Princess Luna, Mistress of Dreams sighed as she drifted through the Realm of Dreams, around her the dreaming minds of her ponies lit up the darkness like tiny stars.

The lunar alicorn had often wondered whether the stark similarity this place held with the night sky was indicative of some greater connection. Or merely another of many coincidences?

Luna shook her head, that was a thought for another time; she was far too busy to ruminate on such things.

This had been an exhausting night, and it wasn't anywhere near over.

Oh, the night had started off calmly enough, with only the regulars – the handful of ponies in Equestria who had chronic night-terrors – and the occasional foal's nightmare to deal with.

In a moment of weakness, Luna had even dared to think that it would be a relaxing quiet night.

That was, naturally, that exact moment that the entire town of Ponyville had snapped awake as one.

The reason why had become apparent several seconds later as Luna heard a distant keening howl. Thankfully it had not been loud enough to wake any but the lightest sleepers in the capital.

Luna had immediately dispatched everything that she could spare to the town, as little as that was.

The night guard had not done well in Celestia's Equestria. Especially with the Lunar Unicorn Houses numbering but a third of the Solar brethren, and most of those had abandoned their nocturnal life for the much more common diurnal.

Luna crushed that rising thread of resentment, she had already seen where that led, the whole world had.

Not a hair nor print had been seen of the beast since the Howl; that is, if there even was a beast. Luna suspected that something else had been responsible.

However, just because her little ponies seemed to be safe, that didn't mean that Luna's job was finished. In fact, it had only marked the beginning of her work.

Ponyville's ponies inevitably trickled back into sleep, and when they returned to Luna's Realm they brought troubled minds, plagued with dreams of lupine beasts hunting them.

Many beasts had preyed on the ponies of the past, but none had penetrated so deep into the psyche of ponies – of all hoofed prey races, really – as the Wolf; none caused such primal fear.

The oldest myths known to ponykind were of the terrible flight from the Howls of wolves.

Even that mare with the llama phobia had her dream figments moving in distinctly lupine ways. Luna shuddered, there was something distinctly wrong to see one of the hoofed prey races act with such mannerisms. It was in some ways worse than the dreams of normal wolves.

Unfortunately, not all the dreams of troubled minds were nightmares, there were a concerningly large number of those other dreams. Dreams of mares being hunted; not for food, but to sate a very different hunger.

She sighed, the myths of the Wolfwives – mares who abandoned equinity to, well, become the wives of wolves – were also far from recent.

Of course, Luna had avoided those dreams, there wasn't anything she could do for those mares. They would need to discuss their ... proclivities ... with the therapists they so desperately needed.

Luna once again found herself thankful that the closest the world had to a sapient lupine race were the diamond dogs.

Several hours earlier:

On the great lonely mountain, the Pillar of Twilight, the Twilight Manor was built deep, antipodal to Equestria's illustrious capital city.

On the side of the manor floated a cloud.

On a cloud slept a slate grey pegasus.

“Awooooo”

The mare instantly snapped awake, but unlike the poor subjects of Ponyville this was not the result of fear.

This mare held no fear of the wolf.

Why would she?

Why would she fear herself?

For this mare was Lady Twilight Storm, the sole pegasus daughter of House Twilight. She was the wolf.

Instead the only thing she felt was joy, for this howl was a kinhowl she had not heard for nearly two decades.

“Sparkles,” she spoke breathlessly before she was overcome with emotion and answered with a howl of her own “Awoooooooo!”

Soon the air was filled with a beautiful chorus of howls as hundreds of voices celebrated the return of their long lost Prodigal Pup.

At the base of a great mountain an old earth mare was woken by an infernal racket.

'Dagnabbit, what's got them Twilights howling their throats out this time.” she grumbled before grabbing a pillow with a hoof and slamming it over her ear.

As the howling petered out Storm giggled to herself like a schoolfilly, still coming down from the twin joys of Pack and the return of the Lost.

That giggling turned to peals of laughter when she realized that while that first howl had certainly been the howl of Sparkles, it definitely hadn't been the howl of a mare.

And then there was the nightmare of Sir Spike. It had been a difficult nightmare to quell, every time she had thought she had beaten it, it would change and reveal a new facet to itself; always centred around the young, now male Twilight.

Twilight fallen to Corruption Magic, Twilight conducting horrible biomantic experiments on ponies, Twilight raising hoards of zombies as his body rotted away, Twilight mindslaving an entire town into chasing a doll, Nirik Twilight burning everything before him – Luna wondered where Spike could have possibly learned of the Kirin – Twilight seducing Lady Rarity away from him – that mare had to stop leading the young dragon on – Twilight as a hideous half-wolf monster ripping ponies limb from limb with tooth and claw

It had been the closest to a self-aware nightmare Luna had encountered since her return.

The night princess shuddered, the last thing Equestria needed was a dream-predator doppelganger of Prince Twilight Sparkle let loose on the decidedly less than innocent minds of the nation's mares.

Luna's reminiscence was broken by a sudden appearance of a pony in the Realm of Dreams. “Captain Night Song, report.”

The captain bowed, “Night Mistress ...”

