A New Teacher

by Sparky Brony

Chapter 19. To Mend a Broken Heart

***Twilight Sparkle***

I lay on my bed, looking out the window. Hearth’s Warming is upon us. I watch the pegasi of the weather team organizing the clouds for the first big winter blast. I keep my eye out, looking for the brown pegasus with the mane like fire. With everything that has happened, Nick still hasn't gotten his cutie mark.

I lay my head down on the bed. My friends have been updating me on him, despite my express instructions not to. Pinkie says that he's in the worst depression she's ever seen, and that it might be good for him to get on medication. Coming from Pinkie Pie, that's significant. I sigh. I didn't think Nick is the only one depressed.

"Twilight," I hear a gravelly voice whine, "You are thinking about him, go to him. Tell him how you feel."

I turn my head and glare at the cyan pegasus. "Rainbow. I haven't even sorted my feelings for Nick. The only thing I know for certain is he betrayed me. He seduced me. And he didn't do it because he fell in love with me, he did it under orders. I was a mission for him. Nothing more."

She flies off the shelf she had been perched on and slams to the floor in front of me, her wings are spread aggressively. "Twilight Sparkle. I can't believe you. That pony is in a severe depression and it's because you refuse to see him. He misses you." Her voice softens and her wings slowly fold back into place. "He loves you, Twilight."

I snort and roll my eyes. "Yeah, the same pony loves me who told me that he had trouble seeing himself with a…" my voice catches in my throat, "horse for the rest of his life."

"We're ponies, Twilight."

"Well, duh, Rainbow. I know that." I stop and look down. "He doesn't view us as equals, we are beasts to him, animals."

"I don't believe that for a moment."

I stand up, my wings are flaring in anger, I hop off the bed and advance on Rainbow, "He's not from our world, his whole life he's known humans. Like what I was when I was in that weird world through the mirror. We are animals in his view."

"Animals in his world aren't sapient, Twilight. We are."

I sigh. "I know. But I can't get past what he said, and what Luna said. I was a mission to him, and Luna is the one who set him on that mission." I move back to my bed and lay down.

"Twilight, you are almost as depressed as Nick his, please come out. That party was the last time we got you out of your home."

I snort, "And look how good that turned out."

"Pinkie has already apologized, she just wanted to help, and so did I."

"I'm tired, Rainbow Dash. Please leave me alone." I lay my head on the pillow. I glare at her when she opens her mouth to say something more. She quickly subsides.

***

I'm in some kind of starscape, I was asleep. I'm in some kind of dream world, I think. I look around. "Luna, I know you are here."

The stars coalesce, revealing a midnight blue alicorn, she silently steps up to me.

"Send me back into a regular dream, Luna. I don't want to be here."

"Child, I must talk to you."

"There is nothing you can say that I would be remotely interested in." I stomp a hoof on nothingness. "And I'm not a child."

She chuckles at me, "You gain a pair of wings and suddenly you are my equal? We may both be princesses, but you have a lot to learn before you will stop being a student."

I grumble at her as she moves up next to me. "Do you know where you are, child?" she asks gently.

I look around. "It looks like we are in deep space."

She smiles at me. "No child, we are in the realm of dreams, it's a place between the world of dreams and the world of life."

"The world of dreams?"

"Yes, it is a mirror to the waking world. It is a dangerous place, nightmares are real there, not like in a pony's dreams where we can be masters of those dreams. If you die in the world of dreams, you die for real."

"If this place is so dangerous, Luna, why did you bring me here?"

"Child, I brought you to accompany me on patrolling the dreams of our little ponies, our subjects." She waves a hoof to indicate the multitude of stars all around us. "These."

"Those are the dreams of ponies?"

She nods her head at me. "Yes, child."

I look around in wonder. There are an uncountable number of dreams that I can see. She folds a wing over me and I feel the sensation of rapid movement, in moments we are in front of a glowing sphere. She places a hoof gently on the sphere. "Touch the dream and open your mind."

I do so, and all of a sudden I am in a dream, but still aware of myself. I'm in the air with Luna, and both of us are insubstantial. I look around, Rainbow Dash is performing tricks, and flying fast.

"It's Rainbow Dash's dream."

She smiles at me. "Are you so certain, child?"

A small orange blur joins the cyan pony flying. Performing every trick in perfect unison with Rainbow, the magenta maned pegasus filly loops the loop with Rainbow Dash, grinning like mad.

"Ah, so, it's Scootaloo's dream," I say to Luna.

"And she's dreaming of her fondest wish, flying with her idol." Luna looks sad. "It's a pity that is something that cannot ever happen in real life."

I look at her in shock. "She's just a late bloomer, Princess."

Luna looks at the small pegasus filly sadly. "No, she's not. Her wings will never be able to fully cooperate with her magic, she will always be grounded. And she's going to have to realize that fact on her own, for her to be truly happy."

"But, why?" I ask, flabbergasted.

Luna sighs, "That story is not for me to tell, Princess Twilight. But Scootaloo is not the reason I brought you here tonight."
I feel my hoof withdrawing from the dream and suddenly I'm back in my own body. Luna turns to me. "If you press any further into a pony's dreams, you will join the dream and can talk to them there."

"Is that what we are going to do next, Princess?"

She shakes her head. "No. I have another plan in mind."

Another dream appears not too far from me. It starts to move under its own volition towards me, I turn and gallop away from it as fast as I can go. Luna floats along with me. "What's happening, Princess? Why is this dream following me?" It's catching up, I spread my wings and take off, now it's keeping some distance, but it's still too close for comfort.

