Twilight felt she had hardly blinked into existence before she knew where she was. With a more confident pace than the time before, Twilight walked forward, carefully stepping down the hall as she made her way towards where the torch would be found. Again, it felt like she could only see a few inches in front of her face, the blackness stretching out before her with seemingly no end in sight. Twilight scanned the halls looking for any signs of life or what might have been different from the time before.
I’ve traveled down this path before. I’m no longer scared.
Twilight made it to the torch faster than she ever had before. With the same resoluteness she had before, Twilight pulled out the torch from its holder and brandished it as she looked around the hallways, in case something showed itself.
A set of hoofsteps started coming down the hall she had traveled before, towards the entrance hall. Already things were changing, but this time Twilight was ready. Taking the torch, Twilight flew back down the hall, galloping at full speed, looking for a way out. She turned the corner and went back down the hall she had started in and found a door at the other end of the long hallway. Sighing with relief at an escape, Twilight started running down the hallway towards the double doors and the exit of Canterlot Castle.
At least I’ve found a way to evade it. If only this hall weren’t so long… wait.
Twilight stopped galloping for a moment and listened, noticing that the second set of hoofsteps had gone away. When Twilight was sure that whoever was there was no longer following her or looking for her, Twilight turned around to see how far she had gone.
…that’s impossible!
Twilight didn’t want to believe it. For all her running, she had stayed at the point where she had first entered the dream. Twilight walked in the direction of the doorway and past an archway and stopped again, turning around only to find she hadn’t even moved from the last time she checked. Walking forwards but keeping her eye on the corner she had once turned, Twilight walked forwards past one, then two, then three archways, noticing the corner shrink farther and farther away into the distance until it had become swallowed by the darkness. Satisfied, Twilight turned around to look at where the door was, only to find she was no closer to where the door had been standing. When she turned around to look at where the corner was, she found that she had ended up right where she had begun.
There’s no way out. I either have to find Princess Celestia’s or Princess Luna’s chambers and get them to help me.
Realizing that the pony looking for her had come down in the direction she was about to head, Twilight brandished the torch ahead of her and began walking cautiously forwards. She walked around the corner and started making her way towards the torch’s holder when she noticed something new.
This door wasn’t open before. I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to take a look.
Twilight opened the door. Inside was a desk with no back but the bottom was almost completely dark, along with a small filing cabinet and a few chairs. Twilight opened the filing cabinet but all the folders and papers inside of it were blank. Twilight checked the desk to find the drawers were filled with more papers, but they too were blank, though there was a box of matches that Twilight took in case her torch went out again. Twilight then noticed the paper on the desk, drew the torch closer to it, and began to read.
“From the desk of H.S.M. Princess Celestia:
Princess Luna has once again decreed that she wishes to go to Ponyville for the Nightmare Night celebrations, on this fifth year since her change at the hands of the Elements of Harmony. Please note the other cities that requested her presence across Equestria that she will be unable to come to them this year. Also make sure that the requisite preparations are made for her travels to Ponyville for the few days she intends to stay. Make sure that Twilight Sparkle gets the letter that Princess Luna will be staying with her, as well.”
It’s about the preparations for Nightmare Night. But… those things haven’t even been released in the Canterlot newspapers; Shining Armor would have told me about them.
Twilight left the note where it was but made a mental note of its contents before walking out of the room and continuing down the hallway. She had just reached the place where the torch holder was when
‘Twilight! Twilight, where are you?”
It was the voice again, from the shadowy male figure that had appeared the time before. Twilight panicked and ran in the opposite direction, opening the door with a bang and flying back into the room. Twilight blew out torch to extinguish it as she dove under the desk. The hoofsteps drew closer as Twilight pulled in a chair to conceal her position from the figure.
“Twilight! Are you in here?”
The door had likely startled the shadowy figure and Twilight became still as ever. Twilight hid herself from the figure and didn’t even dare to look at him as he walked around the desk. Twilight could see a pair of four dark hooves, larger and wider than those of the Princesses, and she could almost hear the pony inhaling through its nose.
But I haven’t even made it to the entrance hall! This isn’t a logical progression of events anymore!
The figure stayed there and called out again, but this time Twilight could hear something different in the voice… longing. “Twilight, please. Come out and let me talk with you.”
Twilight wasn’t willing to stick around no matter how sad the voice sounded. Crawling along with her belly to the floor, Twilight tucked the torch under her foreleg and began to slowly creep along the ground towards the door, slinking through the chairs. The figure behind her turned around and Twilight froze.
“What was that?”
I hope he can’t see me, I hope he can’t see me…
Twilight continued inching towards the door. Carefully, she snuck around the corner and got to her feet, using her magic to quietly light a match and reignite the torch. Twilight looked around her and breathed a sigh of relief.
