— Chapter Thirty-One —
--- The Valley of Hosts ---
"Or you shall never wake again."
The three imposing figures approached without end, the growling of the ethereal hounds the only sound to follow that threat. Twilight continued to back away into the unending void that surrounded them all, eyes darting between each of the foes before her in anticipation for one of them to make the first move. Yet intimidation seemed to serve well as their weapon, however, and the trio merely continued their agonizingly slow pursuit of the retreating alicorn.
What in the world is going on? Even in these seemingly dire states, Twilight couldn't help but let her mind run wild and she had an understandable amount of questions at the moment. The last thing I remember was... the library...
It was hazily coming back to her now. Searching Golden Oak's Library with Rainbow Dash for information on Knox and his schemes, which resulted in her finding the unusual stone that had cast her into this horrible nightmare. A stone that seemed oddly familiar now, in retrospect. But she couldn't quite place her hoof on why that was, however, considering the danger she was in at the moment.
"Now!"
The simultaneous and countless shouts brought Twilight back to reality—or whatever this place could be called—alerting her just in time to the snapping jaws of the dark beast that had lunged at her in her distracted state of mind. It was pure dumb luck that the flinch of surprise allowed the young alicorn to escape a gruesome fate at the fangs of this nightmarish hound. There were a few lingering doubts in her mind about whether or not she could come to any real harm in this dream, but she wasn't exactly eager to find out.
Her first instinct was to retaliate, to lash back with her magic. She wasn't sure if she could cause any permanent harm to these things, but she could at least persuade them to keep their distance. But there was no such action on her part, not even a simple spark or two to be seen. Her eyes turned upwards as if to look to her horn as she tried again and again. Each time she was met with the same result. That being a distinct lack of a result.
Teleportation, transmutation, conjuration, portable sunlight, woodworking, portable sunlight—sweet rave edition, she tried every spell she could think of in her frantic state and not a single one worked. Absolutely nothing was happening, as she couldn't even feel the magic within her string to her will. It wasn't that her magic was being blocked, but rather, it was as if her ability to cast spells at all had been simply revoked.
Of course, it made sense that she wouldn't be able to cast spells. After all, this was a dream. A dream being controlled by the hooded figure not but a stone's throw away. Twilight was playing by her rules now.
So as the wolf went in for a second strike, Twilight quickly decided to run. Even without her unexpected history lessons, she knew she was heavily outclassed in this situation. The Mare in the Moon—or rather, Princess Selene—had fought throughout the complete 87 years of the Great Shadow War. And while the entire duration of the conflict wasn't just one long series of battles, as there were moments when King Sombra seemingly decided to just let his enemies catch their breath, it was still the longest war in recorded history. And right now Twilight was facing off with the one pony who had seen just about every major battle that had come. Over time, she had even earned the title of "The Immortal Soldier."
Twilight wasn't about to try and fight someone who came to be called "The Immortal Soldier." Especially not when they were able to conjure up nightmarish wolves out of thin air, and certainly not without magic. And so she ran, as far and as fast as she could. There was no given order on their master's part, but it wasn't long before Twilight could hear the hounds chasing after her with great ferocity. Unpleasant memories of her introduction to the Everfree's Timberwolves began to rush back to her. As well as a few brief flashes from her time peering into Selene's past. It didn't take her very long to put the pieces together, even in this terrifying moment.
"Of course they're connected, why wouldn't they be connected?! I'm not that lucky!" If she had the time to stop and slap herself for not coming to the conclusion earlier. The possibility had been dancing around in her mind ever since her introduction to Zecora, but now that there was actual proof to be had on the subject. The timberwolves were a part of this, one way or another.
Only a moment's glance was spared as she kept running, the two beasts doing well to keep pace with their fleeing prey. The one who had summoned them was surprisingly absent, something that made Twilight more anxious than anything else. She had no magic, nowhere to even try and hide, and the one behind it all was nowhere to be seen. It would be upsetting if Twilight wasn't troubled by these encroaching factors.
