The Last Nightmare
It was an odd kind of day. Celestia couldn’t put her hoof on what was causing her vague sense of unease, but she knew something was wrong. Oh, from the outside the day seemed fine. No one was threatening Equestria. There had been no unusual petitions that day in court. The weather was fine, and the night promised to be perfect for the Nightmare Night celebrations. There was absolutely no reason to be uneasy.
Celestia knew all of this, but it didn’t make her feel any better. She had ruled over Equestria for more than a thousand years and she knew when to trust her instincts. Despite all appearances, something was definitely wrong. She just wished she knew why she was uneasy. After all, if she could see the problem then she could find a solution. But how could she solve a problem that she couldn’t see? How could she take action against an invisible enemy?
All she could do was wait for the inevitable to happen. She was forced to simply wait for a disaster that she could not see to strike and shatter the harmony of the land. It was agonizing.
So Celestia went about her day and tried to make the best of it. Her sense of discomfort only grew as the day progressed. When the day finally came to an end and she watched her sister Luna raise the moon, her mood still did not improve. When Celestia stood on the balcony outside her bedroom and looked out over the land of Equestria, her unease started to give way to panic. Something was going to happen; she could feel it. Her instincts told her that she was almost out of time.
Once the moon was hanging in the sky, Luna flew over from her tower and landed beside her sister. Celestia could see that she was beaming with joy and excitement. Luna clearly did not have any premonitions of doom.
I can’t let Luna know I’m worried, Celestia thought to herself. I don’t want to ruin her night. This is her party and I’m not going to spoil it with my irrational fears. Luna gets so little appreciation for all that she does. She deserves tonight.
“Hello, Luna,” Celestia said aloud. “Is there something I can help you with?”
Luna shook her head. “No, dear sister. I was just about to go to Ponyville to celebrate this, the most glorious of nights! Is there anything you need from me before I depart?”
“No, no, everything is fine here,” Celestia lied. “In fact, everything is wonderful. I hope you have a good time this evening! Be sure to enjoy yourself.”
“Oh, I most definitely will! Are you sure that you do not want to join me? I promise it will be a most spectacular celebration – a night of great fun. Your student Twilight has made all the arrangements.”
Celestia forced herself to smile. “If Twilight is involved then I’m sure the festivities will be very well organized. But no, I will not be joining you. Please give the citizens of Ponyville my regards.”
“Very well! Then I shall be off. It is time for me to take my place as the ruler of the night!”
Luna spread her wings and took to the sky. After flying a short distance she teleported, leaving Celestia alone on the balcony.
Despite her fears, Celestia felt genuine pride as she saw her sister leave. Part of her truly did want to go with Luna, because she had no doubt it really was going to be a fun evening. But the princess of the sun knew that would not be wise. Celestia had a way of overpowering her sister – of shining more brightly than Luna. If she accompanied her she would distract attention from Luna on the one day of the year that was dedicated to her sister. It was far better for Celestia to stay behind so Luna could be the sole focus of attention. Let her fulfill her role as the princess of the night.
Besides, Luna was very good at it. She had become quite adept at scaring small fillies, and she loved playing the games at the festival. Luna was going to have a blast. She was clearly not worried that something terrible was going to happen.
Celestia left her balcony and walked into her private suite. She could always go and eat something, but the princess wasn’t particularly hungry. Perhaps the best thing to do was spend the evening catching up on her reading. After all, Twilight wasn’t the only one who had a library and who enjoyed a good book. In fact, the right story could take my mind off my worries, she thought.
The princess of the sun walked up to the nearest bookshelf and scanned the shelves. Celestia had already read most of these books before, but Twilight had given her a few new ones over the past year. She selected a thick volume that looked quite promising – The Fire of Thelxinoe – and settled down in front of the fireplace to begin reading it.
Celestia hadn’t even had time to finish the first chapter before a guard rushed into her room. “Pardon me for interrupting, your highness, but there is an urgent matter that demands your attention!”
Celestia put her book down and looked at the guard. “Oh? What seems to be the trouble?”
“There is… a visitor. A pony has requested to see you. An alicorn, actually. This pony claims that Equestria is in great danger.”
A chill ran down Celestia’s spine. Here it comes, she thought.
“An alicorn?” she said aloud. “Do you mean Princess Cadence? I was not informed that she would be paying us a visit today.”
