Twilight's Nightmare

by Nightsclaw

Act 2 CH 2 The Darkest Night: Tiger Tiger Baking Bread

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Tiger Lilly's dream continued. Silvermane was still here. She was beginning to doubt the fact he had actually died. If it were not for one thing that Princess Twilight said, she would have been able to just let herself forget she even thought her husband was dead.

You make her happy… why do you think you have anything to fear from me? Why would the Princess say that?

She looked from the dough she kneaded. Past the sheet of glass, Silvermane had the crowd of foals gathered around as he spun another of his exaggerated tales.

As much as the little ones hung on his every word, something was wrong. He hesitated a little here and there, and his left ear kept twitching at every little sound.

That was not one of his normal nervous habits, but a nervous habit it clearly was. She turned back to her baking as she thought about it. She folded some dyed mixed petals in and a hoof full of assorted berries. The foals would not appreciate it as much as her cookies, but it would be just the thing to go with a warm soup for supper or buttered for breakfast.

Everything had been idyllic until this morning when the sun dimmed. Some of the foals screamed about Nightmare Moon, and all the guards froze. Silvermane body had tensed as if he was about to gallop for the hills.

Over the next few minutes, everything had returned to normal, at least on the surface. She sighed as she divided the dough into the greased tins. Even with the flaws, she still wilfully clung to the dream. So she put away her doubts as she put the bread into the oven.

Some ponies used timers, and others watched a clock. Tiger Lilly just used her nose as Celestia intended. She opened the kitchen window a crack and headed out to join the foals for storytime.

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The infused bread proved just as good a companion to the soup as Tiger Lilly knew it would. The warmth of her full belly threatened to send her to sleep as she sat on the porch next to her Silvermane and watched the sunset.

The sun moved smoothly through the sky if, perhaps, slower than normal. She ignored the fact and savoured the moment as she leaned against her love as he held her hoof.

Silvermane smiled his charming smile and rested his head against hers. She sighed contentedly.

There had been many adventures, many exciting moments in their lives, but it was times like this she treasured the most.

As the rich, warm colours of the sunset faded and the sky darkened, the promised comfort of bed called, but she would wait to see the stars at least.

The sky darkened yet more, turning from its usual comforting blanket to a soulless abyss. Is this the end of the dream? She thought as she gripped Silvermane's hoof tighter. She had to drag her eyes away from the void that hung above her like a promise of her awaiting demise.

Silvermane's strong legs wrapped around her. They felt firm and robust despite his age. "Tonight is not a good night to be outside," he whispered as if fearful of being overheard.

Tiger Lilly did not abject in the least as he carried her inside and locked the door. Not a single moment of sleep came to her as she sheltered in Silvermane's embrace for the whole cursed night.

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Comments

[Sorven9]

After reading these new chapters I've got to say one poor Twilight, too I quite enjoy Celestia's mask I'm looking forward to when she gets a name, and oh boy things are getting good. Absolutely love this story and looking forward to the next chapters.

[Mister Morden]

And then things got worse...

I thought we had hit peak suffering with the Blight. Wow was I wrong!

The Mask is the most interesting character so far. A simple thing becoming more and more aware as time goes on.

Does anyone else know what has happened to Celestia?

[Admiral Q Ponyform]

Celestia, what a mess you made

[Killer20]

Holy crap so many good chapters!! Love it!!

Also I was totally wrong about Twilight not naming herself Midnight Sparkle…

[Nightsclaw]

11841019
11840872
Thank you.

Yes 'Twilight' has had a lot of terrible things happen to her. Some of it was hard to write even with me knowing it was going to happen from before I uploaded the first chapter. There was a bit of dread as the end of the last Act drew closer.

Yes the Mask is going to have lots of fun moments ahead as she gets the chance to become more.

11840969
Celestia's actions (or inactions) have started the chain of events for nearly everything bad that has happened in this story so far.

