Whispers of the Past

Chapters

Prologue - The Land of Twilight
I. - An Unexpected Meeting
II. - Missing Memories

Prologue - The Land of Twilight

She groaned, the sunlight falling over her eyes. Murmuring a curse, she moved her left foreleg, trying to block the Sun from bothering her in her sleep. Of course, it was of no use, as the chains shared between her forelegs remembered her.

Sighing in disappointment, she moved the foreleg to its original place and, in another attempt to sleep again, tried to protect her eyes with her black wing.

Her attempt was met with failure again as the shackles in the bases of her wings blocked the movement.

She sighed, 'Maybe I can...'

The golden -ring, for the ignorant observer- magic inhibitor around her horn shone purple for a second, its light subsiding once the spell she was about to cast died even before being launched.

She frowned, her body tensed up as rage tried to boil within her. To consume, perverse and destroy her from her insides.

'Again.'

She had let herself fall. Not one, but countless times during her stay.

There were times where she preferred to be insane; just to taste the delightful experience of not feeling time's wrath. Though it got boring after a few years -or decades, maybe centuries, she didn't know-, and thus she allowed herself to be sane again, if only to properly count all the shining stars in the Moon's side.

She was close; section A in the left side had an approximate account of two hundred eighty seven thousand nine hundred sixty four stars. With three or twenty more depending on how much light the Sun gave. Section B in the left side h-

'This is ridiculous, and you know it.'

Using her small reserves of energy, she got up; the right side of her body numb for all the hours spent lying on it. She stretched as best as she could and resumed a sitting position, with her ethereal mane -a mess of dark blue, purple and pink waves that looked more like gas- moving in the air with the help of an invisible breeze.

She was facing the Moon's side, letting the Sun warm up her back. It was strange how the two celestial bodies hadn't brought an environmental disaster with their never-changing positions. Maybe it was the clouds. The fluffly white -pink, or purple, depending on 'Yes, yes, the side!'- clouds.

Yes, definitely the clouds.

The alicorn closed her eyes, lowering her head to nobody in particular. She liked it when the tip of her horn touched the 'floor'. Of course, like the rest of the place where she was, the floor wasn't normal.

It was... water, or at least something similar to it. It reflected both skies; the Sun's side, with tones of red, orange and yellow, and the Moon's side, with tones of purple, blue, dark blue and black. Even pink was present sometimes. Though, to be water, it never let her drown. Instead, it looked like there was something solid under it -glass? transparent ground?- that kept her from falling into the water. She sometimes moved her hoof through the water, hoping to catch a glimpse of whatever that was under it.

After a few minutes, the alicorn moved her shoulders and exhaled, preparing herself for a walk.

It was rather pointless, as there was nowhere to go, nowhere important to go. There was this place of floating chunks of earth with weird trees in the Sun's side and a lagoon with a waterfall that fell from a floating island in the Moon's side, but aside from that, all was the same.

So she walked in the line where both skies connected. Where it wasn't warm or cold. Where the celestial bodies' watchful gaze wasn't as prominent like in their respective sides. Where she was sure they were not watching.

After all, they were their celestial bodies.

And they did not like her.

They never had.

"Your Majesty," said the guard, "we're almost done with the preparations for the Solar Eclipse Celebration. Your presence will be need soon."

"Hmm," replied Luna, carefully sipping tea from her mug. It didn't really matter; it never did, in fact. "I will be there in a moment." With a quick gesture of her hoof, she dismissed the guard, who simply nodded and left the place. They had grown accustomed to her attitude; enough to know that she would be in her chambers, looking through her window with a thousand-yard stare, when she should be outside, discussing the plans with... what was his name again?

The tea tasted sweet. Too sweet. She licked her lips in the stony silence that had fallen in her room. Something was... off. She couldn't quite place it. There was something missing, and her mind couldn't quite grasp it. A sensation of impending doom weighed her shoulders down, but she didn't know why.

Her mind used to be so sharp...

She drew a long breath and put the mug on the table. Getting up, she walked towards the fireplace, looking into its flames like if they were holding a secret.

"It has been so long, sister."

Sometimes she would ask herself how long it had been. The years had gone fast; time flying while she tried to catch up with every change. She had grown taller, stronger, just like her beloved sister. But her memory didn't have the capacity to hold everything; good friends became blurry silhouettes without faces, lovers became whispers in the heavy-scented dark nights, cities became fragments of different places smashed together. And society marched on.

Though she still remembered her, she had promised to her sister, to Celestia, that she would. That she would bring her safe and sound.

But every day that passed, every year that went by, the mental image of her, and of her own promise, became blurrier and more difficult to remember than yesterday.

She had doubted even the memory of the day she promised to Celestia to bring her- her what, exactly? Who was that important pony? Luna knew it wasn't a myth, because her mind wouldn't make up false memories of- of who?

"What is your name, my little pony?" Luna quietly whispered, as if the fire was going to say it to her.

She stood completely still, waiting for an answer that would not come.

"Queen," Luna turned her head to the guard standing in her doorstep. Recomposing himself, the stallion spoke "Your presence is required."

Luna, wordlessly, got up and walked towards the guard. Her face perfectly neutral. Under her gaze, the guard gulped, hoping that said action went unnoticed by his Queen, and scorted her.

She didn't remember. Not because she wanted to forget forgot bad things forgive princess yourself-

Things as vital as names slipped from her mind like a soap from wet hands. She tried, everyday -as far as 'everyday' could mean in a place where there were no movements from either celestial body-, to remember at least something. A name, a place, a pony, a frie-

She didn't know why, but a nagging sensation in the back of her mind told her, in a cruel and mocking voice, that she had no friends. Because she didn't deserve them.

As far as she knew, she was a prisoner of some sorts, something she could tell by the shackles restricting her movements. But she wanted something more concrete, not just... characteristics, not something obvious, like the color of her coat.

She groaned. Bits and pieces of a life long lost sometimes sprung up in her mind.

She remembered, from long ago, a story about a prisoner. But that particular prisoner was set free, so why was she still here? Had they forgotten about her, letting her rot without company as a part of her punishment? What had she done, anyways?

She had tried to pick up clues as a way to find the answers to all her questions, but it was like picking up small shards of a broken window and hoping, against all odds, that the result would be the correct one, that the fragmented window would satisfy her like a normal one would.

She knew she had done something bad terrible horrible the worst mistake wicked unforgivable- and yet she had forgotten, hadn't she? Even her own name escaped her grasp. But when she gazed at the sky, and at the Sun and the Moon, she felt that it was, somehow, related to them.

So, she hid, staying as far as she could from both of them. Because she was scared.

They controlled the Sun and the Moon and the sky and the stars.

And they did not like her.

Sometimes, bouts of irrational -no, uncontrollable- rage wracked her body at the thought of who controlled them. As everything regarding her memory and her past, the beings behind her prisonment did not have a face, not even a defined body shape. Maybe they were like her, maybe they were one-eyed spruce octopi inside metal casings. Maybe she was just an experiment, a lab rat whose behaviour was being carefully studied and written down in typewriter-like handwriting. Maybe she had imprisoned herself trying to protect others.

Maybe-

creak

Her head snapped up to the sky. Pupils shrinking to the size of beans at the sudden sound.

In all her stay, nothing, besides her and the strange places in the Sun and Moon's sides, had made a sound. She stared for a long moment, expecting the sound to... sound again. But what if she had hallucinated it? Was she falling in her rage again?

She went through her mental list, checking if she had been showing any symptoms of madness.

creak

Her head snapped up again -in what moment had she lowered it?-, and this time, she noticed a little star moving across the sky. But that was ridiculous, because stars didn't make sounds, and certainly not the ones of the gears of a clock. The sky and its components weren't a mechanism, at least not a literal one.

creak

'Wait.'

Her body did a little jump as the realization of what just happened sat comfortably in her head. The stars were moving!

Luna was being escorted by her guards, ignoring the ponies that got close enough to give her a wave before being pushed aside. She still smiled for them, tough. Her little ponies, enjoying their lifes, going on with their bussiness, being so normal while she was trying to remember a promise made centuries ago.

"A-ha! But this is a great day, Roseluck! Spring ends, summer comes, the suns shines brightly in the sky. But that is not all, because you ponies never make it that easy, no." Luna briefly wondered who was the pony speaking and, moving her head in a discreet maner, she discovered a pony the color of peanut with a spiky brown mane talking to a beige mare with a mane of different shades of pink. 'Odd' she thought, hasn't she seen this pair before?

