Princess Luna's Dream

Luna stepped through the portal into the next dream. She had noticed strange magical behavior surrounding this dream and decided to investigate personally rather than send one of her dream guards. The first thing she noticed after stepping through the portal was the landscape. It was one she did not recognise. Normally in the ponies' dreams she entered she could recognise the landscape almost immediately, but this was different. Although she could not recognise where she was, she didn't feel any sense of danger, which made her relax slightly. The area was very open. After looking at the area, Luna started to notice similarities to that of the open plain just north of Canterlot. She looked up at the sky and noticed there were no clouds. The only thing in the sky was the moon surrounded by a shroud of stars. "I should make a night like this," Luna thought to herself, admiring the beauty of the night.

As she gazed at the sky she saw that the sun was starting to come up, only there was no sun. Luna tried to find the source of light that was illuminating the sky. She looked directly up to see a giant ball of fire heading towards her. She instantly teleported away from where she was. As she reappeared some distance away, she saw the ball hit the ground. It crashed through the surface and went deep underground. As it did so, she felt a surge of magic in the ground all around her. As the smoke dissipated from the impact of the giant fireball, something odd happened. A giant rock formation started to rise just south of the crater left by the fireball. Luna immediately recognised the giant forming mountain. It was the mountain on which her sister would soon found the city of Canterlot after their battle. Luna realised that this must be how the mountain came to existence. She always thought the mountain was there naturally, as that was what her sister told her. She then felt another surge of magic flow through the ground as the crater left by the giant fireball filled itself in. Luna was bewildered, she had no idea what was going on."Whose dream could this be?" she thought to herself. Before she could think of an answer everything went white and then she opened her eyes.

Luna opened her eyes to a bright light. The sun was just coming up, which shone brightly through the window which she was lying beside. "Your majesty, are you alright?" she heard someone call from behind her. She turned around to see two guards rushing toward her.

"I'm fine," she responded."What happened?" she said, holding a hoof to her head.

"You were walking along and then you collapsed for a couple of seconds. You had gotten up before we reached you," the guard said, making sure she was alright.

"I see, well I'm very much okay, thank you for your concern. If you'll excuse me, I must talk with my sister at once," Luna said, standing on all four hooves.

"Of course, your majesty," the guards said. They followed behind her in case she collapsed again. Princess Luna reached Celestia's room and ordered the guards to wait outside. She knocked on the door, so as to make sure she was not disturbing Celestia.

"Come in!" was heard through the door. Luna entered her sister's chambers.

"Luna," Celestia said happily. "How are you on this fine morning? you made a lovely night!"

"I must talk with you about an important matter, Tia," Luna said with a worried look on her face. Celestia noticed this and became serious.

"What is the matter?" Celestia asked her sister.

"I was walking in one of the castle corridors, when I collapsed–" She was interrupted by her sister.

"Are you alright? are you hurt?" Celestia asked, trying to examine her sister.

"I'm fine, I was only unconscious for a few seconds."

"Unconscious? how did you manage to become unconscious?" Celestia asked her.

"I'm not sure, but while I was I entered somepony's dream, but I don't know whose."

"Well, what happened in the dream?"

"Something very beautiful. I saw the creation of this very mountain that Canterlot was founded upon".

"Are you sure? I always thought this mountain was here as a natural rock formation."

"No, the mountain was formed by a giant ball of fire crashing into the plain just north of where the mountain is now. When it crashed into the ground, there was a surge of magic and the mountain just formed. Then there was another surge and the crater left by the fireball was sealed up." Celestia stared at her sister.

"You mean that the mountain was created magically? That would explain the cave at the centre," Celestia said. Her thoughts were scattered by the dream her sister had witnessed. "We will have to look further into this matter. This could lead to a breakthrough in magical research. I want you to look into the dream you had and see if the fireball is actually there."

"Of course, sister. I will check it out at once". Princess Luna left her sister's chamber to head to the plains north of Canterlot.

Princess Celestia headed from her chamber to the throne room where she spent most of her day attending meetings and ruling over Equestria. As she was going to the throne room, she felt a sudden burst of magic flow though her. Could this have been what her sister had mentioned? She turned to one of the unicorn guards. "Did you feel that?" she questioned him.

"Feel what, your majesty?" he responded, a bit puzzled.

"Never mind," she said, and continued walking to the throne room.

