Nightmares Don’t Last Forever
Chapter 6
Twilight grumbled, struggling to get back into the royal bedroom of the castle. The full weight of the night princess pressed down on the small of her back. “Why… why why why!” The unicorn grunted, continuing her pilgrimage. “Why is it all of a sudden nothing can make any sense ever! It’s like I’m in Bizarrequestria and it’s the social norm to be as confusing and vague as possible! Is everypony crazy? If everypony is crazy, does that mean I’m actually the crazy one. That must be it, as I don’t see any other way I could be so confounded non stop!” Twilight shouted as she dropped Nightmare Moon onto her bed with a loud thump. The unicorn glared down at the sprawled form of her mistress. “And this is all your fault!” Twilight accused Nightmare with an outstretched hoof. “Why do you have to be so- so-… unconscious” The purple pony mumbled the last word, looking around to make sure nopony had witnessed her embarrassing little outburst. The unicorn slumped down to the floor, resting her back against the bed. “Why can’t anything make any sense…”
“… Sorry” came a weak reply.
Twilight didn’t react, intent to stare at the floor in front of her. “You’ll have to be more specific than that. You have a lot to be sorry for.” The unicorn half-heartedly muttered.
“It can’t just be a general apology for everything?” Nightmare questioned, weakly opening her eyes.
“No.”
“Well then… sorry for dying, I suppose. I really didn’t plan on that happening…” The princess paused. “… So soon” She offhandedly slipped in.
“You planned on yourself dying?” Twilight turned skeptically to stare at the princess.
Nightmare let out a hoarse chuckle. “You did ask why I picked you.”
“What? So I’m just your defibrillator or something?” The unicorn scoffed and stared back at the floor.
“Well, that’s one of the reasons.”
“What are the other reasons?”
“I don’t have to tell you” Nightmare rejected the question.
“Tell me.”
“Fine, but you only get one” the princess conceded.
“Three!” Twilight demanded, raising her head a bit and lessening her frown.
“Two, and that’s final” The princess stated in a convincingly serious tone.
“Deal.”
Nightmare smirked, blowing out a victorious burst of air through her nose. “Hmph, I was going to tell you this one anyway.”
Twilight rolled her eyes.
“Well, I have been gone for… a while. And I’m not exactly the most familiar with customs and… social conduct of this time period. So I’ll need you to help me ‘adjust’” The princess said a bit awkwardly. “That’s one, now the second reason is… no, wait. Ah, no, I was sure I had more reasons than that! I mean- I- uh I thought I. I can’t tell you this one-” Nightmare sputtered out, completely against having to reveal her last reason.
The purple pony’s ears perked, looking back at the flustered Nightmare with a haughty grin on her face. “What’s wrong Nightmare? Something you don’t want me to know?” Twilight asked innocently, malice laced in her words.
The princess stumbled over her words. “AH! Sunny! Yes! That’s it!” Nightmare coughed, recollecting herself. “That’s it. I need you to keep my sister safe… at least until I get someone a little more suited.” The princess closed her eyes as she tried to prevent her smile from showing.
“Hey, what? I am perfectly capable of protecting somepony” Twilight retorted, hotly. “I just so happen to be the most powerful-…” The unicorn hesitated, realizing with a blush just what she was about to say. “I’m… I’m pretty powerful” Twilight admitted.
Nightmare chuckled, finding the strength to raise her head; cracking a few joints on the way. “Hm, no doubt” The princess teased. “But not exactly the most battle experienced pony are we?”
“Well I-”
“Or very quick to act.”
“Now hey I am-”
“Or flexible.”
“I most certainly am fl-” Twilight stopped herself just in time. The purple pony looked up at Nightmare who was holding a hoof in front of her smirking face. The unicorn grew a smile of her own. “Heh, nice try” The unicorn goaded while she slowly rose from her resting place. “But you know what? You lied.”
“What? No I didn’t!” The alicorn defended, bringing her hoof down onto the bed.
“Well, you didn’t do it on purpose, but you definitely did” Twilight said coyly, jumping onto the bed and laying down beside the princess. The purple pony’s tail flicked excitedly.
“Horsefeathers” Nightmare cursed, looking away from her helpless captive.
“That’s right missy. I know your third reason” The unicorn boasted, a sly grin plastered across her face. “It really wasn’t that hard to figure out. It was honestly the most obvious explanation. To anyone that’s read your story, that is.”
Twilight’s eyes pierced through the back of Nightmare’s head. The princess could just feel that little purple smirk looming behind her. “Shut up.”
“You~”
“Shut up shut up.”
“Are~”
Nightmare groaned, burying her face in her front hooves.