"This is the one thousandth celebration of the Solar Eclipse festivity! The sun rises, the moon lowers and in their trayectory, the latter eclipses the first!" the stallion continued, the cheery tone never leaving his voice. "They say that a magenta-colored aura of light in the shape of a star appears around both celestial bodies when they do so. But it is just a myth, it has only happened two times, and that was a long ago."

"Do you think we will see it?"

"Absolute-positively! The millenial celebration of a festivity always brings surprises." The stallion pointed at something with his head and exclaimed, "Hey! That is the Queen! Say hello, Rose!" Both ponies waved at her, and she watched as they turned around and left, chatting of history and the celebrations to come all the way.

Luna sighed, somewhere in the back of her mind, she recognized them. She couldn't exactly put a name to the brown pony, and she didn't remember 'Roseluck' correctly, but her mind assured her that she knew them, or at least that she had seen them before.

Staring blankly at the platform that was coming to view, she wondered if she was going crazy.

But that was impossible! The stars didn't move! They hadn't in years! They just couldn't... move and get away with it!

She stared at the sky, completely, utterly stunned. Her mouth was open, and she couldn't find strenght enough to close it. She tried to analyze the situation, but felt her brain coming up short in explanations.

'What is happening?!' she screamed in her mind.

The sound of water falling made her paralyzed body move around, only to froze again at the sight of the waterfall- no, the whole lagoon, floating island included- moving behind her. But that was impossible, bodies of water didn't move on their own, and she surely hadn't moved from her spot on the ground.

Her head whipped around, catching the sight of the weird trees on their little chunks of earth organizing themselves in some sort of pattern around her and the lagoon.

She looked at the sky, as if expecting an answer to fall from it, and moved her head in silent awe when she noticed that the Moon, in all the madness going around her, had decided to do exercise today, moving slowly from its spot, along with some of the stars, towards the Sun in a vertical line.

Luna stood tall in the center of platform, wings gently tucked to her sides, waiting for the guard that stood in front of her to finish his speech. As he did so and gave her space, she took a few steps forwards and, giving a brief look to the enormous crowd of ponies in front of her, genuinely smiled for the first time in the day.

They respected and adored her, and that was enough to warm her heart and calm her stressed brain. As long as she had her ponies, she would have somebody to protect and live for.

Lifting herself off the platform with her powerful black wings -she remembered, once, that a little colt who wanted to be an artist told her that she was the color of onyx 'Like blue, but purpler and way way way dark! Is purpler a word?' and not black- she reached for her magical reserves tied to her talent and drew energy from them.

It was just a small ounce of her raw power, but it would be enough to lift the Sun and lower the Moon. What she needed more than anything was dexterity, to be able to control and tame the power, forcing it to go in complicated patterns across the sky.

Luna sighed, feeling the warmth of the Sun in her back. The Solar Eclipse celebration was, in the words of any magic-talented pony, an act just so beautiful, complicated and impossible that Luna had wanted, more than once, to see it by herself.

She stared, and stared, and stared. Because everything going on in front of her was impossible. Because it was impossible for the stars to make constellations in the ever-lit sky surrounding the Sun and still shone as brightly as they were doing.

Constellations, lines, forms, 'forms! They're doing a star!'

It looked familiar, if only she could place it... She remembered, oh, she remembered!, meeting with someone; someone who liked to observe; to list an object's characteristics and then deduce what it was. Someone with brown hair. Someone who was friendly. Maybe this someone used to be her- 'No, focus!'

Six lines, three on the top, three on the bottom, all pointing to different directions. A faint magenta hue was present in all the points of the stars, concentrating in the Sun -which was yet to be overlapped by the moving Moon.

Six-pointed.

Magenta.

A six-pointed, magenta-colored star.

'They're doing my cutie mark!'

Luna opened her eyes, still in mid-air. The sight of the amazed ponies never stopped touching her heart. To see her subjects' face in such a pure state of awe made it all worth it.

Out of the corner of her eyes, she noticed how some of her guards moved their bodies without getting out of their spot, as if they were waiting for something. It was subtle, but her scrutinizings eyes took in every action; the nervous glare of a guard, the shared glances to each other, the sudden look of conflicting emotions quickly throw behind a mask.

It was not the whole guard, per se, but a small group, maximun six. Seven, even.

She wondered why such actions made her stomach sunk.

Everything was making the form of her cutie mark.

Everything.

The lagoon, with the floating island and its waterfall over its center, was the center of another imitation of her cutie mark, with the trees in their chunks of earth -had she ever counted them?- as the six points.

The Sun, with the smaller stars acting as the six points, and the Moon that was so close to overlap the Sun.

And as the Moon covered the Sun, she noticed a faint magenta outline around the eclipse, highlighted by the blackness that followed it. The magenta outline soon disappeared; to be replaced by a rainbow ray that struck the lagoon, illuminating the place with all the colors of the spectrum.

She was just underneath the ray, watching in awe, as her handcuffs and chains shone for an instant and then disintegrated. In her mind, she giggled, and was prepared to open and relax her wings when she felt the distinct feeling of being teleported.

She glanced around, and saw that she was now in the floating island, which was-

'Descending, it is trying to drow me!'

However, as she saw that the rainbow-colored ray was still shining in full intensity just beneath her, her thoughts took a turn to the most drastic conclusion.

'It is going to fry me!'

But the chains weren't there anymore, so, opening her wings, she-

clank!

-felt the distinct sensation of a heavy metal collar whose chain was connected to the ground, of all places, bringing her head down and sealing her fate; to be fried by a rainbow of doom.

How anticlimatic.

And as she tried to get away from what she was sure was her death sentence, she thought was she thought were her last thoughts.

'This is not how physics work!'

Luna had seen many things in her long life.

She had stood as a watcher -or a figther- in relevant events like the construction of the Castle of the Two Sisters, the Fall of the Flutterponies, the Fall of the Crystal Empire, the Reign of Discord, the construction of the first donut shop -oh, that had been a night!-, but now, right now, what she wanted more than anything was to see what was, exactly, producing the faint magenta hue that illuminated her subjects' faces.

Because, in more than one thou- 998 ye-

It was quick, yet her mind was quickly enough to process it.

This had happened before.

It had been relevant.

Why didn't she remember it?

The question flashed in her mind at the same time a loud, cracking BOOM! resonated in the distance, accompained by a shining magenta-colored light in the form of a star.

And just like that, she was falling.

Author's Note

I got a good color chart for once.
The Land of Twilight kind of looks like this. The lagoon is, actually, on a floating piece of earth. Or if you want, imagine it like a river under the sea (yeah, it is something possible, don't think too hard about it), though it will get pretty awkward.

And yes, I am rewriting this. It will include more world-building, 'cause I'm bored ~~and I am a few months away from summer, so I just need to get better grades in my school, absorb all the knowledge like the sponge that I am, and ding-dong this thing will be running all nice.~~ Scratch all that I wrote this like five months ago I am a bloody lazy idiot who will pick up a job that requires physical strength because I cannot bother to use my brain.
Frick frack you all. Let me weep for my otps.

Like, why does everything related to my otps got to be so sad? I mean, boy, I'm sure Russell feeds off negative emotions (nope, not love, just sadness), like the parasitic human-ish changeling that he is. I swear to god. I saw Doctor Who, I said 'they could make a box of puppies sick' and then pim pam puff he leaves her there in a beach with a clone and three episodes later he is dead. Three episodes that are, for your information, not disponible on Netflix due to their 'special' category. I'm not even sure they're three.
Jesus Christ, the tenth incarnation lived like what- seven years? And there are people out there really mad with his 'I don't wanna go' before he died. Chill, bro, if you lived seven years of your centuries-long lifespan I can assure you that you would go bonkers, even with regeneration. Make the pretty one live long, for god's sake!

Anyway, I'm back to writing. Because life is short and I can assure that I will lose my sight fifty years later on my life. Not enough time to write ponies.

P.S: It took me so long to write the freaking last scene. I dare you to write something like that in a tongue that is not your own. And yes, that sentence was written like that in purpose.

I. - An Unexpected Meeting

She didn't wake up to the sounds of civilization, she didn't wake up to the sound of engines flaring to life or by the sounds of nature -though, that bird was good at trying-, instead, she woke up from her slumber thanks to the light that had seeped through her eyelids.

And it scared her, for a moment, to think that all that had happened had been nothing but a light show, a singularity in her infinity-long imprisonment.

But the ground beneath her hooves turned around her theory, as for once in a really long time she felt solid, dirty earth staining her black fur. She took a deep breath, relinquishing and yet not believing the smell of wet earth -petrichor, yes, that was the word- that assaulted her nostrils.

