Author's Note
Prologue: This tale takes place about 3000 years in the past of the modern MLP canon. During this time, Celestia and Luna are still fillies, though close to grown physically. The events here recorded are the foundation of the modern Hearthwarming Eve stories and pageants which were written by the winners of these events.
For those who have wondered how a Changeling-like creature like Heather Bloom O'Red Hoof could have been welcomed into the modern court of Celestia and Luna in Canterlot, it will be seen that it was the joyful reunion of fillyhood playmates.
For more background information please read:
De Writer and the Orb of the Ages: Part 1 of the True History of Equestria
The Coming of Tam O'Canter and Heather Bloom O'Red Hoof to Ponyville
Hearthwarming Eve / Starvation’s Night
From Darkness to Dawn
From Darkness to Dawn
Part 2 of the True History of Equestria
by
De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)
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Darkness Falls:
Celestia watched the smoke still rising from the charred ruins between the peaks of Red Hoof’s Hill. She wept for the loss of friends and a wise ruler. Jarl Natchin of Red Hoof was buried in the embers of the Great Hall, trapped by a fallen beam and killed in the fire. At least, she knew that his Jarla and Jarlene had successfully led the survivors to the relative safety of the Everfree Forest. She wondered how badly the Heartkeeper, Jarla Peach Tree was injured in trying to save her Lord and husband from the fire set by the invaders.
Luna, wings trailing, tips to the ashes, pawed lightly at the remains of De Writer’s School, where she and her sister had spent their young lives. She too wept. She was afraid that her foster father, De Writer might be there, as the Jarl was still in Red Hoof. Neither of them had seen him since he had roused them suddenly in the middle of the night and hastened them to the borders of the Everfree Forest and warned them not to return until full light. He had covered them with branches of pine trees for concealment and disappeared, literally.
A quiet voice behind them, on the edge of breaking into tears, said, “Come, my daughters. We must be gone from here and soon. I am sorry that I could not be with you through last night’s horrors.
“I had to do all that was in my power to save as many as I could from the invasion. I am still getting used to the idea that the Orb of the Ages allows me to be any place at all on the instant that I desire it. Even so, I can only be in one place at a time. I wish greatly that I could have done more.”
Celestia looked at her shocked and trembling foster father, ready to collapse in tears, and asked hollowly, “I know about Red Hoof, father. We disobeyed you. We found the survivors and helped to gather them together. Jarl Natchin is dead. Jarla Peach Tree is severely burned. She may have given all of her many years to try saving him. Jarlene Heather Bloom has the leading of the Red Hoof survivors.
“What of Bright Mane and Perchron? Do you know how they have fared?”
De Writer’s legs folded under him as he collapsed to the browned grass that surrounded the charred remains of his school of writing. In tears and shuddering, he struggled to say, “I found them too late to save either of their Jarls or their families. I did gather and guide their survivors into the Everfree. They are on paths that will lead them to the Red Hoof refugees.”
Luna looked to the smoke arising from the destroyed town of Evanescence, not far away. She shuddered as she remembered flying over the burning village last night. In spite of her best efforts, there were so few that she had been able to save from flame and invader. She could only guess what her foster father was going through. He had been down in the thick of the battles.
She laid herself down next to her foster father, the only parent that she had ever known, and covered him with a wing. She could feel the shaking of his sobs though the feathers of her pinion.
Between the shock driven tears and shuddering she could hear his grief stricken words, “This is my fault! I could have at least warned the Jarls better. I trusted their judgment. I was wrong! So wrong!”
Luna looked an entreaty at her larger sister. “Father said that we need to be gone from here. He can guide us but he is in no sort of shape to even walk. Please help me to carry him.”
Celestia nodded her agreement. Her powerful but pale many hued magic enfolded both her foster father and her sister, lifting them both easily. “Keep father comforted, Luna. I will carry you both.
“Where shall we go, father? I can fly us all for a great distance before I tire.”
Her usually assured and dependable foster father, De Writer, looked about as if confused. Finally he said, “We need to go to the Great Southern Bay. We will have a few days that we can rest there along the shore. Then, when we are well rested, we can make for the Sunrise Isles.
“The invaders have no liking for the sea. I have looked at their plans and heard their councils. We will be safe in the Isles while you two continue to grow and gain both the strength and learn the limits of your magics.
“There is more to know but this will do for now. I am so tired. So heartsick. I wonder if I will ever be able to do anymore than weep.”