The guard shook his head. “No, it’s not her, your highness. It’s – well, it’s not a normal alicorn. I don’t really know what it is, exactly. I’ve never seen anything like it. You need to see it for yourself. Frankly, it’s more than a little terrifying.”
Celestia frowned. There were only four known alicorns in the entire world – herself, her sister, Twilight, and Cadence. The appearance of a fifth alicorn was certainly unusual. Where did it come from and what was it doing here? Was it friend or foe?
Celestia stood up. “Where is this visitor?”
“Right this way, your highness,” the guard replied.
The guard led her down the hallway and out of the castle. He took her through the castle grounds and led her up to a hill that overlooked the city. The hill commanded a beautiful view of Equestria. In fact, it was one of Celestia’s favorite places to come and relax.
Before they reached the top of the hill, however, the guard stopped and gestured to a figure standing in the distance. “That’s the visitor – over there. Truthfully, your highness, I don’t think that pony is safe. Do you want me to call out the rest of the guards?”
Celestia looked into the distance and saw an indistinct figure. In the gathering darkness she could tell it was definitely a pony, but it was impossible to recognize. It almost looked like the pony was made of light.
She stared at it for almost a minute, feeling a vague sense of terror that she could not explain, then turned her attention back to her guard. “I will handle this. If I need assistance I will let you know. Just wait here.”
“As you wish, your highness.” The guard stood to attention and watched Celestia walk toward the visitor.
By the time Celestia reached the mysterious pony she realized exactly why the guard was so shaken. This pony was unlike anything she had ever seen. First, this mare was huge – at least three feet taller than Celestia. Second, the towering pony was definitely an alicorn. The mare’s color was hard to pin down because its entire coat shimmered in the evening twilight. It seemed to alternate between a brilliant dark purple and a radiant light purple, but at the same time it was covered in twinkling white stars. This mare really did seem to be made of light – or perhaps it was just full of radiant magic.
Who are you? Celestia wondered. You are clearly not a mere mortal. Are you Death?
Celestia noticed that the mare had a long, flowing mane, but the mane’s color was hard to determine. Was it dark purple, perhaps? It was definitely magical – it flowed with energy and was filled with dancing light. A pinkish stripe (or was that a light purple?) ran down middle of its mane.
A purple alicorn with a purple, pink-striped mane. Now that sounded familiar. That couldn’t possibly be Twilight, could it? But if it was Twilight then what in Equestria had happened to her? Even when she had carried all the alicorn magic in Equestria she hadn’t looked anything like that. Had one of her spells backfired – or was this something more ominous?
Celestia glanced at the pony’s cutie mark and became nervous when she saw it didn’t look anything like Twilight’s. Whereas Twilight had a pink starburst surrounded by five white stars, this pony had a field of stars that were rapidly spinning around in a complicated pattern. Celestia then blinked and realized that the pony’s cutie mark was moving.
Animated cutie marks? Where did this pony come from? How could a being such as this exist without my knowing about it? Several possibilities came to her mind, but none of them comforted her.
The magical mare had noticed Celestia’s approach but said nothing. She waited quietly as Celestia walked up and looked at her. Celestia waited for her to say something, but she never did. The pony simply stared at the princess with her deep, glowing eyes.
A pony could get lost in those eyes, Celestia thought nervously. They were deep wells of glowing fire. What made them frightening was that they radiated intelligence and deep wisdom. Celestia knew intelligence when she saw it, and this pony – if it truly was a pony – was no fool. She had the feeling she was standing in the presence of something that was unfathomably ancient. Or was it unfathomably alien?
Celestia finally broke the silence. “I am Princess Celestia,” she said aloud, with far more confidence than she felt. “Who do I have the pleasure of meeting?”
The pony stared into her eyes for a few seconds before replying. “Yes, I see,” the pony said, in a quiet but forceful voice. “You are the one who was once called Celestia. It took me a long time to remember you.”
For a while (it felt like an eternity to Celestia) the visitor said nothing. When she resumed speaking, her voice had lost its force and had become gentle. “Your time was so very long ago. Even the memories were lost and had to be recovered. For an eternity all I could recall was that there was once a creature who made the sun rise. You are that pony, aren’t you?”
Celestia forced herself to ignore the implication of the pony’s words. “Yes, I control the sun. My sister Luna controls the moon. Have we met before?”
