Fire. That's all there was. Just fire and flames and destruction, and she was the one who had started it.

Why did she decide to put the peaceful town of Ponyville on fire? She didn't even know and, quite frankly, didn't care. Whatever the reason was though they deserved it. They had denied her er dream twice now so now they were paying the price for it. How dare they shun and ignore her beautiful realm of the night! Now those ignorant ponies were burning up in an inferno that was worthy of the sun they so obviously worship. Well, some were. Most of them had already perished in the blaze.

A mare with a once snow-white coat laid in the burning ruins of what was once her home, ashes of all kinds of fabric danced in the searing hot air around her.

A pegasus was lying on the ground, impaled by a timber beam that had shot her out of the sky when a building collapsed near her. She had been dead before she even lost altitude.

Inside what was once the Ponyville bakery laid the scorched corpse of an earth pony mare. On her face was a wicked smile. Her mind had been unable to process what was going on so she had done the only thing she could before the flames claimed her too. Laughing. She laughed and laughed like a maniac as the world burned to ashes around her.

On the edge of the two, two more corpses laid in what was once a beautiful apple orchard, a pegasus mare and another earth pony mare. Both had tried to help some animals that called the orchard their home to flee from the oncoming inferno. Alas, they were too slow. Wrapped in the hooves of the pegasus was the carcass of a bunny and next to the earth pony laid the skeleton of a dog. The only animals they were able to get before the inferno arrived.

As the town burned, she looked around herself with a wicked grin on her face. She walked through the burning streets, the fire unable to touch her. Every scream, every desperate cry for help, every last breath drawn, it all was music to her ears.

She reached an old oak tree in the middle of Ponyville. Like everything else in this doomed town it was on fire, burning with such intensity that it was a miracle it was still standing, especially given that it had been hollowed out to serve as the towns library. The door to the library stood open and in it she could see another pony standing. Her fur was black from the fire and even burned away entirely at some parts of her body. Still, somehow she got the feeling that this pony was supposed to be purple...

The should-be-purple pony looked at her and their eyes met. Surprisingly, the mares eyes held no anger, no wrath, no hate as they looked at the being who had just set her home on fire and killed her friends with it. They held nothing but sadness... endless, endless sadness. The mares lips formed a single word. One single last word before the tree she called her home gave a sickening cracking noise and collapsed right onto the mare...

“Why?....”

- - - - - -

Her breath was heavy and her coat was drenched in a layer of cold sweat as she shot awake. For a moment she swore she could still feel the heat of the fire on her coat but then a soft breeze blew into the room through an open window, making her shiver as it blew over her wet fur.

The cold seemed to calm her mind far enough for her to register where she was. In a bedroom. In Ponyville. Inside Golden Oaks Library. Inside the home she shared with Twil...

“Twilight!” She panicked when that name entered her mind. “Twilight? Twilight!”

A groan caught her ears and pulled her attention to her right where a young purple alicorn mare slowly rose into a sitting position on her bed.

“N-Night?.. What's wrong?... Why are you...”

That's as far as she got as she suddenly found a pair of black-coated hooves wrapped around her neck. “You're alive... Y-You're still alive!” Nightmare Moon then buried her face in Twilights chest fur and began to sob heavily.

Twilight was confused by what her marefriend was talking about, but right now, comforting her came first. So put a hoof on the black mares head and stroked her gently. “Shhh...” she said in a soft voice. “Don't cry... It's okay now...”

Despite her best efforts, Twilight had little luck with calming her lover down again. Eventually though, Nightmare ran out of tears and pulled away from the younger alicorn.

“I... I had a dream, Twilight... A horrible dream i-in which I set Ponyville on fire....” Nightmare looked down, avoiding Twilights eyes. “It was terrible... Everypony died and... and I enjoyed it! I enjoyed watching them die! I enjoyed listening to them screaming as they died in the flames! I... I enjoyed seeing all your friends and loved ones die a horrible flaming death!”

Now Nightmare met Twilights. The younger mares look was filled with terror at first but that look soon got replaced by one of love and sympathy.

“Night...” Now it was Twilight who wrapped her hooves around her lovers neck, pulling her in for a close hug. Nightmare sighed and allowed her eyes to close, feeling Twilights touch draining her panic right out of her. “It was just a dream, Night... a bad dream and nothing more.”

“...Twilight?”

“Hm?”

“Can you... keep holding me until I'm asleep again?...”

The purple alicorn could only giggle softly at the request her lover and former Queen of Nightmares made. “Of course...” she replied as both mares laid down on the bed again, never breaking their embrace.

“Thank you...”

“You're welcome...Good night, Moony.”

“Good night... my little spark.”