Nightmares (MLP-Twilight) Valentine's Day 'Good End' Edit

Twilight jerked awake, looking around her library bedroom. Sweat was staining her lavender coat and the plush bed, and her breathing was harsh and ragged. Tears were streaking from the corners of her eyes. She had that...dream again.

No, not dream. A nightmare. Fourth night straight. Spike was still blissfully asleep and unaware, and Owlowiscious was off...doing owl things at the moment. She wasn't quite sure and, if the mare was honest with herself, she really didn't care right now.

The window was open, so she simply stood and took a look outside, letting the cooling breeze calm her down. It wasn't really working. The mare looked at the nearby clock.

It had been one year, three days, thirteen hours, and twenty-one minutes since Anonymous had vanished, caused by...a spell mishap. He was immune to magic for the most part, and they were both testing how far that immunity went. The human was eager to see just what she could hit him with that he could outright ignore.

The mare would have been lying if she had said that she wasn't a little eager too. More than a little, actually.
---
One Year Ago
---
"So, where do you want to start, Anon?"

"Hit me with your best shot!" He said, a wide grin plastered on his face.

"This isn't a joke, Anonymous." The alicorn had said flatly.

"Pfft. 'The difference between science and fooling around is taking notes', Twilight." The human said, grin never leaving.

"Are all humans as reckless as you?"

"Not even half."

>Smiling in return, she charged up a fire spell. The purple flames were completely magical in nature, and there was water nearby. The fires licked at his skin, but ultimately left him completely unharmed.

"Pfft, c'mon now." Anon teased, chuckling.

"Just you wait. We're gonna find something else you aren't immune to, and you're gonna be hurting."

"We already know I'm not immune to healing spells, so I trust you." The human replied warmly.

A blush worked its way to her face.

Er, ri-right, ah, n-next is...Anti-gravity."

"Sounds cool."

Twilight's horn charged up once more, and she unleashed the bolt. Anon's clothes were pulled towards the ceiling, but he was not.

"Now now, Twilight, if you wanted to get me to strip, all you had to do was ask~!" He teased.

The blush returned tenfold.

"S-stop, come on! I need to focus!" The mare whined, and Anon chuckled.

"Alright, alright."

His clothes fell to the ground as the spell wore off, and he put them back on. Next was the last one today. A teleportation spell.

"Hold still for this one. Don't want to teleport just your arm or leg."

Anon grimaced at the thought, and did as she asked for once. The alicorn let the pulse of magical energy come from inside once more, building it up. Judging by his weight and size, she'd need a lot of power to teleport him just outside.

"Uh, Twi, that's kinda getting blinding..."

Twilight simply shouted in exertion, hitting the human with the glowing orb. He hadn't made a sound, simply winking out of existence. Twilight smiled and cheered, making some notes in her notepad. She should have figured that a little extra power was all she needed! It wasn't the actual effect, it was the magnitude!

Looking outside at the target, her wide grin started to fade.

No human.

"Anon?"

She walked outside, looking around.

"Anon, hello?"

Next was a search around town. Maybe a teeny bit more power than she intended.

"Anonymous, this isn't funny!"
---

Shaking more tears from her eyes, the alicorn went back to her bed. Even after asking Celestia for help, he hadn't turned up. The best thing that anypony could figure was that...Twilight had accidentally sent him back home. Not his home in Ponyville, either.

Earth.

The grief-stricken mare had begged Cadance to let her use the mirror again, but even after extensive searching THERE, she hadn't found him. In fact, she noticed differences between the human she knew and the humans from behind the mirror. It probably wasn't even the right universe, and 'altering' the mirror was impossible.

Twilight had almost completely shut herself off from Ponyville in mourning.

She still went out on occasion, but those were few and far inbetween. The alicorn was busy researching.

If somepony had enchanted a mirror, surely there must be a way to do it AGAIN. Perhaps she could find HIS version of Earth, find HER Anon. And if not...she had a long, long time to do it.

Eternity was a long time for an alicorn, after all.

"Buck it. Can't sleep." Twilight said to herself after tossing for a bit.

She hopped off of her bed and went into her lab. Several mirrors were set up, and the alicorn figured she had the correct spell this time. She had found the tome with the spell on an old shipwreck, and the boat's name matched the one that Starswirl had last been seen on. Indeed, the musty, rotting tome bore the stallion's name. She cast the spell onto each mirror in turn, and noticed that it wasn't reflected.

It had to have worked.

Feeling giddy for the first time in months, she put her hoof to the glass...and was pleased to find that her hoof went through it. Without hesitation, she leapt through.
---

Twilight landed in a room with...a small bed?

Rain was lashing at the small window outside, the occasional flash of lightning splitting the sky. The mare also noted that her appearance hadn't changed to any degree. Perhaps the caster was immune to the changing effects? She didn't know.

"A-Anon?" Twilight said quietly, looking around.

A human filly was definitely in the small bed, peacefully sleeping. The mare's hooves clopped against the wooden floorboards, and she had to step past the filly to get to the door. Silently taking wing, she fluttered to the door, opened it, and went into the hall. The next hallway was tiny. As in, her room in the treebrary was bigger than the entire hallway.

