“Are you sure that this is the right night?” Twilight asked as she peered over the crest of the hill at their target.
Luna nodded. “I am certain. My sister has always maintained that it was a dream this very eve which convinced her that ascension was possible.”
“But it’s been six hours and nothing has happened! No great inspiration! No visions of Star Swirl the Bearded!”
Luna tilted her head. “My sister has never said that Star Swirl served as inspiration for her ascension.”
“That’s not the point!” Twilight waved her hoof over the sunlit hill, gesturing towards the white unicorn who sat calmly sipping tea on a blanket in the valley on the other side. “She’s just sitting there drinking tea!”
Luna frowned. “’Tis true that her dreams have been most unenlightening, but Celestia’s dreams seldom were much like those of ordinary ponies.”
Twilight sighed, crouching lower on the hill. “I just wanted to see what inspired her,” she muttered miserably into the grass. “You don’t think she lied about it, do you?”
“I… do not believe so. I remember her waking one morn and claiming she had a most curious dream. Indeed, ‘twas to understand her dream that I spent so much time seeking to discover how I might observe them myself.”
“Well, I don’t think anything in this dream is weird! It’s boring! I mean, look at it!” Twilight waved her hoof at their surroundings. A vast rolling plain stretched out in all directions around them, emerald grass gleaming dully as it rippled gently in the breeze. Above, the sky was almost impossibly blue, the brilliant Sun fixed high in the heavens casting its light across all the land below. Celestia’s coat shone, the white unicorn practically glowing as she lay on her fuzzy blanket and sipped at a cup of tea which never seemed to grow cold or empty.
“It may be boring to you or I, but to one such as my sister, this seems as likely a place as any to attain enlightenment.”
“I mean, I like it. It’s nice here. But…”
Luna nodded gravely. “In truth, I am unsure of what to expect. Dreams and portents are fickle things.”
“I know, I know. I read Predictions and Prophecies too. But I was thinking there would be something, you know?” Twilight gestured vaguely. “Clover the Clever coming to tell her about the magic of friendship. Ancient wizards speaking to her in riddles, hinting at the route to immortality. Mystic voices from beyond, telling her that she would rule over Equestria and raise the Sun forever. Something!” Twilight pounded her hoof into the top of the hill, but the rippling grass was unmarred, the rich earth beneath somehow soft but at the same time unyielding. “Are you sure she didn’t tell you anything about her dream?”
“I know as much as you do; she said that, one morn, she simply knew that she must become an alicorn. That one day, she would come to rule Equestria, and that it was within her grasp if she but discovered a new source of magic.” Luna shook her head. “‘Twas the magic of light that she discovered, the ability to bend it to her will, to bid it to show her what it had seen. It was a new kind of magic, just as I discovered the magic of dreams, and you harnessed the magic of friendship. But she knew not why it was of such import that she succeed, only that she would – that she must, for the sake of all ponykind.”
“Yeah, she told me that as well.” Twilight sighed, ruffling her mane with her hoof. “I just… is there something we missed? I’d hate to think we came up with a spell to view thousand year-old dreams for nothing.”
Luna pursed her lips. “I do not believe so. The dream with the carnivorous cake was most entertaining, but I do not believe that it is what led my sister to the secret to eternal life. Though I must admit, my sister’s understanding of pastries vastly outstrips mine own.”
“Ugh.” Twilight rubbed her face. “Well, if that was it, we’re probably never going to understand it.”
“Perhaps we need merely wait.”
“I hope so. Time spells only work once for any given pony. If this isn’t the right night, we’re going to have to spend another two weeks coming up with a new one so we can try again.” Twilight groaned as she flopped on the hillside, burying her face in the slowly swaying grass.
Luna raised her hoof. “Hold, Twilight. She is doing something.”
Twilight crawled forward to peer over the hill once more, narrowing her eyes. “She’s writing. Can you make out what it is?”
“Nay, not from this distance.”
The white unicorn paused, then set down her quill and ink beside her before lifting her teacup to her lips once more.
“That’s it?” Twilight asked, staring. “It should be longer!”
“It may be irrelevant. We have some time yet before she wakes.”
Twilight shook her head. “I’m taking a look.”
Her horn ignited, the small scrap of paper slowly gliding way from Celestia as if caught on a current of wind, only to rapidly zip up the to where Luna and Twilight sat. Twilight quickly pulled the page down beside the hillside, holding the paper less than an inch from the tip of her snout as her eyes quickly flashed across the fresh ink.
“What does it say?” Luna whispered.
Twilight’s eyes widened in shock, the paper dissolving into mist in front of her as her spell collapsed in on itself, the dream shattering, leaving the two ponies lying on Luna’s grand mattress where they had been sleeping.
Luna slowly lifted her head from her pillow. “I did not know my sister knew to ward her dreams back then.”
“It wasn’t a dream ward,” Twilight said, trembling as she rose to her hooves. “It was ordinary writing.”
Luna blinked. “Are you saying mere words broke your spell? What dire warning could do such a thing?”
Twilight looked Luna straight in the eye as she spoke.
“I can hear you.”
