“Hey, I think she's finally waking up...”
Twilight's eyes began to open. She winced as bright light slammed into her, two silhouettes blotting bits of it out. One shape leaned in slightly, responding to the voice that she could only assume came from the other.
“Waking up? No she's not,” another voice said. “She's still quite asleep, you know.”
“I know that!” the first sharply replied. “I just meant her eyes were open.”
“That sounded like a colt,” Twilight thought.
The purple alicorn opened her eyes fully as the light morphed into a myriad of colors. Around her was a rather different place than where she remembered settling down for a nap. Twilight looked out over a wide open meadow, flowers in full bloom around her with a few sparse trees dotting the landscape. Distant mountains reached into a sky—and what a sight to behold—coated with stripes of flowing color, twinkling stars, and a bright full moon that gave off almost as much light as the sun, illuminating the lush field around her as though it were high noon.
Twilight's jaw hung open slightly as she tried to take it all in, but her attention was quickly diverted by the two beings she'd heard as they quickly began arguing with one another.
“There's a difference between 'awake' and 'conscious', you know!” a filly nearly shouted.
“I just meant that she's awake!” the colt responded.
Confusion mounting, Twilight's eyes went wide as she looked at the young ones. They were both ponies, that was to be expected, but the rest was anything but. Both sported a pair of wings and a horn—alicorns—and had coats of near snow-white coloration. Their manes and tails, while also white, were more of a marble color, and almost seemed to glow in the not-quite-day-but-close moonlight. They sported eyes of golden yellow which seemed to shimmer slightly, and their cutie marks seemed to have a glow to them as well, not to mention appear very similar in shape; each mark was that of a cloud with three letter “Z” symbols hovering near it. The colt's had that of a pillow over the cloud and the filly's bore that of a sunrise.
“Did not!” the filly shouted.
“Did too!” responded the colt.
Twilight's mind was so addled that she'd nearly forgotten their bickering. Brain full to the brim with questions and information that made nearly no sense at all, there was only one thing the purple alicorn could think to do.
“What is going on here?!” Twilight shouted, startling the arguing foals.
Their fighting stopped, the younger alicorns looked over at now shivering, twitching ball of purple fur and feathers that was Twilight, the older alicorn having fallen onto the ground and curled up as her mind caved in around her.
“This is all just a dream... This is all just a dream...” Twilight bickered, her voice holding all the charm and melody of a song playing from a broken record.
“Oh dear...” the filly spoke, a hoof half over her mouth. “She did say that she could get like this.”
“Looks like it,” the colt added.
The two fillies sat up straight as a feminine laugh echoed through the valley; even the twitching Twilight took notice. Behind the three a plume of black smoke began to swirl and rise up from the flower-coated ground, bending and twisting until it formed the shape of a pony. As it solidified, wings took shape behind a small torso while an ebony horn reached out from its newly-materialized head. Sapphire armor wrapped around its body as a glowing blue and purple mane and tail took shape, the flowing hair appearing more as a cloud of energy rather than the silky strands that ponies knew. As the final traits took shape, cat-like eyes began to stare out at the three while a fanged smile formed, all illuminated briefly from a mysterious glow as her cutie mark took shape; the image of a moon and stars magically appearing on her flank.
“My my,” the midnight alicorn laughed, “this is almost as amusing as that dream you had last year, you know, the one where you became another species and started going steady with that guard your sister-in-law introduced you to. Oh, how loud you screamed when you woke up from that one.”
“Wh-what is this?” Twilight stammered, her confusion offset by the slight feeling of dread.
“Oh come now, don't tell me you've forgotten me already.”
“Impossible!” Twilight recoiled, jumping back slightly. “Princess Luna was purified by the elements; you were destroyed!”
“Really? Because I seem to be quite well.”
“This isn't possible, you can't be real,” Twilight stammered, backing away like a trembling foal. “This has to be a dream... There's no way you're back, Nightmare Moon!”
