The words spoken by Nightmare Moon completely extinguished the last remnants of wishful thinking in Shimmering Light's heart.
Having studied magic for so many years, how could Shimmering Light not know this? She had merely been harboring some reasonable yet unrealistic fantasies about such rare, advanced magic.
Now it seemed that the rarer the magic, the more distinct its functional boundaries became.
After all, the structure of such magic is generally very complex; even the slightest error could cause the program to crash and fail to run, let alone encounter bugs.
Although this hypothesis was rejected, Shimmering Light had waited for Nightmare Moon for so many years that she had prepared more than just one question.
Since Nightmare Magic had not erased this portion of her memory, it meant that this memory might still exist within her hippocampus; it was just that Nightmare Magic had blocked her retrieval of the relevant memory, using a potent method of suppressing memory extraction, which could also achieve the result of making the information inaccessible.
Shimmering Light told Nightmare Moon about this idea.
This time, after listening, Nightmare Moon pondered for a moment, nodded, and acknowledged the feasibility of this method for causing a pony to lose their memory, which couldn't help but make Shimmering Light's heart leap with joy.
Because this meant there was a possibility that the memory could be recovered.
Since Shimmering Light could not retrieve this memory from the depths of her mind on her own, she could fully rely on Nightmare Moon to help.
Seeing the look of joy appearing on Shimmering Light's face, Nightmare Moon, knowing what she was planning, quickly spoke up.
"I can indeed delve into your dreams to search for the lost memory, but I must tell you, this is not an easy task. The process will be quite long, and it will very likely be a terrifying nightmare that will cause you pain..."
"It doesn't matter, it's just a nightmare."
Shimmering Light said dismissively.
No matter how terrifying a nightmare might be, it was only an illusory dream. If having a nightmare could help recover the contents of that magic book, it was a profitable deal no matter how you looked at it.
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"I trust you; only you can help me with this. You are the princess of the Dream Realm. Even though you are now Nightmare Moon, when it comes to Dream Magic, besides you, I cannot find another pony in the entire world that I can trust."
Shimmering Light's sincere words interrupted Nightmare Moon's risk warning.
"...It seems that besides being very smart, you are also very strong and brave."
Usually, a pony of this age would be too scared to sleep if they knew they would have a nightmare. But Shimmering Light showed no fear at all; instead, she was eager to try, her eyes filled only with a thirst for knowledge.
'Perhaps that memory is truly very important to her.'
Nightmare Moon thought to herself.
"How should we begin?"
"You need to fall asleep first, then I will use magic to connect to your subconscious, guiding your memory back to the time you wish to recall. After that, I will help you find the things that even you yourself are unwilling to look back upon."
This sounded simple, and an impatient Shimmering Light immediately cast a three-hour sleep spell on herself, then collapsed onto the floor and fell asleep.
"So impatient."
Watching the eager Shimmering Light, Nightmare Moon chided softly, then used magic to gently lift her up, place her on the nearby daybed, and carefully covered her with a blanket.
The nights in the Everfree Forest are quite cold; one must be careful of hypothermia when falling asleep here.
"How long has it been since I last did this?"
Nightmare Moon realized belatedly that she had returned to her old profession, and couldn't help but sigh with emotion.
Ever since she was sealed on the moon, she hadn't used this technique on a pony for a thousand years.
Yet, despite that, Nightmare Moon still cast the dream-weaving magic with practiced ease; after all, this was her innate magic, and it was no exaggeration to say it had long since become muscle memory.
Her magic transformed into bright blue-purple threads that connected to Shimmering Light's forehead. Nightmare Moon frowned slightly as she looked at Shimmering Light, who had fallen into a deep sleep, her gaze filled with a trace of worry and guilt.
She hadn't mentioned earlier that the reason Shimmering Light would have a nightmare was because she was now Nightmare Moon; her magic had been tainted with the attributes of Nightmare, and all dreams she handled would be forcibly turned into nightmares.
If it had been Princess Luna from a thousand years ago doing this, Shimmering Light would not have had to suffer this extra pain.
Nightmare Moon shook her dazed head a few times and pulled herself together. Regardless, she at least could not mess up the first dream after her return.
Putting aside distracting thoughts and regaining her calm, Nightmare Moon stilled her heart and began to peer into Shimmering Light's dream.
As for Shimmering Light, after hypnotizing herself, her consciousness welcomed a glimmer of light after a brief moment of chaos.
When her consciousness began to reactivate, she found herself back at the door of that Academic Cabin in Canterlot, having just unlocked the door with her key.
"Shelf-organizing day!"
Little Twilight ran happily past Shimmering Light with little Spike on her back. Watching their backs, Shimmering Light spoke subconsciously.
"Slow down, Twilight, the bookshelves and books aren't going anywhere..."
The familiar scene and words made Shimmering Light's sympathetic nervous system begin to stir with excitement.
She vaguely remembered that she had said one more thing at this moment.
And while she was stuck due to other emotions, the unfolding scene around her did not stop its progression.
"Where could I go?"
An amber-colored pony quietly walked to her side, stood shoulder to shoulder with her, and gazed at her affectionately with emerald-green eyes.
In just this instant, Shimmering Light realized that she was dreaming.
Nightmare Moon, who was peering into the dream, was startled into action and quickly used magic to soothe the abnormal emotional state, while also using magic to temporarily lower the amygdala's perception of emotions to prevent Shimmering Light from waking up prematurely.
Having done this, Nightmare Moon finally looked at the pony with the sun Cutie Mark.
It seemed that this pony held an extraordinary place in Shimmering Light's heart; she must be a very important friend to Flying Light.
Nightmare Moon evaluated in her heart, then, while the dream had not yet entered the critical node, she used the emotional fluctuations captured just now to retrieve the related memories.
Seeing this made Nightmare Moon frown, but she decided to just focus on the current operation.
What Nightmare Moon found strange was that this dream should have been altered into a nightmare by the power of the Nightmare, but as of now, there were no signs of the Nightmare's intrusion here.
Was Shimmering Light's mental resistance too high?
However, the probability of having a nightmare was not absolute. Nightmare Moon hadn't originally wanted to give this pony, whom she found pleasing, a nightmare anyway, so why not just let it be?
Even so, regarding the past events playing out right before her eyes, Shimmering Light did not feel very comfortable.
Even though this period could be said to be the happiest time she had in Equestria.
"Princess, could you help fast-forward a bit?"
Listening to Sunset Shimmer recount how they had spent Hearths Warming Eve together, even with Nightmare Moon controlling her to keep her from waking up from the dream prematurely, the huge contrast between reality and the dream still made Shimmering Light want to escape.
Nightmare Moon did not speak, but silently helped to fast-forward.
When Shimmering Light opened her eyes, she was face-to-face with that familiar magic book once again.
On the pure black cover, a name was printed in gold foil:
"Comet"
When Nightmare Moon saw this scene, her eyes instantly narrowed.
This was indeed the work of Nightmare Magic.
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