Luna, a few tears of her own falling into his mane, tightened her wing over her dear foster father and replied, “You must, Father. We are depending on you. We need your wisdom.”
Almost unnoticed, the soft delicate seeming many hued magic of Celestia lifted them both skyward. The only real sign that they were flying were the powerful thumping beats of her widespread wings driving them through the sky. She wisely took them by a devious route, low to the ground, where they would be hard to see and follow. Celestia remembered all too well the pegasus warriors that had spearheaded the last night’s deadly attacks.
As she swerved with powerful wing strokes to dive into the cool concealment of a cloud, she asked, “Father, we are being pursued. I cannot see them well yet, but pegasi are after us. What shall we do?”
De Writer paused in his grief, the thought of risk to his precious foster daughters causing him to put all personal thoughts and fears aside. After a moment’s reflection, he replied, “Far more important than what we do is what we do NOT do. We must defend ourselves as stoutly as necessary. We must NOT seek vengeance at all.
“That will lead to expanding conflict. Right now, we need to keep all thoughts of vengeance for a later time. Seek the means of defense that will do the least real harm.
“I am sorry that I do not know what it may be.”
Luna began to smile in a strange way. Speaking to her sister she said, “Can you tell how close the pursuers are now?”
An arrow flashing past through the foggy cloud answered her.
As Celestia was starting a dive, Luna called out, “No! Get us UP. They are in the range of my magic! I need to see them. Get above them if you can!”
Celestia’s wings snapped out and tight to bring them around and up. Power strokes slammed the air as they burst up through the cloud, passing between the armed pegasi. Arrows and spears flew toward them.
Blue magic flared. Weapons passed wildly about them. Some did find targets … in their attackers. Those winged ponies fell fluttering earthward.
Luna suddenly grinned savagely. Midnight magic, full of stars, flared, encompassing the entire wing of pegasi. They fell away screaming and fluttering toward the safety of earth and trees below.
Celestia gave her sister a respectful look. “What in Our Mother’s Name did you do to them, Luna?”
De Writer, still under the wing of his daughter, started to laugh in a broken way, but laughing for the first time since the enemy began the attack last night. Blue magic stroked both of his precious fillies on the mane.
“She gave them a waking nightmare! The falling dream! You both did this so perfectly.
“Now, Celestia, get us safely away from here. Luna, can you do that again?”
Both Celestia and De Writer were surprised at Luna’s tears. “As often as we need it, Father. Nightmares, awake or asleep, hurt to send. They are two way things. To gauge the force of it, I must feel what the receivers are feeling.
“To protect you or Celestia, I will do whatever I need to do.”
Celestia’s wings carried them forward in silence as she realized what her sister had just endured to save them. De Writer’s broken laughter stopped. Blue magic gently and comfortingly enfolded Luna.
Celestia found a wide ledge on the side of a tall mountain. It had a spring, trees to hide them and grass to eat. They took refuge under the trees as soon as they had a drink.
Celestia let Luna cover their father with her wing, as she had been doing all day. She knelt beside them both with De Writer between them and covered Luna with her large white wing. She said softly, “Sleep safely, dear sister. Father, I will keep the watch. You rest too. I will get us to the shore of the Great Southern Bay tomorrow.”
Luna looked up at her larger sibling and said brokenly, “I never used a dream as a weapon before. I have always tried to make good dreams. I am so sorry.”
Her father, De Writer, speaking from under her wing, said, “We have all three of us seen and done things that no pony should have to endure. Celestia too, though she was too late to save Jarl Natchin had to do battle with the invaders to get Red Hoof’s refugees away safe.”
Celestia bowed her head, her pale rainbow of mane drifting with the breeze as she told her sister, “I had to kill six of the invaders to allow Jarlene Heather Bloom and her household to escape at all. Even with the blocked door bucked open, the invaders were laying in wait with spears and bows to slaughter our friends.
“I was afraid that I would have to kill more, but they broke and fled.” Her white head drooped to the moss of the forest as she added, “That is why I will take the watch. I am afraid to sleep. I am sure that I will dream it again and again. There is the blood of ponies on my heart and soul.”
Luna returned Celestia bleak stare and moved her wing to cover Celestia’s. “Then rest, Sister. Sleep. I have already dreamed the nightmares. I will guard your sleep. You will be safe in your slumber because I will be there for you.”
