Nightmare's Return

by CanterlotGuardian

Your Heart Is Full of Broken Dreams

If Twilight had thought that she couldn’t be fazed by anything that Rainbow Dash could say, obviously she hadn’t taken this into consideration. She could have said that this was the last thing that she thought Dash would say, but that would have technically been a lie because this was not even on any possible list of things that she thought would ever come out of Dash’s mouth.

“Um... I’m sorry, I don’t think I heard you quite right.” She lifted a hoof to her ears and scratched them as though trying to clear away some invisible blockage. “I could have sworn that you just said Celestia told you that Chrysalis and Cadence were sisters.”

“Well... Technically, she didn’t outright tell me. I kind of just overheard her when she was talking in that weird telepathy-thing that she does when she and Luna are trying to have a private conversation.”

“So does she know that you know about it?”

“Yeah, I mean as soon as she was done talking to Luna, I asked her about it. And she pretty much flipped out- well, as composedly as she could, anyways. She basically said that there was no way I should ever tell anypony, because she hadn’t nailed it down yet as to whether or not it was actually true. It was just a theory that she was pursuing. She specifically mentioned you, though, for me to not tell you. I think she didn’t want you to be too distracted from your studies and your duties here in Ponyville.”

Twilight snorted a bit in laughter. “Oh, what? Maintaining that dusty old library that no one but you and Celestia ever go to? That hardly takes up a lot of my time. And besides, Spike is the one who does most of the work.”

Dash shrugged, nonplussed. “I don’t get it any more than you do. What exactly was in that book, anyways? The alicorn book, the one that Celestia got from you?”

She had to think for a second. “Mostly just genealogical history. Not too much is known about where alicorns first came from, but when they did start recording their history, they took it down it rather well. It’s quite meticulous, the records they kept.”

“Well that’s interesting and all, but how do you explain the bit about Chrysalis? I mean, technically, she’s not an alicorn, is she?”

This was something that hadn’t crossed Twilight’s mind before then, so she had to think about it for a second. “Well, the only thing that really distinguishes alicorns from the rest of pony-kind, besides the vastly increased magical potential, is just the fact that they have both a horn and wings. So I guess in that respect, then yeah, Chrysalis could be considered an alicorn. She does meet at least those minimum qualifications.”

“But does she look like any kind of alicorn you’ve ever seen.”

“No, but then again, I’ve only seen two. Celestia and Luna.”

“Don’t forget Cadence.” Twilight smiled sheepishly; how on earth could she not remember her sister-in-law and oldest childhood friend?

“Okay, so three alicorns. That still doesn’t change the fact that Chrysalis looks nothing like any of them. And besides that, does she even have a cutie mark? Chrysalis, I mean. Think about it: alicorns are still technically ponies. Celestia, Luna, and Cadence all have cutie marks, but I didn’t see one on Chrysalis when I saw her last.”

“I really have no idea,” Dash admitted. “I didn’t bother to check.”

“Can’t blame you, really. The last time we all saw her was not under the... best of circumstances.” The memory came unbidden in her mind: Chrysalis crashing the wedding of Shining Armor and Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, after it was revealed that the Cadence in the wedding was actually Chrysalis in disguise. Only after a pooling of their efforts- and quite a bit of magical expenditure on all the unicorns’ (and alicorn’s) part- was the menace finally defeated. For good, even... or so they thought.

“Yeah, I was kind of distracted by all the Changelings throwing themselves at me. At all of us, really.” Dash nodded at a friend who had passed by their table. “Hey, how long have we been here, anyways?” Twilight looked over at Spike, whose admittedly young dragon body still had the most accurate internal body clock that she had ever seen.

“About an hour and a half,” Spike replied.

“Oh man, that long already? I was supposed to get over to Fluttershy’s house half an hour ago! Sorry to jet, but I’ll see ya later, okay?” Dash took off into the skies, and a peaceful calm settled over the pavilion.

Spike looked up from his sandwich. “It’s almost nice when she’s not around.” Twilight looked at him crossly and bopped him on the back of his head. “What? It’s true. Man, I swear she can talk up a bloody storm.”

“That still doesn’t excuse your rudeness,” Twilight chided. “And besides, she brought up some good points. What if there is something to this whole thing about Cadence and Chrysalis being sisters?”

