After the Nightmare

by CORACK


Chapter 22

Glowing Heart sat quietly at the receptionist desk. It was a slow day at Canterlot Hospital, the only pony she had seen all morning was the mailmare, picking up a package that was being shipped out to Los Pegasus General. In a hospital, a slow day was a good thing, but still a mare could wish for a bit of excitement at work. She stood up and began to walk around the room, stretching her legs. She was considering grabbing another cup of coffee when there was a burst of light in the lobby.

As the light faded Glowing's jaw dropped to the floor; standing directly in front of her was Princess Celestia herself. Next to the princess stood another alicorn with a dark blue coat and crescent moon cutie mark. Rumors of the dark alicorn that had challenged Celestia's power last Summer Sun Celebration flashed through the back of Glowing's mind, and she slowly began to back away. It was then her brain registered the six unconscious ponies floating gently in the Celestia's grasp. A lavender unicorn standing behind Princess Celestia completed the group.

"Princess Celestia?" Glowing asked with a quick bow. "Is everything alright?"

The pale pegasus levitated forward, Celestia looked at Glowing and said in a motherly tone. "This young pegasus is in need of your care, she recently suffered a traumatic injury that I had to heal with magic. She needs rest and monitoring for the next day or two."

"Of course Princess!" Glowing Heart said. She hurried over to the small storage room behind the front desk, pulled out a wheel chair and returned to the lobby.

Celestia lowered Selene into the chair and then turned to Luna.

"Will you be alright coming back to the palace with me? We can return when your friend awakens."

Luna fidgeted nervously."When she wakes up, she will have no idea where she is, nor what has happened to her..."

"I can stay with her Princess," Twilight said stepping forward. "I can cast the summoning spell you taught me when she wakes up."

"Will that be sufficient?" Celestia asked, looking at Luna. "We can teleport here the moment she wakes up, though I think she will be out several more hours at the very least."

"You will summon us the moment she wakes up?" Luna asked, staring down at the smaller pony.

Twilight looked back at Luna, and gave her a warm smile. "You can count on me."

Luna took a moment to think, then nodded slowly. Her horn lit up and the saddle bag she had been wearing came undone. She levitated it over to Twilight.

"Her name is Selene, if she wakes up, give her this, and tell her I will be here in seconds."

"Excuse me Princess," Gentle Heart said quietly, "but what about the rest of those ponies?"

Celestia turned to face the Earth pony.

"These ponies are uninjured, they merely suffer from over-exhaustion; they are staying in the castle, and I will return them to their rooms."

"Oh alright, I'll get Selene a room then," Gentle Heart said. She turned around, wheeling the sleepy pony along. Twilight followed her and the three ponies vanished as they turned into the first room down the hall.

"Are you ready?" Celestia asked.

"Yes," Luna said and they vanished in a flash of light.

#####

After Celestia dropped off the rest of Twilight's friends, the two alicorns teleported into Celestia's private chambers. Celestia pulled over a small cart containing her tea set; a quick bust of magic brought the water in the pot to a boil and as she poured two cups, Luna began to explain everything that had happened over the last eight months.

"After I was free of my prison and I returned to Equestria, all I could think about was revenge," Luna said sadly, "but when that unicorn of yours..."

"Twilight Sparkle" Celestia interjected, "one of the most promising students I've had in centuries."

"Yes... when Twilight and her friends activated the Elements and I felt the power of Harmony flow though me, everything changed. When I awoke, my crimes against you and the rest of Equestria were as clear a summer sky. All that anger, jealousy and hate were all burned to ash and blown away. All that was left was regret and shame."

Luna's eyes began to water as she struggled to continue her tale.

"When I came to, I was so frightened, I could not feel your presence nor summon even the smallest amount of magic. I was broken, bleeding and no longer sure of my own immortality..."

"Sister, I never meant..." Celestia started to say.

"Let me finish... Broken as I was, I knew you chose the path you did, not because you wanted to, but because I forced you to. I am truly sorry sister and I vow that I will never to succumb to those dark emotions again."