Celestia snuggled closer to her father. Under Luna’s compelling gaze, she dropped swiftly to sleep.
Quietly, De Writer said, “That was well done, my dear. Well indeed. I have to work now to ensure our safety.” The clear pale green Orb of the Ages sat before him on a small log that made a part of their hiding place. It was neatly balanced on its three short but intricately worked legs.
Luna looked at it in fascination. She had never before seen it up close. “What are you going to do, Father? Don’t you need your rest?”
“No, my dear one, not now. You and Celestia carried me and comforted me all this long day. I have had a chance to rest and reflect on my failures. I have also realized an important truth, I think.”
“What is that, Father? I could use some wisdom right now.”
De Writer managed a weak smile. “It is this. The past is dead unless we give it life. We can do two things with the past. We can remember it as a source of hurt for our failures and club ourselves with it to our ruin. The other way is to reflect on the events and use them as a guide to learn how to better do what is needed when the time comes.”
Luna gave her father a long and reflective look. Her features smoothed from the distress of moments earlier. “The past is Dead. We give it life as pain or as lessons to better ourselves and those about us.”
She thought deeply for several minutes. Then with a half smile, said, “That is so simple, yet not at all easy. I have noticed that many of our writing lessons had similar thoughts as their basis. Still, it makes a solid goal, whether we succeed or not.
“If it helps, Father, it does help.” Luna actually managed a smile at her word play.
De Writer saw her smile and managed one of his own. Then he muttered under his breath, “The Future is Forbidden.” The Orb began to glow of its own light. Luna was transfixed by the glow. “Celestia and I saw that from under your sleeping stall door. So this is what it was. We wondered.”
Scenes began to appear and vanish with blinding speed. Every once in a while, a scene would freeze in place for a few moments. Once, she thought that her father beside her disappeared but if he did, he was back so swiftly that she was not sure if it really happened.
Then she saw and felt her father’s reaction. His shuddering attempt to hold back tears. She recognized the same sort of shock that he had shown this morning. She instantly wrapped him in her midnight magic and let a quick but peaceful dream soothe him. She wished that somepony could do the same for her.
As if he was reading her mind, De Writer enfolded her in his blue magic and held her while she laid her head across his shoulder and let her cry.
When she was done, she asked, “Who got killed this time?”
De Writer smiled sadly and replied, “Can’t fool you, can I? It was the Pegasus General in charge of the wing that pursued us. He was preparing to order a wider search because what you did made him feel humiliated.
“He was one who landed in a tree and was afraid to climb or fly on down to the ground.” His voice hardened, “It will look like he was assassinated by his second in command. That pony was in charge of the Evanescence raid and massacre.”
Remembering, all too well, the night before and her feelings of helplessness as she tried to save young friends, colt and filly alike. But not enough of them. Never enough. Too many were murdered while she watched.
Luna held her Father by tightening her wings about him and said, “That was well done, Father. Very well done.”
Nodding his head, horn bobbing, De Writer accepted what Luna said. Then he sadly added, “I wish that I could see it so, My Dear.”
Luna returned his sad smile and replied, “I feel the same. I did save us. I too, wish that I could see those nightmares as a thing well done.”
De Writer nodded again. “Now, my dear, I do need you to sleep. You both need your rest. I need to use the Orb to find every strength and weakness that our foes possess.
“I also need to explore the Orb’s powers, strengths and weaknesses. I have regarded it wrongly since it was given to me. I have looked to it as a sort of toy. Now, too late for most of our friends, I need to learn how to use it as a weapon.”
“Very well, Father. I will leave you to it. May you find what you are looking for. I hope that the price of your search is not too high.” She put her head beneath a dark wing and was soon sleeping.
The pale glow of the Orb beneath the trees flickered rapidly as scene after scene flashed by or paused. The old blue unicorn himself vanished and returned several times.
He was quietly making notes on a parchment when Celestia woke with a jolt. Tearfully she called, “Father! Where are you!”
Reaching over to his daughter, he took her in his blue magic and replied, “I am here, my dear. I am here.”
Looking about wildly, Celestia’s eyes finally focused on him. “Oh, Father! I could not feel you here. It was like you were gone. My magic could not find you. Only my eyes. I was afraid that you were some sort of ghost. It was like a terrible dream.”