While the sensation was pleasant, her lungs suddenly shrunk to the size of raisins, and then expanded so much that she felt they were going to burst open her ribcage. Her body reacted, her muscles tensing as if they had been shocked by lightning. The innocent song of the bird sounded, for a moment, like a thousand sonic booms at once. And all of this happened as her mouth was locked open in a pathetic effort to get air I need air air air more air!

She thought if that was what felt a fish when being throw back at the sea after spending too long in dry land.

"Woah, there! Are you ok?" A voice -male, judging by its bass- caught her attention and she turned her aching neck to the direction where the voice had come from. However, such actions would not go unpunished and she quickly closed her eyes when the dim light from her surroundings burned her corneas like the concentrated sunlight would do to an ant.

Fearing for her eyesight, she opened her eyes slowly, the light from the Sun damaging them. She blinked rapidly, the blurry shape of an equinoid creature becoming clearer with each blink.

blink

Pale yellow fur. Male.

blink

Pink, short mane. Locks of equal lenght falling to both sides of his face.

"Do you need help?" he asked. She nodded, her neck barely supporting the weight of her head.

She tried to stand up, her legs trembling pathetically underneath her weight. She stumbled as her wings -which were, in her situation, practically nothing but dead weight to add to the count- unbalanced her already weak body.

The stallion, finally catching up in her state, came by her side and used his head to support her neck. Her body relaxed with his touch. 'Contact! Physical, real contact! I'm here, I'm really here!' Though her mind screamed in joy, her body did not. At least, not in joy.

It hurt, every muscle felt like it had been used to lift a ton of rocks from Terra, to the Sun, and back. It didn't prevent her from giving a glance to her surroundings, however.

Grass covered the earth, growing wild. The Sun's light was filtered by the thick foliage of the trees -she wondered, briefly, how did a ray of light even fall in her eyes?- that surroundered her and the mysterious stallion. Who had no wings nor horn. "Earth pony," she murmured, so low that it came out unintelligible.

Near her was a wooden, big cart with a variety of products inside, most of them covered with a scorched blanket, which was haphazardly in place with a rope. There were wheels, there were products, there was a cart in perfect conditions -except for the blanket and rope, but hey, she said cart-, but there was no pony attached to the cart. She thought about what kind of stupid pony would let their cart, filled with provisions, abandoned in a dark forest. The thought made her smirk in mockery.

She glanced to the stallion to her right, who was helping her regain her balance.

A strong stallion who was no small himself.

'Oh.' Her smirk disappeared.

Maybe she had been imprisoned for her stupidity.

Then it hit her with full force. It didn't feel like when one receives a punch to the stomach, no, the sensation was akin to somebody dropping an anvil on her head, followed by numerous and heavy, very heavy furniture.

She didn't like the small spark of recognition that ignited somewhere deep in her mind.

Accidents aside, she was free. Finally, after who knows how long, she had been freed from the place where she had been living during her banishment.

The swirl, or rather, hurricane of conflicting emotions that sprung up inside of her was so potent, so ridiculously powerful, that her body did the only reasonable thing it could think of.

It shut down.

Butterscotch was a normal pony with a normal, boring life. His day-to-day activities consisted of baking and selling butterscotchs to the poor souls anybody who happened to pass through the little, old village he lived in, with the occasional trip to the neighboring town to buy supplies to make and sell more candies.

Wake up, bake, sell, go to sleep. Buy if ever necessary. Rinse and repeat.

It was an easy-to-remember, short list. In fact, it could be summed up in one word: survive. No, wait, that was not fair to the list that he had so deeply ingrained in his mind that he couldn't forget it even if I bleached my brain with acid then lit on fire the r- It could be summed up... in seven: survive in the most boring way possible.

And boy, was it boring. Waking up, baking caramels and selling them to the same old faces you had seen for the past twenty years, and then going to sleep feeling like you had accomplished something -yet nothing at all.

Somebody should have added 'Die' in the list. Preferably before it even began. Would make it easier.

But he knew it was worth it. Somewhere in the dark corners of his most perverse of thoughts, locked in a rusty cage and chained to the bars, he recognized that it was all worth it. And that thought would live in there until his body was rotting under six feet of dirt.

Something that would not happen until a veeeery long and veeeeery boring time after.

So, just to break up the routine a little, he had decided to go buy supplies. Posey, oh, sweet, little Posey, had seen his exhausted look complemented by the silent scream begging for something different and had decided to have pity on his soul and let him go to the neighboring town.

And so, he had gone, he had bought things that they already had plenty of and he was walking back. The little break lasted one day to go, and if he speed up his steps -which, considering his situation, was something he so didn't want to do that you would think he was afraid of stumbling or something, even in a road which, you could pretty much said, was only used by him-, he would arrive to his house by noon, in time to return to his same boring ol' life. His boring and safe ol' life. Emphasis in the boring part.

With such thoughts, Butterscotch didn't notice the dim magenta light that colored everything for a second, and then disappeared as fast as it had appeared.

He just kept walking at a slow pace. With almost closed eyes that saw nothing but the road below him.

It didn't matter if he lost his opportunity to see the Solar Eclipse Celebration from his home -though, they didn't have the best view, but he was not going to New Canterlot for that-. Honestly, he didn't care about that. It had been the same thing during the past millennia, and it wouldn't change now. Moon, Sun, overlapping thing. Yay, cheers, halleluyah. Even Posey didn't see it as a miracle like the normal ponies did.

That is, if they could consider every pony passing through -he didn't dare to call them tourists, as the idea of somebody finding Sunny Ville a place to frequent and visit for its cultural, historical, or something-al merits was ridiculous to even think about; like the Ville had merits, ha!- a normal one, that is. After all, there had been that pair with that brown pony who called himself- uh, what was it again? Doc-

boom!

It felt like the solid earth he was walking on had transformed in an unbalanced and moving platform. The ground shook lightly, with clouds of dust going up and being swept off by the sudden wind. The leaves in the trees rustled and all went silent for a moment, it was as if no bug dared to even breathe.

A second later, Butterscotch was exhaling a breath he didn't know he was holding.

Though, after he regained his breathing, he heard a low, but piercing sound in the background, like a rock being throw from a great distance. The sound quickly grew in volume as he realized that, for the thrown object to possibly do that with its sound, it would need to: A) come closer, and B) near him.

He hoped that it was not on him.

Luna forbid that little colt was throwing rocks at him again.

With his head filled with thoughts as to how punish that freaking shrimp, he barely ducked in time for a big object to pass over his head, with a trail of purple flames behind. Said object didn't stop and went into the trees, leaving small purple flames in their leaves that diminished and went off without his help.

'What the.' He stood, frozen, watching intensely, as if expecting the object that nearly got him killed to get out of the trees. 'Must have been a meteorite.' He was going to turn around when something caught his eye; the sight of the blanket that covered his products and the rope holding it in place burning.

He inwardly groaned as he deattached himself from the cart, walking to one of its sides, his hooves ready for the task he was going to perform.

He couldn't let the products burn. While money was not exactly tight in these times, he didn't make a fortune by selling candies, and he needed a good amount of money to buy what was on the cart.

Sighing deeply and already regretting what would happen next, he looked in every direction to ensure that nobody would catch a glimpse of what he was going to do. He closed his eyes and put his hooves over the blanket and the rope, absorbing the purple fire onto his body.

The warmth travelled through all his body, exciting every nerve. He felt slightly perturbed as his body shook in pleasure. 'Not now,' he thought. Not now, not ever. It was not worth it. It would never be worth it. I-it would n-ne-neVER fire f i re fiRE FIRE FIRE FIRE!!!

He didn't notice his legs were trembling until his body nearly fell on the ground. Not that he would mind, because if his thoughts were going down that path then he needed to be stopped, and getting hit was a good way to snap him out of it. Worked everYFIRE.

'Calm down, calm down, calm down,' he repeated in his mind while mouthing the words. It was his mantra everytime he got carried away. But as the ground under his hooves got scorched, he wondered where in the whole wide world was Posey when he needed her. The answer was clear; away, baking caramels in the comfortable and peaceful little village where he lived, living a tranquil life where no pressure was on her, where the fire didn't consume everything.

He was going to lost it, he knew it. Sweet, little Posey wouldn't even know what had happened to him. And he was going to die, because he preferred that to- to- to-

Butterscotch hadn't noticed how silent the forest was until a low, but desperate chocked gasp was able to reach his ears without being muffled by the sounds of nature. Though, well... it was being sort of muffled, but... Why didn't that bird shut up was one of the many mysteries that he needed to solve.