Luna stepped forward nervously, slowly she lifted her hoof and wrapped it around Celestia's neck, embracing her elder sister. Celestia responded with a nuzzle, and the two alicorns began to cry. When the tears finally died down, Celestia looked at Luna and cocked her head slightly.

"I am curious who these two beings that followed you through the portal are; we can talk about Malice in a bit, but first tell me about Selene. I assume she is not a pony," Celestia said.

"You are correct, she is something called a human, it is one of the reasons I did not want to leave her side. If she should she awaken she will have no idea what is going on," Luna said.

"After I was ripped away from Equestria, I woke up on a dying world, though I did not know it was dying right away. I could sense that something was wrong but I did not find out for sure until much later," Luna said.

"As I said, I did not know what you and the Elements had done to me, I felt weak and vulnerable, I had physical injuries that did not heal instantly, I thought perhaps you had somehow stripped away my powers completely and I had been rendered mortal. I found myself being chased by wolf like creatures and I ran as if my life depended on it. They caught up with me and I was forced to fight; Selene heard the attack and came to my aid."

"I think she was more surprised at me, than I her. I later found out that her raced had never encountered other sapient life before. They lack magic entirely, instead they use highly advanced technology. They use this technology to power ships that travel between the stars by way of dimensional shifting. Her ship had crashed on that planet a decade earlier, she, a child at the time was the only survivor. We were both trapped in an unknown dimension on a dying world, her by a failure of her ship's engine, I by a teleport spell gone awry"

Celestia gasped, her heart went out to Selene, no child should be forced to endure such tragedy.

"As time passed I learned more about her species and our friendship grew, but I yearned to return home, and eventually enough of my power had returned that I was ready to investigate. I suspected that I had been thrown into another dimension and when I returned to the cave where I had first arrived I proved this theory correct. While I was looking into how best to return home, Selene wandered off and stumbled upon a golem, animated with dark magic; I was able to stop it, but during the battle part of the cave collapsed exposing a vast underground complex."

Luna paused to take a sip of tea before continuing her story.

"Selene was injured in the fight and none of the healing spells I knew would work on a non-pony," she said. Her head drooped down as she had a good idea of Celestia's reaction to what she would say next. Quietly she spoke again. "In desperation I turned to the darkest of blood magic; I siphoned some of my own lifeforce to heal her."

Celestia's eyes went wide, and her feathers ruffled in shock.

"Even as the Nightmare you never used such foul magic!"

"What was I to do sister?!" Luna shouted, tears spilling over her face. "I could not let my only friend die!"

The two sisters sat in silence for a few minutes, neither wanting to escalate the situation, finally Celestia spoke.

"I am sorry Luna, I was surprised by your statement and spoke without thinking. Vile as that magic is, you wielded it for good and in the end that is more important, though I am surprised that it worked."

"I was not sure that it would, but it was all I had left to try," Luna said.

"We returned to explore the complex and were separated, eventually I learned the fate of the former inhabitants of that world, the Eternals they were called. The race was mostly wiped out by Malice, a dark god from another universe. He escaped his prison into their realm, but as their world fell, they trapped him in an unstable pocket dimension. It was slowly collapsing and he sought to escape. He had found Selene and was attempting to strip the fragment of divinity from her so he could use its power to break the chains of his prison. We fought, Selene was injured again and then you opened the portal, the rest you know."

"You mentioned something about Sombra?" Celestia asked. "Malice's power felt similar to the dark king's."

"I learned from Selene that Sombra had stumbled into Malice's prison though experiments in dimensional travel, it was Malice who corrupted Sombra and set him on his path of evil."

The two sisters continued to talk, Celestia had many more questions about Luna's time away from Equestria. Luna answered them as best she could and had questions of her own about the changes she had missed both while locked in the moon and during her time with Selene. They continued to talk until Celestia felt the pull of a summoning spell.

"Twilight is summoning me, I believe your friend may be awake, shall we go?"

Luna lit up with excitement, with a happy nod she prepared to teleport. With a pop, the two ponies blinked out of the room.