He gave her a reassuring smile and said, “That is something that I am learning about the Orb. I am both here and not here. It is complex. I suspect that I cannot be harmed by any means at all. It is not an experiment that I want to undertake.”
Dryly, Celestia retorted, “I wonder why?”
Then she looked at the eastern sky and watched the dawn critically. “Nice enough colors and that sort of thing but … I don’t feel quite right about it. Something is off. Do you know what I mean, Father?”
“As it happens, my dear Celestia, I know exactly what you mean. I know how you know that it is not quite right, too. We need to awaken Luna. After we get food and water, we need to get on to the Great Southern Bay.”
Luna joined them, her footfalls silenced by soft grass and mosses. “I heard what you said, Celestia. What ever it is, it is happening to the moon too. It is a little … Off, sort of.
“Father, I have had an idea. We can easily watch for our enemies from here. There is good feed and water and lots of shelter under the trees. We have lots of room to exercise. There is even a cavern over there where the spring comes out. Why don’t we stay here until it is time to go the Sunrise Isles?”
Looking pointedly at the nearest edge of the wide ledge, De Writer said, “Lots of room to exercise, hm? You could miss footing easily near an edge and take quite the tumble.”
Both sisters raised their wings and grinned. “WE could gallop easily. YOU could canter a lot!”
De Writer nodded and smiled at the word play. Blue magic marked out a reasonably safe area and De Writer added, “Here is our canter-lot. We will stay inside that area for the good reason that it will be hard for any enemy to see us.
“Your idea is a good one, Luna. We can easily build up our strength here for the flight to the Sunrise Isles.”
Celestia gave her father a sideways look and pawed the grass nervously with a hoof before asking, “Luna told me something a few minutes ago. She said that you killed a general of the pegasi that were pursuing us. How could you do that? You cannot fly to get to them.”
De Writer nodded, “Both of those things are true. I am still very disturbed by what I did. I deeply wish that I was able to find a different way to stop the search.
“What I did and your dream this morning are tied together. Get used to that feeling of not being able to sense me by magic. I have found things about the Orb of the Ages that are far stranger than I dreamed.”
Celestia fanned her wings. “You aren’t here right now, except to my eyes. Why is that?”
Instead of an answer, blue magic grabbed both fillies and moved them back under the trees. De Writer sprinted for shelter along with them. Shadows swooped across the grassy area.
Luna watched quietly. “Eagles? We need to be careful of eagles?”
“No, we do not. I was taken by surprise. Large winged creatures coming around the shoulder of the mountain is what I saw,” the panting De Writer replied from their brushy shelter.
Celestia noted dryly, “If being here makes you this nervous, perhaps we ought to gather what we can take with us and be on our way. Am I going to have to carry you still, Father?”
Luna replied for him, “Not actually. We need to be close to him because he is still really upset at all that has happened. He is afraid of losing us, too. I think that us staying together is a good idea as well.”
Celestia nodded agreement. “So, Father, where are the Sunrise Isles? I have heard of them but never seen any map that shows them. I am guessing, somewhere in the Great Southern Bay or at least near to it because that is where you want us to go first.”
De Writer nibbled some thistle tops, a favorite forage treat of his, an replied, “You are both correct. I do not want to be away from either of you for a second.
“As for the Sunrise Isles, they are in the middle of the Great Southern Bay. They cannot be seen by normal ponies at all. We need to find the Tower of Life, which is on one of the Isles.”
Luna thought that over very carefully and asked, “Will our Mother, our Creator, be there?”
“I do not know, Luna. The Isles and the tower are shrouded in the Creation Magic of the Titans. The Orb is very limited around that magic and the Titans themselves.”
Celestia began limbering up her wings. “Will I need to carry Luna too, Father?”
“Not this day, my dear. I may not be a happy pony but I am no longer in shock.”
Luna began to limber up her wings as well. With a grin, she said, “Good. Celestia’s magic tickles. I think that she did it on purpose.”
With a look of injured innocence, Celestia replied, “Would I do such a thing?”
De Writer nodded, “You would, and you know it! Now, my daughters, let us be gone from here.”
Enfolded gently by both the midnight glow of Luna’s magic and the soft many colored magic of Celestia, he was born aloft as the two took to the air with powerful wing strokes.
In less than a half of a day, they landed on the shores of the Great Southern Bay. Celestia playfully dropped De Writer into the waves on the shoreline.
Actually smiling freely for the first time since the attack, De Writer waded back to the beach. “I see that my safety and dignity are well looked after by you, my dears!”