Speaking of, her pursuers were beginning to close the distance between them. She didn't dare to look back, but she could hear them coming. It was the only thing she could hear other than her shallow breaths and pounding heartbeat. Of course, her captor had chosen to leave the limitations of fatigue and stamina in place, why wouldn't she? She wasn't quite sure just how long she could keep this up, as those two limitations were beginning to take their toll on her.
"Why aren't I waking up?!" Twilight bellowed out between gasps, doing her best to drown out the unpleasant sound of her tormenters drawing ever close. "I'm having a nightmare, and I'm terrified! I should be waking up!"
"Not until you tell us what we need to know." The voices came from everywhere at once. The ground, the sky, Twilight's own thoughts, even the two beasts chasing her down. "Where did you learn to dream walk?!" The last two words sent a tremor throughout the dreamscape, knocking Twilight off of her balance for only a second before she was able to keep going.
Is that was this is about?! Twilight asked herself in shock and vexation. It shouldn't have been a surprise, considering how this "conversation" started, and how her first bit of memory-viewing had ended. Of course, it was a question without an answer, as Twilight wasn't exactly sure how she came to be here in the first place. "How about you tell me?! I didn't ask for this!"
Twilight's question was answered by a blunt force ramming into her left side hard enough to knock her to the ground. One of the shadowy wolves had managed to close the distance and struck Twilight down, seemingly in response to her reply to that question. Without even thinking she began to squirm her way back up, but was stopped by a sudden force pressing down on her back, effectively pinning her to the ground. She craned her neck to look up at whatever had her held, and she had to fight the urge to scream when she saw the hooded figure holding her down with a single hoof. She could also see brief flashes of the two wolves, encircling the two like hungry sharks.
"We have been most kind with you despite your trespass, Twilight Sparkle," The hooded mare began, pushing down harder with the single hoof. This act caused Twilight to further squirm in pain and discomfort. "All you have to do is tell us what we need to know. Then, you may return to your 'endless' life." She leaned down until she was uncomfortably close to Twilight, to the point where the younger mare could feel the icy cold breath in her ear. "Unless, of course, you'd prefer the alternative?"
Twilight only doubled her efforts at this, wanting nothing more than to escape this horrible nightmare. And as if to fulfill that wish, the pressure on her back was suddenly alleviated. But one unpleasant stimulus was replaced very quickly by another, the sudden and very unpleasant sensation of falling. The ground beneath her had seemingly vanished, and Twilight was cast into what she perceived as a bottomless pit. Screaming as she descended, the young alicorn wildly flapped her wings futilely as she tried to cease her fall, but to no avail. She managed to orient her sight upward, however, watching with silent horror as the hole that had opened up underneath her sealed itself shut. Leaving Twilight in absolute darkness.
Though it didn't take long for the falling to stop, and Twilight landed on something cold and dusty with a loud thump. She laid there on her back for a short while, lightly groaning from the discomfort of falling for who knows how far. And in spite of the situation's weight, she took her sweet time in getting back up on her hooves. She was back in the same bleak and desolate environment she had come to know and dread well, the only difference being a distinct lack of antagonistic forces. Twilight was alone, completely and absolutely, in this bizarre landscape. She tilted her head up to try and see where she had come from but was met with only the same utter blackness from before.
"It's a dream... why would it make sense?" Twilight shook her head dismissively and returned to surveying the blank environment around her. For as far as the eye could see, there was nothing noteworthy to be seen for as far as the eye could see. Just the rough, untreated ground of whatever this place was. "I should keep moving... who knows when she'll come back?" And keep walking she did, staying ever vigilant for when her captors caught up with her. But much to her surprise, the Mare in the Moon didn't reveal herself and neither did her pets. And Twilight couldn't keep herself from asking the all-important question: "Why?"
