"Tonight is the night to act, Luna. We might have time to do this, but I don't know how much anymore. For all I know, it could happen tomorrow."
"I understand. Better to do it early than on time. But I admit that I am concerned over what I'm about to do."
"Why is that? This isn't the first time you've talked to ponies in their dreams."
"Yes, but she is not like most ponies, just as her predicament is not like most I've seen. I admit that her dreams with that beast trouble me to no end, even more than your previous nightmares with Nightmare Moon."
"And I thank you for helping me through that time. But does this mean you cannot do it?"
"No, I certainly can. But you must realize how difficult this will be, even for me. I can't guarantee that I'll be successful."
"I want you to succeed, Luna, because I don't want Twilight to stay like this. But I want to know even more that you're trying."
"Very well, Celestia. I will do as you ask on this very night."
The air by the balcony was cool and crisp that night. A gentle breeze blew the curtains to the side, and the moonlight was partially blocked by their waves. As the doors to the balcony were wide open, the bedroom was bathed in the moon's faint glow.
The guest bedroom was extravagant, as was expected from the castle of Celestia. The bed itself was huge and could rest a family of ponies, and there was a canopy hanging over it. More curtains hanged from the canopy, and it was hard at times to see who was inside.
But you could certainly hear her.
Twilight Sparkle was resting inside the bed, or more accurately, was trying to rest. She was in a deep sleep, but she grew restless. She tossed and turned back and forth to her sides, her pregnant belly limiting her movements a bit.
"Sombra...no...don't do this to me," she said in her sleep.
Her face went from expression to expression, sometimes happy and sometimes distraught. Whatever it was she saw, it made her scared to her soul. Sweat formed all around her body, and her forelegs kicked around in the air.
The wind flapped around the balcony, but not just from the wind anymore. Wings more powerful than that of a pegasus flapped around the air as they approached the bedroom. Four hooves touched down on the balcony's floor, covered by white sandals.
The pony who arrived had the stars of the night sky in her flowing mane and tail. The crescent moon was forever embodied on her flank. And her crown signaled the sort of power her position carried.
Princess Luna noticed the constant noises Twilight made as soon as she was inside. The purple alicorn spoke strange words in her sleep, and she wrestled with her own blanket.
And so, Luna went to the side of the bed and parted the canopy's curtains to gaze inside. Her worst fears concerning Twilight's state came true in that bed. The sheets were stained in Twilight's sweat, and rarely had Luna seen a pony as terrified as she was.
"I will not delay any further," Luna announced. "You need my help, and I will not deny it for you."
Her horn glowed from tip to bottom as she concentrated on getting inside Twilight's dreams. Her eyes began to lose their pupils, changing entirely to white. Her vision did the same, as the bedroom disappeared in front of her. She felt herself being sucked into Twilight's brain, even though her body was still standing next to the bed without any changing.
It wasn't long until the bedroom disappeared entirely, and she was taken into the dreamscape.
When she opened her eyes, she had arrived at a forest not unlike the one where Scootaloo ran away from the Headless Horse. It was thick with trees and vegetation, and she could hear a stream nearby.
She found herself confused by this location. All of Twilight's nightmares with Sombra had taken her to places like castles and tundras, and yet this forest was the place her thoughts dwelled on. Why was that so?
Either way, the pony having the dream would never be far away, so Luna thought she would go looking for Twilight. That is, until she spotted a pony standing next to the stream. It didn't take long to recognize the purple coated figure as Twilight, so Luna set off to meet her in the forest.
But the princess of Ponyville was already looking at Luna's direction by the time she arrived, knowing she was here before Luna knew where she was. Twilight was wearing her royal attire as she sat on the ground, quivering in fear as Luna came to see her.
"Its...it's you," Twilight whispered. "I knew it was you in my dreams...and now you're here..."
"Yes, I hath arrived," Luna announced. "Do you know why I am here?"
"It’s because I've been having nightmares, isn't it? You saw them, you knew I was in trouble." Twilight lowered her head, not looking forward to the next part. "And you've come to help, because that's one of your duties."
