When the Everfree Burns

by SpiritDutch

Chapter 8: Heathens

Twilight awoke, already soaked through from the rain.

There was no prelude this time. No build-up of a journey through the Everfree Forest. Twilight was already at the dream's destination.
The Everfree Castle, cracked and grey, loomed around her. Twilight recognized the colonnaded space and shattered roof of the ruined throne room. Rainwater pattered and pooled on the broken floor tiles.

How dark, how bleak. Right in front of Twilight was the object of her search for the past weeks, the obsidian Nightmare Altar, looming over the room at the edge of the raised dais.

"Check, one two." Twilight stood up and exercised her limbs. Like the last time, it felt very real. There was none of the cloudiness and indistinctness of a normal dream. It was a perfect simulation of reality.
"Or maybe just a simulacra. I don't know that this throne room is reflected in reality." Twilight reminded herself.

Lastly, Twilight tried to summon up her magic, and felt a swell of discomfort in her horn. The magical currents were too tumultuous. Once again Twilight was helpless, lacking her greatest talent.

For a while, Twilight just stood and stared at the obsidian altar, wondering what to do. There was probably no leaving the confines the dream placed on her. It had intentions, and goal. It wanted her to interact with the altar again.
It wanted her to summon the Nightmare alicorn.

Twilight shivered, remembering how the demon alicorn had killed her last time.
"If I sit here forever, will I eventually wake up on my own?" Twilight wondered. She idly fussed with her wet mane as she thought. "Will the altar compel me psychically again?"

Those questions aside, Twilight could not deny that she wanted to summon the alicorn again, at least a little bit. It was, recalling her previous thoughts, like a chained tiger. Yes it was a chained GOD, with hellacious powers and an immortal anger! Such a thing should have been revolting and terrifying to Twilight, and it was.
It was also enticing, a little taboo, and... lucrative. If Twilight alone had been summoned to witness the alicorn, was there something she could gain from it, at great risk?

Twilight laughed nervously. Was she going to do it? She shouldn't... It was so beyond the pale! How could she even begin to describe to somepony how or why she had cavorted with a Dark goddess. What would Celestia think?
Celestia...

The painful, shattered-glass voice whispered in Twilight's ear. “Act upon something greater, broader, and discover you can not." The voice said, taunting her. “Thus it is, that at their best, ponies can not even change themselves, let alone the world.”

Twilight felt a surge of indignant annoyance that the Nightmare had interrupted her introspection. "You damned thing, leave me. I still don't want to be here." She said, slowly approaching it.

"Such is life, but also death." The horrible voice was smug.

Twilight tried to summon up more anger but found that the cold rain was washing all that out of her. She sighed in resignation. She'd felt so confident before, but the prospect of actually confronting the alicorn sucked it out of her. She stepped closer to the obsidian altar. "Tell me you name.”

The altar cackled. “Oh, this is very clever. You are recreating the pact we had. Do you wish to see me?"

"Tell me your name." Twilight repeated, firmer.

The voice turned serious. "Will you tell me yours in return?”

“Yes.” Twilight lied, reestablishing the summoning pact.

In a muted flash of blue magic, a patch of clear sky was punched through the clouds, allowing a silken thread of magic to tether the dark altar to the heavens. The light bloomed, brighter, brighter until it encapsulated half the dais.
When it faded, the hulking phantom stood before the thrones once more. The Nightmare of the Moon opened its eyes and turned them to Twilight.

“Hello again.” Twilight said cautiously. She was thankful the altar had not grabbed her by the horn this time.

The Nightmare wasted no time in seizing the small unicorn in her magic. “A corpse like you should stay on the ground. Was thirteen nights not enough for you?” She said. "My impression of you thus far, pony, is almost entirely negative. History and I would have rather have forgotten you."

Twilight struggled against the invisible hand strangling her without any real expectation of escape. “Let me- urg- go, and I'll leave.”

“Bah! Shameless liar.” Nightmare tossed Twilight across the room.

Twilight had landed under one of the intact patches of roof, and was partially concealed from both the rain and the alicorn. She coughed painfully. "Asshole!" Twilight shouted.

"Are you a typical specimen of your kind, little pony? You ponies must have be propagating under the misrule of a lax shepherd indeed!" The Nightmare shouted back, pacing back and forth. "Does your master let you talk that way to her? Does she not whip you when you disrespect her? Pitiful, decedent liberality. Your species needs discipline."

Twilight rolled to her hooves. The dream was a little too real at hurting her, as a piercing pain in her side reminded. "Urg..." Twilight stayed under the patch of roof. "I bet you belted your children and kicked your dogs too. You're just a rude sociopath. It's no wonder you don't get other visitors."

“DO NOT PRESUME TO BE FAMILIAR WITH ME!” Nightmare screamed, raging mad at the insults. A halo of lightning arced from her to the stones around her, fizzling on the puddles. "Worthless ingrate. I would kill you a dozen more times if it would produce better company for me. I do not like the look of you. I do not like the sight of you. You smell... You smell like... You are just disgusting."

Twilight pulled herself around a collapsed column to avoid Nightmare’s gaze catching her. She had to be cautious, lest she be caught underestimating the dark alicorn again. "But the fact stands that you're chained to a chunk of rock and I'm not.”

“AAAAAAGGGGGGG!” Nightmare howled in anger, and more electricity scattered around the room. The nightmare ran at the boundary between her and the rest of the throne room, straining madly as it held her back. The alicorn's shadowy phantasmal shape warped as the magical tendrils pulled her back within her invisible cell.

Then, unexpectedly, the nightmare alicorn calmed down. She looked back towards the obsidian altar, then forward. She sat on her haunches and narrowed her sights on Twilight's hiding place. "You do not have the makings of a jester, pony. You have been coddled too much, or you would have been told to be more forthright, and speak the truth without your too-witty embellishment."

Twilight was coming to expect the rapid shifts in behavior. The alicorn was fickle and unstable indeed. So, Twilight showed herself, stepping from behind a collapsed column so the nightmare could see her. "If I'm going to anger you no matter what I say, I might as well gratify myself through this experience." She paused. "I'm not trying to be a jester."

"I can tell you are used to self-gratification. Another consequence of your decedent, un-disciplined life." The Nightmare said, sitting in place, staring Twilight down. "I consider it false bravado too. You hope to hide that you are afraid."

The nightmare seemed to have an obsession with fear. Considering their mythological association with fear and other Dark concepts, it was to be expected. "I haven't hidden that. You are a mighty creature." Twilight said. "If you want me to suffer instead of fear, I won't help you with that." She considered her next words. "If you wish for me to respect you, rather than fear you, we can both hope that comes in time.

The Nightmare sat in stone silence.

Was the silence a good sign or a bad sign? Twilight was going to try some conversation prompts. "I asked some of the peasants about the mare you asked about, with the coal-black fur. Nopony had seen her. Is she dangerous? If she is, please tell me more about her so I can narrow down her location."

The Nightmare dipped her nose, a glower coming over her features.

That topic was a non-starter then. "Look, I'm sorry for being sarcastic before. I have no ego to try and impress you or get one over on you. I just want to understand what's going on." She stepped forward, out from under the shadow of the roof remnants, into the moonlight. "I do not want to have to fear you."

"That is most contemptible of all. You are desperate to assuage the least discomfort." The Nightmare huffed. However, she did not summon the moonlight to bind Twilight again. "Get it through your head, pony. Your very presence is disrespect of the highest order."

"And you can't get rid of me, and you can't express your displeasure. Yes, I understand." Twilight nodded.

"I assure you, you do not understand." The Nightmare said. "What do you take me for? I am not your neighbor, or a tavern conversation partner. I am the Moon. If you gave me due respect you would not even open your mouth."

"I remember you aggressively pushing me to talk last time." Twilight said. The nightmare was infuriatingly self-contradictory. "I should give up trying to find out what you want or expect from me."