Luna forcefully suppressed a shudder, she hated that title, it had been the title the Thestralis – now known as thestrals – used to refer to Her.

Still it was better than the alternative, Night Song was one of the few of her kind that recognized Luna as their rightful princess, instead of some kind of trick by Celestia. I even fail to live up to my own twisted reflection.

“... Lady Applejack has managed to divert the stampede and quell the cattle.”

“Good. Hast there been any sightings of the beast?”

“Well, a scout saw a pack of timber wolves retreating deeper into the Everfree Forest.”

“That wast not the howl of a timber wolf.”

“I know; Lady Fluttershy believes that they were fleeing the howl. Something about the food chain.”

Luna snorted, the chlorofiends were odd; despite being composed of wood they still acted in many ways as if they were beings of flesh and blood. Fleeing a predator that would be incapable of eating them would be something they would do.

“Oh, and one of the townsponies recorded the howl and put it through a 'Spectrogram' – whatever that is – and said that it had the 'hoofprints of being magically amplified'. I didn't know sound had hooves.”

Luna let out a deep breath, as she felt a weight lifted from her shoulders, “Why didst not thou lead with that?”

“Why? Is it that important?”

Luna sighed, “What doth it inform thee that the howl wast magically amplified?”

“That the wolf is magic.”

“That a pony didst this.”

Song's eyes crossed for a second, “Oh, yeah, that makes more sense.”

Luna placed her hoof flat between her eyes, “Return to the ponies, reassure the civilians that there is no Wolf, and have the guard scour Ponyville for the ... prankster ... that thought it was a good idea to cause this panic. We intend to throw the book at her.”

“Actually, corporal punishment was banned in year 198 of the Summer Sun by Princess Celestia.”

Luna glared at the thestral.

“It was in the pamphlet.”

“Actually, We think we will havest her flogged.”

“But I just said ...”

“We art a Sovereign Princess of equal power and authority to our sister.”

“Of course, Night Mistress.”

“Go,”

“Of course, Night Mistress.”

And Luna was alone ... sometimes that mare was exasperating.

But the thestrals' innate ability to come and go from the Realm of Dreams was invaluable. It had taken Luna decades to properly learn Dreamwalking, yet She had managed to create an entire tribe of ponies who found the art as easy as trotting.

And not for the first time the moon princess found herself wishing that she had the loyalty of more than a hoofful of their kind.

It was that moment that a familiar star burst into the Realm of Dreams. The dream of a pony, a stallion, that Luna desperately needed to speak with.

The dreams of Twilight Sparkle were a semi-regular destination for Princess Luna. Not because the young mare had been prone to nightmares. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Twilight had apparently learned to lucid dream at a young age and had spent the years since building her dreamshard into her perfect mind-castle.

It had, naturally, taken the form of an enormous library.

Luna had often dropped in on the mare whenever the Realm of Dreams was having an especially quiet day. The two would then spend hours talking about whatever topic in which the young mare had most recently found herself engrossed. It was ... nice ... and Luna honestly considered the younger alicorn a friend.

Even if her sharp intellect and encyclopedic knowledge of an absurd range of subjects had always made Luna feel deeply inadequate.

But what had struck Luna the most about Twilight's dreams is how stable, how solid, how orderly they were. Luna had been almost a century old when she had finally managed to make dream-constructs as solid as what a mare of 27 managed.

When Celestia had told Luna of the mental instability she had witnessed in her student, Luna had laughed in her older sister's face.

How could she believe such a thing, when Twilight's dream didn't even show the expected instability of a young mare in her sexual prime.

No, young Twilight's dreams were the dreams of a stable, well-ordered mind.

All this was to say, when Luna entered into Prince Twilight's dream, the last thing she expected was a category 5 hurricane forged of rage, terror and self-loathing to sweep her up and dash her against a field of rocks.

“Umbra?”

“Yes, Shadow?”

“I'm scared.”

“Sparkle?”

“Aye ... I don't ... I don't think he's okay. He's just so angry and hurting and ...” Shadow trailed off staring at the underside of the top bunk.

“He may not be. But that doesn't mean he won't be.”

“What do we do?”

“We do our job.”

“Eh?”

“We guard Twilight, we protect him from those that would attack him, and, if he desires, we provide a listening ear.”

“But ...”

“We can't fight Sparkle's battles for him; all we can do is fight our battles.” Umbra sighed, “There are some things that a guard can't protect her charge from, but there are many that we can. It is not worth imperilling the latter for the sake of worrying about the former.”

“I guess ...”

“And Shadow?”

“Yes?”

“Go the buck to sleep.”

“Buck you.”

It took several minutes for Princess Luna to reconstitute her dream avatar and several more for her to survey the scene around her.

It was Pandemonium.

Books, paper, and all the many accoutrements expected of a library flew past the mare on the howling winds, erratically colliding with each other and the rough rocky ground. Already Luna had been nearly hit several times.

A cold rain of black ink drenched Luna's thick coat through, until the mare felt the claws of a chill entirely beyond the natural. Its thick sheets occluded any sight beyond a couple metres.

But what she saw paled compared to what she felt.

