Princess Luna woke around the time she usually does, exactly an hour before sunset. It was an instinct she could never fully understand, how perfect her timing was to wake at the very same hour without an alarm. It was quite possible she got up at the exact minute every evening, but she didn't know, nor did she care to kept track.
In her lump of a bed, made of fine silk and woven by master seamstresses from Manehattan, dusk settled over her navy coat that once held a pale shade of blue desaturated by sunlight. She had again made the mistake of leaving the balcony drapes wide open the morning before. Now her fur stood on end from the onslaught of unpleasant warmth as the sharp rays magnified through the glass of her balcony window. Each hair remained upright even after she opened her eyes.
She was never a morning pony, or in her case, an evening pony. The total relaxation of her muscles was the very feeling of bliss that was very hard to give up. All she wanted to do was sleep another five—maybe ten—minutes or so, just to experience the hovering sensation of careless dreaming.
Her own dreams. Dreams of peace, dreams of hope.
After cracking her eyes from their sealed state just a tab bit too much, Luna closed them almost immediately, the light too intense for her sensitive sight. She wrinkled her nose into an irritated frown upon realizing she was awake, prematurely pulled from her dreams. The only coherent thought that formed in her mind at that moment was to go back to sleep.
Usually when she woke, she would force herself to get out of her extremely comfortable bed and prepare herself for her duties as Princess. A brief brush of her coat, the dressing of her royal adornments, and the styling of her mane were pretty much the only activities on her checklist of things to complete before joining her sister on the main balcony overlooking Canterlot to transition from day to night, then due to relieve Celestia for the day and take over as curator of the night.
For some time now, Luna had noticed how long these few preparations actually take, which is not long at all. Ten minutes on average, if not less, leaving the rest of the that free time to do as she pleases.
However, for the past several months, that big chunk of time between finishing her evening quota and meeting her elder sister at sunset was spent unproductively. Once done putting on her shiny silver slippers—which were always the final piece to her routine for personal reasons—she would walk over to her hoof-crafted oak desk next to the window and wait. Just wait. Nothing else. Very rarely would she stand inches from the glass of her balcony window and stare of in space.
Sometimes, as she sat at her desk, she would look down thoughtfully and admire the the texture of the wood. Other times she would pull out a fresh new piece of parchment and stare at the blank page before her. Occasionally, a thought would pop inside her head and she would write whatever was on her mind, but other than that, most of what deserved to be written were words unsaid.
This new development was not out of curiosity, nor did it confuse her. One might mistake Luna's solitude as a sign on depression or anxiety—as often assumed by palace servants and even her own Night Guard.
But it was neither of those things.
Drowning in her own soup of unbound contemplation became something of a new hobby, and as of two ago, it became routine. She didn't know exactly what was causing her stall for time, wasted away swimming in a mist of her own ideas. Ideas that held no merit, knew no justice, and spoke in silent whispers. They'd come and go, like the waves of an empty beach on a calm shore. The extra time allowed for her to concentrate on the various voices that spoke to her, each with a very specific message.
These voices were wishes. Goodnight wishes. Wishes from young fillies and colts preparing to go to sleep all across Equestria, tucked in tight by mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters. After the young ones were safe and sound in their beds, the rest of the ponies made their own wishes. No pony was too old to make a wish. By nightfall, most of Equestria joined together in the realm of the subconscious.
Their journey begins when the world of dreams await them.
With wishes to absorb and dreams to think about, there was little else Luna could do for the fifty or so minutes of leisure before sunset. However, due to the earliness of the hour, most older ponies wouldn't do to bed for another few hours.
This kind of thing had been going on for a while now. Certain moments of solitude were appropriate, but this was unhealthy. Starting off so many nights like this began to infect her mind. It's not like wishes from ponies didn't exist a few months ago, it's just Luna had decided to listen. With how it has affected her psychologically and emotionally, it also influenced her behavior.
It's about time she broke the habit.
Still laying in bed exactly the way she was since she woke, she stretched her legs and yawned, Her body was tired and unkempt. Instead of her routine, she remained in bed.
Little did she know, the simple decision of not getting out of bed was the first domino to topple the rest. Giving it little thought, she closed her eyes and dozed off once again.
A quick snooze couldn't hurt.
*BANG*
The loud distracting sound of a door bursting open startled the Princess of the Night, ripping from her dreams to face reality. Luna snapped from a completely motionless position to a explosion of limbs flailing in the air.
“Argg!” Luna gurgled as she lifted to an upright posture. “What is the meaning of this rude interruption!?” she hissed.
Luna rubbed her baggy eyelids with her hooves. By the time the blur faded from her vision and when she turned to face the intruder upon her royal quarters, she gasped. “Sister?”
“LUNA!” Celestia roared in an aggravated voice, her tone piercing Luna's ears. “What are you still doing in bed!? Sunset is in five minutes and you were expected to join me earlier than that. Why must you insist on toying with me by not showing to your post on time?”
The regal white alicorn paddled to the edge of Luna's bed frame and glared directly at her sister. Luna cringed at her scorching expression as if her face radiated heat like standing dangerously close to a campfire flame. She scurried backwards, squirming over the bedsheets and pressing against the pillows propped up on the wall behind her.
The unsettled staring contest lasted about four seconds until Luna gave in.
“I'm sorry sister, I must have forgotten to—“
“Do you have any idea what this means?” Celestia cut her off.
“Um...”
“We'll be late for our royal duty.” Her sister narrowed her eyes disappointingly. “You know how times we've been late to lower the sun and raise the moon.”