Princess Luna headed the older part of the castle which held the tunnel to the cave at the centre of the mountain. The tunnel leading to it had been discovered after they tried to construct rooms into the mountain for the castle. It was now sealed off and only Celestia and Luna were allowed to enter it. Luna used the spell to open the door and headed into the tunnel. She walked through the tunnel in silence thinking about the dream she had seen. The question still lingered in her mind. "Whose dream was it?" she thought to herself over and over again. If she could figure that out, maybe she could figure out its significance. She reached the cave, which contained a small hot spring. "There has to be a connecting tunnel around here somewhere," she thought to herself. The magic would have had to travel down a tunnel in order to create this cave. She started to cast spells in the hope of finding the tunnel. Nothing happened. She went to the centre of the cave and looked in the water. After staring into the pool for a few minutes she realised something. She couldn't see the bottom. "That's it!" she thought to herself, "The pool is the tunnel. I must inform my sister of this!" She headed back up the tunnel to tell her sister.

Princess Luna reached the end of the tunnel and headed straight for the throne room where she knew her sister would be. "Luna!" Celestia said as her sister entered the throne room. "Have you found out anything about the fireball?" she asked.

"Yes, I went down to the cave and I may have found the connecting tunnel to where the fireball landed!"

"Where was it? we both searched that cave and found nothing but the pool."

"That's just it, Tia! the pool is the tunnel!" Luna said.

"I see. very well, we will have to organise an expedition. I want you to take four guards with you and I want you to find where the tunnel in the pool leads".

"Of course, sister, I will set off at once". Luna went to leave the throne room to go and gather the guards who would assist her in her expedition.

"One more thing before you go, Luna. I want you to take Twilight with you. She would be very interested in something like this, and two alicorns are better than one".

"Of course, Tia, I will have a letter sent at once." Luna left the throne room to get everything ready.

Princess Luna and Twilight gathered at the pool with the four guards. "Are we ready?" Luna asked one of the guards.

"Yes, your majesty. We will cast the protection spells for the heat of the water and we will also cast water breathing spells," he said. they cast their spells and plunged into the pool. Even with the protection spells the water was still quite hot. They went further into the depths of the pool. As they got deeper, the walls started to close in resembling something of a tunnel that was filled with water. After a while they finally reached an air pocket.

"How much further do you think it is?" Twilight asked Luna.

"I'm not sure," she responded. "But we'd better keep going. The sooner we find the end of this tunnel, the sooner we will be finished."

They went back down and continued to swim down the tunnel. As they went further, the water started to heat up. Just before it was almost boiling, the water level started to lower until the tunnel was no longer flooded. They continued along the unflooded tunnel until they reached an open cavern. there were also smaller tunnels and caves that seemed to connect to the cavern, but this was definitely the centre. They walked around in search of the fireball, but there efforts were fruitless. There was no sign of any giant rock ever crashing into this cavern. Just as Luna was about to say there was nothing here she felt something familiar flow through her body. It was the same kind of surge of magic she felt in that dream.

"Did anypony else feel that?" she said. The guards shook their heads but Twilight gave a positive response.

"I did! It was like I had all the magic in the world, but then I lost it all" she said trying to contemplate what had happened.

"Twilight, you and I shall walk around the cave and see where we feel the surge of magic at its strongest."

"Of course, Luna". The two alicorns wondered around the cave feeling the surge of magic many times, stronger in some places and weaker in others. Eventually they both came to a place were they found the surge the strongest.

"This must be the place," Twilight said, staring at the ground.

"Start digging," Luna ordered the guards.

"Yes, your majesty," they said as they pulled out the shovels and started digging. After the guards had dug a hole three times their size they eventually hit a much harder surface.

"Your majesty, we've hit a surface we can't dig through." Luna turned to Twilight.

"That must be it," she said. They both flew down into the hole. Immediately after touching down, the two alicorns were filled with magic beyond that of an alicorn's.

"What is it?" Twilight said looking at Luna.

"I believe it's the source of Equestrian magic. Before ponies ever lived in Equestria, this rock fell from the sky and crashed into the ground. It filled Equestria with the magic that must have been the reason why alicorns were attracted here. I guess in all the time it's been here its magic has worn away".

"Then why did you have a dream about it?" Twilight asked Luna, curiosity filling her head.

"Maybe the dream was trying to tell me where the magic that resided in Equestria came from. I'm honestly not sure." Luna stared at the rock unsure of what to do.