Standing up -in what moment had he fallen? had... had the fire damaged him that much?- he attached the cart to him -no way he was going to leave it alone in the road- and made his way towards the direction of the sound. Partly believing to find nothing but a mere burned rock made pieces by its trip in Terra's atmosphere, partly believing that his mind had already gone bonkers. After all, he was a little crazy. All ponies were a little crazy. Even the snobbish jerks from New Canterlot.

Especially the snobbish jerks from New Canterlot.

Butterscotch would never forget that runt with a 'green-like-a-pear, you rural... thing!' mane.

"Don't lie to yourself," he said through his teeth, not even noticing he was saying those words out loud, "it is as green as my p-"

His train of thought was stopped by the sight before his eyes; a tall, black mare laying on the ground, gaping like a fish. His diabolical inner self wanted to laugh at what he was seeing.

The kind part of him won instead. "Woah, there! Are you ok?" Probably not, but it was worth a try. He wanted to scold himself for his words. However, he decided that it would do him some good if he did something productive once in his life. 'Well, Butty. Do it, gather information, you idiot.'

If there was something Butterscotch loved to do, it was paying attention to details. He wasn't a pony who appreciated everything, that was true, but when he was there -as in, not being distracted by fifty different thoughts- and in front of something interesting, he liked to list every detail.

Starting by the general aspect, he studied the mare in front of him and wrote in his mental list; tall, black, obviously female, ethereal mane, has horn, has wings... '-wait, she is an alicorn! Is she Queen Luna?! Oh my, oh my, OH MY.'

He closed his mouth when she noticed that the mysterious mare was doing the same as him; studying him, listing the characteristics. His characteristics. As in his fur, mane, and -he hoped not- gender.

Normally, he would be bothered by such an action, as someone taking a long look at him and at his body was not something he really liked. But considering he had done the same to her, and this 'her' was probably the Queen of the country he lived in, he decided to shove all his complaints in a box, close it with a lock, lit it on fire and then throw it to the deepest parts of his mind.

Didn't stop him from almost screaming a 'Stop it!' to the alicorn, though.

After another intense look from the mare, his nerves told him that they were getting pushed too far, so he blurted out the first thing that came to his mind, "Do you need help?" 'Ten out of ten of observation.'

The mare nodded weakly and, after seeing her poor attempt at standing up, he came by her side and tried to help her by lifting her neck. Great, she could be dying but now she had a better look of the place. Butterscotch could swear that he could feel her gazing.

She murmured something unintelligible, and then, out of nowhere, her body stiffened and she fell on his back. Well, her neck and head fell on Butterscotch's back, her body, however, decided to weight more than her weak legs could support and, taking advantage of her height, she fell atop of Butterscotch, throwing him to the ground.

'Great,' Butterscotch thought. 'What do I do now?'

An annoying, childish voice in the corner of his mind, told him, 'Not getting crushed, for starters.'

He was going to kill that voice one of these days.

It had taken effort, but he had finally made it.

Smiling proudly at his work, he went to the front part of the cart and attached himself. The alicorn's weight slowed him down, and the day had already been giving space to the orange sky, but he didn't mind that. Not when something so exciting had happened in his life.

Of course he feared what Posey might think of the mare he had found when he arrived home, and he didn't even know what to say to her if -no, when- she woke up. The fact that she was an alicorn added another level of I am so very screwed to... well, everything.

And he didn't even know who she was!

Butterscotch had checked her eyes, her purple, dragon-like, shining eyes, and had concluded that this pony was not his Queen. She could be dangerous, she could be the bait for a trap, or something similar.

But that didn't matter. Because she was hurt, and Butterscotch put that above everything else. It was a bad thing he hadn't carried his bandages during his trip to the other town, but the wounds weren't deep, nor were they bleeding... not that much at least..., and she was an alicorn. She fell like a meteorite and she survived the impact, with a side effect of dizziness, but she was, for lack of a better word, fine.

ggghhhh

And she was waking up, too. Butterscotch could feel the root of fear growing up and tightening around his heart, trying to paralyze every nerve in his body.

He gulped, it was time to talk.

If life had taught her something, was that -even with lost memories- waking up surrounded by jars of molasses, sacks of brown sugar, an entire variety of products and a blanket over your body with the purpose of warming you up, was a thing more confusing than sweet.

As she slowly regained her conciousness, she looked up to the sky, groaning as she did so. The orange sky with its pink clouds was letting space to the night sky. A few stars were already visible, shining weakly in the firmament. She was trying to find the Moon when a male voice startled her.

"Hey." She turned her head around at a speed that, having she not been an alicorn, would have snapped her neck in two. "Are you ok in there?" She nodded, not opening her mouth to answer. The cart -cart! she was being carried around in a cart!- shook a little as one of its wheels hit a loose stone in the road. "Uh, sorry for that."

He was being cautious, she noticed. The ears glued to his head, the distance between his tail and his rump -which was very short, giving him a look similar to a dog with its tail between its legs-, the forced smile. She narrowed her eyes, there was no reason to act like one was stepping as if there were eggshells everywhere around her.

She was not dangerous. Or at least, she didn't remember to be.

The stallion must have noticed her inner thoughts, as he suddenly looked surprised, though a spark of interest shone in his turquoise eyes for an instant. It became obvious that he was interested in her, as his eyes peeked out from under his mane, where he was hiding his face before. As far as she knew, nopony carried strangers lost in the woods.

This mysterious, gentle, pink and yellow pony had chosen curiosity over precaution.

She didn't know why, but the kindness of this particular pony made her smile. "Wha-" Her sentence was cut off as a cough came instead of the next word, her throat vibrated in agony, letting her know that she had a dessert in there. A dessert pleading for a rain.

The stallion looked at her with worry, stopping the cart in its tracks.

"Is something wrong?" he asked, deattaching himself from the cart. The alicorn, biting her tongue to stop the coughs, signaled her throat using her hoof. The stallion caught on and, removing the blanket, searched through his products to find... "Huzza!" he yelled. A second after he realized what he had just said and coughed awkwardly.

Rolling her eyes, the alicorn signaled again to her throat. She wanted something to drink, now.

Noticing her desesperation, the stallion opened the bottle of milk and handed it to her. She took it in her magic and drank all of its contents, relinquishing on the feeling of the milk going down her sore throat.

After finishing it, she put the empty bottle away and licked her lips, letting out a sigh of contentment. Though her happiness was cut short as her stomach growled.

The stallion caugh up on that too. "Hungry? Uh, well, I think I have snacks in there..." Picking up a small green backpack, he opened it and got out small cereal bars, which he quickly handed to the alicorn. They all went down the alicorn's throat in less than thirty seconds. "That was all I had," he said in a whisper, wide eyes still staring in surprise at the alicorn in front of him.

Said alicorn, who was still hungry -since when do cereal bars fill anypony?- but at least in a bearable level, lowered her head, gazing deep in the eyes of the yellow pony. "Thank you," she said. She smiled, and asked the question that had been wandering in her head, "What is your name?"

"Butterscotch!" he replied, puffing out his chest in an attempt to look taller. He stopped and then, "What is your name?"

The alicorn opened her mouth to answer, only to close it seconds after. What was her name? She didn't know! She didn't know her own name!

"I..." Should she say the truth? "I..." She couldn't lie to this gentle pony. Lies were toxic things that ruined relationships. "I don't know..." Her voice came out with a tone of hurt, and she quickly moved her head away in an attempt to hide herself.

She didn't know.

She didn't know her name.

This mysterious alicorn didn't know her own name.

'Buck it.'

"Uh..." he started, rubbing the back of his neck. "I-it doesn't matter." Well, it wasn't a lie, not for him, of course.

Posey would need more than that to trust this mysterious alicorn. But it didn't matter to him, and he was the only one there aside from her. So, yeah, didn't matter, was not important, not of any relevance at all.

So screwed.

"Really?" She didn't expect her own question to sound so hopeful, like a little foal expecting every house in Nightmare Night to have candy.

She pondered about this last thought and saved it in her mental archives. 'Will research it later,' she said to herself.

"Yeah... though... it would be easier if you had one..." He quickly backpedaled in his own words after seeing the look of inminent sadness in the stranger's face. "It doesn't have to be your real one! We can-" 'think, brain, THINK!' "-we can use a nickname, yeah, like... uh." Since when did he sound like a small child? "Your mane! Yes, we can make a nickname out of your mane. Ok?"