"Precisely," Luna responded, almost proud of herself. "I informed Celestia that you were having nightmares, all involving Sombra." She placed a hoof on Twilight's chin, causing her to raise her head. "But do not be ashamed of these things, Twilight. You are correct that I have come to help. But you must be willing to open yourself up to me for this to succeed. Understood?"
Twilight nodded. "I understand."
"Then tell us this. Why here?"
Twilight sighed and lowered her head again. She sniffled as she mentally prepared herself for what was about to come.
Rather than answer Luna immediately, she chose to get off her flank and walk over to the stream. She stopped at the banks and let the cool water wash over her hooves.
Her reflection in the river showed a weary pony back at her, one whose eyes glistened with tears. Soon enough, she caught Luna's reflection standing next to it, concerned and agitated.
Luna wanted to step in and ask why Twilight had not answered her question, but she knew how sensitive she would be over this moment. So she chose to let the dream play out.
Then she heard the clopping of hooves ahead of them. When she looked up, she witnessed a green stallion coming to the stream, a unicorn of sorts. It was a pony that she had never seen before, further confusing the princess.
But Twilight's eyes lit up when she saw him, and she ran across the stream to the other side. She came to see the stallion, and he seemed just as happy as she was to see him. Yet, as soon as she remembered who he was, her ears parted to the side.
"This is a memory from long ago," Twilight explained. "And it keeps haunting me for one reason."
"Why is that?" Luna pondered. "I do not know who this pony is."
"You'll see..."
After Twilight spoke, the stallion's horn glowed with magic, and the spell took over his whole body in a sphere of light. His features changed to that of another pony's. His coat turned to grey, his mane was pitch black, and his horn became red.
When the process was over and his hooves touched the ground, he transformed into King Sombra.
Luna snorted in anger and prepared herself for battle, before she remembered that it was all just a dream.
"Did you see that pony he was disguising himself as?" Twilight started. "That was how he gained my trust. He gave me a book from Starswirl the Bearded, had dinner with Cadence, and drank coffee with me in that form. And when he revealed himself as Sombra, he used all of those events against me, saying that if he came to me in his true form, I would have never given him a chance. And how his actions proved he was reformed...like how he never raised a hoof against Cadence for that entire dinner..."
The Sombra of the dream was saying many things to her, yet Luna didn't hear one word being spoken. His body language seemed to imply he was reassuring her, stating his case as it was. Twilight nodded to several of those things, and it crushed her heart as she did so.
"I realized how a lot of the things he said sounded right. I couldn't argue against him, and considering this was after Discord's reformation, I thought I needed to give him a chance...which was my first mistake..."
She began to cry again, and Sombra only sat there, not saying a thing.
"I gave him my trust this night, and if I didn't do that and reported that he had come back to Celestia like I wanted to, none of this would have happened. Why did I have to be so gullible..."
She gave in and cried again, feeling so stupid for this memory. It was beyond any self control, and the ground below her face was soaked in tears.
Then, all of a sudden, she felt a rush of energy around her hooves. The trees whistled against an incoming wind, and all of the wind went directly to the stream. A bright light blinded her quickly, and she shielded her eyes with her forelegs.
When she uncovered them, Luna had transformed into Nightmare Moon. She stood tall in the night, and she approached the cowering purple alicorn with all of her might. Yet she did not attack Twilight, but stood in front of her and spoke.
"Look at this form," Nightmare Moon stated. "Take as long as you need. Do you really think you're the only pony in this dream who has made mistakes that cost her dearly? I struck out against my sister over a thousand years ago, and we both paid for my sins. I was banished to the moon for it, and Celestia had to deal with my absence for all that time."
The wind whistled around her body again, and a ball of magical energy surrounded her. Once the ball was gone, she had taken the form of Luna again.
"And yet I was redeemed. I paid a heavy price for my mistakes, yes. But once the door was opened for me to make up for them, I walked through it. I made things right with Celestia. And that is what you must do. Don't let these mistakes make you feel like you are a worse pony for them. Rather, learn from them as I have with mine."
Twilight sat through Luna's speech, and as she listened, she felt a fire in her heart. She felt more encouraged than she had in a long time, and she couldn't help but feel excited once Luna was done.