Perhaps this seemingly endless isolation was meant to persuade her into talking? That was the only rational explanation Twilight could come up with. Intimidation didn't work in the other mare's eyes, then surely leaving Twilight alone to stew with her thoughts would. Of course, that would only help if Twilight actually did know what had caused these unusual dreams herself. And in the lull of everything, it was only now that Twilight found herself actually beginning to put more thought on her current situation, and her captor's demands.
"Why does she think I know what's going on?" Twilight asked out loud if only to provide a brief comfort of hearing something aside from silence. "I'm the only one who doesn't know..."
The alicorn silently cursed herself for her curiosity and persistence in this matter. Her involvement in this whole mess was no one else's fault but her own, all of it centered back on a simple bout of curiosity that spiraled far out of her control. She was the one who wanted to help put a stop to whatever was going on behind the veil, to help out a bunch of strangers she had no real ties too. That was the only part she couldn't bring herself to lament, at least not in full, as bringing some sense of ease to the two ponies she had made that promise to made it all seem worthwhile. At least it did, before this unfortunate development.
But even still, the further she chased that white rabbit, the more and more Twilight began to see just how deep the rabbit hole went. Never in a million years did she think she'd ever get tied up into a mess like this, a web of troubles tying to a centuries-old war and the dark magic that had been involved in it. Of course, thinking of it like that—combined with the seemingly endless time to think she had been gifted with—inevitably drew Twilight's mind back to Canterlot. Back to Queen Celestia, the one solely responsible for Twilight's own alicorn ascension. And once again, Twilight began to wonder if the millennia-old alicorn had this path planned for her from the very beginning.
"It doesn't matter right now..." She was quick to push these unpleasant thoughts back to the back of her mind, just like the last time she had been foolish enough to ask these questions. It didn't matter right now whether or not she was simply fulfilling some divine purpose laid out before her by Equestria's Queen. "Either way, I'm here and I'm involved. I had my chance to walk away, and I didn't take it. The only way out is through."
Her own words came in an almost doubtful tone, far from okay with the situation at hoof. Even if this was all planned out for her by some power outside her control, there wasn't a way for Twilight to peacefully withdraw from the conflict now. She was going to have to play her part in seeing this through until the end, with whatever that end may entail. But she wasn't going to be able to do that in her present state, she was going to have to wake from this odd nightmare before she could even try.
Speaking of, the architect of this nightmare still refused to show herself again. Twilight had been walking for what felt like hours now, and still nothing. The Mare in the Moon had to have known by now that Twilight didn't know how she had come to be here, so why was Twilight still asleep? She dared not to dwell on the threat of "never wake again," hoping that the ancient alicorn didn't hold that kind of power over her right now. The concept of eternity was already something that Twilight was put off by, but an eternity in this place seemed all the worse. She wouldn't wish that unbearable fate on anyone.
But as the hours seemingly continued to tick by, Twilight felt more and more certain that she had been left here to face infinity in darkness. Or at the very least until the Mare in the Moon chose to come back to question her again. She seemed adamant on figuring out how and why Twilight came to be an unwitting witness of the older mare's life. And now that Twilight had time to think things over, she was starting to share that sentiment.
She brought her thoughts back to earlier, to how this dream-based entrapment began. Unlike the last time, her window into the past had been shattered with the outburst of some third presence. That was the only reasonable explanation Twilight could find to what had happened earlier. Looking back, it was almost as if someone had been reacting to what had been going on in those memories. Twilight couldn't blame them, considering that from what she was able to tell, Selene had been seduced by that mysterious voice. Or at least that was the impression Twilight had been getting before she was rudely ejected from those visions without warning or tact. None of this made any sense to her, and she was having a hard time trying to keep track of each little detail, knowing full well that anything in this mess of a situation could have been a hint. A hoof was roughly rubbed against one of her temples as she kept ever onward as if trying to coerce her brain into working harder on finding the answer.