“Twilight! I’ve found you. I’ve been looking for you ever since the first night.”
The voice was… unnaturally close. Twilight attempted to breathe in but she could only do so with great effort. Twilight slowly turned around to look at the source of the voice and lost her breath. The shadowy figure was behind her, and this time Twilight could see a slight bit of detail: a pair of dark blue eyes looked at her from the shadows of the bulky figure.
“I’m glad I found you. Come, we have many things to talk about over these past few months since we’ve seen each other.”
But Twilight was in no mood to listen. She screamed and bolted back down the hallway, torch ahead of her and nearly fading out with how fast the wind rushed by her, but Twilight kept going. At the door to the entrance hall, Twilight could hear a galloping behind her.
“Twilight! Wait! What are you doing?”
Twilight flung open the door to the hall and ran inside it, hiding just behind the door as the hoofsteps grew closer and closer. Just when they were inches away from the door, Twilight flung the door shut and the hoofsteps came to a sudden stop, the figure crashing into the door on the opposite side with such force Twilight could barely hold it shut. Thinking quickly, Twilight picked up a smaller statue with her magic and placed it in front of the door so the door couldn’t open.
“Twilight! You must listen to me! You can’t continue doing this! Your mental ability will become unstable if you don’t let me speak!”
But Twilight didn’t want to hear anymore. She bolted across the entrance hall and towards the door for Princess Celestia’s chambers. Much like times before, the door stayed resolutely in place. Twilight dashed over to the other door towards Princess Luna’s chambers, hearing a splintering sound coming from the door at the entrance of the hall. Much like Celestia’s door it, too, refused to budge.
“I can open that door for you, Twilight.”
The voice had lost the longing, genial, even pleading tone it had before. This time, it was deeper and attempting to persuade – or perhaps tempt – Twilight. The unicorn mare walked over to the door at the entry to the hall, noticing that a small hole had been broken in it, enough for the mare to see one of the deep blue eyes staring back at her.
“I can open that door and let you through if you let me in.”
Twilight shook her head.
What do you want with me? Why are you chasing me?
“Chasing you?” The stallion laughed, though it didn’t sound pleasant to Twilight. “No, I haven’t been chasing you. I’ve been searching for you. I’ve been searching for you for nine nights now, and finally I’ve found you. Every time I thought I found you, you woke up before I could even speak. Six times before, you woke up before I could even see you.”
We are speaking now. Tell me, what is it you want with me?
The stallion closed his eye and shrunk back to blackness. “It seems you wouldn’t trust me even if I was on the other side of that door.”
How can I trust that which I cannot see clearly?
“Can you not see my eyes?” The stallion opened his eyes again, letting them see through the door at Twilight. “They say the eyes are the windows to the soul. If that is the case, look into my eyes and tell me that you cannot trust me.”
Even the most foolish of ponies knows that you can kill the strongest warrior behind his back so long as he is distracted by something else within his sight.
“Ah, but Twilight… you are already distracted. Your mind has simply switched the perspectives of what you see. Canterlot Castle you can see clearly because that is what you have placed in the front of your mind, using your surroundings to get away from me. I am hidden in the back of your mind, I am encased in shadow because you choose not to look at me. You do not see me for who I truly am.”
Then speak: who are you?
“I am a friend of yours. A close one for the past five years.”
That tells me nothing.
“I could outright lie to you and you wouldn’t believe me. Yet I could tell the truth and you would do the same.”
Give me one reason that I shouldn’t seek out Princess Celestia or Princess Luna to tell her to end you immediately. I am the student of Celestia, and with one word to them you could be destroyed. Tell me why I shouldn’t do that.
“Because the latter is already here.”
Twilight recoiled from the figure. If Luna was already here, why hadn’t Twilight ever been able to find her when running about the castle? Twilight scanned the halls behind her and looked around for any sign of the Lunar Princess, but all that greeted her was the pale moonlit shadows and the moon itself, hanging still in the sky as though it had been painted there.
“Proof that you are distracted: I tell you Princess Luna is here and immediately you look away from me.”
Give me proof Luna is here.
For a long time, the stallion didn’t give any response. He barely even flinched, nor did he look like he was doing anything at all. Twilight wondered what exactly he was thinking as they sat there in near total darkness, illuminated mostly by Twilight’s torch. But suddenly, a click sounded from the far end of the hall as though something had been unlocked.
“There. Princess Luna’s chambers are unlocked.”
What would you do if I were to leave you here?
“There are other ways. Perhaps… perhaps there are other things you need to see before I can reveal myself to you. Perhaps you need more time to jog your memory. But just remember: in dreams, you have plenty of time to do so.” The stallion then closed his eyes and became a black figure again. But this time, the figure vanished into a cloud of smoke and then he was gone.