“Loooonleeeee~” Twilight finished in a sing-song voice as she rested her head playfully on the moon princess’s shoulder.
Chance! Nightmare exclaimed to herself in delight. “Oh, Twilight Sparkle… you are right” The moon princess said dolefully. First, catcher her off guard, create your own pace, the alicorn reviewed her strategy.
Twilight lifted her head off of Nightmare in surprise. “Um… I, am…” The unicorn replied nervously.
“I have been so very, very lonely” The alicorn continued in her saddened, melancholy voice. Nightmare flapped wing and spread it over Twilight, pulling the purple pony’s head back down to rest on her dark shoulders.
“Um, what?”
Now reel her in. “I should have known that you of all ponies would be able to see through my tough, uncaring façade. To the real, miserable, lonely, me” Nightmare cooed sadly while her wing gently brushed down the purple pony’s body. “That you and all your knowledge and insight could undress my convoluted psyche so easily.”
“Well, um, yes, that’s-” The purple pony attempted to get up but found the dark princess’s wing had her locked in place. Oh Celestia, I am not comfortable with this at all, Twilight squeaked to herself. It was still morning, she had just cast a couple high level revival spells, her head was fuzzy, and the princess’s body pressed up against her side along with her soft stroking feathers and… words, were certainly not helping matters. While Twilight is very much capable of dealing with a wide variety of situations, being seduced by a goddess is not one of them. The purple pony shrank helplessly into the bed.
Now go in for the kill. “I didn’t even realize, Twilight…” Nightmare lowered and turned her head, bringing herself eye to eye with Twilight. “But I’ve been waiting for a pony like you. Someone of your intellect, of your… prowess.”
Twilight squeaked, hiding the bottom half of her head, leaving her wide eyes to be the only visible part of her face.
The moon princess leaned her face in closer to the purple unicorn. “Twilight… there’s something I have to tell you” Nightmare hesitantly whispered.
The purple unicorn attempted to struggle free again. She was unsuccessful.
“I… You…” Nightmare bit her lip and looked away while her breathing became heavier. The moon princess brought herself nose to hoof covered nose with Twilight, locking her teal dragon eyes together with the unicorn’s. “You’re… You’re a thousand years too early to even attempt teasing me.” Nightmare’s grin grew to horsefeather-eating proportions.
Twilight blinked dumbly at her dark princess. The unicorn closed her eyes and buried her head underneath a pile of covers; and screamed.
“Goodness…” Nightmare said with an air of surprise. “Somepony~ is a little frustrated” The princess teased.
The purple pony glared up from her covers, sated enough with her outlet. Though she considered bash-a-queen would allow her to blow off more steam, she decided against it. For now. “Ok, yeah, you got me. Ha ha ha” Twilight said in a disgruntled, deadpanned tone.
Nightmare giggled before releasing the unicorn from her dark feathery hold. “Oh, don’t be such a spoilsport…” The princess looked at her still frowning companion. “Though, um… I might have overdone it a bit. Heh, sorry.”
Twilight scrunched up on the bed, turning herself away from Nightmare. “Uh-huh” The unicorn grumpily replied. Suddenly inspiration struck the purple pony, this wasn’t over yet. “Did you… did you mean any of that” Twilight asked innocently.
“Huh? You mean…”
“Yeah.”
“… Nice try, Sparkles.” Nightmare smirked. “But we’ve had this scene already” The princess said in a smug, confident tone.
“Blast” Twilight cursed to herself, scrunching up even further into the covers. It was over.
The princess looked uncomfortably at Twilight. Maybe I did go a little overboard… The alicorn reconsidered her actions. “Although… yeah I do… kinda, sorta’… meanallofthat” Nightmare managed to mumble, quickly looking away from the purple pony and her now adorable perking ears.
Twilight slowly raised her head from the bed. “You’re not forgiven yet” The unicorn adamantly pouted.
“Hmmm, demanding reparation, eh? Ok, I can give you a gift as an apology.” The moon princess tapped a hoof on her chin as she pondered her options. “Do you like harems?” Nightmare beamed a hopeful smile at the purple pony.
“…” Twilight remained silent.
“Oh… yeah, I guess you already have one of those” Nightmare said seriously, bringing the hoof back up to her chin.
Twilight’s tail flicked in an agitated manner.
“Hmmm, you’re a bookish, dork type, right…?” Nightmare happily noticed the purple pony’s tail to be flicking even faster. “Tell me, do you like making schedules?”
The purple pony’s ear twitched, her tail halted in place. “… Possibly” Twilight responded as her ear twitched again.
“-and the strangest thang, ah don’t even know how I made it home last night!” Applejack finished, shelving the last of the books that were lying on the ground. After working all morning the group of ponies had managed to get the library nearly spotless, with the occasional party decoration here or there.
