Apotheosis of the Night

by Dark0592

Chapter 2

Twilight was dreaming. She had to be dreaming. Last she checked her room in the Astronomy tower wasn’t an endless abyss of black. She felt like she was floating in water, though that wasn’t quite right. She was floating in something else. Or maybe it wasn’t something else at all, maybe what she was floating in was… nothing?

She snapped her vision to where she heard the sound of… something. It was Luna, wistfully floating around and humming a soft tune to herself. The sound echoed across the endless expanse of… nothing. The Princess would occasionally twirl around as if dancing to herself, or swirl around little masses of the nothingness.

But wait, if it was nothing how was she swirling it around? Whatever this stuff was it was certainly not nothing.

“You should recognize this place, is it not familiar?” She heard from her other side. Luna didn’t seem to notice, but when Twilight turned she was started. It was herself that was speaking to her. Although It was… different. The girl that was now standing directly in front of her had a much more pale hue to her skin, her eyes were slits, her expression almost giddy with malice. It was a little terrifying.

“What’s the matter? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” The not-Twilight sneered.

“Who are you?! What are you?!” Twilight exclaimed, recoiling from the creature. This seemed to only amuse it. It giggled and stepped closer.

“I am you,and I am you. But I’m not quite you at the same time. You should be familiar with this now shouldn’t you? And I thought you would actually be smarter than me.” The thing laughed. Twilight was getting frustrated.

“Alright, fine. Have it your way. I’ve been banishing nightmares since I was a little girl. You’re no different.” She said and attempted to summon up her magic to use the calming spell she had learned in the Orphanage to ease the nightmare into a much tamer thing.

Nothing happened.

“Ooh hit the nail right on the head. You got me, I’m a Nightmare. But I’m not just any nightmare. I’m YOUR Nightmare. And I can’t just be banished away like that, not in this place of dreamers.” The grinning not-Twilight almost cackled. Twilight froze and looked at it.

“Nightmare Moon…?” She asked softly. The creature’s grin fell to a line. Almost in annoyance.

“No you idiot, I’m YOUR Nightmare. Nightmare Moon is LUNA’S Nightmare. Geez I have to explain everything to you don’t I? Ok, let’s start with the baby terms. I am a physical mental and magical manifestation of all of your deepest darkest fears and hates and all of those bad feelings you have. I’m not particularly fond of you, and you’re not going to be particularly fond of me I can assure you, but we’ll work something out.” The Nightmare explained. Twilight listened to every word. The scholar in her wanted to ask more. The survivalist in her was yelling at her to get the hell out of there. The Scholar won.

“Wait work something out, what do you mean by that?” Twilight asked. The Nightmare sneered.

“I am Fear. I am Hate. I am Anger. I am all of those little feelings and big feelings that turn that pretty face of yours into a scowl. I guess you can say I’m an Avatar of your negativity. Naturally I want to rip things apart, snuff things out, destroy everything I can get my hands on. I obviously can’t do much of that here and so I get more and more irritated and antsy. If you don’t let me out of your head to break something every now and then I might just have to bide my time and they’ll have to make another prophecy about us instead of them.” The Nightmare explained, ending with a thumb over at Luna. The Princess still seemed blissfully ignorant of their conversation, but now that Twilight looked she realized the Princess had a shadow.

It was Nightmare Moon, matching her step for step. It wasn’t the hate filled scowl of the creature trying to bring endless night, though. Luna’s Nightmare seemed almost… content.

“I can’t possibly know or understand what those two have come up with, but they seem to actually be getting along. Right now I don’t see that happening between us. Your little dragon is trying to wake you up now so I suppose I’ll let you go. Messing with your head is more fun when I can watch you tear yourself up trying to understand what I do.” The Nightmare said into her ear with a giggle. She was in the middle of turning around when her eyes opened to the blinding sun just barely sitting above the horizon. Spike had an annoyed expression.

“Seriously, stop missing so much sleep or I won’t be able to wake you up anymore. I was about to start drawing on your face.” The Dragon grumbled. Twilight shot him a look that spelled ‘you wouldn’t dare’ and he shrugged. He probably wouldn’t. “Anyways, Mom sent over this paperwork while you were sleeping. Apparently you’ve got a title now.” He continued, pointing to the desk with a Talon. Twilight rubbed the sleep from her eyes and got out of bed.

“Yeah yeah… sorry.” She grumbled back to him and walked over to the desk. It was a good stack of paperwork detailing duties and responsibilities, as well as benefits, of her new title of ‘Magus’. Twilight recognized the title, it was one that was used centuries ago. It was the title given to powerful mages who were hopefuls to inherit the title of Archmage, and usually studied directly under them. Her duties and responsibilities would be dictated by her mentor, but the benefits included a stipend from the Treasury and the right to speak in court should she choose to. She already could do so of course, but this title granted her the authority to overrule any of the nobility and even be the tiebreaker for a council decision- though a tie hasn’t happened in a long time.

“I wonder why she’s even bothering to give me a title. I mean, the power is nice and all but I’m no politician… same for the Stipend, I already have quite the savings just from what she gives me as her stud-… oh. right, I’m not her student anymore…” Twilight said, more to herself than anything.

“You’re not Mom’s student anymore?” Spike asked, a little concerned.

“Oh, right, I never told you! I’ve officially completed my Apprenticeship under her and I’m going to start a new one under Luna.” She replied. Then she froze, looked out of the window and facepalmed. “Crap! That’s why I wanted you to wake me up at Dawn! I have to go tell luna that I’m her apprentice now! I’ll be back probably maybe tonight bye!” She continued in a rush and was out of the door before Spike had even processed what she said. He looked out after her and just shook his head. The Royal Guard stationed nearby didn’t even flinch.