“I believe that a very long time ago we were once friends. It was so long ago that there are no words for it in your language. I knew you before the darkness came, in the days before time itself ended. I knew you back when there was still grass and trees and ponies. Then, for an eternity, there was nothing. You were from the time before the nothing. When everything else was forgotten I still remembered you. You were once dear to me, although I no longer remember why.”
Don’t panic, Celestia thought to herself. Remain calm. I’m sure she’s not actually trying to say that Equestria is about to be destroyed. This is all just a simple misunderstanding. All I need to do is find out what she’s doing here and then send her on her way. Everything will be fine.
“Do you have a name?” Celestia asked.
“Not anymore,” the pony replied. “When the darkness came it consumed everything. It took my name, my memories, and even my physical form. All was lost to the nothingness. But the void did not consume me. My spirit endured because my spirit was tied to the magic of this land, and that magic could not be destroyed even when everything else was lost. For the longest time I was alone in the darkness. An ocean of time came and went before I learned how to rise above the void and move on to another plane. I had to learn how to manifest myself again and how to resume life. That was the start of many adventures in worlds that are very different from this one.
“But I did have a name once, in this realm. I am sure of it.”
The pony paused, straining to remember. There was silence.
Surely you’re not who I think you are, Celestia thought. Please, oh please tell me that I’m wrong. But I’m certain you’re not Discord. He is a master of chaos, but this isn’t his style. I can only think of one possibility, but it can’t be true. Can it?
Celestia finally spoke up. “Are you–”, she said, her voice cracking. She stopped and tried again. “Are you Twilight?”
The pony stared at her with a look of recognition. “Yes, I think that was it. I was the twilight. You were the sun and your sister was the moon, but I was the twilight. I was neither darkness nor light. And you – you were somehow connected to my life, weren’t you? It was so long ago I simply do not remember. Many things were lost in the eternal void.”
“Twilight Sparkle was my student here in Canterlot,” Celestia replied. “Then she moved to Ponyville, which is where she lives now.”
Twilight nodded. “Perhaps that is why I still remember you. You must have been the one who taught me and guided me. It may be that you gave me the knowledge to endure when the darkness came and all was lost.”
Celestia tried to swallow her fears. “You look quite different from the Twilight Sparkle that I know.”
“I am not the Twilight that you know,” the pony replied quietly. “I am far older and vastly more powerful. Endless ages into the future – so far into deep time that it is beyond your ability to comprehend – I once again became a living being and emerged onto a plane of existence that you know nothing about. For a long time I was very happy there, but then the memories of this place started to return. A longing set in to see the world that I once knew. I started thinking that perhaps if I saw it again I could recreate it in the future. So I made the long journey back to the night when this land was destroyed.”
“What?” Celestia exclaimed. “What do you mean, destroyed? Is something about to happen?”
Twilight nodded. “You will never again raise the sun into the sky, and your sister has raised the moon for the last time. On this very night the world will be destroyed, and all those who are in this world will be consumed by darkness. These last few moments are the twilight before Equestria is plunged into eternal night. When the void came I was the only survivor.”
“But – how could that happen? There aren’t any villains attacking Equestria. There is no disharmony in the land. The world is safer now than it has been in years! Isn’t it possible that you’ve made a mistake?”
Twilight smiled – and Celestia felt her blood chill. “Ah, my dear little pony. All you know is what you can see. You are preoccupied with the events of this life – the comings and goings of your little world. But you are part of a far larger universe, and there are events taking place that you know nothing about. There is a great danger to this land that has never even crossed your mind. But how can I explain it to you? How can I show you the darkness that is on your doorstep?”
She paused for a moment, thinking. “I know. Perhaps this will help you understand.”
The pony raised her hoof, and a gentle beam of light emanated from it. A few feet away from her hoof an image of Twilight Sparkle appeared. This Twilight was not the eerie Twilight from the distant future, but the pony that Celestia knew – the bright, cheerful, sometimes crazy alicorn princess who at that very moment was probably organizing something in Ponyville.
This image of Twilight Sparkle looked at Celestia cheerfully. “The vacuum of our universe is a false vacuum that is only stable within the range of certain conditions. In a vacuum metastability event, that false vacuum is disrupted and replaced with a more stable state. This takes place when a bubble of lower energy comes into existence and catalyzes the conversion of our universe into that lower energy state. The end result is a bubble of lower energy that expands at the speed of light and consumes the entire universe! However, this new lower-energy universe would itself be unstable and would collapse almost immediately.”