“Come on, sister, surely it can't be that bad.” Luna grinned nervously, much to her rebellion.
“Not once in over a thousand years!”
She recoiled at the sheer volume of Celestia's voice with irritation woven into it. Luna put on a grimace that could only be understood as fright.
“What has gotten into you, Luna?” Her sister continued. “I have heard rumors from your Night Guard to my Royal Guard saying that you have repeatedly locked yourself away in your room when your were supposed to attend court. Talk of this cannot roam free among the palace guards, and certainly must not be circulate among my little ponies. Although, I myself am skeptical of these claims.” A pause ensued. For once, Celestia lowered her tone to a more sympathetic one. “Is this true?”
Luna finally moved after keeping perfectly still, taking in the conviction of her recent behavior. With the last question hanging over her head, she sighed.
“Please, sister, you must understand, I have my reasons. I-it's just that I—“ Luna couldn't force herself so spill her secrets under the weight of her sister's scrutiny. Usually she wasn't afraid of Celestia. She wasn't little anymore, but this was the sort of conflict Luna dared not to repeat. The last time things got out of hoof between the two resulted in her worst of regrets.
Slowly, as the silence penetrated the room, Celestia's initial angry glare reduced to frown, but did not improve any better than that. She had doubt that Luna was capable of expressing her emotions without being overly dramatic about it.
“We can talk about this later.” Celestia was nearly growling with every syllable. “It is time to raise the moon. Please join me on the castle balcony in two minutes. You better hurry.”
The white Princess puffed an invisible cloud of air though her nose—otherwise known as a huff—and swiftly walked out of her younger sister's bedchamber.
As Luna's nervous gaze followed her sibling out the door, she sighed a breath of relief. She held back her troubles just when she had the chance to tell Celestia what's been bothering her for months, but there was no easy way to articulate her thoughts, especially at a time like that.
Luna quickly rolled off her thick mattress, landed on the floor with a thud, and shook off the excess creeps that followed as every hair of her coat and feather was exposed to the cool air of her dim quarters. All she wanted to do at that moment was jump back into bed and entomb herself in the warmth and heat of her soft bedsheets, a desire somewhat ironic for a pony of her talents.
She skipped and hopped all around her room to prepare herself, putting on her slippers, fixing her black crown which was slightly cracked at the base, and briefly brushing her coat to its ethereal cycle of waviness. It was too late to properly groom herself to the point where her appearance was that of a true princess and not an untidy pony. A few strands stuck out of her mane, but is was close enough.
That will have to do.
Once she was satisfied with the bare minimum, having all the correct attire in place, she exited to the hall where a couple of guard waited outside like stone statues. As she passed by, she noticed them eye her as if she was guilty of a crime. Probably because the overheard Celestia's apparent outburst. This made her feel a bit weary of the rumors Celestia told her about. The stares that her guard gave her suggested the tension between the two Princesses to be more serious than she had originally thought.
Temporarily ignoring everypony she passed in the hall—which happen to only be a few servants, maids, and a mix of Night and Royal guards—she made it to the main balcony where Princess Celestia stood waiting for her arrival.
The view from that height could not be beat. At the perfect moment, the sky split colors like a prism cut light. A splash—no—a wave of warm colors, from reds to yellows and orange and purple painted the atmosphere with a brilliant display of beauty. No wonder this Celestia's favorite time of day. The horizon, uneven and distant, prepared for another spectacle for all Equestria to see. It acted at the stage for titans, the titans of celestial bodies to put on the greatest show nature has to offer.
“Hello sister,” said Luna as she stopped beside Celestia.
No response came. Celestia did not acknowledge the Lunar goddess, not one bit. All the alicorn did was nod without looking in her direction. This made Luna wonder how much longer she was willing to remain her opponent. Normally her sister would let it go, but the ever since she came barging through her door, she seemed more demanding than concerned.
Without saying a word, Celestia activated sparks in her magic, lighting up her horn from base to tip. She angled her head back and pointed her horn at the orange sky above. Taking a silent breath, the magic poured out with tremendous power, enough to move the entire star below the mountains of the west.
Halfway into sunset, Luna lit up her own horn and mimicked her sister's pose. She didn't have to, but she did so as a show of respect and because it she thought it would help make up for sleeping in so late. She felt a sliver of foreign magic overlay her own magic. As soon as Luna detected the source, she turned her head towards Celestia.
How dare she! Luna protested in her thoughts, without much success. I can move the moon just fine. Does she no trust me?
As soon as the sun vanished beneath the Earth, the moon slipped into view from the east, creeping ever so slowly as Luna battled the vibrations of each fiber her being was made of. Maybe that's why Celestia lent a helping hoof with her own magic to raise the moon. Maybe she knew Luna was under much stress and couldn't handle it on her own.
After completing the important task appointed to her since birth, Luna let her head drop once her magic faded. Stealing one last glance at Celestia before, she could have sworn she detected a menacing grin curl from the corners of her mouth. Whatever the expression, Luna did not have a good feeling about it.
It was done. The moon was in its place. Another night approaches.
Time to begin court sessions.
Shortly after Celestia resigned to her own personal chamber, Luna headed for the throne room. Not a single word had been said between the two during and after the transition was complete. She decided to take the long way down, which was go up a floor and then back down a series of staircases that eventually led to the throne room.
The extra time gave her room to think. She wasn't feeling up to her job today.
By the time she arrived at the throne room, she was late, almost ten o'clock. However, Luna was not conscious of the exact time. She thought she was on time. She wondered that with her new personal conflict of self-conscious affair with her swirling mindset if she would be able to survive until sunrise.