“Hm, yes, quite a mystery indeed” Rarity offhandedly replied. Her horn glowed, the wisps of her magic picking up a couple stray streamers from the party the previous night.
The orange farmer pony eyed her unicorn friend suspiciously. “Oh, and something else. Ah smelled right like some kind of frilly fru-fru perfume. Now what did that smell like…” Applejack scratched the side of her head as she contemplated the distinct smell. “What was it… oh, it smelled almost exactly like spiced pumpkins...”
Rarity nearly lost her magical grip on the trash but managed to keep herself from flinching. “Oh hoho, quite the sense of smell you have there Applejack.”
“Say Rarity… weren’t you just bragin’ ‘bout your new perfume the other day? If memory serves, why, you called it pumpkin spice or some such-”
“Fragrance Spice’ a la Pumpkin Mix No. 6” Rarity interrupted before realizing what she’d said. The white unicorn coughed nervously. “I mean… I’ve heard of that perfume, yes. I’d never wear it though! Simply dreadful, so last year. You’d never catch me wearing it these days” The fashionista huffed, flipping her mane over her head.
Pinkie popped up from behind the white unicorn. “But Rarity, I though you said you loved-” Streamers flew into the pink pony’s mouth.
“HA HA HA be a dear and help me throw these away, Pinkie?” The unicorn hastily requested, her eye twitching ever so slightly.
Pinkie Pie nodded happily and tilted her head back, slurping up the remaining streamers that were sticking out of her mouth.
Rarity looked on in horror.
“What? They’re candy streamers!” Pinkie chirped, smiling broadly.
“I- wha- but, they were on the floor!” The unicorn exclaimed, a stray piece of hair falling in front of her face.
“Well so are your hooves but that doesn’t stop you from putting them in your mouth!” The pinkest of ponies responded in a frank tone.
“Eh… ueeeeeh” Rarity whined as she rubbed the sides of her head with her hooves.
Rainbow Dash trotted up laughing with a trashbag on her back. “Pinkie Pie, you are so random. Also, weren’t you the one that put the streamers in her mouth?” The cyan pegasus accused Rarity with a playful smirk.
“Well, yes, but I didn-“
A purple pony slumped through the portal in the corner of the room. The unicorn looked completely disheveled, with a few stray pieces of hair, legs that wouldn’t keep straight, and the faintest of an unfocused smile on her face. The group of ponies stared in silence as Twilight slowly got to her feet.
“Darling!” Rarity cried out. “Whatever happened to-”
“I knew it!” Rainbow exclaimed as she flew up to a confused and still wobbly Twilight. “I knew it I knew it!”
“What’re ya talkin’ ‘bout Rainbow?” The orange earth pony skeptically questioned her cyan friend.
“Oh c’mon AJ! Isn’t it obvious?” The pegasus said with a huff while she walked around the purple unicorn. “The long hours away, the seductive princess, and just look at her current state! That dazed goofy smile, those wobbling legs!” The cyan pony flew back around to the orange earth pony. “I told you it would be good!” Rainbow said arrogantly and triumphantly, pointing a hoof at the cowpony.
“Well, shoot Rainbow, ah guess you were right” Applejack conceded, scratching the side of her head as she eyed the aghast Twilight Sparkle, whose legs were still shaking.
Pinkie hopped up to the unicorn with a tiny happy smile. “Jeez Twilight, the party was supposed to be last night, not this morning!” The pink pony giggled, booping Twilight on the nose.
“I-… I have had just about enough of these- these false assumptions about my… more intimate life” The purple unicorn weakly stammered out, attempting to control her weak legs. “I was simply assisting Nightmare in organizing her schedule and I just… got a bit carried away” The unicorn blushed happily in remembrance of her earlier toiling. “… I really like organizing.”
The pink pony giggled again, scrunching up her face with her hooves. “Oh Twilight, we know you’re not makin’ woopie with the princess. It’s just really fun teasing you about it!”
“… I still think she is.” The cyan pegasus got smacked by an orange hoof. “Now cut that out!”
Twilight sighed, collecting her thoughts. “Where’s Fluttershy and Sunny? There’s something I need to- Oh, there you are.”
An excited Sunny and tentative but happy Fluttershy trotted into the library. “Twilight!” The pink haired alicorn yelled giddily. “It was so amazing, Fluttershy was showing me around town and there is just a shop for everything and there are so many nice ponies and we got some ice-cream and- oh, um, uh… thank you for last night, by the way. I really enjoyed it.” Sunny tilted her head down and blushed, twirling the tip of her front hoof on the ground.
