A figure stood alone atop of the hill in Ponyville Cemetery as rain fell from the gray skies. The figure was Spike and before him were six graves. The cutie marks of his closest and dearest friends were engraved on the stone monuments that marked each grave. Spike read the names on the plaques on each monument: Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight Sparkle.
The young dragon somberly sighed in despair as he looked at the scene before him. He then looked down at his own claws, which then started to grow in size as he rapidly matured. He already knew that he would not like what he would see if he looked over to Ponyville, but he did anyway. The residents of the small town were also affected by the sudden increase of the flow of time. Cheerilee, Big Macintosh, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and many other ponies he knew very well were not spared from time’s relentless passing. Each stallion, mare, and foal rapidly aged and then laid down to crumble into dust.
Spike closed his eyes and sighed again as he knew the next act of this terrible scene was approaching. He could hear ponies crying out in fear and screaming “Dragon!” He wanted to leave, but found himself unable to do so. Soon enough, cries of terror were replaced by screams of hatred and a mob had formed to drive the large dragon away. Whatever force that had prevented Spike from leaving had finally allowed him to take flight and depart from the town he had once called home.
He landed at the mouth of a cave on top of a mountain that over looked Ponyville. He slowly dragged himself into the cave and collapsed in defeat and despair to the floor. He raised his eyes from the ground and out of the entrance of the cave. He could see Ponyville far below him. He could see the Everfree Forest to the south and Canterlot to the north. He could also see the cemetery just outside of the town. The sight of it made Spike squeezed his eyes shut in a vain attempt to block out the painful reminder.
“Greetings Spike,” a reverberating voice called out to the purple dragon. Spike’s eyes snapped open and he raised his head from the cave’s floor. There was a flash of light and Princess Luna materialized before him at the cave’s entrance.
“Welcome to my nightmare,” the dragon said to the midnight blue Alicorn in a defeated tone.
“Then I take it you realize that this all just a dream?” Luna asked for clarification. Spike answered with a nod. “Why don’t you resume your natural form? Perhaps you will feel more comfortable.”
“I don’t see the point,” Spike shrugged. “I’m doomed to look like this sooner or later. I might as well get used to it.”
Princess Luna frowned as she gazed upon the sorrowful dragon with compassion. She walked over to his side and sat down. As she sat beside Spike, she looked over the terrain of his dreamscape. She had seen it all; the graves, the rapidly aging ponies, the angry mob. She looked up at the towering dragon and used her mastery over the world of dreams to change him back into the young dragon that he should be.
“See, isn’t that better?” she asked, trying to get a positive response out of him. She looked over to him with a hopeful smile. However, he continued to look out over the town. She frowned again and also looked back to the town below.
“Why are you here?” he asked after a few moments of painful silence passed.
“As Princess of the Night, it is my duty to come into your dreams,” she explained to him.
“I know, but why? What made you decide to come to me?” he questioned.
“Princess Twilight Sparkle sent a letter to my sister earlier this night.”
“Ah,” responded as he thought back to the letter Twilight made him send.
“The letter said that you were troubled and had reoccurring nightmares of the Trials you faced in Trotina. My sister thought it would best that I should speak to you.”
“They’re just nightmares,” he brushed off her concerns. “Nothing more.”
“You and I both know that there is more to these dreams,” she told him sternly. “And I also know that there is something else that troubles you.”
Spike’s only response was that he turned his head away from her piercing gaze.
“Spike…” she spoke again as one of her blue wings draped around the young dragon’s shoulders and pulled him closer to her. “Listen to me. I know better than anypony what you are feeling. Perhaps that’s why my sister sent me to you. I too know the bitter pain of loneliness. I have known it all of my very long life.”
“I guess loneliness is the price of immortality,” Spike muttered.
“Unfortunately,” Luna agreed. “My sister and I had to watch over the ages as our dear ones grow old and die before our very eyes. It hurts every time I lose someone.”
“How?” Spike asked in a trembling voice. “How do you do it? How can you go on? How can I go on knowing that I will lose them all? And don’t tell me I’ll just make new friends.”
“I would never ask you replace or forget your friends,” Luna reassured him, pulling him closer into her embrace with her wing. “But you must not let the pain consume you. You must not be afraid to let others in to help you.”
“Let others in?” he quoted. “I have no problem letting others in. It’s others that won’t let me in. I know what ponies are saying about me and Rarity. You’ve seen how they’ll react to me one day.” He waved a claw at the dream version of Ponyville and the angry mob of ponies that drove him from there.