Instead of taking her normal route of ascending the marble stairs to take the throne, she paused. Looking down at her hooves just inches from the first step, a sigh blew unsteadily over her lips.
Luna blinked for the first time that night.
The quick delay and decision against sitting on the throne confused the guards standing on either side of the enormous double doors leading to the hall just beyond the room. Luna slowly turned to them and walked with a limp in her step as if something ached within her leg, but it was poor attempt at faking injury.
“Are you hurt, your majesty?” one of the stallions in uniform asked as she approached them.
It was at this very moment that she had even realized there were other ponies in the room, having drowned out most of her surroundings while strolling blindly into the room. She immediately ceased her careless act and stood up straight, keeping the slight embarrassment at bay.
“I'm fine,” she said, squinting at the guard to her right, trying to remember the stallion's name. “Nothing to worry about, Mr...”
“Shade,” he said. “Sun Shade. Sergeant.”
That name struck her as odd, but nevertheless, she accepted it.
“Well, Sergeant Sun Shade, has court begun yet? Are the ponies here yet?”
“Um, well, it kinda started without you.”
Luna's smiled fell upside down. Her expression deepened like the dark corners of the night sky, only with no light to shed a clear picture. The guard couldn't tell the nature of her frown; whether she was angry, confused, or fearful.
“Princess?” the other guard said.
Luna said nothing. All she did was walk past them and carefully pushed the left door open a crack as quietly as possible, just enough to poke her head through.
What she found were ponies. A lot of ponies. They had come from all over Canterlot to see her. From the ordinary shop pony, to the occasional merchant, to the elite nobles that lived on castle grounds. Court—as always—consisted of these kind of visitors. Court—like any other—was a continuous gathering of said ponies for both formal and informal meetings, either individually or in a group. Kinda like going around a party and talking to random strangers.
In fact, that pretty much describes what court was all about. Of course, Day Court twice as many visitors, but even this much as a lot.
These were the ponies that she usually enjoyed seeing. She greatly appreciating the time they took out of their evening to visit the castle. It was rare for her subjects to make a personal trip to the palace at such a time, but because there were so many ponies in Canterlot, it seemed as if thought it was a popular tourist attraction. Despite the outdated fear of her continued association with Nightmare Moon, ponies increasingly took and interest in her night, some went as far as to work jobs that ran until morning, preferring daylight over moonlight. It was a sort of honor that made her infinitely happy.
This night was like any other, but because Nightmare Night was not but a week away, the guest count increased with each day.
The ponies did not notice her a first, waiting beyond the double doors, talking to one another in the hall. Their collective voices filled the room, but only came to her as jumbled murmurs to her ears.
Within a few seconds, the pony closest to her—a blue unicorn mare with a white mane—noticed her head sticking out from the doorway. Then another joined in, then another, then another, then two more, the three and counting. Before she knew it, the entire hall of five dozen ponies were looking directly at Princess Luna.
The alicorn's flowing mane seemed to stop momentarily as all eyes focused on her as the chatter reduced to silence. She rapidly retracted her neck to recollect her composure. With her chest out in front and her head at a certain angle, she now looked the part of the Princess of the Night, much to her disdain of having to do so. She entered the hall with dignity, collecting her mild embarrassment of appearance and impression.
The room as quiet. The red-stitched carpet laid out over the marble floor muffled her hoofsteps enough to be mistaken for a heartbeat. However, as soon as she took the fourth step into the hall, an explosion of voices hit her from every direction, surrounded by ten or more ponies trying to talk her all at once.
Despite the attack of simultaneous dialogue around her, she continued to walk forward while the crowd followed her. By the time she made it to the center of the room, nearly all the visitors formed a perimeter several layers thick. Without having to ask, the Night Guards intervened to give the Princess some elbow room, informing the guests to respect her royal Highness' space.
With the crowd less of a distraction, Luna was able to return back to reality after filtering out the voices and clearing her head of all cohesion in order to concentrate with the volume of ponies trapping her within. She exhaled a heavy breath and lifted her head high to look at the bright faces before her.
“Good evening, my little ponies,” she said. “Court sessions may now continue now that I am here. I will get to each of you as soon as I possibly can. Please be patient and don't be afraid to meet some new ponies while you're here.”
Occasionally, court did play out similarly to a party, like the Grand Galloping Gala, but without out the formalities and exclusive upper class ponies. Anypony was welcome to Luna's night court, just like anypony is free to visit Celestia during Day court.
First up, the blue unicorn mare that had been the first to notice her that night.
As the crowd died down, most of them retiring for the night or going back to work, Luna was completely exhausted mentally. The crippling sensation of significant brain drain overcame a large part of her mind.
The Princess was about to leave when she noticed one last pony remained standing in the room alone, looking at her silently. Luna turned away from the throne room doors to face the pony.
The Earth pony mare stared back, her eyes laced with sympathy and sadness, that much Luna could tell. Her coat was the color of silver and her mane and tail were blue with a touch of white. Her cutie mark was a blue circle with an intricate patten woven into a radially symmetrical web, along with two blue feathers attached to opposite ends of the circle.
“What is your name, dear pony?” Luna said, with a little boom to her voice.
The whole time the mare looked at the Princess, she appeared rather intimidated and fearful of her. Luna noticed how both her voice and size scared the pony.
“I apologize.” Luna reassured her by sitting down where she stood to seem more friendly. “Please don't be frightened, little pony, is there something I can help you with.”
Luna could she the lips of the mare quiver, but managed to open her mouth just enough to speak.
“I-it is an h-honor to meet you, y-your majesty,” the mare said.