#####

Selene's eyes fluttered open slowly, her whole body ached and she wanted nothing more than to pass out again. But something had caught her eye, instead of the dark industrial interior or rocky cavern like appearance of the halls she had been roaming, above was a clean white ceiling, illuminated by the gentle glow of sunshine pouring in from the window she could just make out in the corner of her eye. A slow steady beeping in the background made her immediately think "hospital room", which was then followed by confusion. The last thing she could remember was a sharp pain as Malice slammed his hand into her chest. There were no hospitals, and no room on the Ascension was this clean.

Her ears twitched and swiveled at the sound of a page being turned. Slowly she turned her head towards the sound and she spotted an unfamiliar lavender unicorn sitting on a chair reading a book. Selene's throat felt dry and scratchy but she managed to choke out a hoarse whisper.

"Hello?" she said with a hint of confusion.

The unicorn looked up at Selene and smiled. She floated the book down onto the small table next to her and stood up.

"Hi," the unicorn said, "how are you feeling?"

"Well, I hurt all over but I guess that means I'm alive... uh where am I and who are you?"

"My name is Twilight Sparkle and you are in Canterlot Hospital; you were badly injured when we found you, but Princess Celestia healed you up and left you here to rest. She and Luna are back at the castle, Luna asked me to summon her as soon as you woke up, I can do that now if you like."

"Luna? She's here? She's alright?" Selene tried to sit up, but something felt wrong, the way she was trying to bend stretched at her in a slightly uncomfortable manner. She rolled a bit, then moved her arms down to try to give some leverage. As she pushed up, her grip gave way and she slipped back down, catching herself in the blanket.

"Are you alright?" Twilight asked looking concerned.

"I can't..." Selene said, trying pull the blanket off of her, she flailed a bit but it only made things worse, finally she ended up on her stomach blanket wrapped loosely around her lower back. Something pulled on her back and a second later she felt a wing brush up against her side. The touch was unexpected, and she tried to scooch away from whoever else was in the bed with her. The blanket caught on her leg, pulled tight and she fell sideways.

Twilight stifled a giggle. "Here let me help."

A warm glowing field surrounded Selene and the blanket, both were lifted into the air and the blanket quickly untangled itself dropping back down to the bed below. Selene followed, bouncing slightly as she hit the bed and landed on her stomach, her legs folded up under her in a way that felt wrong but she ignored it as she quickly turned, trying to find the pony that had brushed up against her.

As her head turned back, she caught the flick of a tail in the corner of her eye, followed by a pony's rump covered in a pale white coat. Something was wrong though, the pony would have to be on top of her to be in the position it was in, she turned her head more, farther than her neck should have been able to swivel and saw more of the pony's back. Two wings were folded up against the pony's side, exactly where she thought her back should be, it explained what she had felt moments before. Confused she brought her hand up to scratch her forehead and promptly clocked herself in the skull.

Reeling slightly she turned her head back, trying to find out what happened. A hoof at the end of a pony foreleg filled her vision in the exact spot her hand should be. She moved her hand, and watched as the hoof moved at the same time. Up and down it went, then side to side.

Twilight watched on as the strange pony waggled her hoof in front of her face. A second later Selene's eyes bugged out as the realization of what was going on finally dawned on her. She screamed, skittered backwards and fell off the side of the bed.

"Selene? Is something wrong?" Twilight asked trotting over to the pegasus.

"Why am I a pony?!" Selene shouted back, trying to pick herself up off the floor.

"What?" Twilight asked in confusion.

"A pony, why am I a pony?" Selene asked again her voice on the edge of panic.

Selene's question made no sense to Twilight, but Luna's words bubbled up in her head.

"She will have no idea where she is, nor what has happened to her..." Twilight had assumed that was in reference to the damage that had been done and subsequent healing by Celestia, but perhaps there was more to it. Once more Luna's voice filled her thoughts, "You will summon us the moment she wakes up?" The concern Luna had been showing reminded Twilight that perhaps she should get on with the summoning immediately.

"Selene, please calm down, I'm going to get Celestia and Luna right now," Twilight said, horn glowing brightly.

Selene stopped struggling at the sound of Luna's name. A few seconds later a flash of light and a loud pop filled the room as Celestia and Luna appeared.

Luna immediately saw Selene on the floor and trotted over.

"Selene, are you alright?" Luna asked in a worried tone.