The dream was as solid as Twilight's dreams had ever been, but there was no trace of the stability or order that Luna had long associated with the young mare's dreamshard.

Even worse was what underpinned the disorder, a Maelstrom formed from a seemingly endless font of dark emotions.

A nasty, twisted mess of rage, terror, hatred, self-loathing, shame, betrayal and other darker things, a few of which too esoteric for even Luna to place.

Far, far, far too many emotions to be the result of the alicorn's recent transformation.

A quick taste confirmed that estimation. These were not new emotions, they are old, years, perhaps even decades, old.

Moreover, they were stale. As stale as that box of crackers Luna had found in a dark corner of the castle's pantry several months ago.

It was like Twilight had not even bothered to feel these emotions before they were put in the metaphorical box.

Luna was familiar with repression – after all, it had been the root of why she had poured so much into Her – but what this Maelstrom represented was excessive.

Luna trudged forward, anchoring her hooves against the terrible winds trying to claw her from the ground, her wings folded tight to her barrel to deny the wind purchase. It was only due to Luna's extensive experience in dreamwalking that she was able to push through and not get swept up.

Once again, Luna was thankful that dreams were so easy to navigate – they were always more solid closer to the dreamer, something any skilled dreamwalker could easily detect – because this weather would have made it impossible otherwise.

The princess narrowly dodged an armchair that did its level best to take her head off.

Tens of minutes dragged on as the only indication of progress was the steady hardening of the dreamstuff around her and the worsening of conditions. There were several more close calls with flying objects and Luna had almost lost her grip on the stony ground several times.

Then, suddenly, the air around her was still. She had reached the eye of the storm. Which means ...

Luna looked up and saw the most beautiful stallion she had ever laid eyes upon. The pictures don't do him justice.

Prince Twilight Sparkle, Element of Magic, Duke of Everfree, floated nearly ten metres off the ground. His barrel was vertical with his undercarriage pointed in Luna's direction, his enormous, well proportioned wings were spread out behind him, all four long muscular legs limp.

Looking up to his face, his beautiful symmetrical face, Luna saw his eyes closed and his horn – thick, long and sharp – was sheathed in an overchanneled triple corona.

Luna had also noted his ... sizable ... nethers, but she wasn't a pervert and therefore didn't stare at them ...

... much.

Okay, fine, she stared a lot. She was an adult mare with a healthy libido; one that had never known the loving touch of a stallion. Why would any stallion choose her when Celestia exists?

Nonetheless, despite her ... distraction ... Luna didn't fail to notice Twilight's work. The stallion was exerting his will upon the surrounding dreamstuff and slowly bringing it back into order. The black walls of the storm were slowly – ever so slowly – being pushed back and the many toys of the wind were being reclaimed. Bookshelves flew into line and were populated with books streaming in from every direction, tables and desks and chairs settled in their place between the shelves.

It was humbling, that even so overwhelmed with his dark emotions, he still found the strength to push back against the darkness and drag his mind closer to order by sheer Force of Will.

If Luna had only a fraction of that strength, she would have never needed Her.

It was at that moment that a rogue book slammed into the back of Luna's skull.

The young filly known as Twilight Sparkle pranced down the halls of Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns.

She was full of joy; even a year on, she still couldn't believe she was Princess Celestia's personal student (yes yes yes yes yes yes yes).

Twilight (for that was what Princess Celestia called her, despite Sparkle being her given name) passed a pair of her classmates and waved a hoof.

Neither of the fillies waved back.

If Twilight didn't know better, she would have thought that they were afraid of her.

Twilight had a lot of experience with ponies being afraid of her, but that was back when she had been a Bad Pony.

But Twilight wasn't a Bad Pony anymore, she was a Good Pony, Princess Celestia had told her so.

Twilight had been so happy when Princess Celestia had finally made that declaration; Twilight had worked so hard to be a Good Pony.

She had gone to bed on time, she had done Princess Celestia's special meditation every night (even if it really hurt), she had gone to all her classes, she hadn't cast any spells on her classmates (even when they annoyed her), she had eaten her wheaties, she hadn't hunted any of the meaties (even if she was hungry (and if the meaties didn't want to be eaten, they shouldn't be so tasty and made of meat)), she had listened to all her lessons (even when they were really, really boring), she hadn't howled even once (not even at the moon), she hadn't attempted to organize a coup d'etat (coup d'ecole?) to depose the principal (even if she's really mean), she hadn't bitten anypony, she hadn't cast even a single Grey Magic or Dark Magic spell, she had done all her homework.

So they couldn't be afraid of her, Twilight was a Good Pony.

Princess Celestia had told her so.

But if they aren't afraid of Twilight, then they must be afraid of something else.

Twilight gasped.

A monster!

Behind her!

The filly quickly turned around.

She saw nothing.

The monster must have already run away.

Twilight passed many other ponies, both classmates and teachers.

They had all stared in various flavours of horror and fear.

The monster is following her!

But every single time Twilight turned around the monster was gone.

It was fast.

Then Twilight got to Princess Celestia's Personal Sitting Room (Princess Celestia's Personal Sitting Room (Princess Celestia's Personal Sitting Room)).

Princess Celestia was frowning.