The Princess smiled. “Please, you may call me Luna.”
“O-of course,” the pony stammered.
“So what is your name?”
“Dream Catcher.”
Luna pondered for a second. “I must say, that is a very lovely name,” she chimed, eliciting a safe smile from the mare. “So, how can I help you this fine evening?”
It took a moment for the mare to regain her confidence after such a compliment about her name from Princess Luna herself. She broke eye contact, trying her best not to fall into tears. Despite what Luna tried to discern from the mare's emotions, her accuracy was off. She was not scared, she was sad.
After pawing the floor nervously, looked back at the night alicorn wistfully.
“I— uh, I have traveled far from my home in Trottingham to meet you.” Dream Catcher near faltered over her words, but the amount of effort poured into her courage was enough to speak clearly. “I have a young daughter who I love with all my heart and soul. Her name is Twinkle Toe. She is a sweet filly trying to make her mark on the world. I have always supported her every step of the way. But there is one thing I am saddened to have heard that,” she paused. “my daughter cannot dream.”
Luna furrowed her muzzle as the story of this poor filly hit her deeply within her own heart. It was not the first instance she heard of such a misfortune of having nightmares and only nightmares haunt a pony during the night. Detail were unclear whether this was a case from within the pony's mind or if it was curse. She could not imagine how anypony could live without that innate ability to overcome nightmares.
She tilted her head curiously.
“Do you mean to say that all your daughter’s dreams consist of are nightmares?” the Princess asked.
“No, she cannot dream at all. She has not encountered any memory of ever having a dream while she was sleeping. She asked me what dreams when I read her a bedtime story. I didn't know how to answer at first. I told her that dreams are like other far off worlds that ponies create where they can do anything. But that was my opinion that didn't really hold much merit.”
Dream Catcher's breath seemed to fluctuate after every word she spoke. Her nerves were amplified by the simple fact that she was talking to the Princess of the Night. This the first time she had ever seen Princess Luna with her own eyes, let alone having her as an audience of one.
“She is a very curious little filly. I am proud of this. It always made me smile how my answers to her questions made her wonder even more about the world she lives in, but sometimes the questions would stop. I would ask her what that matter is, and she would shrug and tell me she didn't know.”
Luna gulped a lump that nearly made her choke. If by some miraculous epiphany of the heavens with undue power manifested inside Luna's mind to untangle the dense knots of unfounded emotion. For a second there, her heart was put in the right place, but already it began slipping back into the void within.
By now, a certain string in Luna's heart and mind was pulled to the point where the chord vibrated beyond her control. She simply stared at Dream Catcher with the utmost sympathy.
When a long silence made Dream Catcher nervous again, she jumped to the point of her request.
“If it's not too much to ask, I would like to ask a simple question so if my little Twinkle Toe asks me again, I could say with all my heart that I traveled far away and talked to a very important pony just to get the answer.”
The silver Earth pony inhaled a breath of fresh air to give the necessary strength to say what she about to say. All she had were three words. “What are dreams?”
Author's Note
Part 1 of 2.
Luna was stuck in her own mind again, but with more than just her personal feelings that tumbled over themselves. After listening to the plea of the demure pony back in the castle ballroom, her thoughts seemed to deviate from the mystical river that hummed a distracting tune for the last few months. This was the first of many small things that seemed to help a graceful wind of overshadow the black mist so that she could at least let in a little more light.
Because of this, Luna felt the release of a shiver sail through her. That's what true promise—like all those that came before it—felt like. They can tear us apart, but they can also pull us closer together. Like gravity.
In this case, it was unlike any promise she had come across, one flushed with silence and ambiguity that did not do the princess justice. Her response to Dream Catcher's question surprised her. Not in a shocking way, but with a kind of surprise that imploded an expression of complication, confusion, and most of all, captivation.
She began to dwell on her answer of what dreams actually are, doing her utmost to give a clear definition, but even now, thinking about what she had told Dream Catcher, the answer seemed a little shady.
There was no one answer to the question. It's like asking what the meaning of life is, as so many ponies have since the beginning of time. Young ponies in this day and age seem to be more enthusiastic, emphatic even, about knowing the one true answer. But there is none, or better yet to say, there are many. Many answers. No. Much more than many. Millions. Countless. Infinite ways to fill the void of the missing truth that surrounds the very purpose of existing that circumnavigates inside the minds of her loyal subjects.
Often times now, Luna would ask herself the same thing, but with different words. What am I searching for? Certainly there must be something in this world that is able to challenge my purpose, she thought. But what?
Finally, she had found the answer, or rather, a marker that will lead her to an answer. One answer that may help to shave off the prickling specks of dark energy that shrouded her in a lonely brume. All she needed to do now was head in the right direction.
For what felt like hours, Luna slowly made her way her private study across the hall from her bedchambers. Each step felt to drag on longer than the last.
Past the luxuriously polished stone pillars of the castle halls, down the narrow corridors in the flickering yellow light of dim lanterns, and through the tall double doors of her study did she finally breathe a sigh of relief for having completed another night's work. Not surprisingly, the court consisted of mostly unicorns. She wondered if there was a secret apartheid which could explain the lack of diversity. In fact, nearly all ponies who attended were unicorns, with exception to a couple of pegasi and Dream Catcher, the only Earth pony of the group.
Her thoughts dawned on Dream Catcher again. She just couldn't keep her mind off of her. Not that she wanted to, but it was only thing circulating through the deepest portion of her mind, orbiting what is known to be the part of the brain that controls emotion.