And then, there was a change. As she was walking along, not paying attention to where she was even going anymore, her hoof snagged on something. It was taut and thorny, swiftly coercing her to pull away. This was the first time there had been any change in the environment, and it was quick to make Twilight investigate. What she saw could only be described as a thick, black vine. She looked closer at the unfamiliar flora, taking notice that the thorns embedded in the fine were, frighteningly enough, made up of onyx. Twilight could see the end of it sticking up out of the ground, stretching off into the distance.
And as she followed the trail made by the odd plant with her eyes, more of them made themselves clear. And the further she looked, the more twisted and tangled they became. Twilight had unwittingly stumbled upon the edge of this massive field of bramble. But now that she had noticed it, she wondered how she hadn't seen it earlier. It was massive, to say the absolute least. The twisting mass of black stretching on forever, encompassing the dull light given off by the ashen ground and casting horrid shadows into the equally black sky. And after looking at nothing but rock and dust for countless hours now, this was a welcome change of scenery, able it a bit disturbing.
"Mother..."
Ever so weakly, a voice suddenly reached Twilight's ears. At first, she thought it was simply just the wind, but something about it seemed off. And seeing as how she was in a dream, Twilight elected that anything that seemed off was worth investigating. At the very least, it would be something to do while she waited to wake up. She closed her eyes and focused, her ears subtly turning in the vague dirrection where the sound had come from.
"Tia..."
It was definitely a voice. It was hoarse and weak, but the absolute silence of this bizarre land allowed it to carry for as far as it did. And she recognized it very quickly. After all, it hadn't been that long ago when she had been speaking with it herself. Only now, there was something different. The voice sounded afraid, lightly gasping between weak sobs. A part of Twilight saw this for the trap that it was, knowing that the Mare in the Moon was trying to lure her into her demise. But at the same time, there was a sad sincerity to the whimpering that heavily influenced the young alicorn's next few decisions.
She looked in the direction it came from, further in the valley of needles that she had just discovered. And now that she was actively trying to listen, there were a few things she noticed. These things were enough for Twilight to brave the unforgiving terrain, stepping carefully as to not impale herself on one of the thousands of tiny pricks in her path. And the further she strode into the range, the more she began to notice a pattern in the plants. Despite being a massive tangled mess, they all seemed to be reaching towards one central point—the same point Twilight was headed to herself. Very rarely, something further ahead would pull at one of the taught vines, causing the whole field to slightly shake and shudder ever so slightly.
And every time it happened, Twilight had to stop and readjust herself to make sure she didn't get caught in the spines. These weak tremors also did well to expose secrets that had been lost to this valley of thistles, secrets that Twilight wished she had never seen. It wasn't the first time Twilight had seen skulls in her life, she had been to more than one museum in her time. But this was the first time she had seen them in what could only be called a mass grave, each entangled within these black vines. There wasn't an abundance of them, from what she saw less than ten thus far. But each of them was distinct from one another. Both in origin and deformity.
One seemed to belong to a griffin once upon a time. Or at least, Twilight thought it was a griffin. Everything looked right until she noticed that the beak was jagged and serrated by design as if it had grown that way. Another looked as if it had once belonged to a minotaur, one who had been unfortunate to have lost one of their horns. But this deficiency was made up by the intact twin, which seemed to have dozens of other horns jutting out of it, almost like it was an antler. But the one that gave Twilight pause was the skull of a pony. A sarosian, if the fangs were anything to go off of. This skull had been desecrated by a series of black jagged crystals, one of which jutted from the forehead in a twisted mockery of a unicorn's natural gift. And for a moment, Twilight locked eyes with the empty sockets of this once living creature, a great sense of dread overwhelming her before it was swallowed again by a tugging at the vines.
"Somepony... help me..."