"That's exactly what I'm going to do this time. I'm not going to be so gullible. I'm not going to let this stop me forever. I'll learn my lesson and let go...I think. I need to work on it, but I'm better for it now, right?"
"Look for yourself." Luna pointed at the spot where Sombra had stood.
Twilight looked for herself, but Sombra had vanished in that spot. In his place was a pile of dust, leaving no trace of the tyrant.
"What does that mean?" Twilight asked.
"There are many ways that a pony's dreams demonstrate that they have conquered their demons," Luna explained. "Sometimes, when they are against a wall, they will have help in the form of a friend, as Scootaloo did when Rainbow Dash helped her face her fears. And sometimes, when a pony is no longer haunted by the memories of a pony that harmed them, the offender vanishes from their dreams."
"So...I'm over Sombra now?"
"Hmm...I don't believe so. You may not feel ashamed for being gullible, but there's more to it, isn't there?"
As if to answer, the dream began to crumble around the two princesses. The trees tipped and crashed all around them, the ground cracked as if there was an earthquake, and the sky turned from dark blue to white.
"What's going on?" Twilight screamed.
"We will soon find out!" Luna shouted. "I do not know myself!"
Eventually, the dreamscape was completely gone, as white as snow...
...as the next dreamscape took over.
When Luna regained her bearings, she found herself in a room of sorts. The walls were made out of darkened brick, and red carpet laid all over the floor. A large bed was laid in the middle of the room, the sort of bed she would rest in.
So it was a bedroom she was in, she quickly deducted. It was rather dark to her tastes, but that was not important to her. What was important was the pony on the bed.
Sombra laid across the sheets, clean of his body armor or any sort of clothing. Luna had seen him as such in the previous dream, but it was so weird to see him that way after all of her memories of him wearing the robes of a king. His tail waved back and forth in anticipation, and his eyes were locked in a certain direction.
Twilight was what had his attention. She was devoid of clothing as he was, and her expression told the whole story to Luna. The purple alicorn's jaw dropped to the floor at the mere sight of him. And yet she drew herself closer to the side of the bed, tempted to into bed with the stallion.
Luna felt dirty watching Sombra's actions, and she couldn't help but feel that he was seducing Twilight, and it didn't help that Twilight was going along with the ride. Of course, that's what she thought was happening. But she didn't want to see it happen so badly, she wasn't completely sure that romance was on his mind.
"I'm assuming this is a memory as well?" she questioned. "The interior of the walls are not unlike that of Sombra's castle. And this...well, I can see where this is going. But explain it all the same to me."
Twilight gulped as she stopped at the edge of the bed, her eyes locked on the stallion inviting her to join him. "I...I'm not sure if I should talk about it."
Luna glared at her, a rare sign of anger towards the pony that helped reform her. "If you are to get past these events, you must confront it. Hiding from your feelings only delays the confrontation, but it will never prevent it."
Twilight brought a hoof to the sheets, her body screaming for her to go all the way inside. "This was our wedding night. I thought I burned all the bridges for Celestia to save me at this point, so I gave in and married Sombra. And this part...this was when we made love for the first time. If it wasn't for this moment, I wouldn't be pregnant today."
Sombra greeted her with the most loving eyes she had ever seen. She found herself drawn to him, even though she knew that he wasn't real. She wanted to feel his touch again, just to feel the love he gave her one last time.
And so she hopped into the bed and came to him. He rewarded her with a kiss on the lips, and she found herself kissing him back. He drew a hoof around her neck, and she loved the feeling so much that she giggled.
Then her true feelings came back to the surface, and she pushed him away. He seemed distraught from her actions, but she put a hoof up to block his advances.
"I...I love you so much," Twilight confessed.
"Then why are you pushing me away?" Sombra inquired. "You have me again. I was your first love, wasn't I? That's part of the reason you can't help but think of me...because I was the only stallion you ever loved."
He approached her again and kissed her on the neck. She moaned again and did not stop his advances that time. She knew Luna was still watching her, and she felt ashamed for it.