As Luna took her usual seat in the middle of the room where an intricately drawn circle surrounded by a series of symbols representing each visible star in the night sky. A nine-point star at the very center marked the southern star of Octantis, and directly above that on the ceiling, another nine-point star representing the northern star of Polaris.
The rest of the room was completely empty: no tables, so shelves, no other furniture or decoration. The only decoration Princess Luna cared for was the beauty of her own constellations, all of which were painted as a mural on the walls, accurate within a hundredth of a degree.
This was Luna place of peace, or at least it was the next best thing. Her true enchantment of peace belonged to the night sky itself, but she wasn't feeling like herself at that moment. This room—her study—provided for enough space and silence to give her the benefit of relaxation. She came here to meditate and dreamwalk, both of which were not always the different.
Instead of taking her normal position of sitting at the center, she paused before stepping into the southern circle. Looking down, almost expressionless, she began to walk parallel to the line of the circle. In her wordless pace, she kept her gaze at her hooves as each of her forelegs shot out in front of her.
In less than a minute, she stopped. She tilted her head slightly and looked up. A sudden idea exploded among all others.
Quickly and carefully, she stepped towards the circle, and within a few seconds of clearing the waves of incoherence from her mind, she activated her magic.
Luna's eye's glowed white as the full moon, filling her vision with a distorted lens that acted as the portal to the dreamworld. After doing this exercise countless times, it was almost effortless. Stepping through the doorway into the the place beyond reality, her body lifted into the air.
It took no more than a millisecond to pass from one realm to the other.
Luna opened her eyes. Upon their renewed phase, she was looking at herself like a mirror, only this was far more true. The blue alicorn was neither asleep or awake, but in between the plane of existence that defied all logic and ligature. Magic tends to do that. Bending nature and twisting temporal fields is its primary function.
She was ready to watch over her subjects, but there was only one subject in mind that she wanted to visit personally. Thinking back to what Dream Catcher had told her about her daughter, a sudden thought strung the very chords that her negative thoughts had trampled. First, she wanted to verify that the Earth pony was truth to her word. Luna still had her doubts. Those doubts never seem to go away.
While in the dreamworld, she was no more than a ghost. To a native, she'd be mistaken for a spirit; to an outsider, she'd be mistaken for a demon. She didn't need to use her wings to fly, floating uncharacteristically was never her style. Her current form would scare a filly in their sleep and mistake her for a nightmare, as demonstrated by Scootaloo's dreams. Luna used her wings to propel her semi-transparent body through the balcony of the room.
Once outside, the landscape appeared normal, but high in the sky was a web of strings. This web of strings stretched for miles in either direction, soon descending to the ground and into the homes of sleeping ponies. Each string originated from the dreamer, but flew skyward where is joined with other strings to create an enormous entanglement that was only visible to Luna.
The largest blob at the center of these ropes connected all of Equestria in an overlapping state of subconsciousness where the mind roams free and the lights sparkle in the company of stars, intertwined in a mass of infinity where no end had meaning.
Princess Luna turned east, her shifting form waited for reflex, and swiftly launched herself in the direction of Trottingham.
The trip took over half an hour dream time, but just under five minutes in real time. This time dilation is what gave Luna the time to traverse through thousands of dreams during a single night.
The city of Trottingham came into view, blooming in the darkness like a lone star, with its collective halo of light from fresh flames of house lanterns. Such a peaceful and quiet setting to witness, but even more spectacular with the overcast of neon threads reaching into the sky to join with the rest of the dreamworld.
Luna was only a spectator of the light, its glow clinging to the fog and fireflies buzzing to get one last flight in the cool autumn air. With their dance of illumination in the black space around Luna, their life calmed the turbulence inside her head that hadn't let up since they incurred their wrath.
As the the Princess glided to the rooftops of Trottingham's central district, she tilted her body left and banked to speed into a sharp helix, swooping down to the tallest structure. With one final flap of her outstretched wings, she gently touched down with her hind legs and let her front hooves dangle over the edge of the concrete roof.
It's been a thousand plus years since her banishment. The city below was almost alien to her. Equestria has changed so dramatically that it was hard to find her way around anymore. Even in Canterlot, the city that she once new lied buried beneath the renovations of modern times.
An era long gone. Nothing remain of her time. The customs, the dialect, the society. All gone, replaced by a radically different impression of a future that most ponies in her time couldn't even imagine.
Yet, she had to live with it, and it hadn't been easy. Her sister was all she can relate to and that little student of hers is a dying breed of ponies that cares enough about history—the good and the bad—to call her a friend.
Luna blinked. She wasn't aware her deadpan stare had taken over to paint a hypnotized visage that held more truth than any other expression. Down below where the city slept, Luna rose to her hooves. All the while, the countless buildings and homes silently housed ponies whose dreams flowed and spliced through the ether.
Ever so slowly, her head turned side to side for what she came here for.
Dream Catcher had said that her daughter lacked the ability to dream. That was the first clue. As suddenly as her thoughts were conceived, Luna shot straight up into the sky without a running start and let her frictionless form take over. Her elegant body, shaped into an uncaring, unprofessional, and undulating shape of paradoxical proportions, continued to rise vertically towards the black ceiling above while performing an aerial pirouette. Trottingham shrank into the hollow flat that was ground level, its lights fading into the shadow of the world.
Above her, the glowing plane of the dreamworld approached rapidly. Without slowing down, she pushed on through, fazing through the layer upon layers of the glowing sands that served as a visual representation of the dreamworld and continued on higher.