Twilight managed to recompose herself as she entered the dining room where she hoped Luna would be with the sun still barely peeking over the horizon as it was. She was correct.

“Ah, good evening Twilight Sparkle! I wasn’t aware you would be joining me tonight, Court is not for another week.” The Princess said with a happy smile. The Chefs could either tell the future or were just impossibly quick because a plate was already being put down in Twilight’s usual place. Or maybe they were told to expect her showing up. That’s also a big possibility.

“I wasn’t exactly planning it either, not for long at least. Um… do you mind?” Twilight asked a little nervously. Luna caught on to it though but nodded anyways. She watched the girl carefully as she took her seat and didn’t really touch her food. Then she noticed the paperwork in the girl’s hands.

“Oh what have we here? Some assignment my sister has assigned?” The Princess asked slightly teasingly, knowing Celestia stopped assigning her homework years ago. Twilight was confused for a second but then realized she was still clutching the stack of paperwork about her Magus title.

“Oh! I forgot to put those back down… I uh, I guess I should fill them out…” Twilight said. Luna chuckled, this wasn’t exactly unusual behavior for Twilight when something big -at least in her mind- is happening. The question was, though, what exactly was happening? Apparently it had something to do with her otherwise she wouldn’t be so nervous about sitting down and having brunch.

“What ever is the matter, Twilight? I thought we’d become much more casual with each other since you started attending my court.” The Princess said cautiously, trying to prod the girl to explain what’s going on without actually saying ‘what’s going on?’.

“Oh! I’m so sorry Princess, I'm just a little… uh… scattered right now.” Twilight said and took a deep breath. Luna recognized this as something she did to recompose herself and gather her thoughts so she waited patiently. It only took a few seconds for the girl to let it out and open her eyes again.

“Ok, so long story short I want to be your apprentice and I’ve been granted the title of Magus for the completion of my apprenticeship with Mom.” She explained quickly.

That wasn’t what Luna was expecting at all. She just kinda sat there, almost dumbfounded by that, as she processed everything that meant. For one, the title of Magus meant that her sister was recommending her for the position of Archmage. Second was that she was going to have to dig up some old books and probably rewrite the position of Archmage in its entirety to fit modern Equestria. Lastly, her apprentice. Twilight wanted to be HER Apprentice?! And she somehow completed her Apprenticeship with Celestia in only a decade?

“I-I’m sorry, Princess… If you don’t want to be my mentor that’s alright… I guess I can-” Twilight started but was startled as she was interrupted by the sound of shifting wood and a crushing embrace.

“Oh Twilight, I’ve never had an Apprentice before! If course I’d be more than happy to accept you as one!” Luna said happily as she pulled the girl into an embrace. “I apologize for my hesitation, I wasn’t expecting something like this. Ever. And the whole Magus thing must be my sister’s seal of approval. I’ll need to do some work to get the proper materials in order but I’d be delighted to start your education immediately!” She continued happily. Twilight was stunned by the embrace, but the mention of education snapped out of it.

“Really? Immediately?” She asked. Luna pulled away from her and nodded enthusiastically.

“Meet me i my quarters in two hours and I’ll have something setup for you. I’ve never passed my teachings on to a student like you before… I hope I do a good job.” The Princess said hopefully. Twilight smiled and nodded.

“I’ve learned from dusty old books in the corners of the library before, you have to be a better teacher than that.” Twilight replied with a giggle. Luna quickly embraced her again before disappearing in the direction of her quarters, her meal half eaten. Almost as if on que, a chef came around to package the meal up to save for later. He gave Twilight a stern look before he left, though. She looked down at her plate, the full meal was going to get cold soon. She dared not incur the wrath of the chefs for wasting a meal so she quickly finished it.

Magus, Daughter of Princess Celestia, Apprentice of Princess Luna and graduate of Celestia. She may not have nearly as many titles as most nobles, but they were starting to add up. She felt a little vain about them, they were impressive titles afterall.

Author's Note:

Huzzah for completing another week straight of work at wally world. Your reward for bieng so patient is an update, hopefully it's not too bad.
Hope you enjoyed.

Comments

[aalelu]

Heres some corrections to the typos for you.

“Oh Twilight, I’ve never had an Apprentice before! If course I’d be more than happy to accept you as one!”

That should be of course.

“Meet me i my quarters..."

IN my quarters.
Good work .

[SeventhBrony]

“I’ve learned from dusty old books in the corners of the library before, you have to be a better teacher than that.

I would hope so.

[EquosGuardian]

This is a solid chapter I definetly could see Luna as twilights mentor.

I wonder what she could teach Twilight... heheh I can already smell the shenanigans, nobles of Canterlot beware, Twilight Spatkle is coming.

[DarkSnowGaming]

Magus, Daughter of Princess Celestia, Apprentice of Princess Luna and graduate of Celestia. She may not have nearly as many titles as most nobles, but they were starting to add up. She felt a little vain about them, they were impressive titles afterall.

Don't forget element of magic. If "daughter of Celestia" is a title than surely the "element of magic" is also a title.

Plus in the future she will probably recive the title Princess of friendship and become the Allicorn of magic, I doubt Celestia would let Twilight remain a mortal, Celestia and Luna probably wouldn't want to handle the heartbreak that would last an eternity when Twilight eventually passes on.

I mean in the show she was just a student who became an Allicorn, here it's different since she is the daughter of Celestia, doubt she would want Twilight to die even if she is adopted.