Paulie the Gryphon was not having a good day. Not having a good year, in fact. In his current situation of being broken, hungry, and strapped to the bed he was lying on, he could think of at least a dozen different places that he'd rather be than here. Especially being unable to escape from that crazy unicorn out there.
The door to the bedroom slowly began to creak open as the unicorn returned from wherever it was she went during the day, and the pale blue equine entered the room. Her face was frozen in a widely cheery grin, of which he'd seen more convincing smiles on the clowns at the fair. He didn't like it at all, and instinctively tried to shift away from her, but his scaled forelegs and leonine back legs were all strapped down with uncomfortable tightness.
"We've got a problem, Paulie," the unicorn said slowly. Problems were not good, and usually meant something bad for him.
"Do we?" Paulie asked hesitantly. "Can I help?"
"Oh, you can help," the unicorn said. "Especially since the problem is you."
"What-" the gryphon began.
"Don't play dumb with me!" she screamed. "I KNOW you've been out flying, Paulie. How stupid do you think I am? I wanted to trust you, I really did. So you can imagine my surprise and heartbreak when I found this." Her horn glowed, and she held up a dark brown feather. "You've been a naughty birdie, Paulie, and that's a shame, that really is."
The unicorn crept closer, and Paulie again tried to back away from her, but was helpless, contained as he was.
The horn of his unfortunate companion lit up again, and this time the gryphon was horrified to see that she had brought in what appeared to be a sledgehammer with her. The mare's smiled had tightened to a fixed grimace, her pale blue face darkening.
"I'm sorry for this, Paulie. This is going to hurt me more than it's going to hurt you. But I can't trust you, and flighty birds need their wings clipped. Just remember how much I love you... after all...
I'm your number one fan."
Little Luna, barely more than a foal, screamed in terror as the sledgehammer came crashing down on the gryphon's wing, a scream she tried to contain but failed in holding back. She and Celestia were alone for the evening while their parents were out, and the latter was in the nearby kitchen making a cake for the two of them. Luna was young but not stupid, she knew Celestia would have heard that, and rapidly grappled for the remote.
Celestia's hoofbeats came running, only a teenager herself, and galloped into the living room just in time to see Luna sitting calmly, watching that stupid purple Ursa Minor on the television, singing and dancing.
"And remember," the Ursa was going on, "I love all of you!"
"I thought you hated him," Celestia sighed, and Luna turned to look at her with her most charmingly perfected 'I didn't do it' smile. "Why did you scream?! I thought something awful happened!"
"Saw spider," Luna said in her usual foal's voice. She pointed to the couch. "Unner there. Sowwy, Tia."
Celestia sighed with relief. "For Starswirl's sake, don't do that, you scared me to death." She went over to her baby sister and nuzzled her cheek. "Come on, it's almost time for dessert, and it's bedtime for fillies."
Luna just smiled. "Okay, Tia." There was nothing that pleased a child more than doing something they weren't supposed to do and getting away with it. It came with a sort of psychological thrill, and although Luna primarily a good filly and did what she was asked, like all children she occasionally tried to break the boundaries of what she could get away with.
So, for a little while, things were okay. Fantastic, in fact. The cake came out perfectly, Tia and her little sister bonded over frosting and giggles, and afterwards Celestia went to put Luna to bed.
"But I'm not tired!" Luna insisted, and pointed a hoof at the window. "Still light out!"
"It's only 7:00, Woona," Tia said with just the tiniest hint of impatience. "Mother will be setting the sun soon enough."
"When you takes over, is it gonna be daytime all the time, so I never has to go t'bed?" Luna asked.
"Yes, Luna," Celestia agreed with a faint smile. "You can stay up all night if you want to. But if you stay up all night you're gonna be tired," she warned.
"S'okay, I'mma sleep durin' the day instead!"
"Alright, that's enough," Tia said. "It's bedtime for fillies now. You can stay up late when you're the same age as me," she smirked.
Luna, who was too young yet to realize that she'd never be the same age as her sister, agreed instantly.
Celestia yanked the curtains closed and blew out the torch that served as a light switch.
"Tia?" Luna asked.
"Yes?"
"How come we gots a TV but don't have lights?" It was one of those rare moments where wisdom was imparted from the mouths of children, and Luna somehow managed to keep it real.
Celestia thought about this for a second. "I don't know," she said, shrugging, and closed the door. She had no doubt that Luna would fall asleep on her own fairly quickly as she always did, and was not mistaken. Luna's breathing slowed after a minutes as the child lost the battle to stay awake, and the elder sister made her way back downstairs to clean up the mess she'd made baking the cake.