The alicorn, who had watched his little outburst in different stages of amusement, could only nod in response. She didn't even dare to say 'yeah', fearing that such a word would bring poor Butterscotch out of his trance, and following that would be a heart attack or something similar.

Butterscotch smiled, although it looked like a grimace more than a sincere smile.

Seconds passed. "Oh, yes, your mane! We could call you..." He stared intensively to the gaseous-like mane. Pink, blue, dark blue and a whole spectrum of colors danced in something akin to a nebula. "Actually, I don't really know how to do this." 'Great as always, Butty.' He scrunched up his face, thinking hard. When was the last time he had used his brain for something that was not cynicism nor prices?

He raged silently as a childhood memory appeared mockingly in his mind.

Biting the insides of his mouth, he looked at the alicorn, whose face was scrunched up. 'Is she actually helping me?' Rather than confirming this thought, his brain resorted to the old way of suppot; the good fascinating sarcasm. 'No, Butty, she is thinking up ways to escape your stupi-obviously she wants to help you! She is confused, doesn't remember her name, and you are probably the first living being whom she had found!'

Groaning inwardly, he let himself fall on his back. Looking up to the sky, he appreciated the different shades of blue that, closer to the setting sun, were replaced by soft oranges and pink hues. The dark leaves of the trees made a sharp contrast compared to the colors of the-

"Twilight!" he shouted. The corners of his mouth twitching to make path to a smile.

The situation felt surreal, like he had and epiphany or won the lottery or whatever. Though, considering that less than two hundreds ponies lived in Sunny Ville, winning the lottery was not that hard. It would be worth it if the prize had any value at all. Because, come on, who put a sack of orang-

The screeching sound that came from the gears in Butterscotch's brain suddenly stopping was so loud, that he was sure that the alicorn would be capable to hear it. 'Doesn't matter. Stop derailing, mind!'

"Yeah, that sounds... good." The alicorn seemed unsure, looking to a fixed point in space and biting the inside of her cheek. She blinked, one, two, three times and then snapped out of her trance.

Smiling, she looked at Butterscotch. "So, 'Twilight' it is!" she exclaimed, moving her forelegs beneath her body.

"Woah, what are you doing?"

Twilight looked at Butterscotch, then at her legs, then at the cart, then back at Butterscotch. "Getting... out of the cart?"

"Nope," he said, popping the 'p'. "Not doing that today, missy. You're tired and, as far as I can tell, malnourished and thirsty. You're not going for a walk."

Twilight rolled her eyes. "Pleaseee?" she whined, her lower lip quivering in what she thought was the best puppy dog face. However, her own resolution to get out of the cart went straight out the window when her legs, which had been trembling, gave out and she fell on the cart. No, she wouldn't give up that easily. Using her right foreleg, she tried to move again, managing to put herself on her back.

While her legs were spread out to the sides, at least her wings were comfortable.

Just... great.

She stared intensively at the dark blue sky, looked at Butterscotch, then crossed her forelegs and pouted. "Fine! Have it your way."

Twilight could hear the smirk appearing. It just made her position all the more ridiculous.

A red and not-burned blanket was dropped on her, muffling her huff. Hearing the wheels advancing again, she tried to move to a position -without removing the warm blanket- so that she could look at Butterscotch. "Hey," she called out in a soft whisper.

"Hhmm?"

"Are y-" 'That is not how it works' "-d-do you want to be my friend?"

Twilight didn't know why, but her question sounded ominous. Like she had just asked a question that could change a thousand lives. But it was nothing compared to the would-be-answer, as it, being an answer, would be of more relevance than the question itself.

And such important answer came out in a firm but gentle "Sure."

Even if it was not a great, big and long monologue that encompassed all that ever known about friendship, and included small appendixes for each subject, Twilight felt like her insides had stopped revolting, deciding to settle down and warm up to the comfortable embrace of the meaning of that word.

'Sure.' This pony, this strange, kind and yellow pony, who knew her less than a day, and who had found her in the woods, scared and weak, had decided that he was, in all his right mind, completely sure about being her friend.

And that fact, that small -but oh so big- shining fact left her with a sense of satisfaction so big that it couldn't be described in words.

And as the cart stumbled with each pebble in the road, the night descended around them, bringing all the stars and constellations out with it.

The Moon's light illuminated their path, and the sound of crickets made Twilight feel like she was in a movie, in one of those majestic yet relaxing scenes that usually came at the end of epic movies; when the adventure had ended and the heroes were preparing themselves to go back home, bringing with them treasures and tales from faraway and forgotten lands.

The only difference was that their adventure was just starting. And she would love every moment of it.

With those thoughts in her head, Twilight fell in a deep sleep.

Author's Note

Pro tip that, since it came from me, where I had taken it from Tumblr, you should never paid attention to: Characters are like rocks; you have to break them to see ~~and calculate how bored you are~~ their true selves.

BOY DID BUTTERSCOTCH TURN OUT TO BE SUCH A CYNIC LIKE I was not expecting that. No, seriously, I was trying to make Butterscotch a sweet pony, yet the narration came out like that. Well, what can I say? Butterscotch made himself while I was there writing his thoughts. Well, he is not really a cynic, like, what the hay, he believes in ponies' kindness and sincerity and stuff, but he is normally angry at his routine, so he gets angry at everything. Disproportionate retribution, people.
Also, in the 'lost the Eclipse' part, he means that in Sunny Ville they don't have the best view, not that he doesn't see it. Though he finds the idea to go to New Canterlot a little too annoying to just see an eclipse.

Don't ask me where good, ol' Canterlot is, or what happened to it. Or I will throw it into a volcano. And I will make you like it.

II. - Missing Memories

She was there.

She would always be there.

Because she had not escaped and there was no way out and she would always be there. Trapped in a place that didn't obey any of her knowledge in magic nor psychics and that would never go away because she was destined to be there until the stars burn out and her body was consumed in the explosion of a decaying old sun.

She was condemned to be there until the rest of eternity passed away. And she would stay there, trapped, screaming, raging, and crying and hurting and running.

And she would never, ever, stop running. Because if she was going to be there, she would run, she would look for a way out. It didn't matter that there wasn't a way out. She would not stop. The cursed place couldn't stop her. No chains or handcuffs would stop her.

And she. Would. Not. Stop.

She would not control herself. She would not alter her objetive. And she would not count to four to calm herself down. She would run until the damned place was out of space and then she would escape.

And then she would be free and would have tons of friends and would be loved by so many ponies and creatures that even if she died everybody in the world would miss her and, and, and-

A gentle tap made her stop in her tracks. From where it came from was a mystery, as the tap seemed to echo in the whole place, distorting the outlines of every thing in it as the sound travelled.

Turning her head around, the alicorn tried to locate what had produced the sound. However, her magical senses tingled as another presence tried to enter her dream -dream! It was not real! It was not real!!-, pushing gently through her consciousness. The sudden presence made her body shudder.

In front of her, the shape of a tall mare appeared. Though it was faint, she could make out some of her colors; fur as white as the snow and a mane with the colors of dawn. The blurry outline seemed to be looking around, before locking her eyes on her -no, not her, she had a name, 'Twilight', right?-. The mare's body, after a few steps, took a more consistent form. Though Twilight wondered were her legs ended, as her hooves seemed to gradually disappear in the air, with the same going for her horn.

The intruder sighed, and Twilight felt as if the mysterious mare -alicorn, she noted- had been expecting way too long for this meeting. Tilting her head, Twilight approached the mare with caution, never leaving her gaze. Though, further inspection made Twilight notice that the intruder's eyes had no pupils whatsoever.

The intruder was, as proven by her superficial scan, blind. Completely and utterly blind.

'Then how is she...?' Twilight didn't dare to end that question, as she feared -ridiculously so- that the other alicorn might posses telephatic abilities, in short; that the mare could read her mind. 'She certainly has the vibe.' True, the alicorn irradiated an aura of wisdom, an as Twilight walked closer, she sensed the passive magic's warmth surrounding her, which only made her appear wiser.

The alicorn's eyes gained a sudden spark in them, as if she could feel Twilight approaching and was happy -in her strange, wise-y way- for her doing so. But her eyes clouded when Twilight was just a mere steps away from her.

Twilight, from her part, had noticed how the alicorn's eyes lost their shining quality -like that of a mother embracing her foal for the first time- and stopped. The air, which had previously been warm, had become rather chilling, and Twilight could feel it creeping into her bones. She shivered involuntary and sat on her haunches.

