Because the weather forecast said it would rain in Ponyville later, Aurora didn't stay there any longer; she finished her lunch at light speed and headed back home.
Later that evening, Aurora heard news from the M6, and the development and outcome of the matter were just as she had expected.
Twilight Sparkle called all five of her friends to the Golden Oak Library to announce her decision and plans. The result of the ticket refund surprised the five ponies, making them realize that their attitude had put a lot of pressure on Twilight Sparkle. They apologized to Twilight and accepted this handling of the situation.
Twilight Sparkle wrote a letter about what happened today and the lessons she learned, and sent it back to Princess Celestia along with those two tickets for the Grand Galloping Gala.
Then, The Grand Princess was very supportive and sent back six tickets. To be precise, she later issued an extra one for Spike, who had a change of heart, making it a total of seven tickets.
Now every pony could go to the Grand Galloping Gala, and the friendship farce that unfolded today could finally be considered settled.
Twilight Sparkle specifically came over to tell Aurora about this, wanting to be the first to tell Flying Light that they could all accompany Flying Light to the Grand Galloping Gala, so that Flying Light wouldn't feel bored like last time.
As expected, her little junior sister still kept her, the senior sister, in her heart, which moved Aurora quite a bit.
It's not just "not boring"; with these six troublemakers at this year's gala, there's no telling how lively it will be.
Aurora chuckled to herself.
However, there were still some days until the Grand Galloping Gala. Taking advantage of this time, they had to prepare in advance for such a large social event, like dresses and such.
Only then did Aurora think of her own preparations in this regard; in the past, her mother had always taken care of it for her.
But she was such a big pony now, so of course, she was embarrassed to let her mom worry about her expenses. Besides, among the ponies she knew, there happened to be one who could help her solve this problem.
After finishing the discussion and chatting for a bit, Twilight Sparkle prepared to leave, but she suddenly stopped when passing through the living room.
She had been in too much of a rush when she arrived to notice, but now Twilight Sparkle realized that the furniture arrangement in Aurora's home had changed slightly.
This might be a normal occurrence in other ponies' homes, but it was unusual here at Aurora's place.
Twilight Sparkle had helped Aurora study Supernatural Magic for so long that she knew every seemingly ordinary decoration in her home was actually linked to magical elements. Even just changing a potted plant would cause the nature of the force field in the entire space to change.
This meant that changes in the room's layout also indirectly reflected Flying Light's current research status.
"Why did you switch to Star-Sleep Grass? Flying Light, has your sleep quality been poor lately?"
"A little bit... I've been exposed to a lot of new magic lately, so I have too many thoughts and can't sleep at night. But don't worry, it's nothing serious."
Aurora laughed it off, glossing over this subtle change.
Her little junior sister was usually so cute that she almost forgot that Twilight Sparkle was also The Grand Princess's star pupil, possessing an extraordinarily keen intuition when it came to magic-related matters.
"Although learning new knowledge is important, you also need to pay attention to rest."
Twilight Sparkle didn't develop any other suspicions; after all, what kind of trouble could her Second Senior Sister possibly get into? After reminding her to pay attention to her sleep schedule, Twilight Sparkle left Flying Light's small home.
Watching Twilight Sparkle's back gradually fade into the distance, Aurora closed the door, locked it, and then let out a sigh of relief.
Although Twilight Sparkle loved magic just as much as she did, she wasn't fanatical without bottom lines like she was.
When it came to Dark Magic, Twilight Sparkle would restrain her curiosity and keep her distance. But Aurora was different; magic was magic, how could there be any distinctions of high or low, right or wrong, black or white?
During this time, in order to study Nightmare Magic, she had made slight changes to the magical force field in her home, so that within the confines of this house, once magical energy exceeded a threshold, its effect would be weakened, keeping it within a safe value at all times.
She also replaced some plants with ones that had effects on Dream Magic, ensuring everything was foolproof.
But she didn't know if it was too foolproof, suppressing the Nightmare Magic so much that it couldn't raise its head, which was why her research had stalled.
Aurora took out the helm of shadow hidden in a secret compartment in the room and fiddled with it, frowning for a while.
Although she could clearly see the Nightmare Magic inside the helmet now, no matter how she tried to entice it, it just sat there motionless like a dead dog.
Moreover, because of the special nature of Nightmare Magic, even if Aurora extended her own magic into it, she couldn't pull it out. Because it wasn't a physical entity at all, but more like a ball of shadow. It was there, but it was just there.
This made Aurora, who had made all these preparations, look like a clown.
"Damn it, move, will you!"
Aurora, in a fit of impotent rage, shook the helmet violently a few times and raised it high as if to smash it in frustration, but in the end, she gently put it back into the secret compartment.
Just kidding, how could she possibly smash it? Even if it was useless right now, it still made for a high-end display piece.
Aurora comforted herself this way, then lay down on the bed.
She had a bold idea.
Referring to how Nightmare Magic had always followed Princess Luna, constantly influencing her within her consciousness, eventually becoming a part of Princess Luna and giving birth to the special form of Nightmare Moon.
Did this mean that if Aurora wanted to reactivate the Nightmare Magic, she needed to feed it with her own consciousness and emotions?
Aurora also knew how crazy this idea was, perhaps even counterproductive. If she were also influenced by the Nightmare Magic and became a second Nightmare Moon, with that state of mind driven by extreme emotions, how could she continue to study other magic?
Unless she could ensure that she could still possess the ability to think rationally under the continuous influence of the Nightmare Magic.
But what Nightmare Magic was best at was grasping the weak points of a pony's emotions and exploiting them.
Knowing this well, Aurora could figure out with her hind hooves that if this thing invaded her consciousness, it would use which piece of her memory as material to craft a "supreme pure enjoyment edition."
She admitted she couldn't let go of Sunset Shimmer, but if some ghost thing used this to toy with her, she would have a sense of despair from not being able to slap it in the face.
"Stop thinking about it, time to sleep."
Aurora closed her eyes and skillfully cast a sleep spell on herself.
When she wasn't sleepy but wanted to fall asleep quickly, a simple little spell could always solve a lot of unnecessary trouble; it was an essential "divine skill" for a pony like her with many thoughts in her mind to maintain a healthy sleep schedule.
But this night was destined to be an unusual one, because the strong-control magic that Aurora had set up to capture any potentially appearing Nightmare Magic was triggered.
This type of magic would be triggered during REM sleep formed by external factors, forcing Aurora to enter a deep sleep phase, preventing the formation of any dreams at the root; the effect was similar to using Expelliarmus on abnormal Dream Magic.
If it tried to forcibly create dreams, the result would be Aurora waking up immediately because she couldn't bear the pain of her brain being forcibly rebooted.
This magic also had its drawbacks; it would lead to poor sleep quality, indirectly affecting her mental state during the day, such as irritability and memory loss.
Fortunately, it didn't fail Aurora's wait in the end; before she gave up on the Nightmare Magic, this magic was finally triggered once.
"Finally took the bait..."
If Flying Light still had full consciousness in her deep sleep state, she would probably have exclaimed triumphantly.
But when she looked into the dreamless space at the phthalo blue Alicorn standing helplessly in the void, her remaining instinctual consciousness wavered slightly.
"This inherently evil Nightmare Magic actually disguised itself as Princess Luna..."
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