“How is that possible? Chrysalis is 100 percent Changeling, and last time I checked Cadence doesn’t have a single bit of Changeling in her, at least from how she looks.”

“Maybe it’s dormant?” Twilight mused half-heartedly. She finished her sandwich in a few bites. “Anyways, it’s time to get back to the house. The Crusaders are coming over later tonight for their meeting, remember?”

Spike groaned. “I still don’t get why on earth you agreed to let them use the library for their CMC meetings. They have a perfectly serviceable clubhouse all to their very own.” As Twilight began to lecture him on why she made that decision, she dropped a few bits on the table and walked out, her number-one assistant riding on her back like he so loved doing.

---

Dash soared on the invisible currents of air in the sky, using them to propel herself forward. They were strong enough so that she didn’t have to flap her wings all too often in order to keep herself aloft and in forward motion. The only reason why she did so every once in awhile was just to keep them from going entirely stiff from lack of motion.

Up ahead, she saw Fluttershy’s cottage and smiled. She’d made it a point a few months ago to get together weekly with her oldest friend, just to talk about random things and keep each other company. Being independent and all suited Dash just fine, but she had longing needs just like any other pony, and living alone in her cloud house meant that sometimes she just wanted the company of her friends. And besides, she knew that Fluttershy liked it as well, if only to break up the monotony of taking care of all those animals.

Dash landed a bit awkwardly and had to quickly correct in order to avoid going head over tail. Once she did so, she straightened up and brushed herself off quickly, hoping Fluttershy hadn’t seen her little flying faux pas. It’d been a good while since she was so lost in thought while flying that it almost caused her to crash. That wasn’t good.

She went and knocked on the door to her house. “Who is it?” she heard, coming muffled through the door. She figured Fluttershy must be at the very back of the house.

“Just me!” she called back. She heard a flurry of hoof-falls, then the door opened quickly.

“Oh my, was our date today...?” Fluttershy asked, a bit out of breath. “I’d totally forgotten... I was just back in the back, changing out my roosters’ water and food.”

“That’s cool, I forgot about it, too. I met Twilight and Spike when I went to go get lunch, and we kind of ended up getting into a really big discussion about stuff that lasted longer than I thought it would.”

Fluttershy sighed with relief. “Oh good, I’m glad I’m not the only one running behind today.” She stepped aside and motioned for Dash to come in, and she did. Fluttershy shut the door behind her, just in time to prevent one of the baby chickadees from escaping.

“Oh no, you don’t...” Fluttershy reproved the young bird. “You’re not getting away on my watch!” She scooped the bird up delicately and placed it on her shoulder, heading back to the aviary portion. “Come on back. You can help me finish up.”

“You sure?” Dash asked a bit hesitantly as she nonetheless followed her closest friend to the back. “You know that I’ve never been as good with animals as you have.”

“Oh, it’s really easy. I promise.” They went all the way back, and Dash saw the familiar bird cages lining the room where Fluttershy kept her aviary. “All you’ll be doing, really, is keeping an eye on them, just to make sure they don’t fly away when I open their cages to feed and water them. If they do fly out, just don’t let them get out the window. These are all still nursing back to health, you know, in one way or another.”

Dash grinned. “Sure, no problem!’ Over the next few minutes, as Fluttershy finished up on her work, she and Dash began the process of telling each other about all that had happened to them over the previous week. Even though they were both technically still members of the Elements of Harmony, their roles as such had not been active since they used them to defeat Chrysalis at the wedding. As such, they had settled into their everyday roles as seamlessly as they possibly could.

One thing they all hated, though, was the decreased time that they spent being around each other. Aside from an odd party or two thrown by Pinkie Pie, they really mostly just kept to their own businesses. It was Rainbow Dash who had called them out on it to begin with, and it was she as well who had suggested the weekly get-togethers, a concept which all of them had embraced wholeheartedly.

In the few months or so since it had happened, they had all incorporated it into their regular schedules, and they’d made it a regular thing. It wasn’t just unique pairings, either; they all made time for all their friends. Occasionally, they’d even invite along other ponies to join in on their play dates. Derpy and Dinky Hooves were always glad to come along, and some of the Elements- Applejack and Rainbow Dash, in particular- had their feelings that the dates that they invited them to were the only real times that they got out of the house. Even though Derpy also had the support of the Doctor since the two of them got together and he moved in with her, she was still having to work really long hours at the Ponyville post office just to be able to make ends meet for her family.

