A Midnight Stroll through the Garden
Twilight stepped out of the Canterlot Castle into the cool breeze of the palace garden. She enjoyed the quiet walk for a moment, before setting on one of the marble benches. She took a deep breath, trying to regain peace and quiet of her mind.
The last few days were certainly packed with events she could only describe as unorganized. Her brother's sudden wedding, the—fortunately repelled—changeling invasion, the one-of-a-kind after-wedding bachelor party Spike had insisted on throwing, and the first row between the newlyweds it resulted in... She and her friends acting as mediators... She had to remember to thank Fluttershy for her calming presence later.
Although all of it happened in the course of two days, Twilight felt like she hasn't seen her library in two weeks. Was there any sense, then, to request Princess Celestia to grant her her old study chamber for the night, instead of getting back to Ponyville on the night train with her friends?
Twilight closed her eyes and took another deep breath. Fresh air filled her nose, radiating its coolness from her lungs all around her body, loosening the tense muscles and calming her racing mind. Yes, staying here for a few more hours was definitely a wise decision.
"Such a beautiful night..." She yawned, stretching her hooves on the hard stone bench like a kitten preparing for its good night's sleep. "Don't you agree, Victory?" she asked the statue guarding the small patch of the garden behind her bench.
"I am flattered you find it to your liking."
Though the voice was far from loud, it carried clearly over the fresh night air, ringing in Twilight's ears like a bell. She let out a quiet yelp and rapidly turned around, locating the source of the unexpected sound. "Princess Luna..." she gasped, noticing the black alicorn on the bench next to hers. Just how long had she sat there?
"Have I startled you, Twilight Sparkle?" Luna said, her eyes fixed on the Victory statue. "I apologize. It was never my intent."
Twilight blinked, trying to stop her heart from pounding mercilessly against her chest. "Oh... No need to be sorry, it's just... The garden seemed perfectly empty and I just... lay on the bench... How long have you sat there?" She blurted out, immediately regretting her words. She was speaking to a princess, after all, and—Celestia's protege or not—addressing Princess Luna in such an uncouth manner was most definitely an act of great disrespect.
Luna, however, either didn't seem to mind, or at least didn't show it. "Ever since my sister had lowered the sun," she stated calmly.
Twilight furrowed her eyebrows. Just how could she have missed an alicorn princess with a sparkling mane, no less, sitting not more than two meters from her was beyond her. Her musings were cut abruptly, however, when the princess' teal eyes centered on her.
"The night is my domain, Twilight Sparkle," Luna said, seemingly reading the unicorn's mind. "I can bend the moonlight to my will, let it cast long shadows to hide within them. The name Shadow Walker, given to me by my sister's subjects long ago, has long been forgotten... But my skills remain."
Twilight blinked, and Luna was no longer before her. Has the bench next to her fallen under a shade cast by one of the statues? Or was it simply a trick of the moonlight? Luna couldn't have teleported without the distinctive pop of air rushing in to fill the void occupied by the pony moments before. Besides, Twilight was sure she would feel the flow of magic from this close.
She squinted her eyes, trying to pierce the shadows, somehow force them to reveal their secrets. Her efforts had been partially rewarded, as she discerned a pair of teal eyes staring at her from where Luna should have been resting. The unreal scene reminded her of the vanishing cat from the old story, about a young filly trapped in Discord's realm, that her mother used to read to her when she was too young to read herself. Only instead of the cat's smile levitating in thin air, there was a pair of eyes.
Twilight blinked once again, and Luna reappeared before her in her full majestic alicorn glory. As if she had never moved from there. Probably because she hadn't.
"I..." Twilight stuttered. "I haven't seen many ponies in the gardens after dusk," she finally said, attempting to change the topic of the conversation that didn't seem to stick at all.
"Not many ponies are permitted in the palace garden after sunset, Twilight Sparkle," Luna said with her dreamy voice as her eyes followed the moon rising on the celestial dome. "In fact, beside my sister, me, and you, only the guards assigned to patrol the palace perimeter are allowed inside during the night."
Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Really? I had no idea."
Luna didn't answer.
Twilight shifted her shoulders uncomfortably, trying to shake the stiff atmosphere off her back. "Did you come to enjoy the silence and solitude as well?"
It might have been a play of the moonlight on Luna's face, but Twilight could swear a corner of the princess' mouth travelled upwards in a nasty smirk.
"I have had a millennium of those on the moon, Twilight Sparkle," Luna said. "I do not actively seek them anymore. However, they have their means of finding me on their own."
Twilight felt the blood draining from her face under the princess' heavy stare. Perhaps keeping quiet was better than spouting more inconsiderate remarks that could offend her royal companion?
After an eternity of piercing her with her unforgiving eyes, Luna finally released Twilight from her glare. The unicorn drew a sigh of relief, welcoming the beat of her heart in her chest again.
Luna looked around the garden, her eyes rolling off the statues meticulously. "Are you curious as to the reason behind my presence in the garden?"
