Celestia towered over her student. “It’s my fault for having too high expectations of you; that made it inevitable that you’d fall short.”
“Princess, I — I — I’ll work harder. Just tell me what I did wrong, so I can improve.”
“No, Twilight, you’ve reached as far as your talents can. I have more to teach, but there’s nothing more I can teach you. It would do no good to retain you as my student.”
“But, but, but I can still see you, right? We can still meet and discuss other subjects, right?”
“No, Twilight, I don’t have time for such trivial frivolities.”
Twilight started crying, “I can’t see you at all?”
“You can see me through the normal court attendance protocols, of course.”
Twilight sprinted out of the palace, half‐blinded by her tears. Something from the skies spoke her name. See looked up, and the half moon said, “Stanch thy tears. ’Twas a nightmare’s trickery that thee beheld, not Our Sister.”
Twilight’s head spun, “A nightmare? It’s only a nightmare?”
“Mighty forces nightmares can be, but We needs speak to that anon as thy presence is needed forthwith. Harken to Our voice, find what portal leads hither and tarry not.”
“But your voice is coming from the moon.”
“Nay, Twilight Sparkle, that meanst this portal be locatèd high. Where ’twill be found has great import to thee.”
“My apartment atop the tower!”
“Hie hither, Twilight Sparkle.”
Celestia grimaced as the nightmare tried to claw belief from her mind. She wasn’t sure how long she could continue to deny it. She met Nightmare Moon’s gaze and pointed at Twilight, “That is not Twilight Sparkle. I trust Twilight completely. She would never betray me.”
Twilight Sparkle ran into the room through a side door, panting. “And I trust ... Celestia completely.... She would ... never expel me.”
The dream sundered into pieces around mentor and student as they hugged each other, until the dreaming pulled them apart again.
“Little foal... Did you really think you had bested me forever? Behold! It took merely half a day to restore and reassert my power!” Nightmare Moon cackled.
Twilight dropped to her knees, “No...”
Through the broken ceiling the gibbous moon bellowed, “Thou canst not gain victory unattended, Twilight Sparkle, yet despair not, as We have mustered thy companions!”
The moon slid over, and the beam of moonlight angled to illuminate her five new friends. Twilight ran over to them, engaging in a group hug as Nightmare Moon snorted derisively.
Twilight looked at the black‐coated alicorn, then grinned at her friends, “Ready for an encore, girls?”
With an oh, yeah from Rainbow Dash, the six of them rose into the air on the Elements’ power, and Harmony’s rainbow beam arced to strike Nightmare Moon, stripping away the illusion to briefly reveal an alien creature which immediately morphed into a mangy, sickly‐looking alicorn.
The castle, the sky, the entire world ripped away, revealing Princess Luna, striding forward and pulling everything except the alien and the six ponies into her horn, seeming to grow by half a hand as she did so.
The foreign alicorn snorted, “You’re taking my nightmares’ power, I see. Soon you’ll be a nightmare yourself once more.” She turned to the six smaller ponies, “Then you won’t have my illusions to face, but the real thing. And she won’t be foolish enough to allow the Elements to strike her down again. Follow her, and you’ll wallow in eternal night. Follow me, and you’ll only face the occasional harmless nightmares which you’re already enduring.”
The navy‐blue alicorn stepped up to the intruder, “Yea, We are accroaching thy nightmares’ power for Ourself. Yet no nightmare shalt We be, as ’twas envy what taintèd Us, not power. We no further covet the Day. Witnesseth Our Sister aside Us, again thee!” As proof that this domain recognized Luna’s suzerainty, it was Celestia who stepped out of Luna’s shadow to make her presence known.
The larger alicorn stepped forward to Luna’s side, “We have enough nightmares of our own to deal with. I urge you to leave peacefully. I never want to use force and I seldom have to, in part because I am always ready to when it’s necessary.”
The alien was unmoved, “You talk of force? You? Even together,” she swept her leg to take in all eight ponies, “you have only a fraction of my power. Fight me, and your every dreaming moment will be pure agony of the likes you’ve never experienced.”
The princesses turned to face the six mortals. Celestia told them, “You have brought the power of the Elements to bear in the waking world and in a dreamscape.”
Luna pointed her leg to the alien, “We decree to smite her here too at dreaming’s overworld!”