They were all willing to help her out as much as they could.

“So what all happened at Scootaloo’s party after I left?” Dash asked as she snagged a stray bird, trying to make a beeline (or would that be birdline?) straight for the open window, just like Fluttershy had warned her about.

“Nothing too much, really... Twilight had already left before you, so it was pretty much calm on the ‘Nightmare Moon is coming back’ front. Rarity and Derpy ended up leaving shortly after you did, and for some reason neither of them will tell any of us what they did after they left that night. As far as everypony else... The party pretty much wound down, and everypony left. It was rather uneventful, and I think for one, Scootaloo was glad for that.”

Dash nodded. “What was up with Twilight, anyways?”

“Oh, I’m sure it’s just because she’s been really stressed out lately... Everything going on with the library and all-”

“Well...” She looked a bit apprehensive, which was usually the way she looked when somepony told her not to tell something, but she ended up telling just a bit of it anyways, enough for another pony to basically demand that she spill the rest of the beans.

“Come on, Fluttershy, you can tell me. You know I can keep a secret. Hello... Element of Loyalty!”

She was still a bit unsure, but she decided to go with it anyways. “Well... I don’t think Twilight told me everything, but apparently some books have been going missing from her library over the past few weeks. Like that alicorn book that Celestia borrowed...? What Twilight didn’t mention was that the first four books in the set had gone missing a few days before Celestia came and borrowed the fifth one.”

Dash was nonplussed. “So wait, you don’t think Celestia... “borrowed” those books too, do you?”

Fluttershy shook her head. “Oh, no... There would be no reason for her to do that. She’s not the stealing type, and besides Celestia and Twilight are practically mother and daughter. If Celestia wanted to check out one of her books, there would be no reason for Twilight to refuse her. She’d have no reason to steal them...”

Dash nodded; what she’d said made perfect sense. As the afternoon went on, their topics of conversation became quite varied, just like they always ended up doing: everything from their feelings on different subjects, to discussions on how the Ponyville weather team was going to coordinate their next event... Really, they didn’t care about what they were talking about. They simply enjoyed being around each other.

It was close to dusk when Dash finally bid her friend goodbye and left. She sped straight for her cloud-house, eager to kick back and relax in her “awesome” bed. When she entered her house, though, her nerves immediately went on edge. She slowed down considerably, becoming almost sneaky in her movements.

“Something... isn’t right...” she whispered to no one in particular. “What’s going on...? I never feel like this in my own house...” She got the distinct sensation that she was being watched, but when she looked around her, all she could see was the normal accoutrements of her house, vaguely outlined in the dusky light. Eventually, she made it back to her bedroom, and collapsed on her bed, sighing in relief. Suddenly, she became aware that there was something weighing down the other side of the bed. Scared, she slowly turned her head to see who was there.

The moon crest on her chestplate armor gave her away immediately, and Dash’s eyes widened as she beheld the alicorn who had propped her forelegs up on Dash’s bed. She gave Dash an evil eye, and her grin set every nerve in her body ablaze. She began to scream, as her visitor just stared at her, unflinching.

“Be afraid, young one... Your nightmare is just beginning!”

Comments

[khatre]

If that last part was a Pinkie Pie Prank ...

[Nebula1701]

nice!

[TwiDavid]

The Party just now beginning! Awesome Chapter once again -of course. :)
Can't wait the next!

[Jordan179]

Twilight and Celestia are practically mother and daughter.

You probably want to switch the order to "Celestia and Twilight are practically mother and daughter," for the obvious reason.

[CanterlotGuardian]

3789331
good point. I'll fix that.

[Butterwings]

3791648 YOU FORGOT YOUR C-Waait why are you holding Applejack like that?

[DerpedRainbow]

What Twilight didn’t mention was that the first four books in the set had gone missing a few days before Celestia came and borrowed the fifth one.”

That is strange... especially since Twi mentioned that she found it odd that Celestia didn't take the first one in the series...