“Okay, you are going to tell me everything you know. Or...so help me, I will beat the knowledge out of you,” said Twilight Sparkle to the pink unicorn mare in front of her.

“Um…” said a thoroughly cowed Starlight Glimmer. “I already did promise to help you. Plus, it isn’t like I can do much to stop you with this inhibitor on my horn.” She tapped the golden ring locking off her magic.

“I’m sorry, Starlight,” sighed Twilight, taking a break after three hours of continuous spell work. “I’m just getting frustrated. I know you’re doing your best and if you could help magically you would, but...” Twilight’s voice trailed off.

“But until Celestia ends my magic probation I’m sort of stuck,” said Starlight. “I can understand her caution. I mean, I did sort of destroy Equestria...multiple times.”

“Which makes it even more important that we learn how that spell of Star Swirl’s worked,” said Twilight, instantly. “I mean, it didn’t just send you into the past. It sent me into parallel worlds.” Twilight’s eyes twinkled with stars, “Entire unknown worlds, Starlight, only a spell away.”

“Twilight, remember what you told me about how dangerous some of those worlds were?” Starlight asked, breaking Twilight’s train of thought.

“Hmm, you’re right Starlight,” said Twilight, thinking. “Some of those alternate worlds were inhospitable.”

“Inhospitable?” shouted Starlight. “If by inhospitable, you mean deadly and utterly dangerous to pony life, ya sure.”

“Well, some of them weren’t,” said Twilight. “Like the one run by Flim and Flam or Nightmare Moon’s Equestria.”

“You know,” said Starlight, “that one always struck me as kind of odd.”

“Oh, why?”

“Well, two reasons,” said Starlight. “First off, how does anything survive in a world of perpetual night. I mean come on, no sunlight means no plants which means no nopony pretty quick.”

“I would have to assume Nightmare wanted living subjects and the ponies I saw there certainly didn’t seem to be malnourished.”

“Exactly, so how are plants growing and flourishing. At least enough to keep everypony alive, that is.”

“Good questions, Starlight. Probably the best way would be to take samples of the local flora once I get there. What was your second reason why the Equestria ruled by Nightmare Moon seemed odd?” asked Twilight.

“Well, I remember what you told me about the ponies you encountered there. About that world’s version of Rarity and Rainbow Dash.”

“They both seemed to be loyal and dedicated servants of Nightmare Moon,” said Twilight. “They certainly seemed more than willing to obey her.”

“Exactly,” said Starlight, “but we have to assume that they were originally loyal servants of that world’s Celestia, right?”

“Well,” said Twilight, considering, “that does seem to follow. That Nightmare Moon did seem to indicate that the battle with her Celestia was a fairly recent thing.”

“Right, so does Nightmare Moon manage to obtain the loyalty of a pony like Rainbow Dash?” asked Starlight. “Even though she wouldn’t be the Element of Loyalty there, she’s loyal by her very nature. I can’t really picture any scenario where Rainbow Dash would willingly change her loyalty from Celestia to Nightmare Moon.”

“There had to be some reason,” said Twilight, who tried to think of some chain of events that would lead Rainbow Dash to being loyal to Nightmare Moon. She couldn’t, Dash’s loyalty was a fundamental truth of the universe, like Applejack’s honesty or Fluttershy’s kindness. And Rarity, she had been there as well. Just as loyal, just as obedient to her dark overlady.

“Well, I still think going to any of those worlds is a bad idea, Twilight,” said Starlight, interrupting Twilight’s chain of thought. “But I guess if you’re careful and limit yourself just to scouting and not...”

“And not having to prepare for yet another battle against a megalomaniacal villain bent on rewriting time,” said Twilight to an embarrassed Starlight Glimmer.

“I was not megalomaniacal, I was obsessive, and my obsession was you,” said Starlight, who then gave a great sigh. “Do you think ponies are ever going to be able to forgive me?”

“Of course they will, Starlight,” said Twilight, as she drew her friendship student into a hug. “Learning about friendship and applying those lessons is the best way to get ponies to forgive you.”

“I hope so, Twilight,” said Starlight. “But in the meantime, maybe we should take a break and maybe have some lunch.”

“Good idea, I’m just beating my head against a wall right now,” said Twilight. “Let’s go see if Spike has made anything.” Together, the two mares left the Cutie Map room and headed off in search of food.

A half hour later teacher, student and assistant were all sitting down for lunch. Spike had made grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup. He had done a wonderful job on the lunch, the cheese was thick and gooey, and the soup had just the right amount of tang to offset the smoothness of the cheese. Twilight savored the food, alternating between bites of sandwich and slurps of hot soup. Starlight however, without magic, was dunking her sandwiches into the tomato soup and slurping/biting pieces off of the combined food.

Twilight let her mind become unfocused and drift, as she watched Starlight eat. Dunk, slurp, bite, chew. Twilight’s eyes became unfocused, as her mind began to superimpose the arcane framework of the spell she had spent the morning working on, over top of the image her eyes were providing her of Starlight eating her lunch. Somehow, somewhere, Twilight’s mind suddenly made a connection.

“Eureka!” Twilight cried out, startling Starlight, who dropped her third sandwich into her soup, and sent a tidal wave of tomato across the table.

“I got it!” yelled Spike grabbing up a cloth and stemming the tide of crimson goodness.

“Thanks, Spike. I didn’t mean to do that, but someone startled me with a big yell,” said Starlight, glaring somewhat at Twilight.

“Heh, sorry Starlight,” said Twilight. “It’s just that I was watching you eat and suddenly the whole problem became perfectly clear to me.”

“Okay, back the cart up a bit there,” said Starlight. “Explain to me how my eating lunch helped you figure out a magic problem we’ve been working on all morning.”

“I was watching how you were eating, Starlight,” said Twilight. “Dunking your sandwich in the soup and then slurping it off. It made me realize that Star Swirl’s spell is the same way.”

“What do you mean?” asked Starlight, nodding her thanks to Spike as he ladled some replacement soup into her bowl.

“I mean, we’ve been going at this all wrong,” said Twilight, triumph in her voice. “We’ve been looking at the end product as a single piece, but like your dunked sandwich, it isn’t, it’s a combined result. It’s not just time travel. It’s time travel, and a dimensional shift, and likely a probability algorithm as well. All held in a single arcane gestalt.” Starlight’s face lit with sudden realization at the possibilities.

“Of course,” she said, excitedly, “So all we need to do is decompile the spell into its original components, into the individual effects that make up the combined result! Once we do that, we can reassemble whatever parts of the spell we want into a new matrix to create whatever result we want.” Spike began to remove dishes from the lunch table. He could hear and see the signs of an imminent research frenzy. Looking from one mare to the other, he saw matching looks of academic zeal.

“Great,” he muttered, “now there are two of them.” Neither Twilight nor Starlight took any further notice of Spike as the duo headed back to the Cutie Map room, chattering back and forth. Their conversation was laced with terms Spike could barely spell, never mind understand.

After another six hours of research, diagrams, blackboards and the odd explosion had gone by, the pair of unicorns called it a night. They were tired, their minds had turned to mush, but they had successfully managed to take apart and reassemble one of the most complicated spells ever written.

“Okay Starlight,” said Twilight. “Let’s get some rest and tomorrow morning I can start making careful jumps to some of those other worlds and do some exploring.”

“How long do you think you will be gone for?” asked Starlight.

“With any luck, I should be right back,” said Twilight. “It will be almost like I had never left.”

So, after much delay, and because all of you asked for it, here begins my remake of Loving the Nightmare. I hope you enjoy it. Comments, suggestions and speculations are fully welcome.

Shout out to Javarod for their editing!