It had been a month since Twilight Sparkle's funeral.

Everypony was there, including those of Twilight's friends who were left. They didn't know the truth, of course. Celestia had insisted it remain a secret, despite extensive, angry arguments with Luna in private.

"Better she die a hero, redeemed," Celestia had finally said, "than live forever as a villain, corrupted."

But then, that was how Celestia handled things, wasn't it? Luna's bitterness had threatened to consume her as she watched ponies lower the casket into the earth. The pegasi planned a long grey drizzle at the cemetery that day. And watching the farce of a funeral made Luna realize that nopony else would save Twilight. No one, unless she did it herself.

Celestia had forbidden it, of course. But Celestia had made a mistake in sealing away Twilight in crystal deep beneath Canterlot. It was trivial for Luna to locate the cavern, and simpler still to build a suitable dream workshop. What was harder was figuring out how to pierce the crystal. She needed the help of somepony else.

In retrospect it shouldn't have been surprising how readily Cadance agreed. Together, they found a way to crack the seal just enough for Luna to open a dream channel to Twilight's mind.

But weeks had passed, and she still resisted.

“I don’t understand!” Luna said, her head in her hooves. Papers everywhere showed plans for the dream she had constructed, one to slowly and gradually reacclimate Twilight to the importance of friendship, to build up strength to resist whatever dark magic still lingered inside her.

Cadance looked exhausted. “There’s nothing in the dream interfering? A fragment of corruption, like… You know.”

“Like the tantabus?” Luna barked out a laugh. “Would that it were so simple. There are anomalies, certainly, but nothing that I can pin down. If there’s a remnant of dark power there, it has disguised itself in the most innocuous form.”

“I see.”

“She just keeps resisting!” Luna let out a groan. “I have fashioned so many carefully calibrated scenarios to remind her of friendship, of positive feelings, of fairness and happiness and love. But she rejects them all! Often violently. I simply do not understand.”

Cadance was quiet for a long moment. “Maybe…” she said softly, and Luna instantly knew where the sentence was going.

“No. This is not impossible. I will not give up.”

“This is dangerous! What if she escapes somehow? You know what she’s capable of. If the corruption somehow intensifies--or if it [i]spreads[/i] again. You know what happened to the others...”

Luna slammed a hoof down. “I would do [i]anything[/i] to bring her back. You don’t know what it’s like to be sealed away and forgotten. I’m trying to help, because my sister will not. And I will keep trying until life fades, whether in Twilight or myself.”

“Of course.” Cadance shook her head. “I’m just not sure this is even the right thing to do. What kind of friendship is it to trap Twilight in a sterile dream until we deem her sufficiently reformed? What trust or love does that show?”

“Do you have any better ideas?” Luna snapped. “Because I would love to hear them.”

Cadance stared back, lips pressed into a fine line. Finally, her face softened. “You’re right. I’m just so tired. This is just…”

Luna nodded. “Go get some sleep. I’ll watch over her.”

Cadance trotted off, and Luna closed her eyes, probing the dream once again for any discrepancies, for ways to improve it, for ways to reach Twilight.

She could feel the dream spin off its axis as Twilight introduced another destructive change, rejecting the dream constructs of her friends. Frowning, Luna reset the cycle. 

Maybe Cadance was right. Was the dream was too sterile? Luna had feared allowing anything other than idealized morality and positive friendship lessons, but perhaps a lack of friction was in fact the problem. She mentally picked through the dreams, tampering with the calibrations so that dream-Rainbow was a little more brash, dream-Applejack a little more stubborn.

This time, things proceeded as planned. Twilight helped her friends with a problem. She didn’t blow up Sugarcube Corner or set fire to the Library just to cause a problem. She… seemed normal?

Luna felt her heart in her throat. It would take a lot more cycles to be certain, but this was the first sign of promise they had seen.

“Cadance!” she called out. “I think everything is going to be okay!”