"YES, YOU SHOULD." The Nightmare bellowed. "I am not an object for your examination. I am the MOON PRINCESS. Turn your eyes to the floor and keep them there. They are not worthy to see me." She at waved Twilight dismissively. "Better still, go back behind that rubble so I do not have to see you either! We will be separated as it should be."

Twilight hesitated for a second, but seeing that the nightmare was completely serious, she shuffled backwards and returned to the hiding spot behind the collapsed columns.

In the shadow of the ruin, out of the light of the moon,Twilight sat against the cold stone wall and sighed. Slowly, the fear and tension in her body went away.
Twilight closed her eyes. Dealing with the nightmare... it reminded her of the arguments she would get in with Celestia, in the last days as her direct pupil just before she left for the University. They would snipe at each other, tersely, icily, trying to get the other to trip into some hypocrisy. It was one of the worse times in Twilight's life, having to deal with a princess she didn't trust every single day, but looking back it felt almost nostalgic.

"I can hear you thinking. I see her through your reminiscences of her." The Nightmare's gravelly whisper echoed through the silent ruin. "You really can not help yourself. Everything you do infuriates me so much."

"It would be better if fate had allowed us to stay apart." Twilight said sourly.

"Speak not of fate. That is her domain. Mine is the antithesis." Nightmare said. Her voice turned to a mechanical chanting. "Come onto me, the powers of my aspect, of martial forces of war, of slaughter, of ambition. I will rise again to bear aloft the banner of Dark. Let evil be known and understood. Let me embody it all, the totality of sin. I will slaughter, heedless of sense and civilization. That is my calling. That is my birthright. Under the bloody Nacre star I will let mortals have their Dreams again."

Such horrible words. Twilight felt like she was going to be sick. "If you returned to the world, you would try to take over the world again?"

The Nightmare's chanting turned to a throaty hum for a few more minutes. "I am an alicorn. I already own my own part of the world. Being unable to manifest in the Waking World is of little concern to me." She stopped humming. "I am as free as I could ever desires."

That was obviously not entirely true. However Twilight did not want to start pressing on the past, especially not about the Everfree War, considering how much of a sore spot Celestia seemed to be.
"What would make you happy?"

"You think me a child, to ask me such idiotic things?" The Nightmare hissed.

Twilight sighed and kicked at a pebble. "Nightmare, this whole thing with you being summoned by the altar portends something worse. I have to use my foreknowledge of your return to prevent as much harm as I can. Either I stop you, or... mitigate you, or something like that."

The nightmare alicorn was silent for a while. "Repeat that in front of me, pony." She said.

Twilight rolled her eyes. "You're just going to yell at me again."

"No I will not yell. I swear it." The Nightmare said. "Come forth, please."

After so much aggression and standoffishness, the 'please' was unexpected and alarming. All the same, there was a sinister allure to the alicorn's words, a divine seductiveness to mirror the divine rage. That what was enticing.
"Nightmare," Twilight got up, and against her better judgement, stepped out into the moonlight. "I said that I must prevent the harm you could do to ponykind."

The Nightmare of the Moon was still sitting in place. "Closer." She said.

Twilight obliged, trotting to within two meters of the demon alicorn. "Nightmare- Princess," Twilight corrected herself, remembering the preferred title. "I am concerned that you present a danger to ponykind. I will do what I must."

Now Twilight was close enough to read the expression on the phantasmal face of the other mare. "Closer." Nightmare repeated.

"I-" Twilight cleared her throat and stepped right up to the Nightmare. Sitting, the alicorn was almost twice as tall as Twilight was standing. "I am a vassal of the princess of the sun. If you intend to harm her, or her subjects, I am oathbound to be your enemy." Twilight said, shaking a bit.

"Yes, you are." Nightmare said, her unblinking gaze peering through Twilight. "Do you want her to laud you? Do you want her to thank and adore you? It is not for the precious ponykind that you say such things. It is for your own sake. You have no love for ponykind... And that is why I think I am beginning to trust you, pony."

Twilight felt stung. "You don't know anything." She barked.

Nightmare chuckled. "Heh heh heh. You have a noblepony of high education. You have a mild Canterlot accent and your physiology is reminiscent of a Foal unicorn. You led a solitary youth. You have a complicated relationship with maternal figures, sisterly figures, brotherly figures... ohh, but such is the life of a noble where fratricide is so common, nay?"

"Get out of my head!" Twilight tried to shove Nightmare, but the alicorn did not budge, and Twilight lost her balance and fell backwards instead.

Nightmare kept chuckling. "Heh heh. But I can not gleam your name. Nor can I be sure why you, of all the sycophantic servants of the sun, were cursed and bound here. Nothing about you is especially uncommon, so far. Yet here you are, before me, the Moon. It may be mere chance that it-" She motioned towards the obsidian altar. "summoned you here to be my prey. Or, there may be a reason."

Twilight stayed on the ground where she'd fallen. She was emotionally exhausted and did not want to be drawn into another argument.

However Nightmare was not satisfied with that. Despite her claims, she seemed displeased Twilight was no longer contributing to the conversation. "You are my foe, and I am yours. That much is clear. Wonderful, is it not, to have that unifying us? Even as different species we can feel the same emotions, reciprocated." Nightmare grabbed Twilight's forehoof in her telekinesis and lifted her up so they were face to face. "Is that not a conquest, in a way, to make you share my feelings?"

Twilight avoided matching Nightmare's stare with her own.

"I would not do this for just anypony, little mortal. Do not be coy with me." Nightmare insisted.

Undaunted, Twilight tried twisting her body and to kick herself back from Nightmare. Her hooves just bounced off the shadowy phantom's body. Then Twilight tried a spell. She could only manage a light spell, and only with great difficulty. How was the Nightmare using telekinesis when the magical currents were so chaotic?
"Having me in your grasp is what settles you down?" Twilight spat. "You just want a living punching-bag. You're sick. If i had my magic this would be another story, princess."

"Maybe. That would be a fun contest." Nightmare nodded. "But you don't, so it isn't." She tilted her head. "Call me princess again, and I will send you off painlessly this time."

Twilight glowered. "Bite me!"

The Nightmare of the Moon laughed. "I really do loathe you. You will awake, and enjoy the bright fields of flax and wheat, the marble halls, the warmth of civilization. I will go back to the moon, and there I will stay, until we are summoned here again."
Nightmare released Twilight. The unicorn fell onto her head, and lay dazed in the pooling rainwater. Nightmare pressed a hoof into Twilight's back. "Last chance to make it gentle, little pony."

It was extremely tempting. But despite there being little love lost between her and Celestia, Twilight was not about to repudiate the empire she'd lived under her whole life. Being an outright traitor to Celestia was nauseating to even consider.
It was better than things stayed where they were, and where they had been, in the realm of ambiguity.
So it was with the Moon alicorn. Twilight could call her an enemy, but still try to build some kind of accord.

"I might wake up and go about my buisness, but just like you, I'm going to be thinking about next time. And there is nothing either of us can do about it." Twilight said bitterly.

"Tshh, can't wait." The Nightmare grumbled.
She pressed her hoof down harder. Then, in a single motion, Nightmare bit Twilight's foreleg and ripped it off.

Twilight was too in shock and pain to react or speak. The Nightmare was saying something but she did not hear, and it she barely realized it when her other limbs were torn away before the alicorn murdered her.

Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock.

Twilight pulled her face off of her papers. It was nearly dawn.
"Bu-uuu-cking hell." Twilight groaned. She felt a tingle down her spine and at her shoulder joints. "I really hate that alicorn." It was going to be a miserable day.

---

By the time the sun rose, the storm over Canterlot had begun to peter out. The winds died down and the clouds cleared away, leaving a somewhat battered and very soaked city.
Celestia shook the water off her fur, and flapped her wings a few times to dry them out. Immortal did not make her waterproof, only water resistant. She peered over her nose at the streets below, where a light mist began to form.

Another day. Things going on around her, but only one purpose, one responsibility for her- to watch, and to keep away the visions.

There was somepony climbing the watchtower to see her, an unfamiliar aura, not a guard of castle staff.