Blue magic from a solidly braced old blue unicorn gave Celestia a sudden and unexpected dunking too.
Looking to Luna, the playful father and daughter saw her gazing out to sea. With her eyes closed. Giving a smile, Luna said softly, “I see them. The Sunrise Isles are beautiful. Take a look, Celestia. You have to shut your eyes and use your magic to see them. You need to use the same magic that told us that the sunrise and moon rises were somehow wrong.
“That magic is different from our usual horn magic. I don’t quite know how to explain that.”
Her eyes closed too, Celestia replied, “You are right, Luna. The Isles are beautiful. I think that this must be some sort of Creator Magic. We know that we were made to do something about the heavens. We have been told that. Regular Unicorn magic simply can’t reach far enough or be strong enough to do something that needs such a combination of delicacy and raw power.
“I never thought about it before. We must have some Creator Magic or we could not do our work.”
Luna’s lips quirked up in a tooth baring grin as she retorted, “Just figuring that out, are you? I thought that I was a bit slow because I only sorted it out last night.”
A sudden surge of many hued magic lifted the dark blue sister and dropped her into the tide.
All three sported about on the beach to dry off.
Luna called the halt first. “Father, we can see the Sunrise Isles easily. Why don’t we just fly over to them?”
De Writer skidded to a stop, scattering sand over a turtle crawling across the beach. “It is not as easy to get to them as it appears, my dear. I can show you both. Let us go up to the shade of the tree-line.”
In the sun-dappled shade, he took out the Orb of the Ages and set it on a large fallen log. Both of his foster daughters crowded close to see what he had to show them.
First, he turned his head to Celestia and asked, “How big is the Everfree Forest?”
Celestia wrinked her brow as she thought. Suddenly she grinned. “That is a trick question. It has more than one size. If you mean from where we lived to the other side, maybe thirty miles or so.
“If you mean the Hidden Ways, I have heard that it somehow connects to places all over the world.”
De Writer nodded with a smile. “Correct, Celestia. It is a part of a network created by the Titans when they were making the world. They planned to remove it when they were done.
“Whatever happened to or among themselves, the Titans never quite finished the work. Now those Hidden Ways are being the salvation of Jarla Heather Bloom and the refugees with her. We …”
Luna let out a cry of, “JARLA Heather Bloom?” and began to weep. “Peach Tree died? I … I did not know! I was hoping that she would recover from the burns!”
De Writer’s blue magic and Celestia’s many hued magic together enfolded Luna to comfort her. Celestia’s eyes were flowing tears too.
De Writer said softly, “Her great heart stopped this morning while we were flying here. Her last living act was to give Heather Bloom her Heart Keeper’s Oath. She will be buried with all honor this afternoon.”
They all three spent some time in silence to honor the passing of their treasured friend, Peach Tree, Jarla of Red Hoof, Heart Keeper to Jarl Natchin, wise and gentle ruler of the lands of Red Hoof, their home before the invaders came.
Celestia recovered first. She said sadly, “As hard as it is, her passing was not unexpected. Her injures were terrible. Because she could not free him from the fallen beam, she used all of her store of love magic, that might have used to save herself, to comfort her Jarl until he died. She kept her Heart Keeper’s Oath perfectly.”
“What was it that you wished to show us, Father?”
Turning his attention back to the Orb of the Ages, De Writer muttered, “The future is forbidden.” The Orb began to glow with a ghostly pale light. A scene formed.
The Isles could be plainly seen but they were surrounded by delicate seeming magic. It had many openings. Each led by complex and interlocking ways either back on itself, out by a different opening or some that seemed to simply vanish altogether.
None seemed to go through the magic of the shield about the Sunrise Isles. Celestia observed, “I see. Getting to the Isles is not so simple as just flying there. In fact, if I am seeing this rightly, neither wing nor boat can take us to them at all.
“Why is it so important that we get to this place that we cannot get to, Father?”
The soft, now dreamlike voice of Luna interrupted, “You were right, Celestia. It is a matter of seeing it rightly. If you will trust me to take us, I can get us to the Sunrise Isles by a different way. They are warded from any direct approach. Touch my horn with yours. Hold the touch regardless of what you see. Let me guide us and do not fight my choices, no matter what they may seem.
“I am the dreamer. I hold the power of dreams. The path to the Sunrise Isles is through a dream.”