Twilight considered her options. Engaging in conversation could present opportunities for more blunders, but she was sure a blatant denial would be the biggest one of them. Besides, she couldn't honestly say she wasn't curious.
She nodded, followed by a quiet "yes" when she realized the princess wasn't looking at her.
"It is related to another name given to me by my sister's subject." She slowly turned her head around, her eyes fixing back on the unicorn. "That of a Dream Warden."
A long pause followed as Luna scanned the statues once again. Twilight was just about to clear her throat, but the princess spoke first.
"I protect the dreams of ponies, lest they wake up and their cries disturb the night."
Twilight looked around, as if expecting to find a lost foal napping under a bush. "But... There aren't any ponies sleeping here. Are there?" she added weakly after a short pause. "I mean, you said so yourself." She shrugged. "Except for me, you, Princess Celestia, and the guards, nopony is allowed in the gardens after dusk."
Twilight held her breath as Luna's eyes centered on her once again. Only, the princess didn't seem to look at her, but rather through her. Driven by a sudden urge, Twilight spun around. There was nopony behind her. Except the statue of Victory.
"Is there not?" Luna whispered, her warm breath tickling Twilight's ear.
The unicorn jumped aside with a quiet yelp, startled to find the princess at her side.
Without saying a word, Luna crossed the cobble path and ran a hoof across Victory's marble cheek.
"Well, beside the statues, of course." Twilight rolled her eyes. "But they cannot dream, right?"
"Indeed, they cannot, Twilight Sparkle," Luna said, her eyes jumping from statue to statue. "After all, they are but ideas carved into stones by crafty sculptors. The mere thought they are anything more than that—particularly, living and breathing ponies turned to stone—must be condemned as a ridiculous notion."
She pointed her hoof at the marble mare with a flag. "Take this one, for instance. Victory, is it not? Surely a concept worthy of immortalization in stone. Definitely not a valiant mare who lost the fight for freedom and was thrown into a stone prison as an example by a cold and calculating ruler of a rising empire."
"Or that one." Luna pointed at the statue of the three fillies. "A representation of friendship, if I am not mistaken. Indeed, their friendship must have been strong to override the pressing need to have their flanks branded, which everypony feels since their foalhood." She patted the middle filly on her bare flank. "However, of what use would they be in a regulated society, in which a pony's worth and role is chosen the very moment they are born into this world, and sealed for the rest of their lives with their cutie marks? Besides, of course, giving an undesired example, that one's fate can indeed be chosen rather than programmed." Luna's heavy gaze fell on Twilight. "Is such an accomplishment worthy of a statue? Is such a sin worthy of an eternal stone prison?"
Twilight gulped, her eyes rolling of the statue. Was it a trick of the moonlight, an effect of Luna's speech, or did the three smiling faces, she had seen countless times before, twisted in a set of horrified mute cries? Whichever the case, it lasted far too short for Twilight to make sure.
Luna trotted to the opposite alley. "Ah, Knowledge and Wisdom, twin statues holding scrolls with said virtues. Anypony foolish enough to think they were librarians punished for protecting the secret of alicornification from one of their creations, would surely deserve their place in a psychiatric ward, do you not think so?"
Before Twilight could process Luna's revelations, much less respond, the princess was already at the base of another statue. "Royalty. To some: a vague concept of the ruling hierarchy; to others: a memorial of a unicorn ruler nopony cares to remember after many millennia. Whichever the case, nopony would dare to think she could be a queen of an ancient kingdom, cast into stone for her refusal to yield before an advancing army of the gilded-clad soldiers of a rising empire."
Twilight followed Luna as the alicorn glided to another alley, her wings beating the air with frustration.
"Love..." Luna sighed at the sight of two ponies sharing a gentle embrace. "For many, the highlight of their short lives on this plane; for others—the object of envy for a pleasure they cannot possess. Definitely a concept deserving its statue, not a pair of lovers turned to stone by a powerful mare consumed with envy..."
"Speaking of love..." Luna's horn glowed as she vanished with a faint pop. Another pop announced her presence at the base of a marble pony cupid. "How blind and fickle it can be. All it takes is a strike of this imaginary pony's heart-shaped arrow, and every stallion or mare, every colt and filly, is powerless before the strength of his spell." Luna's eyes pierced Twilight like two sharp daggers. "Even the immortal rulers of mightiest kingdoms are not immune to its effects. Were a pony with such a terrifying power a living and breathing member of a thriving nation, I would imagine its rulers wanting to get rid of him. Especially if he refused to use it for the benefit of the said nation..." Luna looked back at the statue before her. "Fortunately, he is nothing more than an embodied concept of a shapeless idea..."
Twilight folded her ears as another feeble pop reverberated in the dead-silent garden with the volume of a ferocious thunder.