Celestia reluctantly turned away from the southern skies to face the interloper right as they stepped out from the stairwell onto the top of the tower- They were an earth pony, dressed very plainly, a seemingly random civilian.

"Holy princess." The pony immediately bowed. "I beg your forgiveness for the intrusion. The guild mistress apologizes that it was necessary to trespass like this."

The guild mistress. Celestia remained motionless, prompting the messenger to continue only by her silence.

"The mistress has sent several letters. It is with regret and desperation that she requests an immediate audience."

Celestia turned away from the guild mare, and watched the mist over Canterlot for a few minutes longer.
"I have not the time for her."

From behind Celestia, there was a whistling sound, then a whoosh and pop of dragonfire. Celestia felt that another, more menacing presence had joined them on the watchtower.

"You may go. Do not let the guards see you." Guild mistress Phyte said, dismissing the underling. The guild mare quickly retreated down the tower.

"Why is there a Star in my castle?" Celestia mused.

"Because the vow of vassalage goes two ways, Celestiaan. You have responsibilities to me." Phyte was clearly angry, biting off the end of each word as she spoke them. "Face me princess. I will not speak to your back."

"Yes you would." Celestia tittered to herself. Still, she slowly faced the second interloper.

The tall red mare before her was nearly entirely concealed by her silky mane. Phyte’s eyes glowed a dark red out from under its shadow. Like Celestia herself, the creature before her was passingly equine.

"Have you added some height to yourself? That is very cheeky, Mis Phyte. You may come up to my chin soon." Celestia nettled. "You never come calling anymore. I hope you have not grown tired of the inconvenience of asking permission before killing my subjects."

"The only tired thing is this diversion. You do not raise a hoof when the ponies kill each other in drunken brawls and fits of passion. You scrutinize me because of make death rational and efficient." Phyte hissed. "Am I no longer useful to you in that role? You let me be abused, attacked, and tormented. My grief must mean nothing to you, Celestiaan."

The guild mistress was incapable of comprehending the hypocrisy. Celestia did not even both to press her on it. "I heard about Vinyl."

"Oh it is very well that the princess knows about a lynching happening under her snout." Phyte spat.

"Why was she in the city? She was paroled under strict terms, Star. I can not protect a cheat." Celestia said.

"I- I was anything but lax about her stupid decision to return! I was going to send her away again." Phyte insisted. "I will not accept any excuse that puts the blame on Vinyl for her own death." She stepped up to Celestia. “None of this would have happened if you hadn’t exiled her.”

"We will not second-guess the decision we made ten years ago. I will not engage with hypotheticals. Be serious and talk of costs and consequences, Star." Celestia said firmly. "Your pony returned, illegally. I have heard that she was just as wild and out of control as she was before."

"Post-hoc nonsense, Celestia. You let this happen out of negligence. Your city is out of control." Phyte accused.

Celestia's regal and stoic demeanor shifted, and the slightest frown formed on her face. "It is unwise to question the control of the Sun's princess. Her domain is the fates of all things. Nothing is out of her control." Celestia paused, her momentary anger passing into bemusement. "And furthermore you should not deride she who can unmake you, Mis Phyte. You can voice your dissatisfaction without stooping to insults."

Phyte's red eyes glared out from under mane. "I am more than just a little dissatisfied, vaunted sun princess. If you are so in control, then you let them die."

"I let everything die. It is the way of things." Celestia agreed.

"I-" Phyte flashed her teeth. "You mock my grief."

"No. It is just that I do not understand it. Nor do you, for that matter. I see through you, Star. This is pure affectation." Celestia said. "You have no love in you, not for a single soul, not a single mortal. You love nothing, nothing except yourself, and you have no soul." The princess turned away, going back to watching the southing skies. "I know your late guild mares did not kill Sir Fancy Pants. In that sense, they died unjustly."

Phyte lurched forward, leaning over the edge of the tower to try to get Celestia attention again. "My mare spoke of a nightmare-"

"The murder was done by something evil, that much is clear. It lurks around us even at this moment." Celestia said, keeping her eyes on the sky as she spoke. "But that is of no concern to me yet. I will deal with the lurker when I feel like it."

"You will deal with me NOW, Celestiaan. This audience is NOT over." Phyte fumed. "Murderer be damned, your institutions of peace has murdered my mares, my precious Vinyl. I demand revenge."

"Do what you want, but stop bothering me." Celestia said.

"Oh, will you be so flippant if I revenge myself on the mare that your guards are scapegoating, Twilight Velvet? Maybe I will be unjust to your First Student's mother." Phyte hissed. "Would that stir you?"

"Did I mutter, Star? I said do what you want. Bother me no more. You are tiresome." Celestia spread her wings forward, blocking her face from Phyte's view.

Phyte took a few steps back, and stood awkwardly beside the stairs. "This- This is a breach of feudal contract, Celestiaan. This is treachery and treason. You will make an enemy of me with this kind of behavior." She threatened. "Do you hear me, alicorn? I said you will make an enemy of me. Your nation will have an enemy of me. You might be able to stand there ignoring me, but can your ponies?"

Celestia completely ignored the angry mare.

Phyte did not continue her ranting. They both knew talk was cheap. Phyte could make threats, but would she actually disrupt the institutions of peace? Not if she feared Celestia would come down on her with fire, seeming apathy or not. As with so many things, a veil of ambiguity protected the status quo.

There was no point even saying goodbye. Phyte could better spent her energy planning revenge on whomever she decided to victimize.
Her horn glowed with magic, producing a vial of dragonfire from the folds of her dress.

"Wait-" Celestia dropped her wings and looked back at Phyte. "The Stars. What are their movements?"

Phyte stared in silence for a while. The two creatures communicated wordlessly by their emotionless gazes, that no matter the squabbles and latest frustrations, that they were part of a much longer and more complicated game, above petty concerns about pony lives.
"Not much has changed in the past few years. Those in Equestria are languishing under your terms. Those overseas are causing havoc wherever they go." Phyte paused, going through her memory to consider if there was anything of particular note. "Black Bell has been a particular nuisance to Griffany, my sources say. You should consider using your colonial fleet to put her back in her place."

"Yes I know about Black Bell. Sometimes she intrudes on my domain. Arrogant griffin." Celestia said. Talking shop, she had returned to a calm tone. "Until she bothers the Equestrian colonies, I consider her a foreign problem. It is the nearby troublemaker Stars, like you or Shale, that I must keep an eye on."

"Treat me better and I will keep an eye on myself alicorn." Phyte chuckled dryly. "Eleven other Stars to keep track of is no small task.

"Ten other Stars." Celestia corrected. "Clover is dead."

"I'll give you that. Clover is... as dead as Stars can be." Phyte nodded. She let out a slight sigh, releasing a bit of tension from the shouting earlier. "Anyhow..."
She cleared her throat. "I was not kidding, Celestiaan. I'm getting my satisfaction for my Vinyl's death, someway, somehow."

"So too, was I not kidding when I told you to do what you want." Celestia said, her lids drooping in tired annoyance of the topic being brought back up. "You act with impertinent egocentricity all the rest of the time, killing whoever you please. Why have you chosen to ask permission now? Leave me in peace." She turned away. What was it about the southern sky that so captivated her attention?

"By your leave, Celestiaan. Have a good rest of your day." Phyte said. She did not feel completely satisfied, but she was slightly more convinced that the princess was going to let her get away with terror.
The guild mistress uncorked the vial of dragonfire and embraced it with her magic. She disappeared in a conflagration of sickly green fire.

Wretched sinner, Celestia thought sourly. A lack of soul would not protect them from damnation, when the time came.
Let the time come, she begged the skies, for judgement to arrive and wipe away the trivialities, confusions, and ambiguities. Did the sun princess even know what she was asking?

---

"Sir Armor?"

Shining Armor roused from his state of half consciousness. "Hmm?"

"Are you awake sir?"