But that was normal, Princess Celestia was often frowning (doing that really funny blank look thing she does).

It was Twilight's job to make Princess Celestia smile.

Because Twilight was a Good Pony.

So she went to nuzzle Princess Celestia (she nuzzles Princess Celestia).

Princess Celestia pulled back.

What?

Princess Celestia's frown deepened.

What?!

“Twilight, I'm disappointed in you.”

No no no no no no no no ...

“What you did ... you hurt ponies.”

NO

Twilight racked her brain for anything she could have done that would have hurt ponies. Was it her taking a second pudding cup? No, the nice lunch lady had given it to Twilight, it's not stealing if a pony gives it to you. Did she not listen well enough in basic magic theory? No, she remembered every single word. Was it her homework? No, she had gotten A+ on all her last assignments.

“What did I do?!” Twilight cried in anguish.

Princess Celestia sighed, “You know what you did.”

What? If Princess Celestia said it was true, it was true. That had been Princess Celestia' first lesson. So Twilight knew what she did ... but what if Twilight didn't know she knew?

It must be a mystery!

That meant even the smallest thing could be a Clue.

Twilight wracked her mind for anything that had stuck out.

Well, her calendar had said it was the 19th, despite yesterday being the 17th; somepony had tampered with it. Nana Whithersnicker had smelled strongly of the muffin stallion and had walked with a pronounced limp. A couple of the cityponies Twilight passed had been stumbling around, smelling strongly of ethanol and rotten grapes . The hoofball team had been practising despite how hoofball practices were scheduled for Wednesday not Tuesday. Oh, and of course a monster had been stalking her and scaring everypony.

Twilight desperately tried to fit the pieces together ... but she just wasn't smart enough.

“W-w-w-w-what did I do-oo-oo-oo~?” Twilight cried in anguish.

Princess Celestia's frown deepened, “Do not play games with me, Twilight. Those fillies' mothers are angry, they want you punished. They want you imprisoned, or banished. One of them even suggested that I banish you and then imprison you in the place I banished you too.”

Imprisonment? Banishment? “B-b-b-but, I'm a Good Pony.”

“No, Twilight, you are not.”

Twilight Sparkle, Bad Pony, curled up on the ground and bawled.

Twilight Sparkle came to with an unfamiliar stallion standing over her, a concerned look on his face. His features clearly marked him as a Twilight, and his colours were a mirror of her own.

The filly instinctively nuzzled into his soft, thick chest fluff as she cried.

The stallion wrapped a comforting wing around Twilight.

He has wings? But he was a unicorn, Twilight saw his horn.

“Luna, are you okay?” He spoke, his voice a deep comforting rumble.

Luna? Who's Luna, her name is ... aehpoigIHAIPGHGOH

...

Princess Luna threw herself backwards; away from Prince Twilight Sparkle, who she had been nuzzling. Nuzzling into his thick luxurious chest. Luna blushed incandescently with embarrassment.

“I'm so sorry, Luna, I didn't see you there. I was ... preoccupied.” The stallion gestured with a wing towards the dark walls of the storm surrounding the clearing.

Luna took several deep breaths before speaking unsteadily, “No, no, Thou needest not apologize. We wert the one who showed up unannounced.” Luna looked down and dragged a hoof against the ground. “So, uhh ...” Why was she so bad at talking to Stallions?

“No, Luna, I do. I shouldn't have lost control like this. you got hurt because of me. I need to be better than this.”

Princess Luna gave an appraising look at the stallion, forcing herself to look past his sheer heart-stopping beauty. She recalled the memory in which she had been immersed, it had been a very long time since Luna had lost herself in a memory like that.

Contrary to popular belief, dreams were not random. They followed their own internal logic. After all, dreams were just the subconscious mind's way of working out problems.

And when Luna looked at the dream around her, she saw the telltale sign of a subconscious screaming out for help.

That memory had been concerning in more ways than Luna could count. It was so strong and clear, it had to be important, perhaps even foundational to the Stallion she saw before her.

Nearly everything in the memory was concerning, but what struck out the most to the Moon Princess is that the young filly had lost a day.

Luna remembered when she had first started losing time. She hadn't noticed it at first, just a minute here and there. Something particularly upsetting would happen and then her consciousness would lapse.

But over time those episodes got longer, first hours, then days. Luna had been terrified, she had gone to Celestia many times.

But her big sister had never listened, not really. Oh she would nod her head as Luna poured her worries out, but she would always end with some meaningless platitude about how Luna wasn't getting enough sleep, how she was worrying too much, how it was probably nothing – after all, Celestia often had blackouts after weeks long benders. It was normal.

And then one day, Celestia had finally had enough and snapped that she had 'more important things to deal with than her moping sister' ... and the rest was history.

The next coherent memory she had was coming to in front of the six brave mares who had saved her. All Luna remembered before that was disjointed out of context memories of horrible violence unlike any Luna had ever seen followed by the Long-Cold-Dark.

“Luna, are you okay?”

Luna shook her head, “Sorry, we wert just thinking ...”

“Ah, yes thinking ...” The Stallion trailed off, not sure what to say next.