It was obviously a city apartment, she had seen a few of these in Canterlot and Baltimare. Though, this one seemed to be almost falling apart. The smell of mold and mildew was almost overpowering. Scrunching her snout in an effort to ignore it, she landed and crept through the house.

"Anon?"

She heard someone jerk awake upstairs.

"Tw-Twilight...?"

It was him! Though, something sounded...off. The mare trotted upstairs, where she had heard her human's voice.

"Anon, where are you?"

"Shh...Twi, in here."

The lavender alicorn opened the door...to find her Anon sitting in a chair, waiting. Her heart leapt into her throat...then immediately sank into her stomach. He looked...old. Not the youthful human she had seen a year before, but almost middle aged.

"Anon, what happened...?"

He chuckled, that same smile lighting his face.

"You sent me home by mistake, Twi."

He sighed, leaning back in the chair. The human then patted his lap, and she hopped up into it, like she used to.

"It's been fifteen years, Twily."

Fifteen?!

"Anon, no, it's been one! One year, 3 days, twenty hours! You KNOW I know time!" The mare half-shouted.

Anon sighed, a tired sigh that almost always was before something unpleasant was said.

"Time must flow differently, then. I last saw you fifteen years ago, right before you hit me with that spell."

He sighed again.

"I couldn't find you or a way to get back, so I...settled down with a woman much like you. Smart, funny, sexy, all of those."

Twilight's blood ran icy-cold.

"So that filly downstairs..."

"Is my daughter, yes. I lost my wife during childbirth."

"No, no, this can't be...happening..."

Twilight broke down sobbing as the human stroked her back.

"Shh...there there..."

He put his lips to her head, kissing it gently.

"Everything's going to be alright..."

That just made the mare sob louder. The two sat there for almost an hour, the human letting the mare cry her heart and soul out.

"Anon...I wanted f-foals of my own with y-y-you..." She eventually hiccuped, not looking at him.

"I know you did. As dense as I might have seemed, I knew." He replied, tears of his own staining her coat and his cheeks.

"I had even...found a spell that would have worked...I wanted to try it that night..."

The storm had cleared out, and dawn was beginning to break.

"Twi...you can't stay here. You know that, right?"

"...I know..."

The human picked her up, cradling her as he carried the mare downstairs.

"I usually check on my daughter when I wake up anyway."

"...what's her name?"

He paused for a moment.

"Twilight."

A fresh wave of tears threatened to spill over. Even after so many years, he never forgot. The lavender mare directed the human to his daughter's room.

"I...used the mirror in there." She said quietly.

He simply nodded, pushing the door open and silently striding through the room.

"D-daddy...?" Came a small voice.

"Yes, princess?"

"Who's that...?"

He smiled, then set the mare down.

"Twilight, meet...Twi. Twi, this is Twilight."

"Pretty pony! Can we keep her?!" The child said, going from sleepy to alert in an instant.

"I'm afraid we can't."

"I...have to go home now." Twilight said to the little girl. "But...here."

The alicorn then plucked one of her larger wing feathers.

"Keep this, tell all your friends you met a unicorn today. I can bet they'll all be jealous." Twilight said with a bright yet intensely sorrowful smile.

"I will! Thank you, pretty pony!"

The child then gave Twilight a hug, and the alicorn nearly burst into tears again.

"Go get ready for breakfast, daddy's feeling like making pancakes and eggs today."

"YES!"

The excitable little human then left the room, presumably to get breakfast. Waving goodbye, Twilight went to step through the mirror.

"Twi, wait."

She froze. Turning around, the mare was suddenly picked up and kissed deeply. For the first time in a year, Twilight felt a fiery blush light her cheeks.

"I've never stopped thinking about you. If I could come with you, I would...but you know I can't."

Twilight merely nodded as Anon sat her down.

"Goodbye, Twilight. I love you."

"Goodbye, Anon...I love you too."

She then stepped back through the mirror.

Upon her return, she lit her horn with one final spell. A white-hot beam slashed through the mirror's frame, letting it fall onto the hard ground. It shattered into a million tiny shards, taking her heart with it.

The lavender alicorn then collapsed, curled into a ball amidst the shrapnel, and sobbed for hours.
===

===

"Twilight?"

"Twilight, wake up."

"TWILIGHT!"

The mare jerked awake, tears falling unrestrained down her face. A human...no, HER human was leaning over her, worry lighting his face.

"A-Anon...?"

"It was a nightmare, sweetheart. It's gone now." He consoled, pulling her into a gentle hug.

"Oh thank Celestia, I thought I lost you..."

Her hooves wrapped tightly around his neck, and he started to gag.

"T-Twi, a li-little too tight!"

"Oh, sorry." The mare said sheepishly, not quite used to the Earth Pony part of being an alicorn. "I just...remind me to not test teleportation spells on you."

"We...already did? It didn't work, remember?" He replied, confused. "Twilight, what's going on?"

She thought for a moment, before snuggling deep into her human's chest with a warm smile. He was here to stay.

"...nothing. Nothing at all."

"Good. Go back to sleep, hun. Got plenty planned for tomorrow morning."