"It’s...it’s true," she confessed. "I don't know if Celestia ever told you this, but I did love Sombra at the time. He came to me like no stallion ever did before or since. And he loved me back, even if he wanted to seduce me to the dark side at the same time. I felt it when he loved me this night..."
Yet again, she pushed him off of her, and rather than stay with him, she got off the bed and went to Luna. She did not dare look at the princess of the night in the eye, having shown her something she never wanted to show another pony. Not even Celestia.
"But I knew it was wrong," she continued. "But sometimes, I'm worried about it. I haven't met anypony that loved me like he did. At least, not romantically. I still want to feel his touch when I'm in my bed, and I know that's terrible to admit, but it keeps happening. Please...please, don't kick me out of the kingdom because of this..."
And yet, she did not feel a slap to the face or hear Luna storm off as she expected. Instead, she saw a pile of books form around her hooves. They all had Luna's blue magical glow to them, and the books were numerous in count. Some of them had pictures of previous moments of Twilight's life for a cover, but many had no cover at all. In fact, most of them didn't.
Luna came to her and grew serious in nature. "What do you suppose these books represent?"
Twilight shook her head. "I don't know."
"Then I shall tell you. The books with a cover represent the years of your life that you have lived, and the ones that have none are the years yet to be lived. Even I don't know how many years you have left. Maybe you shall live for a thousand years as I have. But there is more to your life."
She scooted up one certain book to Twilight, and the cover had Twilight arriving with Spike in Ponyville, clearly the moment she first set hoof in the town.
"I want you to open that book," Luna commanded.
Twilight nodded, and she flipped through the pages of the Ponyville book. All the pages had pictures of her first memories after moving to Ponyville, from reforming Nightmare Moon to going to the Gala with her friends to defeating Discord to so much more.
They all had one thing in common. They all had her surrounded by her friends. The five ponies and one dragon were always there for her, comforting and helping her when she needed it. And she was happy.
"Don't you see that you're surrounded by ponies that love you for who you are?" Luna brought up. "They loved you because they saw the pony you were at your core. Did they lie to you to earn your love?"
"No..."
"Then you know that you will still receive love, even when you have failed at something. But I understand that you want to feel those romantic feelings for a stallion again, don't you?"
"Yes. I want it so badly."
"Then bring your thoughts to the blank books. They are numerous, no? More books that have blank pages than the ones that have pictures. That means you have more to life to look forward to, than what you have already lived.
"I cannot say that I know who is the right stallion for you. But know this. When the time comes, you know he is the right one for you, when he looks past the crown and sees you for who you really are, and loves you for that alone."
As soon as she said those words, the Sombra on the bed vanished into dust. He was gone completely, and yet Twilight had rarely looked happier in her life.
"Thank you so much," Twilight mentioned. "I'm not sure if I'm completely over him, but I feel like I'm a step closer. Maybe by the next book the problem is gone, right?"
Luna laughed for herself. "You take to wisdom as fillies take to the summertime air."
"Thanks...I guess."
Even with the cheerful atmosphere around them both, Luna began to frown as time went on. It made Twilight uncomfortable, as she thought the worst was over, but now she didn't know.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"There is more to this trial yet, I'm afraid. If we are still in this place, then that means there is more to your torment than even I thought."
"What do you mean--"
The room turned to white in a second.
Twilight thought she was going to be sick, even though she thought it was impossible to throw up in a dream. Yeah, she got sick like that in real life, but this wasn't exactly real.
As she adjusted to the jump in dreams, the area around her began to take form. She soon discovered that her wings were missing, and she wasn't wearing any clothing again. That was fine, since she wasn't wearing her crown or any sort of attire in the first place. What wasn't fine were the crystal claws that curved around her, trapping her in a bizarre prison.
Then she realized that she was holding something in her front hooves. She looked down and saw the Crystal Heart in her grasp. She almost screamed when she recognized what was going on.
The rest of the environment took shape, and she was on the balcony of a crystal tower. There were more crystal towers outside her prison, and the sky was swirling around in snow. A wave of shadows was coming right at her, a pair of green eyes in the middle of them.