“Yes, ponies do fear change,” Luna admitted. “But change is inevitable. It may be painful to begin with. It may take time, but change always happens.” It was now the mare’s turn to look away and mutter sadly to herself, “Whether you’re there to see it or not.” Spike glanced over to her with a raised brow, understanding what she meant.
“Does it still bother you?” he asked, referring to when she was being possessed by Nightmare Moon and banished to the moon for a thousand years.
“A lot of things still bother me,” she said in a cold tone.
“Do you want talk about it?” he offered. She shook her head, as both an answer and to clear her head.
“No, I am here to help you, remember?” she said in a lighter tone. “Spike, do you remember what Celestia told Twilight when she thought she had lost you?”
“Yes,” he answered. “She said that death is painful, but it is not the end.”
“Take comfort in the knowledge that you will be reunited with them,” she told the dragon. “However, now is not the time to mourn. You still have plenty of years before you to be with the ones you love. You act as though they are already gone. Be thankful for the time you are given. If you spend it all only worrying what the future may bring, then you won’t be able to use to make the most of it."
Spike reflected upon her words and knew them to be true. He mentally kicked himself for hours he had already wasted on brooding and feeling sorry for himself over the past couple of years. He could have used them to make happy memories for the time when his friends won’t be there.
“Mirage Pinkie Pie would be ashamed of me,” he said to himself. “They all would. After everything I went through during the Trials, I had almost forgotten the lessons they were trying to teach me. Thank you, Your Highness. Thank you for reminding me.”
“You are very much welcome,” Luna said to him with a warm smile, but then noticed the concerned look on his face. “What’s wrong?”
“I… I need to talk to Twilight,” he said to her.
“You will have plenty of time when the morning comes.”
“No, I can’t wait. I want to talk to her now. I need to wake up.” As soon as he said these words, Spike’s dream world started to disappear. Luna took to the air and prepared to exit Spike’s ending dream.
“Fare thee well, Spike,” her voice echoed as she vanished in flash.
Spike’s eyes opened and he was back in his bedroom. He looked over to the clock on the wall and it was almost one in the morning. Spike got out of his bed and went down the small hallway to Twilight Sparkle’s bedroom. He could see a light coming from under the door and took it as a sign that Twilight was up doing some late night research. He opened the door to see his mother figure at her desk writing something down with a quill. Owlowiscious, who was sitting on his perch by the lavender Alicorn’s desk, hooted to alert her to Spike presence.
“Oh, what are you doing up Spike?” she asked as she laid her quill down.
“I just had a visit from Princess Luna,” he told her. A sympathetic look formed on her face and she left her desk to walk up to her son.
“Did she…” she started to ask.
“Did she tell me that you wrote to Princess Celestia about me?” he finished for her. “Yes.”
“Spike, I was concerned and I want to help you, but you keep pushing me away.”
“I know, I know,” he confessed. “That’s what I want to talk to you about.”
“Come,” Twilight said as she sat down on the edge on her bed and patted to the space beside her. “Have a seat.”
Spike obliged and joined her on the edge on the bed, looking at his claws that were folded on his lap. Due to his size, Twilight had to slightly look up at his face. Though she was so proud of him and amazed at how big he had become, she actually missed him being small to a degree. She missed the days when he could ride on her back and the nights where he would sleep in a basket at the foot of her bed.
“Twilight… Mom, I’m sorry,” he apologized.
“Sorry?” she asked in confusion. “Sorry for what?”
“For not telling you what’s wrong. Well, I guess you do know what’s wrong, but I’m sorry for not letting you help me. It’s just… I was afraid.”
“Afraid? Afraid of what those fillies said in the theater?”
“Oh, you heard that too?”
“Spike, you mustn’t let what…”
“That’s not what I’m afraid of,” he interrupted. “Well, kind of, but that’s not the main problem. What really scares me is losing you, all of you.”
“I understand,” she told him as she place a hoof on his back.
“No, you don’t understand!” Spike looked to her with anguish in his eyes. “It’s you. How can I go on without you? Any of you? Who’s going to take care of me when I get sick? Who’s going to tell me to stop eating junk food and to go to bed on time? Who’s going to be there for me when I need someone to comfort me? I love you Twilight. You’re my mother. I don’t want to lose you.”
Twilight wrapped her forelegs around Spike and pulled him into a hug, which he returned. “I love you too, son,” she told Spike. Spike had been able to maintain his composure up until now, but he lost it when she started to cry. “But, you know, death isn’t the end.”
“I know. ‘Death is painful, but it is not the end.’ That’s what Celestia told you. That’s what Luna told me. That’s what the Trials taught me. I know it’s true. I know I should be happy, but I can’t help feeling sad.”