The black-coated alicorn grinned.
“Half right, actually,” Nightmare spoke. “You're wrong in that you believe I'm not here; I am here, and quite real and well. However, you are right in one regard; this is a dream.”
“Heh... heh heh,” Twilight nervously laughed. “T-then I'll just wake up! I'll get up, b-brush myself off, a-and I'll tell Princess Luna! Yes! She'll take care of this, if you really still are lurking about in ponies' dreams!”
“Actually,” a serene voice chimed.
Twilight looked around, spotting a familiar blue alicorn approaching her.
“I was the one who called you here,” Princess Luna said.
Twilight felt like a load had been lifted off of her.
“Princess Luna!” the purple alicorn exclaimed. “Thank the Sun and Moon that you're here! Nightmare has returned and-”
“I know,” Luna rolled her eyes, “it's quite the story.”
“W-well then, we should do something!” Twilight said, looking between the Princess and Nightmare.
“I agree,” Luna replied, walking to Twilight's side.
Twilight winced as a dark blue wing lightly struck the end of her muzzle. With a small sneeze and a snort, the purple alicorn looked up at her Princess, her expression confused as ever.
“Do calm yourself, Twilight,” Luna spoke. “There is no cause for alarm. Although it's true that Nightmare Moon has returned, she poses no threat to anyone.”
“B-b-but...” Twilight stammered.
“Tell me, Twilight,” Luna asked, “do you notice anything different about her?”
Twilight looked over towards Nightmare. Her head tilted slightly, the two foal alicorns looking back and forth between her and Nightmare. The difference in size quickly became apparent; there was none.
“Is she,” Twilight nearly gave a small laugh, “a filly?”
Nightmare scoffed.
“You mean you really haven't noticed?” She deadpanned, an eyebrow raised slightly.
Twilight laughed, no longer being able to keep it in.
“Why are you so small?” she chuckled, her eyes shutting close in her laughter. “Did the elements do that to you?”
Nightmare frowned.
Twilight's laughter quickly ended as her eyes opened, her coat going slightly pale. Instantly, in place of the filly was a tall mare, ebony wings outstretched and tendrils of shadow spreading like an angry fire. A crackling blue aura emanated from her horn, her eyes glowing with the same dark magic.
“Would you prefer this?” she said, her voice bearing a faint, deep echo.
“U-um...” was all Twilight could say as she looked up at the shadowy mare, memories of their fight several years ago going through her mind.
With a flash of moonlight, and a noise that could only be described as “POOF!”, Nightmare regained her filly-like stature, once again being no more tall than the trio of fillies Twilight knew from Ponyville. With a quick breath, and a move that would be more suited to Twilight's friend Pinkie Pie, Nightmare managed to simultaneously don a gray business dress, tie, and glasses, as well as pull a large graph chart seemingly out of thin air.
“Now then,” Nightmare said, tying her mane in a bun, “to start with, I only assume this form so that foals I have to work with and aid do not panic and assume my help to be malice.”
Nightmare's horn glowed, the chart sheet flipping open to a colorful image of a time line, the shapes and numbers matching the figures and dates of various encounters, the first of which Twilight knew all too well.
“As you recall,” the midnight alicorn continued, pulling out a wooden pointer, “you and those friends of yours managed to defeat me several years ago and separate Luna and I from each other.”
The pointer tapped the chart as Twilight watched, the two alicorn foals groaning as Nightmare's history lesson began.
“Afterward, I drifted through the spots in-between realms. Luna, meanwhile, regained her age-old task of raising and lowering the Moon, as well as keeping the dreams of ponies stable and calm. She quickly realized, however,” Nightmare said, tapping the pointer to a new image, “that there are far, far more ponies in this modern time than there were a thousand years ago, and needed assistance keeping their dreams from falling apart.”
“That's where we come in!” the foals chimed in.
“And Nightmare, too.” Luna added. “The fact is that Nightmare is still a part of me, even now, and who better to catch a nightmare than another one?”