The young Twilight Sparkle then vanished, and the ancient pony looked at Celestia. “Do you understand the darkness now?”
“Are you trying to tell me that the universe is unstable and is about to collapse?”
Twilight nodded. “It will happen in just a few moments. Look!”
Celestia looked up at the sky and suddenly saw the stars shake, as if someone had rattled them. The color of their light momentarily shifted from white to red.
“See, the universe is about to break. Even now it is creaking. The conditions are gathering for the collapse. There are only a few moments left.”
Celestia suddenly felt afraid – deeply, terribly afraid. She felt something tight in the pit of her stomach and found it hard to breathe. She had never been so terrified in her entire life. “You’ve got to stop this,” Celestia pleaded. “You can’t let everypony die. Surely there’s something you can do!”
“There is nothing that can be done,” Twilight replied. “This is what happened at this moment in time. The darkness came and consumed everything. I cannot stop the darkness. Nopony can.”
“I refuse to believe that!” Celestia shouted. “There has to be something you can do. Don’t you care that this entire world is about to be destroyed? How can you just stand there and let this happen?”
“It is like watching a dream from long ago,” Twilight replied. “This world is so strange to me now. Even though I am here, it is hard for me to accept that it is real. It feels like just another dreamscape.”
“Well, it is real!” Celestia snapped. “Get it together, Twilight! If you’re anything like the Twilight I once knew then you can’t just let this happen! Why would you even bother coming back just to watch everything be destroyed? Don’t you care about this world?”
Twilight looked at Celestia curiously. “Are you scared?”
“Of course I’m scared!” Celestia screamed. “Who wouldn’t be?”
“So you are telling me, Celestia, that you really are scared of the dark?”
Celestia suddenly froze as a forgotten memory flooded back to her. A month ago she had been having breakfast with her sister, and Luna told her all about her plans to scare the little ponies of Ponyville. “With my new magic tricks I shall make them all shriek in terror!” Luna had proudly proclaimed.
“I’m sure you will,” Celestia replied.
“In fact,” Luna added, “I bet I could even scare you. I could have the princess of the sun shrieking in terror like a little filly!”
Celestia laughed. “I’m afraid I’m much too old to be scared by your little parlor tricks. They may work on little ponies, but I am far too wise. There is simply no way I would ever be scared of the dark. I am afraid you are out of luck.”
“Perhaps you are right,” her sister had said. “Then again, perhaps you are wrong.”
So that’s why I’ve been nervous all day long, Celestia thought. Some part of me remembered Luna’s threat! She is what I’ve been afraid of this whole time!
Celestia stared at the terrifying mare who was standing in front of her. “Luna, is that really you?”
The pony in front of her grinned and immediately changed her appearance. As she shrank in size the glowing mane and coat disappeared, and soon the familiar form of her sister greeted her. “So what did you think, my dear sister? Did we not scare you? Were we not terrifying? Did we not get Nightmare Night off to a wonderful start?”
Celestia paused a moment to catch her breath. The princess had been shaking in fear and terror, and now she felt a surge of pure relief. The world would not be ending that night.
“Oh, Luna, you terrified me! I was scared silly. How did you ever come up with that idea?”
“Your student Twilight Sparkle helped me,” Luna said proudly. “When I told her that I wanted to scare you, she came up with the whole idea. She spent days writing my lines, and I practiced them with her over and over until I could deliver them perfectly. She even showed me how to change my appearance so I would look most convincing!”
Celestia suddenly felt a chill. “So Twilight told you about the vacuum event thing?”
Luna nodded. “She is a most clever pony. It would never have occurred to me.”
“And she told you how she was going to look in the future?”
Luna shrugged. “My appearance was her idea. Where she got it I do not know.”
Celestia felt herself siding back into fear. She struggled to outwardly remain calm. “Well sister, I think you proved beyond doubt that you can frighten both little mares and big mares. But don’t you have a celebration to attend?”
“Indeed! I shall head there at once. This year you were the first pony to be frightened by the Night Mare. This night shall truly be a glorious night of screams! The fun has already begun.”
With that, Luna took to the skies and teleported out of sight.