Without wanting, but feeling tempted to do so, Twilight locked eyes with the other alicorn, and she could feel, -feel, what a weird word to explain her situation, as her short glance into the ancient being's eyes made her lightheaded, like she didn't have a body and was just a gaseous creature with a short lifespan looking into the heart of time itself- the years -oh, the long and painful, and yet so short and happy years- behind the pupilless pink irises, all hid behind a mask of kindness, a mask so worn-out that it was falling to pieces, showing the tiredness below.

For a moment, the alicorn in front of her turned in the real, powerful ancient being that she was. A being that had seen centuries pass by, a being who had stood as a silent observer over destruction, a being who had brought destruction and yet... And yet a being who had appreciated and treasured every happy moment in life, from the birth of a foal, to the simple act of smelling a flower, to greeting a friend in the street. A loved being who had loved and loved to love.

The tension was so thick that it could be cut with a knife. A few seconds -Twilight didn't know how she knew, since time seemed to be frozen in that particular eternal moment when their eyes locked- passed and then the illusion broke when the white alicorn blinked.

"I'm sorry for that," said the alicorn, slightly shaking her head.

The air regained its warmth, though it was not quite like before, and Twilight would have problems trying to erase the real image of the alicorn in front of her. The mask came up again, but the tiredness could be seen through little cracks; the soft wrinkles under both eyes, the smile that wasn't a smile, and the eyes; were one to look into them, only one question of relevance would pop up in their mind, rendering worthless all the others; 'How is it that nopony sees it?'

Twilight, still holding her breath, forced her jaw shut. The stranger's voice felt so familiar and so soft and sweet, like honey. She moved awkwardly her hooves, and, struggling, decided to speak, "Who are you?"

The alicorn smiled, but it was sad. She stepped closer to Twilight and, using her inmense wings, shielded her from the world, embracing her. "I'm sorry," she whispered in Twilight's ear, her tears wetting the black fur of the mare. "I'm so, so sorry."

Twilight's heart had quickened its beats when the stranger had embraced her, eventually relaxing. But the spoken words tightened it, 'What is she sorry for?' thought Twilight. She moved her neck and tried to look into the alicorn's eyes, but the stranger noticed was she was doing and quickly looked again, as if she were ashamed. "Who are you?" Twilight repeated, her throat tightening with each word.

'Answer me!' Twilight mentally yelled, her eyes begging the mysterious alicorn.

"You don't remember me." Her voice sounded broken. The tone of it made it sound like the words were physically hurting her. It was not an accusation, it was a simple fact. Twilight didn't remember her, and her eyes begging for answers only confirmed it.

For the stranger's part, it felt like somebody had shoved an icy spear through her heart, and then twisted it for entertainment, wanting her to scream. She knew she deserved it -the pain-, but her acknowledgement didn't ease it.

"Who. Are. You?" Twilight, a little angry, broke apart the embrace. Her breath was heavy, and her thoughts were scrambled and foggy; she couldn't make feet or head of anything. The mare's presence felt intoxicating, and even her vision seemed affected, as the alicorn looked blurrier than before. 'Puke puke I need to puke.' It was stupid, she knew, but her body felt like she had taken a ride on top of a train.

Head swirling, Twilight could barely make out the other alicorn's next words.

"Something is coming. I saw it, in the wind and the wild, and in the blazing Sun. It comes and it comes for you. A heart so cold and dark and yet ready to burn everything."

'Sun?' she wanted to ask, Sun sun Sun Sun Sunsuns u n. Had the white alicorn made herself blind by looking into the Sun? Twilight tried to move towards her, maybe attack her. The rage inside her had started to boil, and her current objective was to make her 'shut up!' However, her legs gave out from under her, and she fell on the water.

The only thing Twilight could see from her position was the mare's blurry legs -not even that, as her foggy vision made them seem like two pale white tubes-, and since her legs had stopped working altogether, it would be the only thing she would see until her dream ended.

Closing her eyes, Twilight noticed tears in the brink of falling, and tried to stop them. It was a vain attempt, as her tears trailed down her cheeks as she growled, the foam in her mouth making her look like an angry, but defeated, wild animal.

'I hate you!' she wanted to scream. 'I hate you! Get away from me!' If her lattest thought could have been voiced, the white alicorn would have noticed the hurt in the tone.

But it was far from that, because the other alicorn's presence not only affected Twilight in an emotional level, but it also damaged her in a physical one. The white alicorn's voice had morphed from sounding like the sweet voice of a mother, taking a sound similar to a fork scratching a dish. Every word that she said made Twilight's ears twitch in pain, leaving a nasty ringing behind, and she cursed her legs for not being capable of moving and cover her ears. To add more salt to the injury, the whiteness of the alicorn's fur hurt, as if Twilight were just waking up and the first thing she saw was the Sun.

The Sun Sun Sun Sunsun sun sun s u n "Sun!" It came out weak; horribly, painfully and pathetically weak, and she hated herself for it. The mare in front of her had no right whatsoever to hear or see her in that state; vulnerable and angry and sad. It only made her cry more. Trying to blink away her tears had not worked as expected, because the flow just didn't stop.

Though...

Squinting her eyes, Twilight noticed something. The mare had stepped away from her, giving her a full-body look, but, even with the distance and her blurry vision, she could notice the trails of silent tears going down the mare's cheeks.

'Why?' She felt like her ribs were crushing her lungs, making it hard to breathe. 'Why are you crying?'

"This I have foreseen. Something terrible, its roots lost in a bloody past, has waken and it comes -" she swallowed the lump in her throat, "- and it comes for you," she repeated.

'Stop!'

"Please." It didn't sound like an order, the mysterious mare, which had awaken an inner demon in Twilight and didn't shut up!!, was outright begging her. "Please come find me."

Their eyes locked again, sending a tremor throughout Twilight's entire body. 'Move!' she screamed to her body and, this time, it decided to answer her orders. But just as she was rising from the floor, the white alicorn's body slowly started to disintegrate in the breeze. She was still wearing that sad and tired smile of hers, but the freshly-added tears made a radical difference in her entire aspect; she didn't want to go.

"Celestia!" Twilight screamed just as the last of the alicorn's body disappeared from her dream, possibly forever. The stranger's exit had left a weird emptiness behind, and Twilight could feel her throat tying into knots, just as her stomach sunk. Her back felt like it had been sprayed with icy water, and her wings shivered, even while trying to warm her sides. Her breaths came short, not helping her situation.

Her eyes were irritated, and no matter how many times she closed them, the tears didn't go away.

Twilight clenched her teeth and, keeping her gaze firmly were the other alicorn -Celestia?- had previously been, sat down on her haunches. Nothing could help the impotence that Twilight felt at that moment, as Celestia had gone away before she asked the most important question.

'Why are you sorry?'

tap

Twilight raised her head. Her eyes scanned the whole landscape, somebody was trying to enter her dream. A -Twilight would frankly admit, probably misplaced- sentiment of happiness bubbled up in her chest. Was Celestia returning?

She stopped short in her tracks. Why did she care, in the first place? The alicorn had just popped up, left a cryptic message, said sorry and left -mind you, without any explanation at all-, leaving her alone to deal with her rage.

'But why did I get angry?'

tap!

This time, it wasn't a gentle tap. The whole placed seemed to tremble as this new intruder experimented on it. Twilight, regaining her footing, barely had time at all to get ready when the next tap came.

TAP!

It was monstrous, not similar at all to Celestia's gentle tapping. While the latter had been soft, going with the curves and gently entering her dream, the former was more of an experimental entrance; like the one trying to enter was confused at the situation and was, to put it in the most blunt way possible, poking at it with a magical stick.

In Twilight's case, the almost-childish reaction of the new intruder translated into the landscape crumbling. That is, her dream was reaching an abrupt end.

'Wait, no!'

TAP!!

And there it went, the pieces and chunks of earth and water floating in her surroundings only confirmed it; her dream had ended and she was waking up.

Luna was no stupid mare. Centuries ruling and maintaining together a kingdom had proven that.

So, when her guards had shot discreet glances to each other during the Solar Eclipse Celebration and after it, she knew it. Something was up.

But what really intrigued her was how she had not noticed it before; the nervous reactions of some of her guards when speaking to her, the whispered conversations that ended when she entered the room, and how it all seemed to revolve around the same group of guards.

Luna could almost taste the conspiracy in the air, could almost sniff it.

A nervous -nervous, nervous, nervous, she should pay attention to that- "ehem" brought her back to reality. Luna glanced to the pony; a maid. "Your tea, Your Highness." The maid levitated the mug in her bright blue aura, put it on the table and, inmediately after that, turned around, intent to leave Luna's chambers as fast as possible.

Nervous when talking to her, and quickly to disappear from her presence.