“This is still all confusing,” Twilight said, “but I think I'm starting to get it. Nightmare and these foals help you keep ponies across Equestria from having bad dreams at night, but... are you certain it's a good idea enlisting her help in this?”
Nightmare's gaze drifted downward slightly, her expression somewhat sad.
“Twilight,” Luna spoke, “if there's one thing that you and your friends have taught me is that everypony, no matter who they are, can always be given a second chance, and deserves to have one. Besides, remember, Nightmare and I were one once, we both bear the responsibility for what happened all those years ago.”
“Yes, well,” Nightmare said, wiping a tear from her eye, “that's all done and over with.”
The ebony filly quickly regained her posture, and with a clap of her hooves her chart, dress, and pointer vanished, her mane also returning to its loose, flowing style.
“Alright then,” Twilight said with a sigh, “if Princess Luna trusts you, I'll give you a shot too.”
Nightmare grinned.
“I appreciate it,” she quietly said. “Now then...”
The stars above shone slightly brighter as a myriad of images formed between the five alicorns. Each image formed a spherical bubble, images in all sorts of tones, colors, and shapes drifting between them all. Ponies from all over Equestria, some familiar, some not, moved and played, and ran about in these spheres, acting out patterns of motion and thought as the environment changed around them.
“These are the dreams of ponies from across Equestria,” Nightmare continued. “To put it simply, dreams can be, to us, viewed a sponge; they're full of holes, and yet hold things within them. The issue is that, also like a sponge, they can let things in that shouldn't be there. That's where we come in.”
“We have to be able to go into dreams and keep them safe,” the alicorn colt said.
“And to make sure that we don't scare the pony having the dream and more than they already are, if things have gotten bad already,” the filly alicorn added.
“And tonight,” Nightmare said, “Twilight, we need your help too.”
“But, why?” Twilight asked. “Why now, after all this time, do you need my help?”
“Because there is something that I must attend to that's of grave importance,” Luna said, her voice calm yet serious.
“It must be incredibly important if you need to tend to it yourself,” Twilight said.
The purple alicorn thought for a moment, pondering the situation. After a minute or two, her expression became determined and positive, practically the picture of self-confidence.
“I'm still not sure how to do all of this, or even how some things here work, but I'll try my best,” Twilight said.
“Thank you, Twilight,” Luna smiled. “I know I can count on you. I must depart now, my task awaits. Be well, all of you, and do your best as I know you will.”
“Princess Luna,” Twilight quickly began, “before you go, what task is it that requires your personal attention?”
“It is most confusing, and requires a royal mind, Twilight. You need not concern yourself with-”
Suddenly a glowing white ball formed next to Luna's head. Twilight watched as the image of Luna's elder sister, Princess Celestia, formed inside of its milky edge.
“Luna, there you are!” the Solar alicorn called. “I've been looking for you throughout ten realms of existence!”
“Um, sister, this isn't the best time,” Luna stammered.
“The tax files for the middle and upper-class citizenry need filing immediately!” Celestia continued, her voice becoming somewhat frantic. “Where have you been?!”
“Taxes?” Twilight said flatly, ears splayed backward.
“Um...” Luna said, eyes darting left and right. “Oh, look at the time. Ta-ta Twilight!”
“Wait a min-” Twilight began.
The purple alicorn's words were interrupted as Luna vanished in a swirl of blue smoke, the orb showing Celestia disappearing along with her. The alicorn foals sighed as their Princess left. Nightmare merely shook her head.
“Sometimes I still think we were better off stuck together,” the ebony alicorn said.
“Taxes? Seriously?” Twilight groaned.
“Not to worry,” Nightmare said, “mathematics is one of Luna's strong points. It's one reason why constellations are so good for navigation, although I did have a hoof in that myself.”
“A-a-anyway, before we get started,” the colt interjected, “I don't think we've been truly introduced.”
“I'm Dawn's Radiance,” the filly spoke.