De Writer and Celestia both looked at the now serene form of Luna and then back to the maze that showed in the Orb of the Ages. De Writer’s magic touched the Orb and the maze vanished. He smiled softly and, taking the Orb with him knelt beside his black daughter and laid his horn across hers.
Celestia knelt on Luna'a other side, laid her horn laid across her sister’s and father’s. Luna spread her wings to enfold them both. A moment later, leaves blew across the place that they had been kneeling.
The journeyers of dream faced the hall of Red Hoof, engulfed in roaring flames. Braving the barbs of invader spears and arrows. They went into the flames.
The soft voice of Luna quietly reminded them, “This is the first of the nightmares with which the Isles are warded. We must face our worst fears to go to those lands.”
Celestia wept openly as she had to watch Jarl Natchin burned to death. His pain was only warded from him by the love of his Heart Keeper. Jarla Peach Tree was bravely pouring her magic of love selflessly to him, blocking his pain as he died. She blocked his pain but had not enough to stop her own as she too suffered horrid burns.
Celestia reached with her pale, powerful, many hued magic and lifted the burned and injured form of her long time friend, mentor and ruler, Jarla Peach Tree. Celestia removed her safely through the smoke and flames. Risking the spears and arrows of their enemies, she took her Jarla to such safety as the Everfree offered and laid her at the feet of her daughter, Jarlene Heather Bloom and wept.
“I tried, Heather Bloom, but she would not come until your father was gone.”
The scene changed.
A dark fluid bubbled and boiled away in a cauldron. The fire was fed by quills and parchment. Young Earth ponies, Pegasi, and Unicorns stood on guard about the destruction of all things written and the means of writing more.
Behind them the De Writer’s school was being burned by the parents of the young guardians of ignorance.
De Writer looked carefully at them all. He shook his head sadly and told the whole group of them, “Look at yourselves. You are insuring your mistakes would have been given to your children.
“This time, your errors and mine will not be passed to them. You are dead already, killed by an invasion that I did not warn of strongly enough. Stop the burning. Give some other a chance to live better and safer.”
They began to throw stones at him.
Instead of fleeing, De Writer pushed past the young, murdered ponies that guarded the fire of ignorance. He scooped some of the ink from the cauldron. In spite of hail of stones, he gathered unburnt parchment and quills from the flames.
As he turned his back on the ignorant dead, the three dream travelers found themselves on a high, windswept hill.
It was dominated by Luna, grown gigantic, armed and armored. Visible nightmares swarmed about her to do her bidding. Celestia lay under her hoof, battered and chained. A captive.
Celestia was straining to start forward in outrage. Blue magic held her back. De Writer whispered in her ear, “Luna must deal with this! Remember, this nightmare is her WORST fear. That she could become a Nightmare Tyrant and bind you to her will.”
Celestia paused for a deep, calming breath. “I see. That is hardly what I expected.”
De Writer nodded and said softly, “She has been terrified of the abuse of nightmares ever since she defended us with them.”
Luna started forward toward the giant Nightmare Tyrant. She stayed her small self. The glow about her was like the fullest moon, reaching and swamping out the gloom of the nightmares about the giant Luna on the hill top.
The monster looked about wildly for the source of the light drowning her gloom of fear. She spotted Luna almost at once. “YOU! Why have you tried to stop my nightmares? Our many dead need vengeance!”
The small Luna nodded agreement at once. “Indeed they do. Look at what you are doing to get it. What good will come of this? I have left those nightmares already dispatched to do your bidding as a sign of good will between us. We are ONE being, after all.”
“Then why waste words! Join me in vengeance!”
“No. Not yet. I repeat, look at what you are doing to get your vengeance! YOURS, not for our dead. You have taken the Day, the sister that we both love, captive. How does this make vengeance for our many dead?
“It will make her hate US. Most of those that you are striking by nightmare are innocents who did not do the murders. Striking them is wrong, too.”
Slowly the Nightmare Monster Luna nodded her head. “Our father has said that we need to think things through. How then? I was acting from rage alone. I have done a terrible wrong to our sister. How can that be made up?”
“I am the wrong one to ask that. I do have a possible answer. It will need Celestia’s help to work. Let us become one again, agreed that we do need to have vengeance, but only on those who killed our friends. Perhaps she will help us.”