The memory had left so many unanswered questions ... how had Twilight ended up in such a disturbing psychological position?

The storm that was Twilight Sparkle's subconscious – perhaps predictably – answered that question by bashing Princess Luna's skull in with a book.

Young Sparkle frowned as she eyed the food in front of her. Well, the 'food', Sparkle highly doubted the substances in front of her actually constituted real food. She poked her 'rose petal and kale salad' with a fork, Sparkle hated kale.

Sparkle then scowled at the hayfries, hay fries. Hay was barely even a food; sure, ponies could digest it, but it was almost nutritionally empty. A pony who tries to live off hay dies slightly slower than a pony who eats nothing. Sparkle somewhat doubted that frying it in oil had done anything but add a few empty calories.

She glanced past her hayshake – what sadist had decided to taint a perfectly good milkshake with hay – and turned to The Betrayer.

When Sparkle had heard that today they were going to have burgers she had been ecstatic. While burgers were hardly her favourite dish – after all, they were made with off cuts and scraps that would have to be thrown out if not eaten – Sparkle had been getting ever so hungry.

“What's wrong, Twilight?” Moondancer asked, “I thought you liked hayburgers?”

“I said, 'I like burgers', that ...” Sparkle gestured to The Betrayer, “... is not a burger.”

Moondancer shrugged, she didn't understand the distinction.

Nopony understood.

Sparkle shoved the tray away from herself, spilling the shake, “I'm going to go find something to eat.” She stalked off, ignoring the confused stares and muttered gossip from the other foals.

She quickly found her way to the school kitchen and snuck in unseen.

Sparkle desperately searched the fridges and freezers but failed to find what she was looking for.

Suddenly there was a scream of terror from the pantry, “RAT!” the door of the pantry slammed open and a panicked mare and an equally panicked rodent flew into the kitchen.

“RAT!” Sparkle screamed in excitement and bolted after the animal.

The rat scrambled under a cart, desperate to escape the pursuing filly.

Sparkle followed, her larger body upending the cart and sending several prepared meals flying onto several members of the kitchen staff.

The rat scrambled up the side of the island and ran left along its top.

The filly jumped up to the counter top in a single bound preparing to divert every spare scrap of her base mana to her hooves to grip the stainless steel.

Unfortunately it wouldn't be enough, but thankfully an option presented itself. The counter wasn't empty.

Sparkle hip-checked a blender full of hayshake hard enough it followed a nearly vertical path into the far wall. The impulse of the collision provides just enough delta v to stabilize her trajectory.

The filly sprinted after the rat, uncaring about the plates she sent flying.

Soon they got close to the end of the counter, a single teenaged colt in their path.

The colt was wearing large headphones, and had apparently failed to notice the ruckus. He looked up, saw the rat, and reared back whinnying in terror.

The rat reached the end of the counter and jumped.

A fraction of a second later Sparkle reached the end of the counter, and, putting her front flat against the side of the counter's lip, launched herself.

Sparkle snapped the rat out of the air as she reoriented her body so her hooves were faced forward, setting springlike structures of muscle, cartilage and tendons in her legs to absorb the collision.

Four hooves hit the colt like a cannonball, upsetting the colt's already compromised balance.

He toppled like a lumberjack's quarry, hitting the ground with a meaty thud.

Sparkle carried the momentum of the fall into a combat roll, then once she had all four hooves under her, she released the stored tension and, like a bolt from a ballista, flew out the door.

She didn't slow down as she silenced the rat's panicked squeaking with a single hard shake of her head.

As Sparkle put distance between herself and the kitchen, she slowed to an easy lope and navigated herself to Princess Celestia's office, nosing her way in.

Princess Celestia glanced at Sparkle before turning back to her paperwork, “Twilight, what are you doing here?”

Princess Celestia froze and slowly turned back to the filly, “Twilight,” Princess Celestia spoke slowly, “is that a rat?!”

Sparkle nodded happily, her tail wagging as she proudly displayed her kill to her surrogate mother.

“Twilight,” Celestia said coldly, “Drop it. That's disgusting.”

Twilight let her kill slip out of her muzzle and fall to the ground.

“Now, Twilight ...” whatever Princess Celestia said next wasn't recognized by the filly.

Sparkle was too hungry. She held her kill down with a hoof and took a bite of its sweet, sweet flesh.

The filly moaned in appreciation as she swallowed, it was so, so good.

She went for another bite, but her teeth met only air.

Her kill was gone.

Sparkle looked up at Princess Celestia in utter betrayal.

Princess Celestia continued to lecture the filly with words Sparkle neither heard nor understood.

Princess Luna gasped as she came to, thankfully still remembering who she was this time.

“Luna, I'm so, so sorry. I didn't mean to do that. Are you okay?” The panicked stallion fussed over the night princess.

As Luna shakily got to her hooves with Twilight's assistance, she felt a phantom taste in the back of her mouth.

The taste of rat.

Luna gagged as she recalled the memory that she had just witnessed, she had eaten a rat!

“Luna?”

Luna vomited on the stallion, vomit which was – thanks to the nature of dreams – composed of the blood and viscera and gore of what Luna fundamentally knew to be rats.