Shining perked up and looked around. He was by the door to Junior Princess Cadenza's tower, where he'd stationed himself for the night.
Morning light was beginning to illuminate the hallway. Standing before him was a knight, just coming on watch.

"Uhh." Shining blinked a couple more times and cleared his throat. "Yeah. I'm awake. Best not mention this though. I can't stay up for three days straight like I used to."

The knight saluted. "Aye sir. I came with a message is all. There are city guardsponies who tried to get through the front door. They said they have news for the princess."

"Gads, enough of ponies and their news." Shining said, wrinkling his nose. He straightened himself up, trying to set a better professional example. "Princess Cadenza is resting after tending to emergent issues last night during the storm. I can receive the news in her stead."

"Yes, sir." The knight nodded. "The guardsponies wished to convey that they located what is believe to be the secret hideout of the one of the assassins who killed Vizier Fancy Pants."

Shining suddenly felt much more awake. "By the gods, let us hope so." He said enthusiastically. "Hopefully there would be clues to whether the assassin mares had actually killed Fancy Pants or, as Velvet had claimed, it was somepony else. "I will head there right away." He gestured to the locked door beside him. "The princess will likely be keeping to herself today. Keep the court, out."

"Aye sir. Say hello to the city guard for us." The knight nodded.

A half-hour later, in the misty Inner City, Shining Armor arrived at the foot of one of the many tenement towers rising from the decrepit rowhouses of the district. City guardsponies shivered in the cold morning air as he approached, watching the entrance and fending off curious locals.

"The knight captain is here." A guardspony called into the building.

"Not the captain, just the charge d'affairs." Shining said, wearing a thin smile. "Having a good day so far boys?"

"Oh yeah, you're Sir Armor. You were at the gatehouse." The guardspony nodded. "We're doing fine sir. Hell of a storm last night. My windows rattled like hell."

"You need to get your landlord to fix that dump up." The other guardspony remarked. She turned to Shining. "Same could be said for this place, Sir. It was condemned years ago. Same old story. Hack construction project by a corrupt Imperial courtier and their friends friends. There was a craze of these towers back when migrants were flooding into town. Well, this one hasn't fallen over so it must be sturdier than most."

"One of the assassins lived here?" Shining craned his neck up to find the roof of the formidable building. It represented a more optimistic phase of imperial governance in Canterlot.

"The second unicorn, whose name we don't know." The guardspony nodded. "All alone in this big place. Like a palace, huh?"

"Let's head in sir. Our sergeant is expecting you." The guard held open the door for him.

The inside of the tenement was as awe inspiring as it was depressing.
Shining really could see what the architect was going for. A central atrium ringed by the main stairwell ran down the entire height of the building, but it had become so clogged with trash that it was a real struggle to get over it to the stairwell. The bones of the building were stone and brick, which remained intact while wood and bark walls rotted away from neglect. Whole floors had collapsed onto the ones beneath. The roof, hundreds of hooves above their heads, dripped rainwater on them.

"Huh." Shining carefully stepped around the room. Voices were echoing down the atrium from the higher levels. "So much effort and ponypower goes into these towers. It's a shame so many of them end up this way."

"The way I heard it, this one in particular had a lot of pegasi in it. When the Cloudsdale clique left there was nopony to lobby for maintenance." A guardspony mused.

"Bloody pegasi causing trouble even by their absence." Another guardspony joked, eliciting a few chuckles.

Shining quirked a brow. It was more mean-spirited than most pony tribal jokes went. He hoped the veiled tribalism of the Black Horn Council wasn't bleeding into the popular consciousness. "If you say so." Shining cleared his throat. "So, where's the sergeant?"

"Up. The assassin lived on the top floor." The guardspony explained apologetically. "Damn annoying climb, sir."

"Just warn me of where the protruding nails are." Shining followed her.

They wound their way up the stairs, avoiding collapsed sections and loose boards, all the way to the top, where the decay was less severe, and the rotting less advanced.

The guard sergeant and several city guardsponies were milling near one of the doors.
"Sir Armor!" The sergeant hailed him. "Glad you could come."

"Not much else happening this time of day." Shining smiled thinly. "What can you tell me?"

"We think the unknown unicorn was here. The earth pony, Octavia, might have also lived here at a different point." The sergeant said.

"Recently?" Shining asked.

"Yes sir." The sergeant led him into the room. It had been thoroughly trashed by the city guard's investigations. The detectives were fiddling with some items near a desk. "This was probably a primary hideout or residence."

"Fair." Shining didn't see anything very interesting, just things for day to day living. "Leads?"

"Not much sir. There were some ashes that were probably burned papers." One of the detectives said. "But there is this thing." He tapped a big birdcage sitting on the dresser.

"Maybe Polly was burned along with the papers." The guard sergeant guffawed.

"Lest she squawk." Shining completed the joke. He trotted over the the birdcage, tapping it with a hoof. It had a slightly magical aura to it.
After a moment of consideration, he stuck his hoof inside. "None of you touched this right? And there wasn't anything inside?"

"Correct, sir." The sergeant said.

"Then this is all a show." Shining said dourly, withdrawing his hoof. "It's warm, and a little damp. Somepony came by very recently and took Polly with them. They probably burned the papers too." He sighed. "We might have even been able to see wet hoofprints on this dusty floor before a dozen of us milled around on it."

"A show?" The sergeant repeated. He paused, slowly catching on. "We were in the neighborhood this morning investigating the murder of a guard a few weeks back. A drunk tipped us off to this place, but wandered away."

"We won't find that drunk intact." Shining said gravely. "Somepony is leading us along after sanitizing anything actually useful or incriminating." Or anything that would absolve the alleged killer mares.
"Did the guard die during the sweep of city?"

"Uh, yes sir." The sergeant coughed. "It was close by too. Poor boy might've run into the killers alone, while they were trying to reach this hideout. That might've been why they forwent hunkering down here, ehh? Almost makes the sacrifice worth it."

Shining felt his stomach sink. It had been the best of bad choices, to put the guards out on the street in force. There had been several unnecessary deaths. Shining wanted to shove all the blame on Captain Hauseway but knew he bore a bit of the guilt as well. There was little Shining could do for the dead now but offer them his regret. "I see. That is plausible. It may or may not be related. We just hope that it gets solved, like all of this mess."

"Very true Sir." The sergeant bowed. "It's sure looking like some kind of cover-up. If that's not a mess, I don't know what is. It'll be damn satisfying to find out who's behind it all."

Shining remained silent. For the dead, it didn't really matter who was behind it all.
He walked to the window. The floor they were on was just above the layer of mist over the city. Here and there, other tenement towers and temple spires peeked above as well. It was like a pegasus city floating on clouds. TO hammer home the resemblance, there were a few pegasi flying here and there.
One of the temple's bells began to toll. Shining shivered, remembering the cacophony of bells from the dark night.

"Sir?" A guardspony queried, seeing Shining's strained expression.

"Just thinking about the future." Shining turned and made his way to the exit of the dour appartment. "This was well discovered, ponies. You're all a credit to your corp, your lodge, and Cnaterlot. If you discover anything else, let me know."

"Of course, Sir Armor. We defer to the IHG on this." The sergeant bowed again. "Ave Celestia."

"Yeah yeah." Shining began his descent of the stairs.
Did Celestia deserve praise for the feats of Ponykind? When the masterminds were brought to justice, would she be happy? She was supposed to be guiding ponykind, but everything had begun to feel so aimless.

Shining returned the deadly thought he'd humored before, of disciplining ponykind and the empire, of making it worthy of the princess's attention again. If Shining did what his darkest emotions demanded and cleansed the decadence, and the princess returned to them, would it really be vindicated?
But it was directionless animosity. Besides the stupid Court and listless Council, who else did Shining want to discipline? He didn't know the identity of the masterminds of Fancy Pants murder. In that way, the investigation into the assassin mares was his play for grace, a race against the other strivers.