Before she could rocket any further, a couple more seconds and she's reach the upper atmosphere, she spun in the usual barrel-roll-like fashion and leveled out. As she reached the peak of her ascension, Luna stretched her arms out wide before tucking them in again as her body began to fall at a shallow angle before rising again to preform one final stunt. She tilted slight to the left at the same time her body did a full loop.
But before she could complete the loop, she shot straight down at the point of maximum acceleration. As her altitude was lost and to the sound of the frozen wind whistling past her ears, her speed increased tenfold to near the speed of sound. Gravity had little effect of her ghostly state.
Shooting straight through the frozen layers of the dreamscape like a meteor falling out of the sky, her sleek body began to spin ever so slightly. Her roll rate began to increase to the speed of a tornado, but not quite. She kept her descent speed constant.
As soon as she reached the point of no return, Luna finally stopped her spin and sharply puled up to level out where pulled several barrel rolls as her angle reached horizontal. Throughout this whole feat, she had her eyes closed. She already knew where she was going before her dive, and her direction after the point of no return was no accident.
There was only one place she wanted to go.
That place was the residence of Dream Catcher where little Twinkle Toe was presumably sleeping peacefully in her bed. She could really tell. The relatively small house, surrounded by many like it, stood in the dark.
That was the second clue. The strangest part of this whole tour to visit the filly was one simple fact. Unlike all other houses around Trottingham, there was absolutely no evidence of the dreamscape emanating from the house. No light, no glow, no movement. Complete and smokeless silence.
As Luna approached her destination, she spread her wings further to glide down and carefully land on the roof of the structure. With one last flap, she touched down on the very top of the chimney with any hesitation or hiccup. Brushing her wings along her side like the shivers from the frost of a cold night, she waited.
She didn't wait long, five seconds max. Her eyes were kept closed until she took a deep breath she'd been holding for a long while. Luna was alomst sure this was the right place, all was dark like the space between the stars. That thought may not have been comforting, but it wasn't far from the truth.
The Princess jumped from the chimney to the top of the roof to take her first step. Although she was just an apparition, she was still part of the physical world, having to obey some physical laws that even she could not bend.
While wobbling in place for a moment, she regained her balance and trotted to the edge of the angled roof. She looked down and found a single window sill on the second floor. Not quite a balcony, but enough for her to land on.
As she lowered her pale blue body to align with the window, she spread her wings to equalize her offset balance. The further away she was from the rivers of the dreamscape, the less control she had over her supernatural substrate, thus causing her to lose her focus and balance.
Luna peaked through the window of what she assumed to be the bedroom of Twinkle Toe. It was difficult to make out in the darkness. There was no night light and the moon was directly overhead. Even though she was like an angel of darkness who embraced and lived in black, this was something different.
Though, the dark was something a little magic couldn't fix. Luna cast a faint illumination spell, the most basic of unicorn magic, just bright enough to see the interior of the room. She scanned the space from corner to corner.
There, at the other end of the room on the far wall, was a bed. Buried in the covers was a small filly, whose head was barely visible from underneath the sheets, sleeping soundly on the pillow. There were toys strew on the floor and around the bed, but one in particular stood out to her. They here a pair slippers, and not just any slippers, but dance slippers, like those for a ballerina.
If that wasn't proof enough that the Night Princess was in the right place, the ceiling décor came in a rich navy blue with white dots. This appeared almost identical to her own chamber back in Canterlot Castle, with stars and constellations and everything. There was even a full moon painted on the wall to her left.
Luna couldn't be happier to see such a familiar sight in such a sad place. Sad in the way that it lacked the beauty that made her own room sparkle.
Returning her gaze back to the filly on the bed, she could only assume—and assume correctly—that this was none other than Twinkle Toe herself.
The very sight of the pony made her eyes misty and nearly made her shed a tear of sadness. The sympathy just wouldn't stop flooding. She wasn't expecting this at all. How could she not have known about this poor pony earlier?
The regal alicorn shook her head and breathed again, she needed to focus. Turning back to the Twinkle Toe, she took a step forward and fazed right through the window and walked inside the room. She wouldn't normally bring her secondary being into the home of another without asking (her dreamwalking involved making a clone copy of her self to enter a pony's dreams), but what she was about to do would justify her entering.
Luna stared at the bed for a long moment as if she was staring off into the distance, longing for rejoice. Her features withered the longer she stared, but with good reason.
She was thinking of a way to help Twinkle Toe find her way into the dreamworld without waking her up. In her long year alive as princess, she had never ever encountered a pony without dreams. This was a first for her and she had no idea what she was supposed to do. But, that never stopped her from creating a new spell on the spot to help the little filly.
But first, she had to figure out why Twinkle had lost—or never had—the ability to dream. It just seems like an unlikely occurrence. She closed her eyes to begin the process.
Princess Luna dropped her illumination spell and began to channel magic through herself instead of just her horn. As the power increased within her veins, she opened her eyes again as they glowed a spectacular white. Most of her magic was concentrated on trying to enter the dreams of little Twinkle Toe, no matter how small. Her first guess was that her dream state was just too small to be noticed.
She was wrong.
The spell dissipated as Luna could find no hint of brain activity or any connection to the dreamworld.
…
Wait...
Connection to the dreamworld? Of course!
Luna was screaming in her thoughts ecstatically and was shocked at the same time. This filly has the ability to dream, absolutely, but is merely disconnected from the dreamscape entirely.
But how and why?
Those were two questions Luna simply could not answer. She wouldn't know where to begin to find the answers. She was just as lost as the filly's mother.