'Don't run away. Don't slip away, my dear,' Luna thought, reciting in her head a love song as she calmly said, "What is your name?"

The maid froze for a fraction of a second, and then partly turned her head around, eyes looking anywhere but Luna. "Star Catcher, You Highness," she said, closing her eyes and trembling slightly.

Luna frowned. 'It is not like I'm going to punish you,' she thought, taking a look at the mare. Fur a plain gray, mane and tail a darker gray -nearly the color of petroleum-, and eyes gray like ash. Star Catcher was gray all over, and this fact prodded at Luna's mind like a pin puncturing skin.

As Luna would like to reiterate, she was no fool. She knew, just as everypony that had not been born yesterday, that names were a magical thing for ponies. They were directly attached to a pony's inner magic, and, generally, were connected to that pony's cutie mark.

Adults would often name their foals basing themselves off their appearance and the family's current business -which, while a major setback to Equestria's progress, served very well in keeping the family's business going on-.

There were exceptions; Luna had seen names with wider ranges of definition, and names that couldn't simply be defined or tied to a concrete object. But they all were, in a big or small way, connected to a pony's future cutie mark or appearance. It was a normal thing for a pony whose name contained the word 'apple' to be red, or a pony with their name including the word 'sky' to be blue.

And then there were ponies who tried too much to keep themselves on the definitions of their name. An act that normally involved dye jobs, but- 'Keep focused, Luna.'

Focus; what a hard thing to do. Even Luna's sight seemed to distract itself when she looked at Star Catcher, like her sight didn't fully acknowledge that she was there at all. Her name confused her, her palette confused her. And what was doing someone named Star Harvest working in the palace, anyways?

Simply put -an in Luna's humble opinion-, Star Gatherer would be doing better if she worked at an astronomy lab.

"Your Highness?" Star Catcher asked, cowering a little. If she suddenly gained the ability to shrink to a molecular level, she would have used it then and there. "C-can I go now? I have stuff to d-do in the other room."

Luna's brow furrowed further. Wasn't Star Collector part of the hidden guards' group? Since when was the Iluseu group recruiting spineless ponies? Her acting wasn't even convincing; or she was really bad, or she was a real coward. Both of those were good reasons to not be in the Iluseu group.

That and... something seemed -no, was- off about the mare. Luna couldn't pinpoint it, but something was there, and it was eating her not knowing.

'Didn't I mention something about an astronomy lab just a moments ago?'

Luna's eyes widened, though she looked away to evade Star Picker -Picker?- getting a good look at her. Surprisingly, Luna was rewarded with the sight of her mug. She had not even intended to look at it in the first place, and yet...

The brown steaming liquid, to Luna's silent horror, gave her an answer.

"Uh, oh. Yes!" Luna exclaimed, turning her head so she could get a clear view of Star Catcher. As clear as she could get it if her theory was correct.

Trying her hardest, Luna focused her eyes on Star Catcher and Star Catcher only. The maid's body seemed wrong, as if her body itself wasn't defined and slightly disappeared in the air, the scale of grays that made up her colors didn't make her stand out, in the contrary, it seemed to make her blend in in a society known for its inhabitant's wide variety of colors. No, not blend in, it made her disappear.

Luna didn't remember a Star Catcher ever enlist in her Royal Guard, the list of ponies in the Iluseu group didn't include a Star Catcher, and there wasn't a Star Catcher in the maids' list.

If she had truly existed, Luna would remember it.

Remember, remember, 'remember to constantly check the list of ponies that makes up the palace's staff. Remember all the names of said staff. Remember the family tree of every guard under your care. Remember the name of that little donut shop. Remember the reign of Discord. Remember the fall of the Crystal Empire. Remember, remember, remember...'

Luna's head felt dizzy as the flow of information assaulted her. Trying to regain control over her quivering legs, Luna inhaled deeply and then exhaled, following this with short quick breaths to placate the nausea.

Still looking at Star Catcher, Luna took a few steps and, with her hoof, cleaned off imaginary dust from the maid's outfit. She noticed how the gray fur nearer to the outfit seemed to turn slightly blue and... real, like it was actually there, like it was actually on Star Catcher's body.

"You can go now to fulfill your duties." And with a wave of her hoof, she dismissed her.

If tachyons were a real thing, Star Catcher would be the first succesful catalyst in Equestrian history.

As the Star Catcher-shaped cloud of dust dissipated in the air, Luna let out a sigh. Her mind hurt.

Closing the door with her magic, she turned around, levitated the mug in her dark blue aura and threw its contents into the fire, watching as the flames diminished for a moment only to dance wildly again, this time with a faint cobalt hue.

Luna had lost count at how many times she had frowned that day. Looking closer to the flames, she concentrated in all that had happened that day. From discovering a conspiracy in her own guard, to finding out that she had been drugged from an unknown period of time.

Star Catcher had only been the confirmation to a terrifying theory. Whoever was the one who had enchanted the maid with a perception shifter spell had been moving the strings from a time.

She had the how; the tea given to her probably had a complicated variant of a perception spell, one connected to the one put on Star Catcher, one that required ability. But the 'why' of the situation escaped her, and the thought of the 'who' made her shudder. Who was magically strong and patient enough to plan something like that, and so carefully that she had not noticed it until today?

Closing her eyes, Luna closed the curtains, throwing her chambers into darkness. The crackling of a fire in the darkness always helped her relax, and relaxing made the stress of the day go away, leaving behind a clear mind to sort her thoughts.

Humming softly a song, Luna made a mental list of spells dedicated to shift or modify a pony's perception of an object. The first one was a simple variant of easy illusion spells, called 'reflection'; it was normally used on her guard to make every soldier look the same. It didn't make them disappear, it didn't shift ponies' perception, it just made them look like a bunch of doppelgangers.

'Probably not a reflection.'

Her thoughts turned to the ponies that had brought her tea all this time; simple, faceless ponies that she didn't bother to look twice. If they were related with Star Catcher's case... "Maybe a variant," she said out loud, opening her eyes to stare into the fire.

The fire crackled in response, and Luna smiled, her weary eyes closing on their own. "Further research is -" she yawned, the world of dreams already calling for her, "- needed."

Thinking as fast as she could with a mind too tired to keep her up any longer, Luna studied her situation; would it be a good thing to sleep right in that moment? It was true, she hadn't slept in days, what with the preparations and all, but the mystery hadn't been solved, and she feared that it could turn to a worse path.

Her own guard was infested with what were probably traitors to the Crown, and she didn't have a clue about the puppet master behind it all. If she went to sleep now, she wouldn't make any progress in resolving the mystery.

However, the constant lack of sleep -even for an alicorn- would drain her -was draining her-, physically and mentally, not to mention emotionally, making her irritable and hotheaded.

Luna would have a best shot at resolving the situation at hoof if she was well-rested and with a focused mind.

"Hhmm," she said. A selfish part inside of her wanted to sleep, too, and she didn't want to refuse it its request any longer.

Lying down on the carpet, and with the fire's crackling macking a comfortable background sound, Luna drifted off to sleep. Her last thoughts being about her sister, Celestia.

Star Catcher found herself catching her breath a few hallways away from the Queen's chambers. Her little escapade had drained a lot of energy from her and she was sure that her cover had been blown up. The Queen never, in all her stay in the palace, had ever touched her.

"Stupid, stupid!" she whispered, clenching her teeth and stomping on the floor. She regretted her little outburst when her already empty lungs shrunk painfully. If they could talk, they would be saying something along the line of 'Don't waste more air, you dumb filly!'

What she had to do was pretty easy. Normally, the Queen would see her, grab the mug, says thanks and go back to her pseudo-philosophical thoughts, always staring at that eternal fire in her fireplace.

To Star Catcher, that had looked rather silly at first. It wasn't until she heard the Queen muttering one day that she realized what she was really doing. She was trying to remember.

In that moment, it felt like someone had stabbed her heart.

Regaining her breath, Star moved her hooves through her mane, thinking into what to do next. 'Don't kid yourself,' the nasty voice in her head said, whispering like a stalker would do to its prey. 'You're thinking of the reasons of why you're doing this, aren't you, little Star?'

Cursing under her breath, Star put her hoof in front of her. It looked gray and out of focus, it always looked gray and out of focus. "Does this seem like a good reason to you?" she spat out. The voice in her mind shut up, but its presence lingered for a few moments in her mind.

Star sighed, that little part of her mind would never truly go away.

"Enough, you idiot," Star said to herself. She let out a resigned sigh. "I will have to tell the boys," she trailed off, her eyes moving on their own accord. After a moment, she closed them, thinking about her family.