She puts a hoof to her chin in contemplation. "This is only something I've read about. When a dream walker has strong feelings for the dreamer, or the dreamer has strong feelings for the dream walker, the dream can subconsciously be attracted to the dream walker. If you stop, you'll find out who has such strong feelings for you."

I'm starting to feel winded. "Strong feelings?" I think for a moment. "Like love, or hatred?"

She nods at me. "Maybe you should stop, and find out whom has such powerful feelings for you."

"I don't think so, how do I get out of here? Is the pony dreaming this aware of this?"

She shakes her head, then reaches out to the dream and makes a scooping motion, a pony emerges from the dream and tumbles to the non existent floor. He shakes his head hard. I gasp. I know that brown coat, that mane like fire, those beautiful red eyes. I yelp quietly and somehow make myself invisible before Nick gets to see me.

He glares at Luna, "What have I told you about leaving me alone?"

Luna glances at me, she somehow knows where I am yet I'm invisible to Nick. "I am sorry Nicholas. I wanted to look into your dreams and see how you were faring, you have had many nightmares of late. I have a responsibility to my subjects to help them through bad dreams."

He turns his back to her. "Well, you can leave me alone, Moonbutt, I don't need your help to sort through my dreams."
I choke on a laugh, Luna has never been called that around me. I can tell he's furious with her.

"Young Nicholas, you are not at peace. I want to help."

"You miserable bitch, I had a life in my home. It wasn't great, but it was a life. Then you bring me here and make me do that stupid quest of yours…" he trails off, I hear a sob.

"You are in pain child. It is time to let that pain go."

"Fuck you, Princess, with all due respect."

She rears back a little at the savageness of his words. "I can forgive you for being rude, child. But please refrain from such language."

He lifts a hoof and points it, then grumbles, "I can't even give you the finger anymore."

"I wish I could do something to help ease your pain, Nicholas," Luna murmurs.

"You can send me back to my home, to my Earth."

"I don't know if that would be wise, Nicholas. You are dead there."

"You can have me wash up on some beach somewhere. I can try to rebuild a life there."

"Nicholas, I'm not even certain whether you would regain your old form on going back there. You would likely end up as a pegasus pony in a world of humans."

He stomps a hoof. "It's better than this pain. I've lost the one mare I have truly fallen in love with…" he trails off, tears falling freely from his eyes. "I don't want to be in your world without her." He falls down, and he's sobbing. I start to move to comfort him, but I'm locked in place and receive a severe glare from Luna.

"Would you have fallen in love with Twilight without my interference?"

He's silent for a long time, he's still crying, but I sense he's trying to gather words into coherent thoughts. Finally words come out, "Honestly, I don't know. I started spending time around her because of what you wanted. If I would have spent the same time with her without your little mission," he spat that last word out, "I probably would have."

"Why?"

He glares at her. "Do I have to explain to you why I love Twilight, why I fell in love with her? Why? To fulfill some morbid curiosity you have, Princess?"

"Let us just say that I require it of you, young Nicholas."

He turns his back on her. "I'm not here to satisfy your curiosity. I have to make a brave face in public, but you dragged me out of my personal dreams, I'm not going to sugar coat things for you. Yes, I love Twilight. But I don't think she will ever feel that way about me ever again."

Luna smiles at him, then glances back at me. "I don't know if I would count Twilight out, Nicholas. I shall return you to your dream." She stomps her hoof and Nick disappears and his dream reappears, immediately moving towards me. I shriek as Luna gathers me up and then my head jerks up. I sigh in relief, I’m awake now.

"Well, Child. What do you think now?"

I look at Luna, I can see, she's here in the flesh, she must have teleported. I look down. "I don't know, Princess. What I witnessed was a very personal conversation between Nick and you." I look up at her, "are you sure of the truth of what he says?"

She puts a hoof on my withers. "Princess Twilight, you must be the one to determine whether or not you believe what he told us." She sighs and sits on her haunches. "That was one very broken pony right there."

"I'm going to have to think on this for a while. I will let you know when I figure things out." I lay my head down on the bed and close my eyes.

I feel her wing envelope me, "Take your time, child. But don't take too long. This is all part of the process of healing for him. Eventually, he will catch some pony's eye. And if she can, she will do what she can to get him, and then more hearts can be broken. From what I see, he will always have these feelings for you. It's up to you to fan the embers to flames, or to reduce them to coals."

"Thank you, Princess Luna." I really mean it, looking at her warmly. I think I've finally been able to forgive her meddling, but how do I forgive Nick?

Comments

[Sparky Brony]

4554746
You are right, Luna was responsible for Nick's crash. But he didn't die, he was transported to Equestria. The human world believes he is dead, but he's alive in Equestria.

[Phenrys]

I love the wheel of time reference in this chapter. Btw, you do sad very well. *must not cry*

[Boss_Hoss1]

Ouch, Luna could have given a bigger kick to Twilight's opinions by also mentioning that she had GEASed him to be unable to say anything about Luna to Twi when he desperately wanted to, and if he was simply carrying out her orders, why did he generally avoid her for months before Dash sent them both on vacation?

[Titan Commander Sebaste]

So Luna was practically responsible for what happened, and she did this behind Tia's back!

[link4]

6841256
it's cause tia didn't have the balls to do it herself. notice how celestia doesn't teach twilight the important things? how long has she been alive, you would think she noticed mental issues in a student sh eis around almost every day. instead, she waits till luna returns to force her into making friends. and then does nothing else actively. luna, on the other hoof, actively gets twilight to learn and mature in life itself. to be fair, her methods are underhanded tho

[Thatguywiththeface]

So, Luna gets off scott free for what she did?