“I go by Cotton Heart,” the colt added.
“Good to know,” Twilight replied. “It's nice to meet you, although I wish it had been under different circumstances.”
“Now that we're all acquainted,” Nightmare said, her magic drawing the field of dream bubbles closer, “we need to get going.”
“Traveling is easy, really,” Radiance spoke, the filly walking towards a dream bubble. “Just look for a bubble with black spots drifting into it—the spots being the bad dream energy—and then just tap it with your hoof.”
Dawn's Radiance did as she said, and with a flash of light the filly vanished and promptly reappeared inside the dream bubble. The other alicorns watched as the dream within the sphere took shape. A colt, not much older in appearance than either of the two alicorn foals, shivered in fear as two older ponies in laboratory scrubs slowly drifted towards him, sharp syringes clenched in their jaws.
“A fear of doctors,” Nightmare said. “Rather common for colts his age.”
“Now watch and see how Radiance solves it,” Cotton Heart added.
Twilight observed closely as Radiance appeared in the air above the colt, just out of sight but all still there. Her horn lit up, the dark energy around her vanishing like fog in the sunlight, the frightening images bending into ones of comfort. The colt, whose dream just seconds ago had been full of dread, now looked up only to see the smiling face of his family doctor, the one who had helped his older sister heal from a sprained fetlock not more than a month before. The task completed, Dawn's Radiance teleported away, leaving the dream and returning to Twilight's side.
“Nice one!” Cotton Heart said, congratulating his comrade.
“Thanks,” Radiance replied. “The trick is just to drain away the negative energy. The dreamer's mind does the rest and fills in the blanks.”
“I already knew that,” Cotton Heart said under his breath.
“I was talking to Twilight,” Dawn's Radiance snapped.
“I knew that too!”
“Um,” Twilight interjected, recalling the foal's earlier argument, “perhaps we should continue on?”
“Oh, um,” the two foals said in unison, turning their gaze to their purple companion, “right. Just tap a bubble.”
Twilight looked around at the small sea of dreams floating in front of her. Some bubbles drifted and others flowed around their fellows. The purple alicorn, looking through the field of dreams, noticed a small one floating away from the others, its spherical shape small and slightly cloudy. Focusing on the small orb, she noticed the black splotches begin to weave in and out of the dream as its master began to cringe inside.
Twilight reached out and tapped the edge of the dream with her hoof, and with a flash vanished into the dream bubble. Reemerging in the dream-scape, the alicorn shook her head; vanishing and reappearing so suddenly had addled her senses slightly. Not wanting to waste any time, she looked around and got her bearings.
She sat in a wide-open area, mountains in the distance and a prairie-like area surrounding her. The sky was getting overcast, and a wind started to blow through the brown grasses that stretched throughout the field. A colt sat next to a filly, the two of them huddled together in a shallow ditch in the ground as the winds began to swirl.
A howling noise, like a train, began to sound through the sky. Twilight looked up, her eyes going wide as she saw a funnel cloud begin to drop out of the air and towards the ground.
“A tornado,” she thought.
A high-pitched scream sounded over the approaching wind. Twilight looked back as she saw the foals holding on to each other tightly, both screaming for their parents as the twister started towards them. The alicorn's face bent into a mix of anger and willpower as she jumped up and ran towards them, wings outstretched as she jumped in between the young ponies and the oncoming storm.
“Now I just have to-” she began.
“Twilight, you can't be seen!” Nightmare's voice sounded in her head.
“Huh?” Twilight thought, looking for the source of the voice.
“I can communicate with you while you're in the dreams of others,” Nightmare continued. “I need you to listen to me; do not let them see you.”
“What does that matter?” Twilight replied, the purple alicorn becoming frustrated. “This needs to be stopped!”