Tears were in the borders of her eyes, but she didn't let them fall. She didn't want to look more weak than she already did.

Biting the inside of her cheek, Star Catcher stood up and started walking. Even with her eyes closed, her hooves had no problem carrying her to her group's meeting place. Her train of thoughts focused solely on what would the Queen be probably doing in that moment.

Luna was puzzled. Puzzled, confused, stunned, dumbfounded, her mind kept thinking of synonyms to add to the increasing list.

Laid before her was the city, and from every house, going through the windows, were floating golden sand streams. The streams waved on their places, like small rivers that invited her in. It was normal; every sand stream led her to a citizen's dream. And as the original Guardian of Dreams in Equestria, it was in her rights to take care of them.

But Luna wasn't focused on them. The object of her attention was a small and erratic black sand stream that crackled with red lightning, and the owner of it.

It had been centuries since she had felt such a powerful magic signature. And there would only be five candidates -that the public knew of- to be the possible owners of said magical signature. Three lived kilometers away, one's destination was unknown, and the other one was herself.

'Who are you, my little pony?' she thought as her form walked towards the black stream, small blue circles forming under her steps and disappearing shortly thereafter.

The black sand stream seemed to sense her presence and stood as still as possible, but even now and then it would move abruptly, small red rays shooting out of it. A smooth curve in one moment, a zigzagged and sharp line at the next.

It wasn't a dream with one terrifying thing, like most ponies' nightmares, it was a dream completely dedicated to something horrorific to the owner, from its beginning to its end, be it a phobia or the reliving of a trauma.

Whoever it belonged to, they were having one hell of a nightmare.

As Luna was nearing the black stream, she thought about the recent events of that day. Maybe this stranger's nightmare was somehow related to them. Or maybe her magical senses were interpreting things in the wrong way; maybe the owner of the nightmare just had an incredible amount of magical raw power and wasn't an alicorn at all.

Watching the stream, Luna noticed that it was far larger than she first thought. Its beginning wasn't on the city at all!

Luna frowned, the part of the sand stream that she could see was far too thin and far too unstable to provide a direct entrance for her to use. She would have to find a bigger part if she wanted to appease the pony's nightmare.

Giving a quick glance to the rest of the citizens' dreams, Luna made sure that there were no nightmares. And even then, if she missed one, her team would see it and follow the protocol.

Inhaling the fresh night air, Luna glided over the stream, flapping her wings ocasionally, keeping an eye out for a possible spot to land on the dream. From time to time, Luna would have to dodge a stray red ray.

Thin, thinner, too unstable, shooting rays and on and on.

Eventually, the urban streets turned to stony roads, and the stony roads turned to dirt paths. It got to the point that Luna's surroundings went from houses to trees, and she was as close to finding a good point as she was in the beginning.

The sand stream was far longer than she had thought, and for a moment Luna believed that it wouldn't end at all.

Luna stopped, and landed on the road. Looking around, she tried to locate herself. Trees tall enough to cover the moonlight surrounded her, throwing the place in a darkness thick enough to cut with a knife.

The moonlight rays that could get through the trees' branches didn't help, nor did the red electricity of the sand stream. Even with her night vision, Luna was having problems to see clearly.

Just as she prepared a spell to enhance her vision, Luna's ears lifted upwards in attention; something, or rather, somebody, was close. Had one member of her team seen her and followed her into the forest?

'But why would you be hiding?...' She let the question trail off in her mind. A thousand possible answers and theories popped up instantly, craving her attention; that maybe it was one of the traitors -'but that would be too obvious', she thought-, that maybe it was just her senses tricking her, that maybe she was in a dream -after all, it had happened before, after that party- and there wasn't other pony at all.

If it weren't for the events of that day, Luna would have discarded her thoughts and keep searching for an entrance in the dream, ignoring completely the other dreamwalker. But now, she couldn't afford that. Her disdain and little effort to put attention to details had put her in this situation in the first place.

Scanning her surroundings, Luna searched for the presence. It wasn't really far off, just a few steps, but where it was, exactly, Luna didn't know. She didn't dare to lit her horn in fear of scaring it away, it was silly, but...

It was warm, soothing, even. And it felt so familiar, -though she couldn't quite place why-, emitting soft whispers of reassurance and forgiveness, dancing in the air of the night.

And just as she spotted it in the darkness, it dissappeared. 'Wha-'

And then she felt it, the familiar sensation of entering into a dream. Only this time, it wasn't her. Whoever had been spying on her had found an entrance to the pony's dream, and had used it to escape from her.

Luna's pupils narrowed into dragon-like slits. Slowly, she turned around her head and stared at the sand stream. The stream pulsated and then clustered together, a faint spiral with the colors of the dawn encircling it.

Luna's brow furrowed. Who was this being and why was it being so... benevolent?

'Who are you?' Luna thought. The being wasn't a Nightmare Force, as she could see how the pony's nightmare got placated -or rather, stopped altogether. This was no joke, as Luna could see, clearly as day -Faust bless enhancing spells- that the sand stream had gone completely still, even the mysterious presence seemed quiet.

Then, the black sand started to seep off. Literally. Dreams and the like were known for being sort-of ethereal concepts, and they could change their state depending on what was done to them. Whoever had entered the nightmare was laying more ruin than anything, emotionally upsetting the owner of it.

That was the last straw. First, this being had broken several laws; entering dreams without a license nor training, and then stealing her nightmare and doing a bad job at calming it.

'This is it, whoever you are. GET. OUT!'

If Luna had been known for something throughout the ages, was the rage hidden behind a calm and quiet masquerade. Nopony, or rather, nobody, dared to push Her Majesty to her limits. It was common sense to not take her patience for granted, and only an idiot would push those invisible buttons.

So, eyes shining white with uncalculable power, rage found the body of a black alicorn in the middle of the night.

But just as rage gives, it takes away. And giving raw power, it took away dexterity. And thus, when said alicorn tried to keep together and at the same time forcefully enter the nightmare -various times- to kick the unexpected and criminal visitor's flank out and fix the freaking mess, her power went -just for a second, a tiny, little second- out of control and, in consequence, she shattered the dream altogether.

And as the shards of glassy sand fell to the ground to promptly disappear, Luna descended on the ground, her wings folding.

Putting a hoof in front of her mouth, the Queen of the Night whispered, somewhat guilty, and an almost comical, "Oops."

If Butterscotch knew one thing, it was that even in a life of nearly-complete isolation, a pony was compelled, almost like it was natural instict, to do a decision that they would later regret. Not the decision itself, mind you, but the consequences or side effects of it. Because he didn't regret picking up and feeding a stranger he found in the woods. Nor carrying her to his home.

However, he did groan internally to the fact that Posey would probably be there, getting up from bed with a messy mane -after all, the first rays of Sun were clearing up the sky-, cooking breakfast, and humming as she did so.

Butterscotch's face didn't show his regret, not even when his big friend woke up in the cart.

"The sun goes down, the stars come out." He had been singing the same song for the past hour. He didn't mind. Anything to keep him thinking of all the things that could happen inside the house.

His voice didn't falter as he saw the old, two-story wooden house that belonged to him and his sister came into view.

And when he stopped walking, he turned his head around, a smile on his face, and spoke with false enthusiasm to Twilight -who had poked her head out from under the blanket-, "Good morning, Twilight! We've arrived. You stay here, okay? I'm gonna-" a gulp, almost imperceptible "-talk with family. Wait here. Don't wander off." And please don't scream if you hear me getting murdered.

He detached himself from the cart, wiggled his body, gave a reassuring smile to his friend -who was looking at him with confusion all over her face- and walked towards the big, majestic doors.

If Butterscotch knew other thing, was that he would like the ability to erase himself from existence.

Author's Note

Control + Alt + F4

Yes, that sentence is written like that in purpose. Don't mind me.

Iluseu comes from the word ilusão, which is portuguese. Translating it to english would kinda kill the joke.

Tachyons are -supposedly- particles or something like that faster than light.

The sentences in cursive that appear sometimes but not between '' are characters' thoughts dripping on the narrative.

Okay, guys, tell me, when I write, does my sarcasm drip onto my writing? Like, I'm trying to write and everything, and then something beautiful is born out of it, then I get distracted, and it looks more like comedy. It is dark stuff sometimes, or sad, and then a s'upid analogy or joke appears.

You know guys, comments are like food to writers like me. Lazy writers who want ~~to take advantage of your poor kind souls~~ motivation.

And yes, that is "Glad you came".

~~Six thousand freaking words that is a new record.~~