After she disappeared, Celestia brooded. Starswirl the Bearded knew how to travel into the future. He used that ability more than once – although he never told me what he had discovered. He kept his time travel spell a secret, but what one pony can discover another pony can rediscover.
Celestia knew that Twilight was a huge fan of Starswirl – and Twilight had access to Starswirl’s restricted section in Canterlot. Has Twilight uncovered the secret of the future? Does she know how the world is going to end? Was this just a prank, or was it actually a warning?
Celestia tried to clear all these worries out of her head. If Twilight had learned how to travel through time then she surely would have mentioned it in one of her friendship reports. If she knew the world was coming to an end, there was simply no way she would be spending time helping Luna pull a prank. Twilight would have said something.
Unless her future self had warned her not to say something. If the world really was about to end, telling everypony would simply cause panic and rioting. Perhaps it was better to keep it a secret so the ponies could live out their last few days in peace and happiness. Why worry them over something that could not be stopped?
But that was silly! All of this was just a prank, meant to scare somepony who had boasted that she could not be scared. There was nothing to worry about. Equestria would still be there tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that.
Right?
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That was just cruel! Now how is Celestia supposed to sleep at night? And there's your answer. If Twilight had looked into the future and seen the world end, knowing she couldn't do anything about it she would never go tell Celestia and make her worry about something she couldn't change! So it really was a prank all along.
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As a reader, I tend to agree. Celestia is taking this too seriously and should trust Twilight more. I'm sure Luna never intended for Celestia to interpret things the way she did - her reaction at the end shows that. And Twilight isn't malicious. I'm pretty sure it was just a harmless nightmare.
Putting on my author's hat - this is actually the third version of this story. I spent hours trying to figure out how to end this tale, and came very close to not posting it here at all. (I tend to keep my darker stories solely on pony fiction archive, under the penname TheLoneWanderer.)
In the first version, the visitor from the future was real and the world actually ended at the conclusion of the story. But that seemed extremely dark and depressing, so I changed it.
In the second version, the story ended with a scene in Ponyville where Luna bragged to Twilight how well their prank worked. Luna didn't realize Celestia had taken the whole thing too seriously and now had nightmares. I liked that version, but I felt the extra chapter killed the story. Nightmare Night stories are supposed to be creepy, and spelling out "it really was a prank" killed the creepiness.
My instincts said the best thing to do was leave the ending ambiguous. I wanted the reader to be 90% sure it really was just a prank, but at the same time leave a little bit of genuine, nagging doubt. So for better or worse, that's what I did.
If this story goes down in flames (which is always an option!) I'll stick to comedies on this account and will keep my dark stories on the other site. We'll see how this goes.
This story has got ridiculously little recognition.
Very intense... I really enjoyed how you even at the end can't really tell if this was a prank or not. Worthy of a Nightmare Night story for sure.
What is described in this line should send any rational being shaking.
Thanks for sharing, have a fav.
Well, I better get to P.F.A. and look for your alt username, because you certainly proved that you can honor the dark tag (unless that was 60 weeks ago and you HAVE posted your other dark stories here). Fuck me, that was eerily foreboding.
I look forward to reading The Fall of Night & The Shadow Keeper today. I mean, you are very competent.
From your description of the other two versions of this story, I'd say that you picked the right one to post here. Though, if I may use my pet peeves to justify my nitpicking, the last paragraphs annoy me because they are simply the narrator mimicking Celestia's thoughts in a "is it? maybe not? but maybe it is! but also maybe not! who knows?! DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUN" fashion... I know it is my personal bias that is influencing the former statement, but I'd much rather you show Celestia shaking in uncontrollable fear and crying from not being able to unravel the charade... only to THEN add something that instills doubt in us, justifying her rather visceral reaction. Still! This is a wonderful story.
Phew! For a second there, I thought they'd all be fucked. Thankfully, for them, the universe expands faster than light.
P.S.:
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First: thanks for alerting me to the "again" mistake! I've fixed it.
Yeah, I haven't posted anything on PFA for ages. These days I just post here (I guess I've gotten lazy). The Fall of Night and The Shadow Keeper are both pretty dark. The Might of a Quill is probably darker than both of them. For some reason I don't write many happy stories these days.
I see where you're going with this! That's a great idea. Wish I had thought of it at the time!
Thanks. I appreciate the comments - readers have a way of picking up on mistakes and other things that I overlooked. They really do help.