Shining descended the tenement's rickety stairs, back into the mist-bound streets, and the despondent masses of the Inner City district.
"Things aren't the same without you, princess. I've tried to make do with Cadence but..." Shining dropped that thought. He still didn't have his feeling about Cadence fully sorted out. She was complicated, and so was his own feelings about her. The argument and revelations in the throne room the night previous hadn't helped at all.
"I'll do everything I can to help you back, your highness, Celestia. Then Cadence's role, and mine, will be simple again, and we can be happy."

---

Twilight had tried to make the best of waking up early, making some tea for herself and doing some cleaning around the Golden Oak. Her sleep had been anything from restful, and she just felt miserable and tired. By the time she sun rose she just wanted to go to bed and try again. This time, she thought, hopefully her dreams would be her own.

Once she settled into an armchair with a cup of tea, tapping a hoof in time with the grandfather clock. Being alone was not as calming as it usually was.
Then a thought occurred to her- How had the Nightmare Melody reached her, and had if ensnared anypony else?

Twilight set her tea aside and thought about how she might survey the Ponyvillians to find out more. Was there some danger if she asked them directly? Twilight's head swirled with conspiracies and plots, where there could be a link between the mystery of Ponyvillians were keeping from her, and the nightmare powers lurking in the Everfree.

"If I was in Canterlot, I could consult the castle library on ritual magic, or ask my professors. There has to be an explanation." Twilight flipped through her papers, double checking her math. Unless somepony or some thing had amplified it, there should have been no way that the Nightmare Melody would have been able to reach her.
"This might be my ticket..." Twilight mused. "The thing that amplified it, might happen again. Maybe I can set a trap."

Twilight realized she was making a lot of assumptions. She didn't have much proof- Even her measurements of the magical aura coming out of the Everfree had no empirical connection to the entrancing melody only she could hear.

"So I need more points of data. A trap could work if I know what I'm trapping." Twilight mumbled to her herself.

A shadow passed over the curtained windows. Twilight lept up and ran to the window, but whoever it had been was gone.

"I'm literally jumping at shadows. I need to pull it together." Twilight rubbed her eyes, and let the curtain fall back over the window. "But these ponies won't tell me anything! I need to know more!" She was trapped. If she tried to message Canterlot, Celestia could intercept it and there was no telling how the princess would react.

Twilight was about to return to her chair when another, more devious thought occurred to her- There was somepony who had been forthcoming.
The Nightmare of the Moon had been slowly opening up to her. Unlike the Ponyvillians, the nightmare alicorn had nopony else to talk to, and no reason for message discipline.
So maybe just maybe, Twilight thought, Twilight could get the other data points she need from the Nightmare Pretender.

"Maybe I'll be taking the trap I need." Twilight said to herself. She downed the rest of her tea. "Spike! Are you awake! Let's go for a picnic!"

Half-an-hour later, Twilight and Spike were trotting through Ponyville in the direction of the bridge. It was still early in the day and a few ponies were outside, doing their morning chores about their cottages. They all watched Twilight as she passed, silent but judging the outsider.

Twilight didn't care. She felt like she had a clear path to uncovering a part of the mystery. The village ponies wouldn't be so smug once she uncovered their secret all on her own.

They stopped on top of the stone bridge. "I get to see the Everfree Forest up close, huh?" Spike remarked.

"Not that close." Twilight shook her head. "Besides, we're just out here for an excursion."

"Yeah right." Spike rolled his eyes.

They forged ahead, wading through the tall grass until they were halfway to the forest's edge. Then, Twilight began to feel it- the influence Nightmare Melody reached just about as far as it had the day previous.

"Here." Twilight spread out their picnic blanket. "Let's have some tea." She plucked a flask and some cups from the basket. "Green tea, non-caffeinated."

Spike eyed the green liquid with skepticism. "Okay, Twilight, there's no way you'd have green tea before noon. If you expect me to play along, you have to tell me what you're doing."

"It's simple." Twilight explained, nudging the picnic basket towards Spike. "I'm going to take a nap right here. You watch to make sure no bugs get on me, and in exchange you get to have the rest of the stuff in the basket."

Spike opened the basket, full of pastries from Pinkie Pie's bakery. "Nice. You're lucky that dragons are easily bribed." Spike joked. "And you packed a book for me too. That's thoughtful I guess."

"Yup, I sure am." Twilight nodded. "So just watch me and make sure nothing bad happens!"

"Sure Twilight." Spike said between mouthfuls of treats.

Twilight took a sip of the calming green tea and laid on her side on the blanket. It was not the relaxing spot, with the sun above, the buzz of insects, spike's noisy chewing, and the haunting refrains of the melody in her head. Still, in her tired state, it did not take long for Twilight to fall asleep.

And right back to life, a dreamer once again, in that dangerous ruin in the forest. Twilight was in the Everfree castle's throne room once again.
It was daylight, presumably reflecting the real world. Its dimensions were much less imposing now that Twilight could see it all. It was something to consider.

"Hello!" Twilight trotted up to the Nightmare Altar. However, the block of obsidian remained inert. Twilight could still feel the Dark magic just under its glassy surface, but it was not rising to her hoof as before.
"This is inconvenient." Twilight scowled in the general direction of the sun. "How long am I going to be stuck here?"

"Longer than one might think!" The Nightmare of the Moon's voice pierced through her mind.

"Ah!" Twilight reeled away, clutching her head. She staggered, eyes going unfocussed. Below her, the mid-morning shadows, shortened then lengthened again, then grew very long. The ambient light died away.
By the time Twilight had a grip on her senses again, the Sun was rapidly setting behind the forest canopy. For a brilliant second, sunlight refracted through the remaining bits of stained glass behind the broken thrones, until dusk was upon the Everfree.

Night had come, and Twilight could feel the attention of the moon upon her, watching her as it replaced the vanquished sun.

"A devil's hour draws near, pony." The nightmare's disembodied voice proclaimed. "As you were so eager to reconvene, I deemed it appropriate to speed along this dream as well. Exiled as I am, I remain the suzerain of all dream logic!"

Twilight was half-listening, mostly worrying when the accelerated sensation of time had meant in the waking world. Had it become night out there as well? "You're full of surprises."

"The moon is ever in flux, as am I. Quick now, lay out your terms that I may be summoned." The Nightmare chuckled, her cackling voice going up and down the register. "Where before you said fate should have kept us apart-"

"Shut up. Can I set that as a condition for summoning you? That you shut up?" Twilight snapped. "And second that you don't kill me in the worst way possible?"

"What words for only our third meeting, pony." The Nightmare said, toning down her boisterousness. "Would'st thou not have tolerated my nature, to come back voluntarily?"

"You don't know what I did voluntarily or not." Twilight said.

"You are under the moon. I read your dreams, pony." The Nightmare said.

"You might be a natural at dream magic, but you're not that good. You can't literally read thoughts and intentions." Twilight said argumentatively. "You're just clever enough to make good inferences."

"Match your words with action, pony. Probe me back. Oh, but are you lacking your magic? What a shame." The Nightmare mocked. "Try again during the day. Sun-coddled runt."

During the day? It occurred to Twilight that she had not tried using her magic when she entered the dream this time, assuming it would be turbulent again. Devious machinations ran through her head, about how she could use her magic against the alicorn.

"Do your plotting on your own time! Be prompt and summon me hence!" The Nightmare said.

Twilight reluctantly stepped up to the obsidian Nightmare Altar. "Tell me your name, princess."

"I shall, in exchange for yours, pony." The Nightmare said with a chortle.

The moon's Dark energy came down like a bolt of lightning, filling the throne room with blue light. The phantasmal shape of the nightmare alicorn stepped out of it, stretching her wings. "Oh, that I could enter this world farther." The Nightmare of the Moon mumbled contentedly. "I shall admit to you, this world fills me with joys that are can not be found on the moon...
I only fear that they are fleeting joys of the mind alone, and unrealizable outside the phenomenology of the dream."

"I shall admit to you, my lady, that this world likes you fine where you are." Twilight said under her breath. She continued at conversational volume. "Why does it matter if your joy is real or imaginary. You've repeatedly said that dreams are just as real to you."

