Diamond Tiara didn’t remember what the nightmare was about. It was inconsequential, not when faced with the alicorn now standing before her. Oh, she’d seen Princess Luna multiple times, but never had she actually been in a one-on-one situation with the mare. The suddenness of this development made everything feel numb.
The princess tilted her head, studying Diamond as if she were an out of place sum in a financial portfolio. “Lady Tiara, are you quite alright?”
She barely heard it. All she could think of was four struggling years of youth and a devoted annual practice. It all came back to her, and it felt like such an important thing. Something that needed to be known, understood, and… and what?
Princess Luna cast her eyes about the meeting hall they were inexplicably standing in, as if seeking out some unseen threat. Finding nothing, she pursed her lips and went back to studying Diamond. The question came without offense or accusation: “Would you prefer I leave?”
“No!” Diamond flinched at her outburst almost as much as Luna did. At least she had her voice back. “No, please. Stay.”
Carefully, Luna closed her wings once more. “If you wish it, but we cannot tarry for long. Yours is not the only nightmare we must attend to.”
She was going to go anyway? She couldn’t, Diamond hadn’t said it yet, she wasn’t ready to say it, it needed to be said! Like a bad press release sent to the papers before it could get a proper edit, the words shot out of her mouth. “I dressed as you on Nightmare Night!”
The princess blinked, clearly unsure why this was being brought up. “I am honored?”
“I was a bad filly.” The words came out on their own. They felt so monumental, and yet Diamond felt so stupid. “A terrible, evil, wicked bully of a filly. Th-then my friends helped me get better, but I never felt better. So every N-Nightmare Night I’d dress up as Princess Luna, because she made a terrible mistake just like me and… and…”
Diamond’s eyes burned. She sniffled and trembled. “You got better, right? You forgave yourself? I thought, i-if I could channel you every once in a while, maybe that would stick to me. M-maybe I’d never go back to being that bad filly again.”
She couldn’t meet the princess’s gaze, so she stared at the marble floor, tapping the tip of her hoof on it. “I just… thought you should know.” She felt so pitiful. And small. A dumb intern telling her dreams to the bored CEO.
An uncomfortable silence lingered. Just when she thought nothing would be said, she felt a feather touch her chin. She met Luna’s warm gaze.
“Thank you, Lady Tiara. It is good to know that my tragedy can serve as a source of inspiration for others. Keep hold of that desire to be good, and so you shall be.”
Diamond awoke, head on her tear-soaked ledgers, and felt alive.