"As is this one." Luna ran a hoof against the trumpet another statue was holding. "It is said that music can motivate ponies to do nearly anything. I am certain you heard of marching bands setting the rhythm of the soldiers' march, or a field orchestra kindling the fires of rebellion in the hearts of young ponies, dissatisfied with the system they were born into..." She paused, touching the statue's cheek with her own. A flicker of moonlight sparkled on the marble surface as if reflected off a tiny drop of liquid. It disappeared before Twilight could confirm it wasn't just an optical illusion. "All of that requires a coordinated ensemble of ponies, however." Luna said, her voice cold and distant. "The mere thought, that a single pony could achieve the same effect with an ordinary trumpet, is as ridiculous as it would be dangerous for the rulers of a country such a pony was born in."
Finishing her bitter monologue, Luna disappeared behind the hedge.
Twilight followed, her earlier desire to spend a quiet evening in the lonely garden evaporating faster than a snowflake dropped on the surface of the sun. She leaned over the hedge corner Luna had disappeared behind, but saw nopony there.
"Princess Luna?" she rather whispered than called, a scientific part of her mind laughing at this ridiculous attempt to get attention.
Twilight paced down the cobble alley, the unseeing eyes of the statues following her. A subconscious part of her mind whispered that she was getting to the center of the garden, but its voice was distant, and barely audible over the terrified cries to get out of the garden this instant.
A loud pop right in front of her made her jump backwards, her heart freezing in her chest. A terrified yelp escaped her mouth as she poked her back with something hard and sharp. She swayed to a side and tumbled to her knees.
It took a good while for her heart to resume its beating. Once it did, Twilight unburied her head from under her hooves.
Luna's dark figure towered above Twilight, but the princess wasn't looking at her. Her eyes narrowed to tiny slits, she waged a staring contest with the stony pupils of another statue.
"Last but definitely not least," Luna said, her voice low and hoarse, "let me introduce you to Discord. A concept opposite to friendship and harmony, a foul being made of various animal parts, ugly enough to be used as a final scare argument for the rowdy foals. I dread to think what nightmares must have haunted the dreams of a sculptor who gave life to such a hideous form." Like a strange automaton on its hinges, Luna's head lowered, her unblinking eyes locking on Twilight's. "Because, as we both know, it is just what Discord is: a vile vision of a troubled artist, a manifestation of fears and a warning for pony kind. By no means is he a malevolent god of randomness, chaos incarnate, cast into this form by six mares armed with powerful ancient pony artifacts." With each word, Luna's snout got closer to Twilight's until they were only millimeters apart. "Is it not right, Twilight Sparkle? You should be able to tell. To separate the wheat of truth from the chaff of lies."
Luna slowly closed her eyes and withdrew her head, drawing a deep breath. "Whoever sleeps in this very garden, their rest should not be disturbed by nightmares tonight, Twilight Sparkle." She said, scanning the garden yet again, her eyes distant and unfocused, as if she looked into the dreamscape only she could see. "Nor should any visitor, unfortunate to wander into the garden, hear an otherworldly scream of ponies trapped on the border of their dreams and the world of the awakened... My work here is done for the night." She added quietly, turning her back on Twilight as she headed towards the castle. "I leave the garden all to you, Twilight Sparkle. Have a pleasant night." Luna bowed her head almost unnoticeably, and disappeared behind the palace walls.
Twilight stood still, glued to the cobble path Luna left her on, processing what the princess had told her... Or maybe simply too afraid to move. Her eyes darted from statue to statue, making sure they stayed in their spots, yet almost expecting them to move. A drop of sweat slowly rolled down her neck, painfully announcing its freezing presence all the way down her back.
Twilight inhaled deeply and stomped her hoof hard against the ground, her brow furrowed with resolve. Princess Luna must have joked, although her sense of humor was as dark as the hue of her coat. There was simply no way the gentle, caring, warm as the rising sun, Princess Celestia would be able to execute such a harsh punishment on... On anypony!
She looked up at the frozen draconequus.
Right?
The statue didn't seem to be interested in responding, so her eyes travelled up, towards the night sky. The moon—devoid of the nightmarish figure it once displayed across the celestial dome—looked right back at her like a giant, unseeing eye.
Right?
A whisper of grass, rustled by the faint gust of wind, prompted her to look around the garden once more. All of a sudden, it didn't seem as soothing and inviting as it had earlier. The door to the palace beaconed at her with warm light, and she wanted nothing more than to bathe in it right now. Her hooves weighing a ton each, she forced them to move towards the door. As she dragged her body forward, she could have sworn she was followed by unseeing eyes of the petrified ponies– No, Twilight, they are nothing more than ordinary statues! She tried to convince herself.
Nor should anypony hear an otherworldly scream... Princess Luna's words echoed in her mind.
Her heart froze in her chest, pierced by an icicle of primal fear, as a fleeting weeping noise reached her ears. Too afraid to look behind, Twilight subconsciously realized she must have been near the Friendship statue.
Her legs gained a boost of speed, running independently of her will, as she shot towards the palace door.
It's just a mockingbird, Twilight, she heard her thoughts, but they felt alien, like they weren't truly hers, but rather implanted in her mind by a skilled spellcaster.
"Just a mockingbird," a familiar voice whispered, the warm breath of its owner tickling her ear.