The nightmare gave Twilight a glare. "Watch your tongue! You presume you know better than me."

Twilight rolled her eyes. "It's just a logical consistency that-"

The Nightmare interrupted. "Logical consistency is meaningless in the court of the divine. Unbounded by physical constraints, when zero-plus-zero equals the infinite, you know you behold a supernatural force."

Vivid, painful memories ran through Twilight's head- She was before a princess, the sun princess, bickering over petty things of no consequence. Celestia would cycle between aloof, nit-picky, and understanding, in just the right combination and order to upset Twilight the most. Again nightmare alicorn was attempting nearly the same thing and it made Twilight very mad.
"My god, you're just like Celestia. You really are. I don't know what I expected out of you." Twilight said. "The same thing I expect out of her, over and over, but am always disappointed by."

The Nightmare hissed between bared teeth. She spoke at a gutteral growl. "Do not say that name if you wish to have a pleasant time, little mare."

Twilight stuck out her tongue. "Celestia, Celestia, Celestia. You can't hurt me worse than you did last time, princess. Your threats aren't credible anymore."

Jaw clenched, the Nightmare stared, her wide eyes burning intensely, but silent.

"The empress learned that lesson a long time ago. You can't govern with your biggest stick. You have to hold it over ponies, a threat they dread to even contemplate. Meanwhile you nudge them around with smaller sticks and carrots." Twilight said, in a mock-lecturing tone. "We have to hold back even when we're against out worst enemy. If they find out our worst isn't so bad-"

The Nightmare raised a hoof, bidding Twilight to stop speaking.

Twilight blinked, then closed her mouth. She was not getting the reaction she expected.

"Pony," The Dark alicorn began, "you are in a dangerous place. I do not mean here, with me. I mean within your own head. You think you understand the least thing about the divine nature of alicorns. You. Do. Not." She said, shaking her head. "The shape I take now, and what my sister has taken, an essentially equine shape, treacherously belies a force you should never wish to grasp in all its complexities."

"It's not that complex. You're demi-gods, spawned from our nearest celestial bodies." Twilight countered.
So far, everything way Twilight had spoken and acted towards the Nightmare alicorn had elicited the exact opposite reaction than she had planned for. Maybe it was just how nightmares built rapport. "I was Celestia's direct ward for seven years. I think I know what your kind are all about. You're like foul-tempered cats; It's tempting to touch, but you'll just be scratched."

"I will not bear such impertinent, humiliating comparisons." The Nightmare seized Twilight's forehooves with her magic and lifted her up. She paced around, carrying Twilight alongside her. "Especially not from a slave of the sun! No, you are lower than a slave. You are a dog, a mongrel bitch. You get scraps from the table, and from this, you think you understand the master- but you only understand the curled hoof that drops bones in your plate."

"Enough with the metaphors. I'm sorry for calling you a cat. Now let me go or get it over with and kill me. I didn't seek this meeting out just to argue semantics." Twilight said. On further thought, she added, "Please, princess."

The Nightmare stopped her pacing and, after staring at Twilight for a while, set her down. "Hmm, yes." She said to herself. "She sought me out tonight. She sought me out in the day, in her sovereignty." The alicorn cast a weary eye over Twilight. "The other princess would be furious to know you spurned her Sun's light to convene with me. Have you told her of our encounters? Are you her spy?" She asked the latter with great venom.

Twilight coughed and avoided the Nightmare's stare. "I shouldn't have brought her up. That was wrong of me, and a mistake of passion."

The Nightmare chortled. "I was right about you. You think you're better than ponies, yes, but even more; You think you are more clever than us, so you can deftly navigate between the two poles, the two sisters. BE CAREFUL." She leaned forward. "I have gone easy on you so far: I can do things to your dreaming self that will rend your soul from your very body. And the sun princess's dawdling may end: She can burn your flesh so hot it melts, while your nerves survive to feel your bones cook! That's the reward for idolators who think they know better than god."

The nightmare had a good read on her, Twilight had to admit.
"I have lived my entire life under Celestia, and I am her sworn vassal now. I don't plan on changing that." Twilight said. "Sooner or later I'll figure out how to stop these dreams, or maybe they'll stop on their own. Then I have a whole life ahead of me where meeting you was just a low point."

"You sought me out." The Nightmare pointed out. "From what I gather from your words and the snippets of your dreams I feel out of you..." She grinned. "You wish to use me against your friend Celestia."

Twilight felt a swell of unease in her stomach. It was true in broad strokes. Twilight was trying to make the best of the situation, and use it to improve her hoof with Celestia. What did that actually mean in practice? What was Twilight's ideal outcome?
She felt like she was stalking towards a cliff. Doom was beckoning to her. Oh so enticing, was the nightmare.

"I-" Twilight gulped. "I would never dare to hurt the princess."

"You don't want to hurt her. You just want to humble her. You want her to appreciate you more. You think she's gone astray. You think you can help her more this way." The Nightmare said, putting on a warmer and understanding tone, but the sharp grin betrayed her delighted insincerity. "But no pony can even come close to matching an alicorn like that. That's why you need an alicorn's help."

"We all need an alicorn's help. That's what our faith is." Twilight protested weakly.

That gave the Nightmare pause. "Do not mistake the respect I demand to be a call for worship. Keep such nonsense to yourself. You mewl and cry to your sun princess, 'save us', 'protect us', 'guide us', as though through faith alone you can be delivered to your Dream. Do not deny it! The stupid faith of your kind bleeds profusely into your dreams."

Twilight was a little happy to be given the digression form her borderline treason. "Respectfully, you have lost the important dogmas in translation. The Sun provides us Destiny, divine will and object. Without her light nothing would move on this planet. Following where the Light takes us is virtuous."

"Shut up, respectfully. I do not care." The Nightmare said, slightly cross. "Very few of your kind are actually worshiping the divine. You are really worshiping yourselves, and the greatness of purpose you feel entitled too. You don't even want to work for it, but for the sun and her princess to deliver it to you. You'll regret it." She sat down facing Twilight. "They who worship me will be regretting their own foolishness too, once I get my hooves on them."

The Nightmare of the Moon had worshippers? Twilight pretty much assumed that they were a millennium dead, destroyed at the same time as their princess was exorcized to the moon.
"How does it feel to be worshipped?" Twilight asked. "Does it tingle?"

"Bah, you did not come to ask me that." The Nightmare waver her hoof dismissively. "Speak no more of it."

Twilight arched a brow.

"Yes yes, you have found something that irritates me more than even my sister. Gloat at your peril." The Nightmare said. She closer her eyes, seemingly choosing whether to say more.
"I am your shape because I was meant to be worshipped. I am given over to you as the object of your adoration, to fulfill your self-serving, self-congratulatory need for turning the cosmic mystery into something comfortable, something which can fit into your brain.
"A mentor of mine one said that there can be no faith without submission to the divine. Yet by gaining the two princesses, the alicorn messiahs of the sun and moon, ponykind has elevated themselves. Instead it is the divine that is in submission to ponykind."

"You resent being an alicorn?" Twilight questioned.

The Nightmare glared. "Oh what fantastic shapes the Ancient Alicorns took on! Their corporeal forms were puzzles of flesh, exotic, fantastical, delightful to behold. Yet their attention had all the weight of the gods they were." She sighed, annoyance subsiding. "Gone now. Gone a millennium before my birth even, but I am wistful for a time that never was mine, when the alicorn was a creature defined only onto itself, and not with respects to mortals we are fated to lead."

Funny, Celestia had once said something similar about yearning for the Ancient Alicorns, but for very different reasons. "I see." Twilight said.

"Yes, but do you understand?" The Nightmare asked. "Perhaps you do. Angst over one's role in the order of things is not so uncommon for mortals."

The dread, fear, anxiety, and tension was slowly leaving Twilight Sparkle. She was, against her better judgement, having a good time talking to the Nightmare of the Moon. Was that heretical? Was she being seduced by the fallen divine?

"I have questions, many questions, but I'll leave them be." Twilight nodded.