Twilight staggered back, his coat stained red with gore, “Oh no, oh no, oh no, vomiting blood, that's a bad sign, a really bad sign.”

Luna felt mortified, any words of hers died in her throat, another book hit her.

Sparkle bit down on the rubber bone, she had her forelegs wrapped around the thing and pawed at it with her rear legs, her hooves not finding purchase on account of being hooves.

“With all honesty, Your Majesty, I've never seen anything quite like it.” Spoke Dr. Sound Mind, Sparkle's new psychiatrist. “I mean, the ADHD is obvious, but other than that? Much of the symptoms you describe would fit ASPD but after talking to her, that doesn't quite fit.”

Celestia nodded, “I had already diagnosed her with those.”

“Diagnosed? I didn't know you had a licence.”

Celestia made a sharp look at the mare.

Dr. Mind flinched. “I'm sorry Your Majesty, I didn't mean anything by it.”

“But I didn't bring her to you to confirm my diagnoses, I brought her because of her ...”

“...uh, wolfiness, Your Majesty?”

Celestia scowled, “Yes, her 'wolfiness'.”

“Well, uh, as I was saying. I haven't seen anything like it, never even heard of anything close, either. The closest I can think of is a filly – not much older than Twilight here – down in Ponyville who seems to think she's a dog. But she isn't ... lucid, like young Twilight here. She doesn't kill and eat the small animals she 'hunts' either.”

“Yes, her hunting. It is getting out of hoof. She has killed dozens of creatures from the castle gardens, songbirds, squirrels, rabbits, ducks, even a snake and a turtle. And when I stop her from eating them, she complains that she's hungry, despite the fact that she often refuses to finish her meals. And then there's the howling at all hours of the night and the biting ponies and you've seen how she trots, it's inequine and makes her classmates nervous. I'm at my wit's end, doctor.”

“Yes, it's all very strange, Your Majesty. But ... I don't know if I can help you.”

“But, I need you to fix her. I need her, she's the one. She can't be this.”

“I'm sorry, Your Majesty, but I can't in good conscience recommend an intervention when I don't even know what's wrong.”

“Don't know what's wrong?!” Sparkle's bone lit up gold and floated up between the mares, Sparkle, hanging from it with her teeth, started growling, “This,” Celestia gestured with a wing at the hanging filly, “This is what's wrong.”

“You misunderstand me, Your Majesty, I just mean that without a good diagnosis, any intervention might turn out to be counterproductive.”

“So there's really nothing you can do for me.” Celestia sighed,

“I mean, we could conduct a long term study.”

“And how long would that take to fix her.”

The psychiatrist looked at Celestia in alarm, “Uh, nopony could know, Your Majesty, this is completely novel. If we're lucky we might get a treatment in a decade.”

“'We might get a treatment in a decade'? No, that isn't good enough.”

Doctor Mind took a step back, “Your Majesty, you can't force these things.”

“Well, luckily, I happen to have a treatment of my own.”

“You do?!”

“Unfortunately, it's classified, my good doctor.” Princess Celestia turned to Sparkle, “Come on Twilight, we're leaving.”

Sparkle didn't move.

“I said, we're leaving, let go of the bone, it's not yours.”

The bone started shaking up and down, Sparkle held on tight and started growling again.

“It's okay Your Majesty, she can ...” the doctor was silenced by a look from Princess Celestia.

Sparkle felt Princess Celestia's aura surround her tail and pull.

There was a horrible tearing sound as the rubber tore underneath her teeth.

The bone was levitated over to the psychiatrist, “The crown will pay for a replacement.”

“You don't need to do that, Your Majesty, it's a chew toy. That's what it's for.”

Princess Celestia trotted out the door levitating Twilight by her tail as Doctor Mind examined the toy.

Just as Princess Celestia was about to close the door she was stopped by the doctor's voice.

“Your Majesty, wait ...”

“Yes, doctor?”

“Um, Twilight's teeth ... they're very sharp ... yes?”

“I am well acquainted with the sharpness of Twilight's teeth doctor.” Princess Celestia used one hoof to lift the fur on her other foreleg, showing the faint scar tissue from when Sparkle had bitten her yesterday.

“Well, I'm no zoologist, Your Majesty, but correct me if I'm wrong. In animals, sharp teeth usually implies that the animal in question is a predator, as in it eats the flesh of other animals.”

Celestia gave the mare a blank look, “That is the case, yes.”

“And ponies are animals.”

“Yes, and how is this relevant?”

Doctor Mind met Princess Celestia's gaze for a moment before shamefully looking down, away from Princess Celestia.

Princess Celestia shook her head before slamming the door with her magic.

The following trip through the streets of Canterlot was the most humiliating one Sparkle had ever experienced, her head floating uncomfortably close to the flagstones as Princess Celestia dragged her by her tail, never even bothering to look back at the filly.

Fifteen minutes later Sparkle was wilting under Princess Celestia's cold gaze in said princess's sitting room.

“I know what you are going through, Twilight.”

No, you don't, Twilight wanted to say, but she couldn't contradict Princess Celestia.

“I was once in a very bad place, much like you are.”

I'm Hungry.