"If we could find a way to break bits off the rock, we could place them throughout Equestria to use as defense against threats" suggested Twilight.

"That would be a great idea, but only alicorns can use its magic" Luna responded, not taking her eyes off the rock.

"Well, we should let Princess Celestia know what we've found," said Twilight.

"Of course. You and two of the guards should go back. I will stay here and investigate this rock further." Princess Twilight headed back to the tunnel with two of the guards.

After going back through the tunnel, Twilight went straight to the throne room to inform Celestia of their findings. She entered the throne room and was greeted by Celestia.

"Twilight, did you find anything?" she asked her.

"Yes. we did. we found the rock which Luna believes to be the one from her dream. It gives off a surge of magic which can only be felt by alicorns. Luna thinks it's what gave Equestria it's magic and why the alicorns were attracted here in the first place."

"I see, thank you for letting me know. Where is Luna now?"

"She's still in the cave with the rock."

"Thank you, Twilight. I will send down a team of unicorns to examine this rock. I want you to lead this team." Twilight beamed.

"It would be my honour, Princess!"

"Of course, I will gather the the team and tell them to meet you at the tunnel. you may go now." Twilight left the throne room to leave Celestia, whose thoughts now were on the rock. "Why would Luna end up in a dream about this now?" she thought to herself.

"Why is it so important?" Her thoughts would be left unanswered.

Four days had passed since the expedition to find the rock under Canterlot. Twilight and her team of unicorns had set up a monitoring station in the cave to see how much magic the rock was emitting. The charts clearly showed that the magic being emitted by the rock was decreasing, yet Twilight didn't feel any difference in the surge of magic she recieived from the rock. She took the sheet, which had the newest records and she went to head back up to the castle.

Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were in the throne room discussing a visit from one of the members of the Royal Zebra Family. They had planned to bring the prince to the Crystal Empire, then to Canterlot and to finish in the Everfree Forest as the prince had a keen interest in the strange creatures that reside there. As they were discussing this they noticed the table started wobbling. Then the whole room seemed like it was shaking.

"Grab onto something!" Luna shouted to her sister. All of Canterlot started shaking and everypony started to panic.

Down in the tunnel, Princess Twilight was on her way up to the castle when she felt the ground start shaking. "What's going on?" she thought to herself. She just had enough time to jump out of the way of half the tunnel ceiling collapsing on her. She ran back in the direction of the cavern. When she reached the cavern she saw all the other ponies running around. "Take cover!" she shouted at them.

In the castle, the shaking had stopped and Celestia and Luna ordered an immediate evacuation of the city. "I want you to get everypony out of the city," Celestia told her guards.

"What are we going to do?" Luna asked her sister.

"We are going down to the cave. Twilight is down there and she might need our help." The two sisters ran to the tunnel.

The shaking had stopped in the tunnel and Twilight looked around to make sure everypony was alright. "Is everypony okay?" she shouted.

"Yes", "Yeah", "I'm fine" were the collective responses she got.

"No, I've hurt my hoof!" one unicorn called out. Twilight ran over to him.

"What happened?" she asked.

"One of the rocks fell on my hoof and hurt it real bad. I don't think I can walk on it."

"We have to get you back up to the surface." Another unicorn came over to help the injured stallion.

"Princess Twilight, we may have a problem!" one of the other unicorns called out. Twilight ran over to her. "The chart say that the rock is starting to produce magic again at an unbelievable rate!"

"That's probably what caused the shaking."

"According to the chart, the magic is supposed to increase even more." Twilight looked at the paper in fear.

"That means the shaking isn't over. And this time it will spread over most of Equestria." Just as Twilight finished her sentence, Princess Luna and Celestia arrived.

"You're alive!" Celestia said, hugging Twilight.

"I'm fine," said Twilight, "But we have worse matters. The rock's magic levels are spiking back to what they were when it first crashed here!"

"When it first crashed here I was far away from it, but I still felt the ground shake," Luna said. "If that's the case, Equestria is in danger."

"Then we must warn everypony," Celestia said. "Everypony, back to the surface." They all rushed to the tunnel. As they were running through the tunnel, they felt the start of the shaking.

"Twilight, help Luna and me cast a shield spell!" The three alicorns cast a shield spell to protect them from debris as they ran through the tunnel. The shaking got worse as they progressed. When they reached the top the shaking had stopped. They stepped out of the tunnel into the room where the entrance was. What they saw shook them all.