11840912
I hope it is still an interesting read.
As for what happened to Celestia, there are hints in the Fragments chapters and CH 94.4 The Final Choices of a Patchwork Pony. Thats the best clue I can give without spoliers.

[Ralanost]

11841091
Damn, I was really hoping. It figures she's just a damaged and deranged fragment. I don't want to think that OG Twilight died for Patchwork and now Patchwork died for Midnight. It doesn't feel like Twilight's Nightmare really fits if the one that was the beginning to this all is now twice removed. Is it fair to call any of what's left Twilight anymore?

[Dagon M Dragoon]

oooOOOoo, what demons roam when grief and hatred rule the heart of night?

[Nightsclaw]

11841144

Here is some more insight that I hope helps. All this is stuff that should be dotted about in the many chapters before this point. So no spoilers as such just big hints and clues. Hope this helps.

If an alicorn cannot make up its mind on something and the situation is stresful enough it can spilt off a fragment (or fragments) so it can do all the options. It can be very hard to say which one is the original one if it even matters. It has already come up that an Alicorn's soul can heal so if you cut an Alicorn's soul in half you might end up with two copies of the same pony...

If you destoy 99% of an Alicorn's soul and then leave them long enough they will recover in time, it might be 100s or 1000s or years but the will recover. What they remmber and if the experance changed them is another matter.

In this case, Patchwork chose to save her friends at the cost of her life and at the same time made the choice to live at the cost of her friends. It was an extremely stressfuyl sitatuion and she had conflicting emotions and goals. So fragments happen. Which one was the real one would be hard to say and harder to prove. I would say they were both real.

Grey, Nova, Rule Breaker, Dancer, Sunchaser and Little Star (the newly restored one) are each a part of the core Twilight. (so it would be possible to put them back togther somehow to remake the orignal Twilight... not that I think they would let that happen)

As per Patchworks plan Nova has gained access to most of her memories (All the books are still in the Golden Oaks as well). As Nova 'ate' the remains of the other fragemnts that were locked up with her to heal after Celestia used thir parts to make Patchwork Nova is the most complet part of the original Twilight. Nova has already been seen to have foal hood memoreis from even before the entrance exam.

Midnight is the core part of patchwork (remmber how she was when she left the body (and the inflanceses of the others) behind.

[Killer20]

11841144
I think its fair to question if the second twilight had anything to do with the First, but ”Midnight“ is basically an exact copy of that Second twilight, So they are the Same in everything that matters.

That brings up an interesting Question…Is CELESTIA still the original Celestia.
Years ago I think I made a Comment that I thought the MASK was really the Original Celestia and the Celestia we see in this Story is really just a Fragment that follows her ”Reason for existing” ,that in this case being a ruler for her subjects.

Many Comments in this Story pointed out that Celestia is a very Efficient RULER but she lacks empathy and understanding for her Subjects.
That could be the Reason for that!

[Max Stroberger]

If Celestia's goal is to get everything that she doesn't have complete control over to hate her she's certainly succeeded.

[Admiral Q Ponyform]

11841105
yeah. I am not even blaming Daybreaker. seems she was forced to attack Twilight because of directives Celestia placed on her. for awhile i believed that Day breaker needed to be in control for she understands some of Celestia's issues that are harmful.

i see three villians in this story. the orginal guy that set this up, Celestia through her ruling, and HARMONY

[Bruuuuuuuuh]

11841211
Midnight scrolls power is like a grain of sand compared to the power of alicorns and concepts like Celestia and Harmony

[Killer20]

11546938
”I may be crazy enough to break myself inside my head!
Cause lately I could‘t find these answers to live by Instead!“

Well doesn‘t THAT kinda fit with something that Happened recently!

[dragonus85]

I owe tiger lilly an apology, each time we shift to her I have forgot she's a part of the story, thankfully a few paragraphs and I remember her again. Hoh boy, the aftermath of a few minutes of conflict is far reaching. Looking forward to more.