"You know what's good for you." The Nightmare stood up and started pacing again. "Apologies, I grow restless. This night air, through nostrils that can not really smell, invigorates me in strange ways."
The alicorn went back and forth for a while, all while Twilight watched. Every now and then, the Nightmare would glance Twilight's way.
"Now I have questions pony." She finally said.

"Okay. I'll be truthful but that might mean I can't answer some things." Twilight said.

"What is your nature of your relationship with the sun princess? You have said much, but I wish to hear it explained clearly." The Nightmare asked. It did not feel like a demand to Twilight, but a request, not only for the information, but for trust.

Twilight took a deep breath. "I was born a noblelady of the realm in Canterlot. After an examination the princess selected me as her royal protege and ward in 988 SS. I was put on the Imperial Council in 993, and my wardship was completed in 994 when I began studies at the Canterlot University." Twilight cleared her throat, avoiding the Nigthmare's intense stare. "A month ago, her highness abrogated my protege status and beknighted me viscountess and élève premier, her vassal and agent."

The nightmare tilted her head back and closer her eyes, processing what she had been told. "How interesting." She said. "You are something of a 'big deal', my lady. I had no idea I was speaking to a viscountess."

Twilight knew she was being made fun of. "I was truthful."

"I asked about your relationship to the princess, not the dry details of your history with her." The Nightmare said. "To whit- You are here because of her. I feel that fact. But how?"

Twilight gnawed her lip. "Lady Moon, you have been erased from the history books. You are a mythological monster, a character in the apocryphal morality tales of Celestia the First's rise to power.” Twilight explained with an apologetic tone. "By accident, or perhaps fate, I found references to you, and that was the start of my problems." She paused, wondering at all the ways the Nightmare could take advantage of what she was about to say. "The empress and I retained a cordial distance since I began university studies. That couldn't last when I found out about you. That is when I was beknighted, and sent to Ponyville, where even now my body is sleeping. I can not give a simple answer for how things stand between me and my princess, because I don't know."

The Nightmare of the Moon snickered under her breath.

Twilight sighed. "Still dissatisfied?"

The Nightmare shook her head. "No. There is rarely a satisfying narrative arc in ponies' dreams. They are scattered, never-ending." She smirked. "You are rising high under the sun's light, yet to your own personal agony, is poetic. I enjoyed it greatly."

"Yeah yeah, you wretched nightmare, I know the suffering of others pleases you." Twilight said sourly. "Here I thought you would get hung up on the world having forgotten you."

"I saw my disappearance from the terror-dreams of mortalkind over the course of centuries. I have had long enough to know I have been denied by the very race I am enslaved to." Nightmare said. "That is why the macro level of pony movement no longer interests me. You are all wretched sun-poisoned things. You being individually tricked by Celestia is not especially interesting, because your whole species is the same way. Nevertheless your pain amuses me."

"It's not funny." Twilight huffed, looking off into the dark of the night.

The Nightmare did not immediately respond. Twilight, worrying she had hurt the flow of the conversation, turned back to the alicorn, but she had stood up and was pacing around again.

The Nightmare had apparently fallen into random a foul mood again, her movements agitated, dark power radiating off her translucent outline. "Yes it is. It is very, very funny. Little pony, if you are going to serve me, you have to believe in the humor of your situation. Consider it an act of faith."

Twilight detected a fatal shift in the air. "One soul can't be split between two masters, and I've made very clear about where I see my future, and my loyalty. You are a... remarkable mare, Princess Moon, but not a mare I could serve."

"See, sun-poisoning has degenerated your brain. You can only think with your petty feudal order, where you are a prim little viscountess, with a princess above you and the filth below you." The Nightmare critiqued. "The social order of Dark is different. You are the slave of every creature and god more powerful than you. Every creature and god weaker than you is, in turn, your slave. Your only limit is your whim, attention, and Dream."

"We've been through this. Your coercion has shown its limits." Twilight countered.

Nightmare turned slowly to Twilight. Her cold blue eyes, when not burning with hate, were enrapturing in their swirling complexity. "So you have said, because you can not imagine a fate worse than death."

Twilight felt a tingle on the skin of her belly, and a jolt down her spine. Some kind of magic-

Then, she was no longer in the throne room, in the humid jungle air of the Everfree.
Twilight was in a vast nighttime desertscape, atop a sand dune- The land to every horizon was a sea of fine sand, blue and silver in the moonlight, heaving under a desert breeze that whipped up eddies and dust devils here and there. It was like no place Twilight had ever been.
But what was clear about the desertscape, its essential un-reality, was apparent because of the single monumental pillar rising from the dunes in front of Twilight, a tower as black as the Nightmare Altar: An impossible structure, rising to seemingly infinite height! Twilight's shot and confusion gave way to awe, as she traced the shape of the tower up, up, up into the night sky. How it must have reached past the twinkling stars!
For just a few seconds, Twilight Sparkle was witness to something grand and beautiful which nopony had ever seen before and lived.

Twilight gasped. She was in the ruined throne room again. She felt herself laying on her side, her fur rubbing against the cold stone as her body twitched uncontrollably.
The Nightmare was standing over her.

"Tsss, -bitch!" Twilight sputtered as she regained control of her facial muscles. "W- What was that?!"

The Nightmare was silent for a while, simply watching Twilight recover and sit up. She stepped back to give Twilight space.
"I asked the moon to strike you, and kindly did she, putting her heavenly attention on you for the briefest of moments." The Nightmare explained. "Forthrightly, dear pony, I expected it to kill you, and singe your sleeping soul such that you woke up crippled. That would put a fear in you, and you would not feel so smug thinking that my reach was limited to these dream liaison." The Nightmare scowled.

There was something instrumental behind the alicorn's cruelty. "Why?" Twilight asked.

The Nightmare grunted in amusement at the question. "Once you realize that dream and reality are meaningless distinctions, and you are never going to be safe from me-" The Nightmare of the Moon grinned, her predatory teeth flashed in the dark. "Then I will have fully conquered you. That will be an invaluable gift, from you to me."

Despite her pain, the last piece of the puzzle of the Nightmare's behavior clicked into place for Twilight- The Nightmare didn't actually believe she was going to return to the physical world.
"You'll never take my mind." Twilight bolted to her hooves, eyes wide.

The Nightmare arched a brow at Twilight's misinterpretation. "It would be too small for me."

"Literal or metaphorical, I will not give you my soul, princess." Twilight said, a manic terror in her voice. "You can't cow me. You just showed your limits again."

The Nightmare of the Moon took a deep breath. "I am impressed by you. You are so outwardly pathetic, but there is something inside..." She began nervously smoothing back her etherial mane as she stared off into the sky. "Did you see anything when my moon was giving you her attention?"

The desert, the infinite tower. Did it mean something?
Twilight tried to catch the Nightmare's stare, to try to see a hint of something in her eye. Twilight hadn't even gotten to ask the questions she'd come with- now, she was close to the heart of the mystery, totally on accident. "I won't tell you."

The Nightmare must not have found a satisfactory sign in the night skies, as she looked back to Twilight with a troubled look about her. "Yes, there is something inside you. A Dream worth respecting."
She turned her whole body to face off against Twilight.

"Respectfully, I would just APPRECIATE if you stopped behaving like a bipolar jackass, princess. We were getting along for a second." Twilight said. "Respect me if you want, trust me if you want, or don't. I promise you, I'm coming close to figuring all of this out. I'm not going to be helpless for long. I will give as good as I get."

"The minuscule possibility of future retribution isn't enough to deter me today." The Nightmare said. "You have been very obliging tonight. Too obliging, for a little viscountess's dignity, nay? Despite whatever Dream is in you, the weak pony flesh around it-" The nightmare droned on. Twilight stopped listening.