Twilight wasted no time. Dashing over to Luna’s chambers, the unicorn heaved the door open and launched herself inside, realizing she needed to find a few things and see if their position had changed from the time before.
The first place was the open door she had found earlier. It was open much in the same way as it had been the previous time she had this same dream, and inside was still the same set of furniture and items: the desk with the oil lamp and the picture of her on it, the bookshelf with the official documents, and the pillow that was meant to be sat on the ground. Twilight went to the picture, stuck the torch in the top of the oil lamp for support, and opened up the back of the picture frame.
I knew there was something I missed last time. I just didn’t expect it to be this.
There were two letters hidden just off the picture: “P.L.” They were in a corner that had been hidden by the frame before.
Did Princess Luna draw this?
There was another click like a door unlocking from outside. Twilight left the picture on the desk and grabbed her torch before heading outside. Looking around, Twilight noticed another door opened up a short way down the hall. However, no hoofsteps sounded from anywhere around her, so Twilight figured it was safe enough to check it out. She made her way to the door and opened it.
There’s more!?
The room that Twilight had opened looked like an artist’s studio. It was filled with easels and large pads of paper, containers holding all sorts of pencils and paints and brushes and erasers. Twilight first noticed the pencil drawing on the easel. It was of her, asleep on her side in her bed in the Golden Oaks Library, as seen from something on the ceiling. Twilight noticed the picture was done in soft lines and evoked a sort of dream-like quality to it, as though she was resting peacefully and whoever had painted the picture was standing on guard over her. On top of that, it was surprisingly realistic, much like the picture in the office room had been. In the corner was the same signature: “P.L.”
Twilight looked up from the easel to see that more pictures had been drawn and painted around the room, all of them of her and all of them signed with the same “P.L.” One was over her reading a book. Another was of her looking in the telescope on the hills over Ponyville. One was of her in the Star-Swirl the Bearded costume she wore from the first Nightmare Night. Another was her jumping up in excitement after being told she had passed Celestia’s test with the Crystal Empire. All around the room were fourteen framed pictures, plus the one on the easel. Twilight wasn’t entirely sure why, but the sight of all those pictures of her, all drawn by Princess Luna, was disturbing.
Twilight looked back to the picture on the easel to find that it had changed. The lines were the same, but the position had changed: Twilight was now lying down on her back, one hoof crossed over her belly. Twilight began to back nervously out of the room and into the corridor, changing direction once again for Princess Luna’s chambers and dashing towards her next destination.
Twilight didn’t hesitate to cross the room to where the letter from Nightmare Night five years ago was sitting, still in the same position. Twilight read and re-read the letter again and again.
Come on… there’s got to be something hidden in here that can explain this…
But nothing jumped out at her. There were so many good lessons learned that day.
“I intimidate you. Is that it?”
Twilight jumped and turned around. The stallion figure was at the door, still only showing his blue eyes for the only bit of detail Twilight could make out. Twilight didn’t care that he was there, only that he was blocking the only exit that didn’t lead to a dead end.
“Yes, the picture thing was, perhaps, a bit excessive, but no matter.”
Who are you? There are no male alicorns in Equestria. At least, none that have been recorded in the history books.
“It’s easy to read a book,” the alicorn said, stepping slightly into the room and making Twilight cower in fear. “It’s harder to read a mind. Yours, Twilight Sparkle, is one of the hardest yet to read. I thought you would have remembered the contents of that letter, yet it seems I am mistaken.”
You’ve done this before?
“I have given you proof that Luna was here, have I not?”
You merely opened a door.
“One that you are fully aware of cannot be opened except through lunar magic?”
Then, what does that make you? A changeling?
“No. Not by a long shot.”
Show your true self to me, then!
The stallion shook his head. “You are not yet ready. For now…” The stallion’s horn began to glow a dark blue. The torch that was in Twilight’s magic field was yanked out of it and into the stallion’s control before it dropped it on the ground, extinguishing it. The horn kept glowing as the stallion advanced on Twilight, laying itself gently on the ground next to Twilight as it drew its horn closer, speaking in a calmer and gentler tone. “…it’s time for the dream to end.”
The stallion’s horn touched to Twilight’s forehead. Twilight felt all the energy from the panic leave her and her eyes closed as she slumped to the floor. She quivered a bit, trying to fight against the stallion’s magic, but eventually she stopped and laid there in a heap on the floor.
“Good night, Twilight Sparkle. I will see you on Nightmare Night.”
When Twilight awoke, the morning sun was shining over Ponyville and Twilight felt more rested than she had in days.