This was when she first met Sombra and defeated him--barely. But the fact that she came only inches away from losing everything that day didn't exactly make it a pleasant memory.
Luna was there as well, outside of the clawed prison in that tower. She peered her head out to see the shadowy force coming right for them, and she snorted when she saw Sombra.
"This was the moment you saved the Crystal Empire from Sombra's hooves, wasn't it?" Luna asked. "I would have fought him by myself if Celestia had not stopped me. I loathed that stallion like few others..."
And yet, Twilight was too busy freaking out to listen. She tried to get through the cracks to no avail, and she gripped the Crystal Heart as tightly as she could. There was no way she would let Sombra take it.
"What am I supposed to do?" she screamed. "I'm trapped in here again!"
That brought Luna's attention back to what mattered, and she ran over to the prison to assist Twilight. She beamed her horn and hit one of the claws with a destructive fire spell, one that would set entire fields ablaze.
Yet the spell deflected off the claw, as if she was a weak little filly. Twilight freaked out even more, and the shadows were gaining on them.
"What do I do now?" she begged.
"How did you beat Sombra the first time?" Luna asked.
"I...I..."
She saw Spike standing out there, looking as terrified as she was. And yet he was waiting for her to say what he needed to do for her. He was right outside the clawed prison...and he was free.
That's when she remembered what she did when she was trapped before. How it saved all of Equestria and the lives of the Crystal Ponies.
And what she needed to do right now.
"I had to trust and depend upon my friends and family when I could not do it on my own," she stated. "They helped us win on that day. That's how it happened. And that’s what I need to do after Sombra came back and did all of those things to me. I need to trust that my friends can pick me up when I fall down..."
She grabbed the Heart with her levitation spell and threw it to Spike. The dragon picked up the gem with his claws, and it glowed as bright as the sun.
The beams of light that it created shot directly into the shadows of Sombra. He screamed in pain as the light caused his very form to vanish for good, until his physical form was dying as well.
But the light did not stop there. It took over the entire Empire, until it was like looking right into a flashlight...
Twilight's eyes shot open, and she jolted her head forward. She stopped in her tracks immediately, as her pregnant belly prevented her from sitting up, but she lifted her head up as much as she could. Her face was drenched in sweat, and she couldn't stop herself from breathing.
She was back in the guest bedroom, and she placed her hooves over her face. Her forehead was blazing hot and she felt sick to her stomach again. But it wasn't from her foal this time.
That was the most vivid dream of her life, and she felt the sort of exhaustion that came with traveling long distances. As if she really had visited all of those places in her memories...
Then she sensed that somepony was there with her. She saw Luna standing next to the bed, her eyes slowly going from white to their usual self. Luna shook her head as she regained her bearings, and she noticed Twilight was awake. She smiled as she came a little closer, sitting her flank on the side of the bed.
"I didn't even have to say anything at the end," Luna gleamed. "You discovered exactly what you were supposed to do in that situation without my help. That speaks much about your character. But what was it that you did that saved us all from Sombra the first time?"
Twilight paused to think, and a smile formed on her lips as she remembered everything. "What I'm supposed to do now. I'm supposed to let others help me in my time in need. That I should trust other ponies--and dragons--when I know I can't do it alone."
"Just as you did in the Crystal Empire when you defeated Sombra the first time, I'm assuming? I saw you give Spike the Crystal Heart."
"That's right. And I can see it clearly now. You and Celestia saved me from him the second time. In both times, I would have died or stayed corrupted if it wasn't for someone else. And that's how I'm going to get past Sombra again, isn't it?"
Luna nodded. "I think your heart knew the answer even before you asked."
"Yeah, I did. And I want help through this part as well, raising the foal and everything. And it’s not bad to ask for help..."
That made the princess of the night smile as well. "It sounds to me like you learned the lesson you needed to hear."
Twilight grinned from cheek to cheek, and she pulled off the sheets to her blanket. She came over and hugged Luna, and Luna returned the favor. It felt to both of them as if they were hugging as sisters...which wasn't far off from reality anymore.
The curtains in the room kept blowing from the wind, but it drifted more peacefully, going along with the currents of nature.