The continuing outcries of the voice brought Twilight back to reality—or as close as she could get to reality at the moment—and once again she pushed herself onward. The same song and dance repeated over and over again until the young mare finally came upon the source of the tugging and the whimpering. The heart of the bramble patch, if the now apparent circular pattern of the vines were anything to go off of. And in the center of it all, a pony could be seen impossibly woven into the thicket. It was hard to notice her at first, her dark coat blending in well with the dark bindings that held her. But it was easy enough to find where the mare began if the intensely glowing silver horn was anything to go off of.
From there, Twilight traced the outline of the trapped pony with a look of blatant terror. Like horrid chains, the vines wrapped around the mare in impossible knots. Her head was relatively free, save for the thick loop around her neck. Laying on her side, her legs were splayed out far and wide to one side of her— each one held in place by any number of the black vines. Twilight couldn't see the pony's bat-like wings from here, but it was safe to assume that they were being held similarly. Small lines of long since dried blood marked where the thorns had pierced the mare's skin—nowhere near as many as there should have been—yet tears seemed to flow ever free from the face contorted in fear and pain. Her breaths were short and silent, growing in volume and speed whenever the mare's body spasmed in a futile attempt to break her bonds—the source of the vines being tugged about, clearly enough. And as Twilight drew closer, these spasms seemed to continue to grow in frequency, although Twilight wasn't even certain that this mare was aware of her surroundings, let alone the second alicorn's presence.
"... Selene?" Twilight managed to ask, supremely disturbed by the sight in front of her.
"Please... free me..." Selene seemed to choke out in reply, through her tears and her gasps. "Anypony... please..."
If this was a trap meant to lure Twilight close, then it had worked without a single failure. The cynical side of Twilight that had suspected this whole endeavor was all but silenced as she witnessed the plight of the alicorn princess before her. If it was a facade, then it was a very well made one. There was no faking the pain strewn about on the cobalt pony's face, and Twilight could almost feel that pain for herself just by looking at this dreadful display. It was enough to make twilight's stomach wretch.
"Can you... hear me?" The frightened alicorn asked, but no reply was given. The elder pony only continued to squirm and writhe every so often in what could only be called her prison. Once again leaving Twilight alone, with nothing but her questions to keep her company. "You can stop now... I'm here, you can spring the trap. Just do it already... I get it..."
But the trap was never sprung, the only thing Selene did was continue to fight the chains that bound her, continuing to weakly beg for freedom from this ghastly nightmare. And all Twilight could do was watch, unable to draw her eyes away from the horror before her. She tried to avert her eyes, thinking for a moment that this might be some new form of torture conjure dup by the Mare in the Moon to make Twilight talk, but instead she found herself enraptured by Selene's silver magic. Bright and potent, the magical aura was healthy and strong, unimpeded by the apparent physical pain she was in.
This caught Twilight's attention, distracting her for a moment from the other pony's plight. If this was all meant to be a trap for Twilight, then why was the mare's horn glowing? It seemed like an odd detail to include, unnecessary even. Unless, of course, this wasn't a trap after all. Regardless, Twilight couldn't stand to watch this anymore. She quickly searched for a piece of vine that was mostly clear of shards and began working to try and free Selene. It tasted horrible, but she had no choice given her current lack of magic. She tried to pull on the vine in a way that wouldn't cause further pain to their captive, only for Princess Selene to continue murmuring.
"I've had enough of this dream... All I hear... their song... this dreadful lullaby... trapping me here..."
Their song? Twilight asked internally, her mouth still filled with the bitter dry vine. Despite its brittle appearance, the vine was seeming to hold up under Twilight's efforts. Either her above-average strength was also something nullified in this dream—just like her magic—or these things were just that tough. Twilight eventually gave up and turned back to the trapped pony. "What song? Who's singing?"
"There you are," the many voices of the Mare in the Moon spoke from behind as if to answer that question, Selene's struggles only intensifying in responce. "What have you been up to? Seeking aide in a fragmented shard of our selves?"