“And it will, but not if you reveal yourself,” Nightmare said. “Princess Luna herself only visually appears to others in dreams if she feels it's absolutely necessary, otherwise she merely drains the negative energy out of the dream and lets the dreamers correct the rest. Revealing yourself will only make them come to depend on your aid, and the next time they dream they might even expect you to appear and solve it for them. I know it may be hard, but you must interfere as little as possible for their sake.”
Twilight groaned, but focused as she considered what the midnight alicorn said.
“Okay,” she said to herself, “their eyes are closed, so they haven't seen me yet. Think, Twilight, think... This is just like a puzzle, and like every puzzle...”
Twilight cast an invisibility spell around herself, vanishing from whatever line of sight the foals may have.
“It can be solved!”
With a purple flash, Twilight sent up a redirection spell, a magical flow she'd learned in the Canterlot Royal Library. She concentrated as the spell bent and twisted the dark energy corrupting the foals' dream, and with a strained groan sent it flying out through the environment's edges, vanishing into the void from whence it came.
The sky cleared, the howling tornado becoming little more than a summer's breeze. The grass changed from brown to an emerald green, and the sun shown brightly as dewdrops slid around the green plants' blades.
The cowering foals opened their eyes, each breathing a sigh of relief as their dream-scape turned to a happy image of a mid-summer's day. As the two climbed out of the muddy ditch, Twilight felt a pull of magic around her; her cue to exit the dream.
In a flash, the purple alicorn vanished, reappearing in the flower-coated meadow alongside Nightmare, Cotton, and Radiance, the three smaller alicorns grinning widely as she arrived.
“Not bad for a first attempt,” Cotton Heart said.
“Kind of reminded me of how my first dream interventions were,” Dawn's Radiance added.
“Just remember what I said about not being seen from now on,” Nightmare Moon spoke.
“Got it,” Twilight replied. “Just divert the energy and let the dreamers do the rest.”
“You got it!” The foals said together.
“Be warned though,” Nightmare said, “that there are dreams that are so far gone that just diverting energy won't be enough; you will have to combat it at times.”
“Don't worry too much about being seen in those ones,” Cotton said, the colt looking a bit worried. “The rules are off if things get that bad.”
“How bad is that bad? That tornado was bad enough. What would be considered worse?” Twilight asked, looking almost as worried as Cotton.
“Well, um...” The foals exchanged looks of concern.
“As bad as when you fought with me,” Nightmare said, her face bent into a serious glare. “When things get that bad, abandon all formalities and do whatever it takes, even if you have to wake the dreamer up.”
“How do I do that?” Twilight asked.
“Usually just scaring them will do,” Radiance replied.
“In your case, however, you may need to strike them with your magic,” Nightmare interrupted.
“Attack them?” Twilight replied, her eyes going wide. “Are you serious? That would hurt them, although this is a dream, so... I don't know what would happen.”
“This isn't what most would call 'real life', Twilight,” Nightmare said, her expression calm once again. “It's only real to dream ponies, like us. To the waking world it is merely a realm of illusions.”
“Yeah, it won't hurt them in real life,” the foals added.
A scream interrupted the alicorns, a red flash of light accompanying it.
The four turned towards the field of dream bubbles, one of them taking on a shining red glow. Within the crimson brilliance a filly screamed. Swirls of what could only be described as transparent nothingness wrapped themselves around her, each tendril appearing as a transparent thick line that bent all light passing through it, as if the world behind them was viewed through dirty glass.
“Speak of the devil,” Nightmare said, glaring as the image intensified.
Twilight automatically reacted, her hoof tapping the glowing red orb within a second. As she vanished, the alicorn foals gained a determined, yet serious expression. As the two of them tapped the orb, they turned to Nightmare.
“We'll make sure she receives any aid that she needs,” Cotton Heart said, his voice growing suddenly deeper.
“We understand Princess Luna's orders,” Dawn's Radiance added, her own voice maturing to match that of a grown mare. “Twilight will do her part, to be sure, but we'll intervene directly if it gets too out of control.”
“I know you will,” Nightmare replied as the two vanished. “I'll be watching.”