So close yet so far! There was always a reason, pulled from thin air, for the Nightmare to reject her. Twilight had to be bold, take a risk. A big risk. There would be no victory without putting something on the line. The dark flame she was toying with would burn her to a crisp if she handled it the wrong way. And if the sun princess found out, Twilight might be literally burned to a crisp.
Yes, Twilight had stopped being terrified of the Nightmare of the Moon. To win, she had to stop being intimidated whatsoever. But what feelings would replace it?
She thought of Celestia again.

"Princess-" Twilight spoke up, interrupting the Nightmare's droning speech.

The Nightmare paused.

Twilight steeled herself for what she was about to say. "Princess, I wish to swear an oath of fealty to you."

The Nightmare glanced away. "You want to confine us both in a feudal relation to each other, where you feel comfortable and safe. I refuse utterly and outright. I will not accept binding myself to any obligation to you, not matter what I gain in return." Then, it occurred to her. "Wait, are you offering to tell me your name?"

"Now her ladyship catches on." Twilight said with a thin smile.

The Nightmare went silent, unmoving for several long minutes. Twilight could only guess what she must have been thinking. Was she as conflicted as Twilight was, trying to balance a sense of propriety and necessity against pragmatism? Maybe the mind of an alicorn really was alien. Who knows.

"I don't want your homage or fealty. Your name will be enough." The Nightmare finally said. "So I say, Nightmare Moon.”

At last, Twilight began to feel some genuine triumph and relief. "As you wish Lady Moon." She said. She knew exactly what she wanted. "My name is Twilight Sparkle."

"Twilight… Sparkle?” The alicorn whispered.

It was several long seconds. Nothing at all was happening.
Twilight's stomach sank. She looked past the Nightmare at the obsidian altar, yet radiating its blue energy. The two dreamers had shared their names... Was that not enough to release them from the dream? Was something wrong.

“Twilight.” Nightmare exaggerated every syllable, tasting them. “Sparkle.” She cocked her head. “No… Yes?” She stared deeply into Twilight’s eyes, looking for something. "One of us has lied."

Twilight said nothing.

"You do not dare to accuse me. That is wise." The Nightmare said impassively. "But you still saddle with the dilemma of whether to call you 'Twilight Sparkle' even though it is not truly your name."

"Same for you, Princess Moon." Twilight retorted.

"Wise no longer. Though, I would not have passed on the opportunity for that quip either." The Nightmare grunted. "Alas, dear pony, Lady Sparkle, closure has been deferred. We are being shown that the only closure is death. Would you like it to be painless?"

Twilight stared at a random spot on the crumbling wall behind the alicorn for a while. It had been a successful night. She had broken through the shell of thrashing acrimony, and discovered a fading sentimentality beneath. She may have even started gaining the princess's trust. But it would take longer to find out how to take advantage of it.
There was no longer any question in her head- Meeting the Nightmare of the Moon was a blessing in disguise, if Twilight had the strength to do what was needed. This is what she wanted. "Go for it. Goodnight princess."

"Whu!" Twilight jerked awake.

She was in the Golden Oak, on a comforter on the library floor. The room was dark, save for a firefly lantern on the other side near the fireplace- Spike was in his chair, reading his book.

"From noon until-" She looked to the grandfather clock. "Just after midnight. Wow."

"Wow is right." Spike glanced over the book. He was very cross. "I wish you'd been honest. You're way too big for me to carry by myself, Twilight. I was tearing my hair out, thinking I might have to leave you alone in the meadow to get help, before Mis Fluttershy showed up."

Fluttershy was the introverted pegasus, right? "You don't have hair, silly." Twilight sat up. "I didn't know I'd be out that long. I'm sorry for taking up your day like that, and stressing you out."

Spike accepted the apology with a tired nod. "I tried waking you up. Magic?"

Twilight sighed. "Yeah, magic. It wasn't completely intentional. I..." She cleared her throat. "What did Fluttershy say?"

"Nothing, she just helped." Spike put his book aside and hopped up from the chair. "I'm going to bed. I want to wake up early and do the stuff I was planning to do today. Goodnight Twilight."

Spike was going to be annoyed at her for a while, and for a good reason. Twilight felt bad but wasn't sure what to say. "Goodnight. See you in the morning."

Spike kept an eye on her all the way up the stairs until he closed the bedroom door behind him.

Twilight immediately jumped to her hooves. She felt... She wasn't sure how to describe it. Good, that was for sure. An indescribable feeling of triumph was swirling in her gut- She had, by her own will, sought out the meeting with the Nightmare of the Moon, and gotten what she wanted. It was a real reversal of fortune when, as the Nightmare had said, her accent thus far had only been accompanied by agony.
Twilight felt a very dangerous emotion- hubris.

She paced for a few minutes, running over every topic of conversation between her and the nightmare, committing herself to remembering every detail- If she wrote down a single word of what she had experienced she would be opening herself to immense risk.
Thinking that, Twilight's eyes wandered to her papers of magical measurements from near the forest. Even if she couldn't interpret the results, could somepony else if they fell into the wrong hooves? Would they glean her secret from it? It was the very reason Twilight had refrained from sending letters to her professors before, but now threats of theft and subterfuge danced in her head.

"Calm down. Nopony cares about me. Nopony thinks what I'm doing in important enough to pay attention." Twilight whispered to herself. "This treason is just in my head." She clasped a hoof over her mouth. Yes, she could not breath a word of it.

Lowering the hoof and taking a deep breath, Twilight approached her writing desk.
Technically, Twilight reasoned to herself, she had evened the field by giving so much information to the Nightmare of the Moon. Twilight had warned Celestia about the Nightmare. Now, the Nightmare knew more about Celestia and her empire. Twilight was going to weave deftly between the two poles.

"But I can't be in two places at once. I only have access to one princess." Twilight twirled a quill in her telekinesis.
She would have to write back home. She would have to find a way to project some kind of influence in Canterlot, and send and receive information to Celestia without Celestia herself knowing. Twilight was going to try to manipulate the sun princess.
"Not like more than one death sentence means anything." Twilight joked to herself, feeling uneasy. But hadn't she survived the Nightmare's torture? Twilight humored the idea that she could survive the sun's wrath just so.

"Dear princess-" She dictated to herself. "No, no. She'll never read it. Even if a jealous functionary doesn't snatch it, Celestia will let it sit on her desk while she birdwatches or whatever she's been doing lately." And if the princess did read what Twilight had been up to, there was absolutely no predicting her behavior. It was a foolish thing to try to communicate forthrightly from hundreds of kilometers away.
There would have to be somepony willing to cooperate and collaborate with Twilight- That was, to let themselves be acted through by Twilight, as her agent, as her puppet.
"Dear... mother? Dear father? Hmm..." It would be the responsible thing to communicate through her parents, since they were her royally appointed regents for the Chateau la Garde. "No way I'm telling them about the Nightmare. Dad will tell mom. Mom will..." Well, how could Twilight Velvet do worse than the devil's bargain Twilight Sparkle was willingly entering into? Against all logic, some of Twilight's worry was that her mother would weasel her way into the dream and replace her in the Nightmare's attentions.

Twilight put her head on the desk.
Shining? That was a gamble.
One of her professors at the University? Maybe.
Vizier Fancy Pants? He would likely make her life harder.

"Nopony is going to believe me." Twilight said to herself. "I barely believe it myself. I could be crazy... She's just a character from ancient legends, and I'm suffering from hysterical over-imagination from stress."
Crazy, if not for the miracles of sleeping under rain without getting wet, and being unable to be awoken by Spike.

There was pony who would take her seriously. Well, not seriously, but he would believe her. Twilight wouldn’t tell the entire truth, and only dance around the issue of the demon alicorn. And no matter what, this pony would have Twilight's back, keep her confidence, and act in her best interest.
Twilight dipped her pen. How sorrowful the pony she was trusting couldn't be Spike or Shining. Alas. She loved them dearly. Too dearly maybe. Twilight needed somepony who nopony would immediately think of only in reference to her- Just as the Nightmare wished...

Dear Uncle Flux,

I met a very queer pony the other day...

Comments

[TyroidMary]

I get it's a Morrowind reference, but your chapter titles are confusing.