It didn't take much for Twilight to find the Mare in the Moon, silently standing there in the bramble with them. The black vines around them stretched and distorted around their evident master, creating a blatant clear patch for the hooded figure to stand. Immediately on guard, Twilight did what she could to face the antagonistic force without skewering herself on the sharp environment. She lightly shifted the muscles in her wings, hoping that flight was still an option in this place. Because if it wasn't, then Twilight was squarely out of options.
But the hooded mare didn't make a move. She didn't say or do anything at all, she merely stood there, her eyes untraceably fixated on one thing and nothing else. At first, Twilight was under the assumption that she was the subject of interest, but then Selene's mewling once more reached her ears and she looked back to the bound mare. This was enough to prove to Twilight that this wasn't a trap, or at least not an intentional one. After all, why keep the facade going after you've sprung it? But of course, this brought up a very concerning question in Twilight's mind.
Who have I been talking too?
The question wasn't one that would be answered, or at least it wouldn't be within the confines of this dream. A sudden sensation of weightlessness washed over Twilight in a powerful wave as she was plucked upward by some unseen force. Her sudden escape wasn't unnoticed, the Mare in the Moon quickly looking up at her as if shocked by this development, yet seemingly unable to do anything about it.
Then without warning, yet with a loud gasp, Twilight found herself waking up somewhere else. Her ears were ringing loudly, like an irate warning bell that refused to cease. She felt the cool air of a late-spring night on her exposed face—and the familiar weight of her cloak and saddlebags once more. The light of the rising sun greeting her almost instantly, a refreshing change of pace after this very long night. She was on the ground—after a fall, she assumed—but she was quickly able to deduce where she was. And she breathed a sigh of relief at the familiar houses around her. She was back in Ponyville.
"Argh, what the buck was that?!" Rainbow Dash's raspy voice was a breath of fresh air after the dream Twilight had just lived through. It was soon apparent that the pegasus had also been knocked to the ground, her forehooves hard at work shielding her evidently harmed face. It was also now that Twilight realized just where they were in Ponyville—right in front of her house.
"Dash?" Twilight began to get herself up, finding that her body had yet to fully catch up with her. Her first few steps were wobbly and unstable, but she was able to right herself in no time.
"Oh, so NOW you wake up?! Typical!" Rainbow Dash yelled in annoyance and pain, writhing on the ground to turn and look at Twilight without having to get up. "Care to tell me why your house EXPLODED at me?!"
"Exploded?" The cloaked alicorn looked over to her rented home, the last remnants of some strong magical pulse fading away visible to her. It didn't take long for her to catch up with whatever had happened, figuring out exactly what had just happened. "You triggered the alarms... all of them." Twilight found herself goofily grinning at this apparent development. The wards and charms she had slathered her home in had been enough to force her to wake up when Dash had blindly brought her sleeping body here.
"Why did the alarms explode though?!"
"Because it's meant to keep people out," Twilight bluntly answered as she helped her friend back to her hooves, almost giddy at the return of her beloved magic. And now at the end of this long night, as Twilight helped Dash get up off of the ground and the sun continued to rise into the sky, there was one thing that suddenly came to mind that took priority above all else.
She didn't bother explaining herself before quickly rushing into her home with great haste, not caring if she was being followed while taking the few twists and turns about the short pathway to her destination. With a flash of magic, the door was thrown open and Twilight barged into Spike's room. She nearly tripped on a few of his scattered belongings in the process— a few toys and trinkets he had accrued over the two's travels—but it wasn't enough to get her to falter too much. Especially not right now.
"Wha-HUH?!" Spike was abruptly awoken by the tactless entrance on the behalf of his equine guardian, the long dragon bolting upright out of the cluster of blankets and pillows like a startled animal. His eyes glossed over and unfocused, still half-asleep and unable to pinpoint the origin of whatever just woke him.