“I know it’s still hard to say goodbye,” she told him. “But you don’t have to worry about that for long time. I may not be immortal like Celestia and Luna, but I’m not going anywhere for a while.” She broke the embrace and looked him in the eye. “And when the time does come, I want you to be strong. I want you to be happy. Understand?”
“Yes Mom.”
“Pinkie Promise?”
“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” he said as he went through the motions of the Pinkie Pie enforced vow. Twilight noticed the clock on the wall and saw how late it was.
“It’s time for bed,” she announced with a yawn and Spike nodded in agreement.
“Sorry for dragging you through my existential crisis,” he said jokingly as he headed back to his own room.
“What are mothers for?” she asked rhetorically as she pulled back the covers of her own bed.
Meanwhile, Princess Luna smiled as she hovered outside the crystal tree palace, relieved that Spike was on his way to recovery. Now that her work there was done, she teleported back to Canterlot Castle. She emerged in her private chambers and noticed that her sister was waiting for her.
“How did it go?” the white Alicorn asked.
“It went well,” the younger sister reported as she headed towards the door, her sister following her. “It was enjoyable being able to help a kindred spirit; to speak with someone who knows my pain.”
“You are referring to your past loneliness, am I right?” By the way how Luna paused mid-step, Celestia knew the answer to her question. “Luna…”
“I have matters to attend to and you should get some sleep,” Luna deflected without looking back. In a flash of golden light, Celestia blocked her path with a concerned scowl on her regal face. Luna sighed, seeing the irony of the situation. “My room or yours?”
“Mine preferably,” the elder sister responded. “After all, I am up later than I normally would be.”
The Royal Alicorn Sisters relocated their conversation to Celestia’s bed chamber. Both sisters were lying on the large bed, side by side. The aurora maned Alicorn waited patiently until her sister was ready to talk. For a while, Luna simply stared at the floor of the bedchamber, but then took a deep breath and exhaled.
“I’m lonely, sister,” Luna sadly stated. “I’ve been alone for so long that I can barely remember what happiness feels like. True happiness.”
Even though the midnight blue sister had stop speaking, Celestia knew she had more to say. She calmly waited for Luna to gather her thoughts and continue.
“I remember everything,” Luna said as she looked out the window at the moon.
“Excuse me?”
“Everything that Nightmare Moon made me do, I remember it. Everything she thought, everything she said, everything she did, I remember. Oh yes, I also remember the moon. But most importantly, I remember the terror our subjects felt when they saw me, the same terror that many still feel when they see me. I truth, Nightmare Moon is a hybrid that was created from me and the Nightmare Forces. She was both me and the Nightmare.”
“But she’s gone,”Celestia told her. “Nightmare Moon is gone.”
“No, Tia,” Luna corrected. “The Nightmare may be gone, but Nightmare Moon is still alive. She is there… in my head. She is a part of me, forever. She is my anger, my sorrow, my jealously. Everyone has these emotions, but mine were given a name. And that name will forever stain mine. I will always be known as the princess who fell, the traitor, the Mare in the Moon, the one who had to be redeemed.”
“Nopony thinks that of you,” Celestia reassured, wrapping her wing around her sister to comfort her. “They know that it was not your fault. Remember that, dear sister. It was the Nightmare and the Nightmare alone who was responsible.”
“I just wish that I could undo all that has been done,” Luna lamented. “I wish I never became Nightmare Moon.”
Princess Celestia nuzzled her sister affectionately. Luna didn’t say anything further and the two sat in silence. Perhaps changing the subject would help.
“So, I understand that Spike is in love with Rarity, though that is hardly new information,” Celestia said with a slight chuckle.
“Ah yes,” Luna said with a smile. “If I recall correctly, he was quite surprised that nopony was surprised when he told them he had been infatuated with her for quite some time.” The sisters laughed together at the story. “Speaking of love, have you ever been in love? And don’t say you love all of your little ponies.”
“Oh, all right,” Celestia responded in feign disappointment. “Yes, I have been in love before. Quite a few times, actually. Even though I keep promising myself that I’ll never take another consort, I can’t help meeting a wonderful stallion every few hundred years. What about you? Have you ever been in love?”
Suddenly, the mirthful smile on Luna’s lips disappeared and it was replaced by mournful frown. After she had returned from her imprisonment on the moon, the Princess of the Night fervently read the books in the Canterlot Library, desperate to catch up on the thousand years of history she had missed out on. During her studies, she discovered the fate of her former Captain of the Lunar Guard.
“Yes,” Luna answered quietly. “His name was Vlad Vanguard. You killed him.”