The Nightmare Reborn:

Twilight awoke what felt like seconds later. Shaking her head she looked around only for her jaw to drop. She was back in Ponyville, only it was nighttime and the town looked decorated for Nightmare night.

“But, wait…. This isn’t… Huh?” was all that Twilight could get out through her immense confusion. The sudden shift in time and local was jarring enough but she was even more confused when she realized that she could recognize none of the ponies out and about, costumes notwithstanding. They looked less like actual ponies and more like manequines with very generalized features.

“Alright Twilight think, you were just in canterlot in the middle of the summer, now you’re in Ponyville and it is Nightmare night. You didn’t cast any time travel spells or teleportation spells, so how did you get here?” Twilight said trying, and failing to organize her thoughts to make sense of her situation.

Suddenly she heard screams coming from a place near the library followed by the sounds of magic bolts of energy impacting on unknown surfaces. Twilight started running toward her library tree, drawn to the commotion though her common sense told her to run away.

What she saw caused her to stop dead in her tracks. Before the door to her home was Princess Luna, looking like she had had a run in with an ursa minor, and Nightmare Moon. When Luna saw Twilight her eyes widened in shock and confusion. Nightmare Moon apparently saw this because she started to turn in the direction Luna was looking.

Twilight panicked and shot a quick bolt of energy at Nightmare Moon before teleporting next to Luna.

“Luna, I need you to trust me right now, focus all your power into a beam and fire at her NOW!” Twilight said to the stunned Princess before using her own magic in the same way she had just described. Nightmare Moon quickly put up her a shield stopping the beam. For a brief second more Luna stood dumbfounded before she too fired a separate beam that was also stopped by the shield.

Nightmare Moon started laughing at the foolish frontal assault, her shield still holding strong, but twilight knew what to do from here. She redirected her beam slightly so that it hit Luna’s beam. Their magic combined, forming a beam that drilled through the shield as if it were not even there before crashing into the mare behind it and propelling her backward. Instead of Landing though she seemed to dissipate into a dark fog that was slowly absorbed by the surrounding landscape.

The remaining two mares sat there panting. Suddenly Twilight heard a thump from her left.

“Princess Luna!” She called. She started toward the Princess, running before exhaustion hit her and she too fell to the floor unconscious.

Princess Celestia was walking back to Luna’s room, having taken her leave of Princess Cadence and Shining Armor, to see if her pupils had made progress with the barrier. As she was turning the corner to the appropriate hallway, a loud bang came from Luna’s room followed by a gust of wind that blew her door open. Celestia ran toward the room worried about the two occupants.

Stepping through the door she saw her pupil lying on the ground, unconscious, and her sister. free from her self made prison, in the same condition.

“Guards, Twilight has removed the barrier but they both need medical attention. Call the doctor and take Twilight to the infirmary.” She called and seconds later her command was met by five ponies dressed in golden armor.

As the last guard left the room Celestia was left with her sister lying on her bed. She looked at her sister before noticing that she had a slight shimmering aura around her. Celestia approached her sister worry taking over once again. The shimmering grew in intensity, blinding Celestia with its luminescens before it vanished once more.

When Celestia opened her eyes to look again. She saw Luna in the form she had taken the night she had been saved from Nightmare Moon’s influence by the elements of harmony.

“No…” She began, now holding back tears, “Oh Luna… I am sorry.” Celestia said to her sister’s sleeping form.

Twilight groggily opened her eyes before sitting up. The room was dark but some light partially illuminated a figure sleeping on a cushion next to her bed.

“Shining?” Twilight asked, Shining however did not move more than the rising and falling of his chest. Twilight tried looking around and noticed she was in a guest bedroom in the castle.

‘What happened?’ Twilight thought to herself.

‘Who was that?’ Asked a voice Twilight could not identify. Twilight looked around but saw no one else in the room but Shining who was still asleep. She tried thinking a reply back to the voice.

‘I am Twilight Sparkle. Who are you?’ Twilight tried thinking to the unknown voice.

‘Twilight! This is Princess Luna. Do you know what is going on?’ Came the voice again, now known as Luna. That information did nothing to help her understand what was happening though.

‘No,’ Twilight thought in reply, frowning, ‘the last thing I remember was blasting Nightmare Moon in Ponyville.’

‘That is my last memory as well.’ Luna thought back to her. There was silence for a few minutes where both ponies tried to formulate their thoughts. Twilight was thinking of possible reasons for why they were suddenly able to communicate in such a way, when Luna’s thoughts spoke up again.

‘Twilight, when we blasted Nightmare Moon, you managed to combine our beams. That should not have been as easy as it was for you.’ Luna said. Twilight suddenly knew why she had this connection with Luna. Although she now needed to find a way to explain that to Luna.

‘Luna, there is a lot of stuff I need to tell you about what has been happening since you were in the dream Ponyville’

Author's Notes:

This chapter seems very fast paced to me. I kinda wanted that because I am trying to make the effects of the frequency change confusing for the characters in the story, but I don't know if that was conveyed in the writing. Been hard to write lately because things have been crazy in my personal life , but I don't know if anyone really cares about why this was delayed a few days (trying to do every 4 days or so).