“A mare who I cared very deeply for betrayed me,” Celestia had a bitter look, “She tore my heart out and stomped it with both hooves.”

'Irony' used to be one of Sparkle's favourite words, but it didn't seem so fun anymore.

“I was a wreck, but then I invented a very special kind of meditation. One that let me kill all those bad, nasty feelings so I could be free of them. That meditation is what I'm going to show you, how to meditate away all your difficulties so you can be a normal and happy little filly.”

But I don't want to 'meditate my difficulties away', I want food.

“Now listen closely, Twilight. The pony mind is an infinite, divine and wondrous thing, but unfortunately it is trapped within our limited and fallen flesh, constrained with Demiurgic power. These meditations represent the first step in breaking that power.”

And thus Princess Celestia's strange illogical lecture lasted for an hour before Princess Celestia led Sparkle in horrible mind-bending mental exercises that made her feel like she was tearing her very psyche in twine.

Sparkle lost track of time and before she knew it she was back in her dorm room, under her bed, shivering in terror and wrongness.

There was a knock at the door.

Sparkle ignored it.

There was another knock.

Sparkle still ignored it.

“Twilight, I know you're in there.” Spoke a familiar voice.

Sparkle got up and opened the door, “Doctor Mind, what are you doing here?” she asked loudly.

The psychiatrist made a shushing gesture and whispered, “Hello, Twilight, may I come in?”

“Uh, okay.”

The mare slipped into the room and closed the door, she turned to Sparkle, “I have something for you.” The doctor lit her horn and levitated a dozen small identical cans out of her saddlebags, each having the image of a smiling puppy on it.

Sparkle tilted her head in confusion until the mare cracked one of the cans open.

The filly pounced on the can like the starving beast she was.

It tasted horrible, but that didn't matter, Sparkle was so hungry.

Luna came to, not in Twilight's dream, as she expected, but in the familiar starscape of the Realm of Dreams.

The moon princess was paralyzed, barely able to comprehend what she had seen. How could Celestia have become so cold, so cruel, as to do such things to a foal. And that 'meditation', it was more akin a novel method of torture than a tool of therapy.

Luna didn't want to believe that her perfect big sister could even be capable of such things.

But she could.

As much as Luna hated herself for it, she could.

Celestia had always had a certain ... 'conceit' was the word often used by the few ponies who spoke frankly with Luna.

Her sister would get a certain idea about how things are, and nothing short of catastrophe would disabuse her of that notion.

One of Luna's first memories was of a four year old Celestia playing with a block puzzle, the foal had gotten it in her tiny little mind that the cube block went in the circular hole and nothing their parents told her could change her mind. She spent nearly an hour literally forcing a square peg into a round hole, not giving up until the board had snapped.

Luna still remembered the proud face the young filly had at 'solving' it, as if she hadn't just broken a toy that their father had lovingly built for them.

It was an acceptable flaw in a four year old.

But Celestia had never grown out of it; Luna didn't know whether it was a side-effect of their ascension at such a young age, or just the fact that all the adults the sisters met would instinctively defer to the prepubescent alicorns' wills.

In truth, neither of the sisters knew why precisely they had become alicorns. Was it Destiny? Harmony? A random fluke? Or even one of Discord's many 'pranks'?

Nonetheless Celestia had taken it as a sign from a higher power that the two fillies' were destined to save Ponykind from the Mad God's Reign.

And, well, to her sister's credit, they did.

And then after that the surviving nobles demanded that the two sisters – still prepubescent despite the many years, slow aging a quirk of alicornhood – become their Sovereign Princesses.

Celestia accepted on both sister's behalf and decreed that Everfree – the one city that had been spared the deprivations of Discord, nestled deep in the hostile forest of the same name – would be the new nation's capital.

The rest is, as they say, history.

Perhaps in a better world Luna would have been able to temper Celestia's worst excesses.

But Luna had never been a strong mare.

Luna had never been a brave mare.

Luna had never been a good mare.

It was why she had made Her.

Where Luna was a coward, Moony was brave.

Moony would not have let Celestia walk over her.

Moony would not have stayed silent when Celestia did something that hurt ponies.

Moony would not have watched as all the castle's many generations of stallions got chewed up and spat out by Celestia's hangry, gluttonous cunt.

Luna's thoughts were broken by a loud explosion in meat-space, launching her sleeping body, and bed, at her bedroom wall.

The door to Luna's quarters burst open as two of her Night Guard entered, spears drawn, “My Princess, are you okay.”

“'M'fine.” The lunar princess grunted, crawling over smashed remains of her upturned bed and standing unsteadily on her hooves.

There was a brief pause before all three mares slowly approached the small crater in Luna's bedroom floor.

In it laid a single papyrus scroll bound in a ribbon that was a familiar shade of purple.

Luna lifted the letter in her magic, that pony is terrifying, he accidentally overpowers a long range teleportation enough that it lands with a blast like a bomb.

Luna opened the letter to see absolutely terrible hornwriting, but Luna was a bureaucrat by trade, and had a lot of experience dealing with poor writing. This was far from the worst she had seen.

'Dear Princess Luna,

I couldn't stop it, you weren't safe there, had to get you out, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry ...'