Nevertheless, she needed to do something. All she had to do was find the break in the connection and stitch it back together, thus giving back Twinkle Toe the gift of dreams. It would be relatively easy if only the plane of the dreamscape wasn't to far away.
Not to worry, she thought, this task requires a little spark and a helping hoof.
Luna turned and exited the room from where she came and flew sky high to retrieve a sliver of light. A light known as imagination. Dreams was basically the imagination of the conscious amplified to infinity. It only took a small piece to set things right.
As Luna approached the ocean of the dreamworld floating above her, she paused. A sudden realization struck her profound and profusely. That very idea would come do define both her and Twinkle Toe as victim of the darkness and lovers of the night.
After her thought, the blue alicorn flapped her wings this time and shot straight through the glowing plane of dreams, stopped midair, flipped around, and left gravity guide her down this time. In her free fall back to earth, she fell through the dreamscape like an Earth pony fazing through a cloud, dragging a single thread of it along with her.
With the house directly below, Luna positioned her posture to align with the side of the house where Twinkle's window remained closed. On the the last leg of her fall, the Princess swooshed to the left and then back to the right directly through the window all while at subsonic speeds. But because she was a ghost of sorts, she was able to come to a halt directly above the sleeping face of Twinkle Toe.
Before Luna could complete her plan, she looked down one last time at the young features of the filly. Her little face had no expression. No smile, no frown, no other frightened or elated visage that would indicate a nightmare or paradise respectively.
Luna's heart was pounding. She had to do this. A long snaking piece of the dreamscape was behind her was waiting to hook up to the subconscious of young Twinkle Toe. But why did she stop? What is holding her back?
Luna could go no further. A battle of morals raged inside her, wondering and demanding her to rethink her actions. No good will come of this, said her negative side. This filly needed your help, said the other.
The ghostly princess just hovered there silently thinking to herself, leaning towards the side to the contrary of her original intentions. The deeper she thought of it, the more it reigned true.
She closed her eyes and sighed heavily at the same time. Retracing her steps and going back in time, she backtracked, flying outside the house again taking with the tangible rope of the dreamscape with her. Instead of returning it to where it belongs, she just pushed it away where it hung from the sky like a cosmic tire swing.
With one, two, three, four flaps of her large wing, Luna went back to check on Twinkle Toe one last time. This whole decision to retreat was for one reason and one reason only.
Twinkle Toe must discover her own dreams as would any other pony, to hope and to live as she desires. But, because her disadvantage was a disability, there was no rule saying she wasn't allowed to interfere, or provide a little guidance in this case.
Luna turned back to the dream rope hanging where she had left it, she flew up to it and plucked a piece of the scape from the very bottom. Right before her very eyes, the even smaller sliver manifested into an glowing orb, like that of a star in the night sky.
She then carried the orb back to the window. Pressing her horn to the glossy sphere, she used a little bit of magic to give it life and ensure that it won't turn into a nightmare.
Satisfied with her work, she held the orb in her hoof and blew on it with all her might. The orb floated through the window, over the hardwood floor of the bedroom, and cleared the bed frame before coming to a stop above the Twinkle Toe's head. In seconds, it sank into her fur where it glowed its brightest before fading altogether.
Luna watched the event unfold from the window pane, smiling warmly the whole time. She waited for a sign, any sign, that it worked.
She didn't have to wait long. Within seconds, she could make out movement beneath the blanket as Twinkle Toe grumbled, tossing and turning in her sleep.
It worked.
Luna's heart filled with a pride that she hasn't felt since Nightmare Night the year before, and now that a new Nightmare Night was fast approaching, she felt free again. She felt complete. She felt loved.
With one last look through the glass, Luna kissed her hoof and gently place it on the window pane. She then flew up high and took off in the direction of Canterlot.
Princess Celestia woke early. Or was it late. She couldn't tell with her eyes still closed but her mind wide awake. Her body was still getting used to the new bed she had slept in after replacing the old slab of concrete she called a mattress.
It was usual for the white Princess to go through her list of duties in her head before getting out of bed. There were definitely a lot for that day. It would take her every minute of the day and she was already exhausted from yesterday. Her little sister didn't make it any easier.
She also wonder what had gotten into that pony's mind. She sure hoped it wasn't a bad sign. The last time she ignored her sister it resulted in the destruction of the old castle, eternal night, and the temporary loss of a sibling. Talk about dramatic.
This was no time to joke. How Luna was behaving was serious business and to put it off till later might not be the wisest of decisions. Neither was yelling at her baby sister. That was the second to last thing she wanted to do and she had already failed to meet her own standards of dealing with a situation.
Nevertheless, it was a new day and she had work to do. It was already morning and the sun was up.
Wait...
THE SUN IS UP!
The most powerful of all being in Equestria tore her eyes open and rapidly scurried out of bed flying over to her balcony with breakneck speeds. Her tail dragged across the floor, but she didn't care. With her eyes wide open, her jaw was nearly missing from her mouth, having fallen to the ground.
Princess Celestia could not believe her eyes.
There, on the eastern horizon, was the sun. Her sun. The life of this world.
And she had not risen it that morning.
HOW?
Even though Celestia's authoritative, yet relaxed nature kept her from going off the rails to the point of over exaggeration and hysteria, this was impossible. This was... this... this... garh!
Celestia couldn't take it.
“Guards!” she shouted from the balcony. Even some citizens on the streets of Canterlot could hear her.
In less than a second, three armored stallions from the Royal Guard burst through her chamber doors.
“What is it your majesty!?” one of them replied loudly.
Celestia turned to them. “What is the meaning of this?” she asked, point over the balcony.