In the dream, Twilight groaned as she was thrown aside by one of the tendrils. Still on the ground, her horn flared up with its signature violet aura, a beam of pure energy slamming back into the translucent tentacle. It recoiled, vibrating like a violin string as it righted itself. With a howl that matched the tornado from earlier, it turned back towards the purple alicorn as its fellows wrapped themselves tighter around the still shrieking filly.
Twilight quickly stood back up and cast another spell. The filly was surrounded in Twilight's aura, a bubble forming between her and the attacking tendrils. Slowly the ghostly vines were pushed back, each one straining under the pressure of the spell. The other tendrils seemed to take notice, and darted at Twilight as she tried to maintain her focus. The alicorn winced, bracing for the impact, but surprisingly it never came.
She opened her eyes wide, surprised as she saw two other alicorns beside her, their horns alight with shielding magic. Each was far taller than her, their statures on-par with Princess Celestia's. One was clearly a mare and the other a stallion, each coated in the same silvery sapphire armor that Nightmare Moon wore. What struck her as the most surprising was their cutie marks; they were the same as the alicorn foals she'd been with before.
“Don't think we'd leave a rookie to something like this all on her own,” the stallion said, his voice only slightly deeper than Twilight's brother, Shining Armor.
“We're here to help you, Twilight,” the mare spoke, sounding just a little bit higher in pitch than Nightmare.
“Wait, are you...” Twilight began.
“Surprised?” Cotton Heart said, his shield intensifying as the tentacles withered.
“Nightmare isn't the only one with a few surprises,” Dawn's Radiance grinned, “but right now focus on freeing the dreamer!”
Twilight shifted her vision and focused again on the captive filly. A blast of purple magic pulsed through her barrier spell, the spell magnifying the field and finally breaking the tentacles' quite literal strangle hold on their victim. The filly fell to the red ground below her, the young pony panting and shivering.
“She'll be okay,” Radiance said, “just keep her safe.”
The purple aura around the filly held true as the two taller alicorns shifted their spells. Glowing spears shot out from their shields, stabbing the transparent tendrils and sending them flailing to the ground.
“What caused this?” Twilight asked, straining to keep her spell up.
“Let's just leave it at this for now,” Cotton replied, his eyes glowing with power, “some foals don't exactly have happy lives and can even fall into despair. It's a magnet for negative energy. This is the result.”
“That's horrible!” Twilight replied.
A thought sparked in Twilight's mind as her horn sparked and glittered with magic of a different sort.
“Wait, I've got it!”
With a purple flash Twilight vanished, reappearing next to the shield she'd placed around the shivering filly. Focusing through the strain of maintaining her spell, the alicorn recalled as many of her adventures with her friends as she could, thinking of the happiest moments she'd ever had with them. She thought of their travels and laughs, their struggles and challenges that they'd overcome together. She channeled the essence of these fantastic memories of hers—friendship—and cast a second spell through her shield.
Within the violet shell, the filly started to stir. Her frantic breathing slowed, her eyes opening. To the alicorns it merely looked as if she was staring out at nothingness. To the filly, she was looking out at her relatives, all of them calm and together in her home. They laughed and cheered, all gathered round a blazing hearth with a faint snowfall visible outside through the frosty window. A note sat at her hooves, the writing styled in an elegant cursive, the ink a glowing purple color.
“Have hope,” it read.
In the dream, Cotton Heart and Dawn's Radiance began to struggle as the tendrils began to collapse down on them.
“Twilight, where did you go?” Cotton called, groaning as his shield bent and buckled.
“I think she, wait, yes! Look!” Radiance exclaimed.
The two watched as the tendrils fell back. They shrieked and writhed, flailing about as the negative energy sustaining them fell away. The twin alicorns noticed Twilight, her spell of friendship soothing the now slumbering filly. Twilight's aura faded, the shield spell returning to its previous violet color.