Rainbow Dash rushed up to Twilight with large sparkling rose colored eyes. The pegasus deliberately rested her front hooves on the purple pony and pulled her closer. “Tell me how you do it” The cyan pony whispered in awe.
Twilight shoved Rainbow away apathetically. “Bed time story” the unicorn groaned out.
The pegasus pulled out a notepad and began scribbling furiously in it. “Bed time stories, gotcha!”
The unicorn ignored this. “It was no problem Sunny, really” Twilight said sweetly. “Now… there’s something really important I have to talk about with you. About what exactly is going on, and what happened to you” The purple unicorn said dejectedly.
“Um… you mean how my sister erased my memories, and became the new princess?” Sunny shyly replied.
“You- you knew?” The unicorn asked with wide eyes.
“Well, yeah. Sis told me everything.”
“And you’re ok with her doing that to you, and takeing over your kingdom?” Twilight asked almost shocked.
“Um, uh, no? I mean-” The alicorn stumbled through her words. “I kinda wasn’t ok with it. But- but she promised we would be able to live happily this way” Sunny mumbled, rubbing her hooves together nervously. “I’m sorry…”
“I’m not mad at you Sunny… just a little confused” The unicorn said reassuringly, resting a hoof on Sunny’s back. “You do… want your memories back though, right?”
Sunny bit her lip as she looked away from Twilight. “I… I just want us- I just want everypony to be happy” The alicorn murmured. “But I want my memories back too!” the white pony said decisively, staring intently back at Twilight.
“Don’t worry Sunny. I’ll make sure both of those happen!” The purple pony smiled confidently at her princess. “We can get your memories back Sunny, I know we can. Nightmare is wrong. Last night, you remembered something.”
“I did?”
“Um, well, you were sort of asleep.” Twilight laughed nervously, bringing her hoof back to scratch the back of her head. She decided to leave out the emotional bit. “Do you remember anything after the story I told you?”
“Well, there was this really weird dream” The alicorn explained. “I was really tall in it, and you were soooo small!” The sun princess giggled as she thought back to the scene. “And there was an oddly large book with you too… I think I was giving it to you.”
“And this will be our main objective, to restore your memories Sunny!” Twilight exclaimed, striking a heroic pose. “And our other objective is to keep Nightmare Moon from dying.”
“Why… would that need to be an objective?” Sunny questioned innocently.
“Oh, because she died this morning” The unicorn stated bluntly.
“W- WHAT?!?” Sunny screamed hysterically, her wings extended in shock and her eyes grew as big as saucers.
“AH, no, wait! She’s fine now. She’s all better!” Twilight quickly blurted out
“Oh, thank goodness.” The alicorn fell to the floor breathlessly, her wings outstretched and twitching.
“But there’s still a good chance she’ll die again tomorrow” The purple pony added as if it were the most natural thing to say at the time.
Sunny looked up, somehow even paler than normal. The sun princess took in a gulp of air before fainting unceremoniously.
“… Not exactly the most tactful of conversations, Twilight dear” Rarity stated, looking down at the collapsed alicorn.
“Huh, never woulda’ thought the princess would have such weak stuff” Rainbow added, poking one of the princess’s wings.
“Twilight, c’mere sugarcube” Applejack beckoned, a dissatisfied look on her face.
The purple unicorn sighed, forlornly walking over to the earth farmpony. “I know, I know.” Twilight said sadly as she was lightly bopped on the back of the head by her friend’s hoof. “Ow!” The unicorn cringed and flicked her ear at the dull pain. “I need to work on talking to ponies” Twilight stated as the surrounding group nodded in agreement.
Twilight jumped out of the portal and into the bedroom, a bit more chipper than usual. “Ok Nightmare, I think I have it this time. Now I know I’ve said that before, and you died a couple of those times…” The unicorn added in a hushed voice. “But this time I am certain of it!”
Nightmare was sitting stoically on the balcony, looking up at her early morning stars; not reacting to Twilight’s entrance.
“Uh, Nightmare?”
“Twilight Sparkle, there is something that has been on my mind these past few days” The moon princess announced, still staring ahead with her back to Twilight. “That first day that you came to me… you were happy then, extremely happy.”
“Uh… yeah, I-” Twilight stammered out before being interrupted.
“I have been completely honest with you, Twilight. I would expect the same treatment in return.” Ice clung to every word the moon princess spoke.
Twilight froze, mind buzzing with the ramifications of what she would say next. “I… just…” The purple pony weakly attempted to respond. She couldn’t lie and she couldn’t tell the truth. “I’m sorry, I just can’t tell you” Twilight said, her voice wavering.
“I see. So… she remembered something.”
End Chapter 6