"Spike? Are you okay?" Twilight tried to ask the question as calmly as she could, even though she was still a bit frazzled from everything that transpired. If nothing else, knowing that Spike was able to wake up at all seemed to be a good sign. "Did anything happen while I was gone?"
"Uhh... I dunno..." The sleepy dragon spoke through a yawn and began rubbing at his eyes. "If it did, I slept through it..."
All Twilight could do in reply was give a soft, relieved chuckle before she scooped the dragon up into a soft hug. He was still somewhat delirious from his sudden awakening but he didn't make much of an effort to squirm out of the sudden embrace. It took a second or two for the young dragon to catch up and return the gesture. The two of them sat there for a few moments, simply enjoying one another's mere existence. Of course, for Twilight, it was more of a way to try and move past whatever it was she had just been through. The memories of her impromptu dreams were slightly hazy now in the waking world, but they were clear enough to leave their mark. The young alicorn had plans to address these issues in the near future, but for right now she was simply content with caring for her little dragon.
"Welp, I'm diabetic now," Rainbow Dash was swift in interrupting the tender and loving moment with a taunting grin, "Because that's just too sweet."
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Wonderful update!
The more she keeps seeing, the more she keeps shining in the night, and the nightmares auspices.
Isn't it though
So Selene is trapped in the dream realm? As a at least somewhat separate entity from Nightmare Moon? And honestly, Twilight could have at least tried to explain things to her, even if she might not believe her.
Once more, really good job on this latest chapter. The exchanges, characterizations, action and future chapter set-up are all well done in all the right places. Yeah, I can understand why Twilight would have a hard time explaining things to that one pursuer in that dream. As Twilight pointed out herself in her thoughts, she doesn't know herself and she can't provide answers she doesn't have. And, yeah, Twi's bit of compassion toward Selene before she woke up was a great touch. And, yeah, Rainbow tripping all of Twilight's security devices before Twilight woke up was a good detail and a good reason for Rainbow to be upset. Though, the best scene was Twilight just being glad that Spike was all right.
VERY certainly looking forward to more.
Heh, Dash's quip at the end really clenches it. In fact, that whole scene is utterly sweet. Thank you for including that; you didn't have to in order to progress the story, but you did anyway, so thanks.
An interesting take on Selene's will being captured after being seduced by the shard. I wonder...was the potential "split persona" what you had in mind when you first began writing this story? It's certainly a more intriguing (and, in some senses, "realistic"...at least as far as can be in a magical dream world) take on what drove Selene to be Nightmare Moon.
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The bit with Spike was going to be part of the next chapter, but it felt more natural to get it out of the way then and there.
As for the Selene/Nightmare Moon thing... it's complicated. And spoiler-ey. But I can say that it wasn't planned from the beginning, mostly because it wasn't going to be a Nightmare Moon story at first. That was a later development.
Hello just thought I would let you know about a few typos I noticed. For the sake of brevity, Red is for actual typos, the yellow is something that I can't quite put my finger on, but it seems off for some reason, and the green is just a friendly suggestion to make for a smoother read. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.
Well that suddenly brings something to mind...
Man, I miss Moonstuck...
It's all starting to come together now...enough that I think I've got a pretty good basic picture of what happened/has been happening. I mean, there's still a few details left to be sorted...but I think I'm on the right track now.
Then again, I think I've said that before, so...
You know, this paragraph makes me think that twilight might not be a 'true' Alicorn and she ages just like everyone else. Making her fears unfounded.
Though I hope I'm wrong, as I don't remember seeing a tragedy tag
Twilight O'Malley is on the case!
Very interesting developments on the timberwolves. I am sure we all suspected it was related after the whole "Sombrero murders Celestia-but-not-Celestia", cause he was filled with crystals. And there was the tree crystal, with all the freaky flowers. That needs a deep look into. Glimmy-glam seems to be doing an infiltration, but to what ends we don't really know.
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Ali or so have been established as unaging, not undying. Powerful and hard to kill. Live until killed
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My perception was that it was a death threat