“I've got this taken care of,” the purple alicorn said.
“Nice!” Cotton called.
“Well done,” Radiance added. “We'll mop this up so we can get back.”
“Actually,” a voice echoed, “I've got this one.”
The three alicorns watched a swirling black vortex appeared behind the writhing mass of tentacles. It expanded and grew, a howling wind pulling and stretching the tendrils thin. Just behind the rotating void, a pony's form began to take shape, black wings and a horn adorning its features. Teal-blue eyes shown from its head as a fanged maw opened up. Shadowy tendrils of its own shot out from the darkness forming around it, the tentacles that haunted the filly's dream quickly ensnared by their own trap.
As the tentacles were restrained and ceased to move, a piercing shriek sounded from the midnight alicorn, the translucent tendrils shattering like glass as the shadows quickly backed away.
With a flash of light the alicorns vanished, reappearing once more in their flowery meadow. Disoriented, their heads shook as their senses realigned themselves, Twilight rubbing her ears as the ringing from Nightmare's screech echoed through them.
“Sorry, but I couldn't resist,” Nightmare said, returning to her filly form.
Cotton and Radiance, also foals once more, sat upright and looked over at Twilight.
“You okay?” Radiance asked.
“Yeah,” Twilight said, her hearing finally returning to normal, “although I doubt I'll forget that any time soon.”
“The horrors that stalk the dreams of ponies may be, at times, monstrous, but even they fall quiet when I arrive,” Nightmare grinned.
“A-a-and that's why Luna put you in charge,” Cotton said, the alicorn still a bit dizzy.
“Well, as long as we succeeded,” Twilight added.
“Not just that,” a voice said.
The group looked behind them, each one smiling as they saw Princess Luna appear.
“But look,” the Princess continued.
Everyone looked back towards the dream bubble they'd just left. It was calm now, the red glow having vanished with the horrors. Within the sphere, the young filly slept soundly, visions of her family surrounding her. She looked happy and content, and none the wiser to the events that had happened.
“She didn't even notice we were there,” Cotton Heart said.
“It was Twilight's shielding spell,” Nightmare said. “It must have made us invisible to her.”
“You sure you're not a dream pony too, Twilight?” Radiance laughed. “I didn't even think of that.”
“Well, I can think of things from time to time,” Twilight smiled.
“That's one reason why I wanted your help, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said. “I thank you greatly for your help on this matter, and I truly apologize for not talking to you about in the waking world. Speaking of which, I think it's time you returned there.”
“We'll see you later, Twilight!” the two foal alicorns cheered.
“I certainly hope we do,” Nightmare grinned.
“So do I,” Twilight replied. “I'll see you later, everypony.”
Luna's horn began to glow, the alicorn focusing an awakening spell. As Twilight waited for the magic's embrace, a memory came into her head.
“Wait, Princess Luna,” Twilight began, an eyebrow raised, “what was that earlier about, oh what was it... taxes, I believe?”
No sooner had Twilight finished her question when the orb containing Princess Celestia's image appeared right beside her.
“Good job with those forms, Luna. I take it now you have your dream duties to attend... to...” Celestia began.
The Solar alicorn frowned as she saw the familiar form of her student beside her.
“Luna,” she said flatly, “what is Twilight doing here?”
“Um, yes...” Luna hastily replied, “um... time to go, Twilight!”
“Luna,” Celestia said, sounding cross, “you and I have to talk when you get back, do you hear me?”
Her mentor's angry speech was interrupted as Twilight felt herself awaken. The alicorn rubbed her eyes as she looked around. The sky was clear and it was mid-day, perhaps slightly into the afternoon. The tree she'd fallen asleep under still towered above her, and the sounds, sights, and smells of Ponyville filled her senses.
“Now that was sure something,” the alicorn said to herself. “I might have to write a diary entry on this one.”
As she stood up and began her trot back towards town, she grinned a bit to herself.
“And a letter to remind Princess Luna to file the taxes on time...”