instant, she was standing in the muggy, fog-swept forest, by the dark pool, on a moonless night. And with her was the entire army of nightmares, looking around in amazement.

From the guardhouse, Tasjen hurried out to prostate himself before her. "Be welcome, Acolyte!" he cried. "But where is..."

He fell silent as Nacht and Skaad strode forward, taking their places to Twilight's left and right.

"The Mistress of Nightmares is dead!" Nacht called out. "Long live the Mistress of Nightmares!"

And they repeated it, all the long way up the path and into the night-shrouded city.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In the city square, there was a palace. And in the palace was a throne room. And on the throne, Twilight Sparkle lay where she'd finally dropped in despair, to cry out what few tears remained. Nacht and Skaad had stationed themselves just outside the main doors, fending off the throngs of curious nightmares until Twilight felt ready to address them.

She assumed her body was still sitting in the Square, motionless, staring, unresponsive. She didn't want to know. She didn't want to care. She didn't want to have to make any more bad choices. She simply lay where she was, in the patch of moonlight she'd dropped down in.

"We told thee this was our dream, Twilight. And that it would be as we willed it. And so it was!"

"We wished to give thee a fair test, to allow thee to demonstrate in full measure thy competence and skill. We should have known better. We should have known how unwilling thou would be to give up, should have known the lengths thou would go to for the sake of those thou cares about. And... and we lost track of thee! For the longest time we could not find thee, and feared we had lost thee forever! Then we thought to look in the one place we least expected to find thee. Our city of nightmares... to find you, their Mistress in our stead!"

She strode up onto the throne and lay down beside Twilight. She swept out a warm wing to cover her shivering body.

After a long moment, she whispered quietly in Twilight's ear. "I think... we should wake up now. Both of us!"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

After allowing a decent stretch of time for Twilight to gradually recover from the ordeal, she once more met with Luna and Celestia in the Solar Court.

"We do, most whole-heartedly!" Celestia replied. "And we welcome thee back to us, our most faithful student!"

Twilight smiled weakly, pleased to be able to return to daylight hours once more, and to her studies with Celestia. She looked at Luna. "I'm sorry, Princess," she said. "I think I'll stick to being merely a guest of the Lunar Court, rather than its Acolyte!"

"Do not worry thyself!" Luna answered. "We have learned much from thy tutelage. Enough so that we feel confident in taking on a new student of our own, to lead in the mastery of the Lunar Court!"

Twilight turned to see Derpy picking herself up after having run headlong into one of the guards at the door. Seeing the Princesses and Twilight, she scampered up the length of the red carpet and came to a screeching halt, prostrating herself before Luna.

Twilight looked from her to Luna to Celestia, in total disbelief. "How... wha... wait a minute!" she finally said. "How can Derpy be your student? She's a pegasus! She can't even do magic!"

"Can so!" Derpy focused really hard. And her mailmare's hat bounced three feet in the air... held in Luna's magic field.

Luna smiled. "She may not be able to voluntarily project spells herself, like a unicorn. But any pegasus or earth pony has the capacity to use magic. We simply lend her our power. She decides what to do with it!"

"Is that wise?" Twilight tried not to think of what Derpy armed with Luna's demigoddess magic might be capable of.

"We think so." Luna's smile turned to Derpy. "We have always relished a bit of a challenge!"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In the darkness of her room, Luna lay in her bed. And fretted. Not about her old student, or her new one. About her dream, the dream she had subjected Twilight to in order to finally test everything the young pony had absorbed from her teachings.

Luna had become Nightmare Moon again, and had been soundly defeated, without recourse to the Elements. If it ever came to that in reality she felt certain that Twilight would be able to do so again, all on her own. Luna no longer needed to fear what happened if she succumbed to the old jealousy, if she once again became the Nightmare.

So why was she not able to relax, to cease cudgeling herself with the memory of what she had done all those years ago?
Because we have not sufficiently atoned, she realized. We gave ourselves a happy ending, a comfortable dream. And we do not deserve it, not yet. We must never forget what we did, never allow ourself to forget what we did, the suffering we caused, until we have sufficiently made amends.

So she reached into her own dreams, far beyond the dream from which she'd drawn the nightmares, back and back into her own remotest past, back to her own fillyhood. And found the first thing that had ever truly frightened her.

The End

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, its characters and indicia are the property of Hasbro.
No infringement is intended. This story is a work of fan fiction, written by fans for fans of the series.

Acolyte of the Lunar Court

by Lets Do This

The Mistress of Nightmares