“The meaning of what?” another asked curiously, slightly afraid the Princess might be mad at them.
“This!” She pointed again. “It is morning.”
The guards were confused.
“O-of course it is,” said the third reluctantly, trying not to be snarky.
“And I wasn't notified!?” Celestia yelled again, clearly upset.
The three stallion guards winced at the Princess's outrage, but knew not the reason why she would get so angry at them for something they didn't do... or did do? They looked at each other, then back at the alicorn, who appeared to glow a shade of blood red.
“We are not quite sure what you mean, Princess,” said the first.
Without responding, Celestia looked past the guard, her gaze staring down the hall behind them through the open doors to her quarters. A thought hit her. While still fuming to the core, she stormed out of the room and down the hall.
In less than a minute, Celestia made it to the face of her sister's chamber doors. She used her magic to push the doors open, disregarding whether they were locked or not. She let herself in with her mane on fire, figuratively of course, but close enough to the truth that she was surprised her mane hadn't burst into flames yet.
She searched the room for Princess Luna and wasn't long until she found the pony she wanted to see. At her desk, Luna was busy with something, a quill in her magic and several pieces of parchment with words on every page.
“Luna!” Celestia said, trying to garner her sister's attention. “What is going on!?”
Luna didn't react of respond immediately, but continued writing whatever it was she was doing. Celestia quickly realized that it was the wrong approach to yell again, so she recomposed her posture and voice and tried again.
“Luna?” This time she asked, swiftly and softly.
“Hello sister,” was Luna's response without so much as pausing for a moment in her writing before starting up again.
“What is going on?” Celetia repeated. “What are you doing?”
“I am writing a letter to Dream Catcher. A pony who visited me in night court last night.”
“Why?”
“Because I must. She has gone through a lot to show up in Canterlot from Trottingham and I think it's fair I pay my respects to her efforts of helping me change a pony's life for the better and helping me learn what it means to hope.” Luna's entire response was flat. “Unlike somepony I know.” Her voice was slightly muffled because she didn't turn to face her sister.
Celestia was a little taken back by the display of hostility that she felt coming from Luna. She was sorry to have put Luna in this position where she began to question herself again. She sighed.
“Look Luna, I—“
“There's no need for apologies, dear sister,” Luna cut her off, her voice teeming with a hint of glee and uncontained amusement. “You should know we have to put our differences behind us, you taught me that.”
Celestia couldn't help but think back to the day Luna was free from the Nightmare by the Elements of Harmony. It was a day she would never forget. She wanted to say something, but was at a loss for the proper words to respond.
“Sometimes we don't understand each other,” Luna continued without turning around and kept on writing. “And maybe we never will. But, I look past what makes us different and focus on what makes us equal. I have waited so long to make it up to you for my grand mistake all those years ago, and maybe anything I do to fix it will always fall short of earning your trust back. I will never stop being your sister and I will never stop being who I am, but I want you to understand that what I do is not only in the best interest of myself, but for us both.
“Sometimes I can lose sight of my way through the woods, but the only way I can get back on track is to look for you at the end of the path. If only you knew my predicament as I do of yours. We have our moments of loss, but at the end of the day, the light will always rise, at least for me.”
Celestia looked solemnly at Luna for minutes, but felt like hours. She knew Luna could be poetic in her monologues, but for it to hit her this much was something she always treasured.
After a minute or two of silence, save for the scratching of the quill as Luna scribbled words onto paper, the Lunar Princess sighed. She stopped what she was doing and finally turned around. She got out of her chair and slowly walked over to her big sister.
“Truth is, Celestia, I rose the sun for you. It's the least I can do for all that you have done for me, and all I ask of you is your forgiveness.” Luna shed no tear nor sniffled like the white alicorn had expected. She was handling this very maturely.
“Oh Luna,” Celestia finally croaked, having trouble toning her voice to fit her emotions. “You didn't have to do that. I have already forgiven you. You are my sister, and I love you for as long as I live. No amount of bickering will change that.”
Luna remained quiet and still, releasing the tension that had been built up to take on any verbal onslaught or insult that she was waiting to get from her older sibling. But none came.
Startling her from her still stiff bones from the night previous, Celestia wrapped her large wing over Luna and pulled her into a hug.
“Thank you, sister.” Luna nodded.
“So how was your night?”
“Oh the usual.” Luna smirked.
The three most alleviating words Luna could ever come up with had been the bane of keeping her from falling into the abyss where Nightmare Moon had come from.
Three very simple words.
Let it go.
She would repeat them until their meaning evaporated.
Let it go.
Let it go
Let it
Let
–no
She can't
Let it go?
No.
Then what?
Only one option remains.
Held by truth.
That truth?
Answered by a spark
One spark, that's all you need.
A spark that grows and becomes a dream.
One dream.
One that flows.
One that speaks to her.
It says not to let go, but to let it flow.
Down to the core, through the heart.
Through the heart does it glow, out inside.
Memories to be written, wished to be revised.
Brought to the light does it shine.
Only then will contrite be left alone.
Apart from death.
Cycles among cycles.
Candid columns of granite hold up the roof above, made of stardust and shadow, radiating throughout the cosmic dark.
It dips and tangles, coils and curves, snaking and breaking, until the thin threaded branches have snapped and crumbled into dust, blowing away as the breeze of the crisp morning dew swirled without care.
And then, among the life that live in darkness shall the sun be made to rise above the cold mountains. May Twinkle Toe make her mother proud.
The answer lies within, where a dream awaits for the imagination to dance all night long.
Author's Note
"It took forever, but it was worth it."
- Rarity