Luna stopped reading and counted the 'I'm sorry's, finding that the phrase was repeated precisely 37 times. A numerologically significant number, or just how many times the stallion could fit it on the page? With Twilight it could be either, or both.

Luna shook her head, casually shredding the letter with her magic.

“We need to talk to our sister.” she said, trotting unstably out of her chambers.

As Luna made the five minute journey, she did everything she could to recall the memories of a scared, hungry little filly, using them to stoke her righteous indignation.

By the time she had gotten to Celestia's tower, she was furious, angry enough that her formerly starry mane was glowing white with moonlight, her breath was coming out clouded as her very presence dropped the ambient temperature below freezing and her hoofsteps were leaving a trail of rime and frost.

“Halt.” Shouted one of those silly little stallions Celestia called her guard, as he and his comrade – both earth ponies – blocked Celestia's chamber doors with their cute little spears.

Luna didn't even slow down, merely reaching out with her wingtips and levering the obstructions out of the way.

Apparently, whatever meagre training they get hadn't prepared them for alicorn strength, as, clearly, neither guard expected to be moved so easily.

One managed to regain his footing after stumbling, the other did not and fell on his dainty muscled flank.

Luna didn't spare either a glance as she used a single hoof to slam open both doors without breaking stride.

Luna stormed up to Celestia's bed, placed her forehooves under its frame and heaved. Dooming Celestia's bed to the same fate as her own.

There was a groan from the shattered pile of wood and fabric, Celestia's head poked up.

“Celestia, we needest to speak with thee.”

Celestia turned to her furious sister, “Luna, what subject is so pressing that you come to my room and accost me at ...” Celestia cast a timekeeping spell, and frowned, “4:37 in the morning?”

“Twilight.”

Celestia sighed, “You know why we can't let him turn back. You were there. When ponies almost went extinct. Remember what we had to do.”

“Thou knowest that we never agreed that such methods wert necessary.”

“Yet, in the end, you are just as guilty as I.”

Luna flinched back as if struck, a small bit of her anger doused under shame. “This is not about his transformation.”

“Oh?” Celestia gracefully extricated herself from her bed and stood up to her full height. “What is it, my dearest little sister, does somepony have a little crush?” Celestia waggled her eyebrows as she looked down at Luna.

“What? No!” Luna lied, “Of course not.”

“I've known you for too long for such a lie to pass.” Celestia smirked, “That's why you're here. To stake your claim. You've grown so bold, I'm proud of you.” Celestia paused, “Well, you needn't have bothered, I haven't taken a stallion to bed since your banishment and I have no intention to start now. Even if young Twilight does make for a pretty colt.”

Luna pushed down her embarrassment, costing another gout of anger, “'Tis about his foalhood.”

Celestia frowned sadly, “Twilight was such a sad story,” A tear ran down her muzzle, “Her mother, you see, was a very nasty mare. The filly came to me in such a state; it took everything I had to put her together again.”

“Thou wert the one who broke her.”

Celestia recoiled before taking a sad expression, “Please, Luna, you know not what you speak.” Celestia sighed, “I know my methods could be seen by some as harsh, but she had been expelled from seven schools prior to becoming my apprentice. She knew Dark Magic. An eight year old filly knew Dark Magic.”

“Thy 'methods' hurt her.”

“My methods were necessary.”

“So thou say.”

“I helped her, it was my intervention that made her better. It's been more than a year since her last episode.”

“Sane ponies have not 'episodes'”

Celestia nodded sadly, “And Twilight isn't sane, never has been. Did you know that, early in her apprenticeship, she went around hunting small animals for sport? Do you have any idea how twisted a pony has to be to do that?”

“She wast hunting for food.”

Celestia scoffed, “You really think I would ever starve my own student? CSGU has been hiring cutting-edge experts in the field of nutrition science to build food plans that give a growing pony everything she needs for as long as that scientific field has even existed.”

“Clearly, something wast missing.”

“What could she possibly need from small animals that she couldn't get from pony food.”

Luna paused, she honestly had very little knowledge of predator nutrition, “Meat has a lot of ... things ... that art not found in plant foods.”

“None of which are necessary for a pony's health, many of which ponies can't even digest properly.”

Luna didn't know what to respond with.

Celestia leaned down to stare in Luna's eyes, “What brought this on, dear sister? I'm glad that you are taking interest in my student's well being, but even you have to admit that you have a habit of tilting at windmills.”

Luna wanted to respond; she wanted to tell Celestia about the tortured memories of a filly who only wanted to make her teacher proud; she wanted to correct Celestia that not all ponies were herbivores, that thestrals subsisted off meat and fruit; she wanted to repudiate Celestia for that hellish torture of 'meditation' she had devised and inflicted on a foal.

But, Luna was not a brave mare.

I'm sorry Twilight. Luna broke into sobs.

Celestia wrapped her wings about her sister in a deep hug, “Sh, sh, sh, you don't need to cry Luna. It'll be okay.” Celestia nuzzled the smaller mare, “How about this, you go to bed early and when you wake in the evening we'll talk about whatever concerns you.” Celestia lied.

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