• Published 11th Sep 2019
  • 18,489 Views, 3,574 Comments

Twilight's Nightmare - Nightsclaw



Twilight in her most desperate of moments, issues a cry for help. She was not expecting the Nightmare to be her saviour.

  • ...
61
 3,574
 18,489

PreviousChapters Next
CH 44.3 Sweet Deliverance


Insight's magic had breathed on the last few embers of vitality. Their restored glow, just bright enough for a few subjective hours of a final dream. Physical-world seconds trickled by, each one stretched as far as Insight’s training would allow. The pull of the Eternal Fields would always win. Still, her role was to enable them to pass peacefully, not screaming and frantically tearing their soul apart as they resisted the inevitable.

Everything had been said, messages to be passed to the still living. Insight had been a shoulder to cry on, a companion to hold, and a confessor to bear any final regrets to. She knew him better than any living pony ever would, and all but what he permitted were her secrets to keep until her own existence ended.

The young pony soaking up the summer rays looked nothing like the ruined form of the old stallion that gave his life so others could flee. A slight smile graced his muzzle as he took a sip of his expensive cocktail.

Silvermane’s ear twitched, homing in on something Insight would never hear, but many had described in their final breaths. The sweet, irresistible song that promised eternal rest. The unseen force tugged on the stallion’s soul, lightly for now, a request. The afterlife was being polite, allowing her to finish her duty, to hear any final words. If she resisted, the drain of holding him here would be increased dramatically.

His hoof reached out, the warmth of the touch almost jarring as it rested on her shoulder. He nodded, nothing but serene acceptance in his eyes. Insight released her borrowed magic. The old stallion’s wellspring collapsed, releasing his core essence.

The presence of Silvermane’s hoof lingered even as the last of his form faded away. The single mote of light raced off, his soul answering the call of the afterlife.

“Thank you.” Floated on a final sea-scented breeze as the idyllic dream crumbled. The two words being the last act of his worldly magic.

The sunny beach slipped away as if it never existed, but Insight would always remember it. It was where Silvermane had proposed to Tiger Lily.

His wife was going to be devastated, but at least she would hear his final words. For everyone she had helped today, at least a dozen had passed alone. Anger flared. If it was not for what Celestia had done to Luna, everypony could have a peaceful end. Each tended to by a fragment of Luna made just for them, the ideal companion to escort them to the afterlife.

The cool tingle of the Tantabus’s body pressed into her side. The larger unicorn’s leg and neck closed round her in a hug. As simple as Luna’s creation was, she still cared. Insight leaned into the embrace, allowing herself a few stolen seconds to recenter.

“Where to now?” Insight asked.

The Tantabus nuzzled her once and slowly rose. Insight followed, heading to her next assignment.


The elder Tantabus ears twitched. She nuzzled insight before bounding off, leaving Insight before a simple wooden door with a Tree etched onto it. She raised her hoof to knock, and the portal opened of its own accord.

“Come in,” Sweet Dream’s voice called.

Insight headed in. Her tantabus, the most recent gift from Luna, a smaller copy of the dream creation, flanked her. The stuff of the very dream realm woven together with Luna's magic granted a rudimentary intelligence and bound to Insight’s will. Another portion of Luna's power granted to her. Its form was able to be whatever shape or form Insight desired, from a staff, to armour, to its current pony like form.

The wood beneath her hooves was more real than anywhere she had experienced today. Twilight’s bastion had a solidity, a tangibility, that the dreams Insight could create lacked. The simple sensation was a rock to ground herself with, a simple immutable reality after subjective years being whoever and whatever her charges needed to find peace.

She had been friends, lovers, family members. Shared precious moments simply so they could be passed on in dreams to those that were meant to experience them.

The subjective years weighed down her hooves, pressed down on her withers even as her body still held its youthful vigour. How had Luna done this on her own for nearly a decade?

The hardest had been those she was too late to help, those she had to kill, those she had to rip their souls free and throw to the afterlife before the Blight could claim them. That terrible truth weighed heavily in her heart. The darker magics were the only thing in the physical world that could taint or destroy a soul, and somepony had deliberately set such a thing loose into the world.

Her horn thrummed with borrowed power. It struggled and thrashed to escape like a snarling beast. How many souls had been consumed that might have escaped had that tyrant not crippled her own sister?

Her hooves found their own way through the tangled mess of Luna’s wing. So many trinkets and treasured memories of her lover were crammed in here. Why was this in Twilight’s Bastion? Was this what the bond of love between Alicorns was like, or was it something more? Will I ever be worthy of my own wing here?

Silver magic opened the door ahead, revealing the central chamber of the Grand Library. Packed with precarious piles of books.

“Welcome home, tea?” Sweet Dreams called out.

Home, that single word, four simple letters, yet meant so much. It was odd how easily it became true. This place accepted her just as readily as Candice’s head. Despite the extra freedom she had here, she still longed to return to her sister’s mind. Until recently, it had been both her home and her cage, but she still longed to return, to become her sister's other half again.

A grey aura floated stacks of books piled in the main chamber up a level and over the balcony. Her eyes tracked the motion. Since when could Grey’s magic affect anything outside her prison?

Insight wove her way past the walls of books until she could see her host. Sweet Dream’s ancient eyes gazed into Insight’s own. Without a single word, she conveyed her sympathy and respect. Dream’s remembered, she once held the same duty. The silver-maned Alicorn guided Insight to a comfortable cushioned nest, out of the way of the airborne tombs.

"Thank you. I just wish I could do more. I wouldn't have to if Luna hadn't been crippled by her sister." Her borrowed magic flared a little again, though she tamped it down quickly.

“You may not have a body, but both the mind and soul can tire and succumb to fatigue.” Dreams’s wing guided Insight to a corner full of decadently soft cushions.

Her whole body sang with praise with the simple relief of being off her hooves. Dreams’s wing became a luxurious blanket as it enfolded her. Silver magic presented both tea and biscuits. Insight just snuggled into Dreams causing a soft giggle.

Dreams graced her with a motherly smile, returning the refreshments to the table. The silver-maned Alicorn rose her voice in a light song, the enchanting performance captivating her. It cleansed the resentment, soothing the malice from Insight’s magic.

Insight did nothing to fight her heavy lids and the sleep claiming her.


PreviousChapters Next