"I don't know! I woke up a bit sore, but honestly I've felt worse. Everything was hunky-dory till I kicked myself in the head WITH MY HOOF!" Selene shouted back.

Luna tried to hold back a laugh but failed miserably. She continued laughing as Selene glared at her, still waiting for an explanation.

"I am sorry," Luna said as she took control of her mirth. "I will try to explain, but first let me introduce my sister, Celestia."

"It is a pleasure to meet you Selene, let me extend an official welcome to Equestria, do not worry too much about the soreness, it is a side effect of the healing spell I cast upon you, it will fade completely in a day or two."

"Healing spell?" Selene asked.

"What is the last thing you remember?" Luna asked.

"Malice threw me on that altar, then shoved his hand into my chest, after that, nothing."

"He dealt you a fatal wound trying to force the immortal spark from your body, but it escaped his grasp and returned to me; with it came your friendship, a powerful force in Equestrian magic. The spark was rekindled by your feelings for me and when it merged with me, my powers were restored completely. I was about to banish Malice back to his prison when Celestia opened a portal to us, the two portals destabilized the pocket dimension and we were thrown into Equestria."

"That explains how we got here, but why am I a pony?" Selene asked.

"That is a side effect of inter-dimensional travel through the spell we ponies use to create portals. All sapient life forms ponies have encountered have one thing in common, they all have a soul. Inter-dimensional travel is dangerous, many dimensions are completely inhospitable to pony life. The gateway spell is designed to make travel safe, it will transform a pony's form making compatible whatever dimension they enter. It does the reverse when entering Equestria, returning ponies to their original form and also allowing natives of other dimensions to visit Equestria without fear of harm. You were transformed into a pony by the gateway spell."

"Is it... permanent?" Selene asked, poking a wing with her forehoof.

"While you are in Equestria, yes; should we find your home dimension and open a portal, you would revert to your human body when you stepped through."

"Uh ok, let's come back to this later," Selene said, "what happened to Malice?"

"He was pulled through as well and transformed into a crystal pony. Normally a god's body would be immune to the gateway's effect, but with his true form imprisoned, the spell latched on to his soul and crafted a new body. I have never seen any being turned into a crystal pony before, it must have been an interaction between the gateway and his artificial body."

Luna then told Selene about the fight with Malice and his imprisonment by the Elements.

"So what about the planet we were on? What happened to it?"

"Destroyed, I tried one last time to re-open the portal before we brought you here, but it is gone. The dimension was unstable to begin with, the two portals caused it to collapse entirely," Luna said.

"What about your friend Decima, or my ship?" Selene asked.

"She is gone, along with the Ascension; that reality was crushed into non-existence when it collapsed. I am sorry Selene, but with your ship gone, and the navigation computer with it, it may be some time before I can locate your dimension."

"I'm sorry about your friend Luna," Selene said. "But to hell with the rest of that planet, I was trapped on it for over 10 years, and I'm not particularly sad to hear it's been destroyed. As for the Ascension... well," Selene's eyes began to water, "it used to be my home, before Dad died. I'll miss that, but I still have those memories. After it crashed it was more a prison than a home, so really I've been homeless ever since."

"You are welcome to stay in the castle, with Luna and I until we can find your world," Celestia said.

Selene sat quietly on the floor as she thought about everything she had just heard. Shakily she rose to her hooves, swaying back and forth as she got used to standing on all four of her new legs.

"Someday, I would like to return to Earth, maybe together we can introduce ponies to humanity, but I had no living family nor friends back home," she said. "Luna, you are my only friend and I do not want to lose you, would it be alright if I stayed here?"

"Of course," Celestia said. "You may stay in Equestria as long as you like."

"Thank you," Selene replied. "I have a feeling I'm going to like it here, once I get used to these," she said lifting a hoof and shaking it. Standing on three hooves unbalanced her and she quickly returned it to the ground to keep from falling.

"And I'd love to give these a try," she said, looking back at her wings. Through a bit of effort she found the new muscles needed to move her wings and gave them an weak flap.

"I would be more than happy to teach you how," Luna said with a big smile.

"I am looking forward to it," Selene said with a grin.