An hour passed, by which time the kitchen was spotless again, and Celestia was just beginning to make her way back upstairs to check on Luna. Normally a peaceful sleeper, she began to hear concerning whimpering sounds coming from the bedroom as she made her way up the stairs. Frowning, Celestia hastened her pace, breaking into a trot to make her way to Luna's bedroom doubletime. She lit up her horn and nudged the door open, peering inside.
Luna was asleep, as was expected, but the young filly was making whimpering sounds while tossing and turning in her bed.
"No... no... no..." Luna was mumbling. Clearly upset by something.
Celestia approached instantly, and began gently shaking her little sister. Luna mumbled louder, but did not wake. Celestia frowned, lighting up her horn to produce a giant brass gong over Luna's head, and slammed the drumstick into the giant instrument.
BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRONG!
Celestia's ears were ringing and her whole body shaking on a cartoonish level of vibration. And still, despite all that, Luna did not wake. Celestia began to become rather worried. Luna was not typically this heavy a sleeper, and should have woken up after a mild level of interruption. If she had not woken up by now, it meant some dark forces were intentionally KEEPING her asleep.
"Oh, Luna," Celestia said softly, her heart breaking at the thought of her baby sister in any form of discomfort. "Hold on, I'm coming!"
It was times like this that she was eternally grateful for a magical based society, as it meant she could fire up a spell to enter the dreamscape. Dreamwalking was a dangerous activity, but this was her baby sister, and she'd do anything for her.
As Celestia fired off a bright white aura, her consciousness swirled up into her horn and fired directly at Luna, phasing into her mind, and into her dreams. Her physical body, left behind but now uninhabited, instantly collapsed onto the floor and became still.
Celestia had very little idea of the things that her baby sister was frightened of, aside from the usual things that fillies her age disliked. Loud noise, strangers, the dark, sour candy, stereotypical things. So although she was prepared for some basic materialization of a child's mind, she was not prepared for the infinite stretching hallway that lay before her, an equally seemingly infinite amount of doors on either side, set a few feet apart. It looked like the hallway straight out of some old haunted hotel.
Taking a few cautious steps forward, Celestia attempted to open the first few doors on each side. Every single one of them was locked, and would not so much as budge. She gave up after about five minutes of attempting doors, and instead began to run full gallop down the infinitely identical hallway, looking for anything out of the ordinary. There was nothing; the hallway just kept coming. On a whim, she used her horn to torch a dark black 'X' into the wood of one of the doors, and then continued running again.
The doors continued appearing on either side of her, but there was no sign of the mark she had made.
Five minutes passed.
Ten.
Panting for breath now, Celestia slowed to a bare trot. "So much for the loop theory," she gasped, then raised her head. "LUNA!" She called.
There was no answer, but something stranger happened. The physical letters of her sisters name escaped from her mouth like the stretchy balloons one makes animals with, and floated down the hallway. The floating word paused at one of the doors on the right, seemingly at random, before silently bursting into nonexistance.
Celestia tried the door the letters had stopped at. 'FEAR' was written in bright red lettering across the panel of the door, and the older sister felt a chill down her spine. She tested the handle, and found it open!
"Curiouser and curiouser..." she muttered, and stepped inside into total blackness.
Like the deepest reaches of space, there was nothing here. It was completely void of light or substance, having only a dull, faint white light in the distance. Celestia ran towards it, and was shocked to see Luna standing with their mother, the two illuminated by a single spotlight. Was this what Luna was truly afraid of?
She stepped forward, unseen by the pair of equines, until she was close enough to hear their conversation.
"...Sorry, Luna," their mother was saying. "There's nothing I can do."
"Make Tia come back!" Luna was crying. "I want Tia!"
"Your sister can't be with you anymore. You're going to have to be the big sister now. You'll be in charge of the night and the day."
"No!" little Luna cried, tears rolling down her face. "Bring Tia back!"
"I'm here!" Celestia cried, rushing forward. "I'm here, Luna!" She charged to the both of them, but phased right through them like a ghost as the two figures burst into smoke just as she reached them. Celestia screamed with surprise and rage. "LUNA!" She already felt ashamed of herself, and promised that if she got out of this, she'd never give the little one a hard time again. She stumbled and ran forward, even though there was nothing to run to, vision blinded by tears.
Celestia's horn lit up with a blazing light, firing a charged shot forward that created a pillar of a beacon that spread straight up and pierced the sky. The elder sibling raced straight into that beacon at full gallop, being thrown instantly against Luna's bedroom wall like a bullet with a powerful crash. The crash woke Luna at once, sitting up in her bed, who gave a startled cry.
"Wha?!"
Celestia moved to the side of Luna's bed and hugged her tightly.
"I'm sorry you had a bad dream," Celestia whispered.
"How did you-"
"I'm not going to leave you," Celestia promised. "I'm never going to leave you. I love you, Lulu."
Still slightly confused but calming herself, Luna smiled.
"Love you too, Tia."