The Nightmare Luna looked about bleakly, her gaze finally resting on th chained form of her sister, Celesta. “What will we do to make up this mess? I acted from rage and committed an outrage of my own.”
Calmly, Luna replied, “We will start by freeing her.”
“She will attack us if we do that.”
“Will we deserve it for what you have done in our name?”
Head down, horn scraping the dirt, Nightmare Luna replied almost inaudibly, “Yes.”
Looking up suddenly, Nightmare Luna repeated, “What I have done in OUR name?”
Luna shrugged, “Of course. I accept that you and I are one and need to become one again. That means that I accept not only you but all that you have done.” She held out a hoof and added, “Come back, please. I am not whole without you.”
Nightmare tremblingly held out her hoof to touch Luna’s. The air about them shimmered like heat waves. When it cleared, only Luna stood there. There was one small change. Luna stood in Nightmare’s tracks.
She turned and her moonlight magic reached out, shattering the chains that held her sister Celestia in bondage. The Celestia of the dream had watched the whole event carefully. She said, “I see where you are standing, Luna. You are where your Nightmare self was. If she is part of you, why should I trust you now?”
Luna nodded soberly and replied, “Three reasons. First: Because the Nighmare and I have always been one. It was when I was not simply one that badness happened. We are a balance, she and I.
“Second: When I became one again, I freed you without conditions. I will not fight you if you choose to strike me back. I do have a better use for your anger, if you will hear me out.
“Third: Jarl Natchin, Jarla Peach Tree, all of our friends and the school that has been our home. These need vengeance. Nightmare was trying to do that but has agreed that she did it wrongly. Especially bad was the binding of you.”
Celestia considered carefully and then relpied, “Besides the treatment of me, what of the rest was ill done?”
“Nearly all of it, Sister. Nearly all. We need to punish only those who did the attacks. Those who came after were mostly innocents in this. Some have already figured out that murder was done. Nightmare was hitting them all with out regard.”
Celestia reared to a threatening pose, wings raised high, forefeet ready to strike, multi-hued magic swirling about her horn. “What do we need to do to strike them down?” she thundered.
Quietly Luna said, “No thing. We need to give them fine days. I shall want your help in finding the weakness in each one. The nightmares that will rule their sleep will also ruin the days of the guilty and harm no other. They shall strike themselves down.”
Luna laid herself down in front of Celestia and added, “I am ready, Sister. Strike me now for my harm to you. I am sorry that ever I did such a thing.”
Celestia lowered herself to all fours, furling her wings to her sides. Only her magic remained, swirling about her horn. The magic of many soft colors reached out and lifted Luna to her feet. “Stand, sister Luna, we will work better side by side.”
The scene faded.
They were on a smallish island with a riot of lush vegetation all about. They stood before a heavy wooden door set into a strong tower. The door was sealed solidly.
De Writer smiled as he saw, written above the door, “You have been given the three keys to my tower. Place them in the opening and be welcome.”
Celestia noticed her foster father’s smile and asked, “What makes you so happy, Father?”
De Writer pointed at the writing. “I recognize that writing. Skyglow, your creator, your mother, if you will, was for a time a student of my school. She remembers her lessons in writing!” He shed a tear.
Luna also read the writing and said thoughtfully, “The slot is only wide enough for piece of parchment. Father, you saved parchment ink and quills from the blaze. Do you have them still?”
Somewhat surprised, De Writer found them in his pouch. “I thought it was only a dream.” He quickly wrote, “Skyglow, Titan of Life Creation, my dear student, may we please enter your tower?”
Luna turned to Celestia and said, “You brought the tears of compassion and courage. Add those to the writing.”
Celestia remembered her dream and the tears came freely. Luna’s magic captured them and placed them as a damp spot at the foot of the short note. She added a delicately small hoof print beside the tears.
Then she directed, “Dear sister, put your hoof mark over mine. My key was the value of cooperation.” Celestia made her print over Luna’s.
De Writer’s blue magic put the parchment into the slot. The door to the Tower of Life opened silently.
Dawn:
The three reverently entered the Tower of Life. The floor was made of living moss and their hooves made no sound at all.
In spite of being inside, the great room that they found themselves in was lit brightly, as if the sun outside was falling through the bulk of the tower unhindered. Living grass grew in the middle of the room and a small pegasus was grazing contentedly.
Looking up, the pegasus filly Skyglow greeted them. “De Writer, my friend. Celestia, Luna, my daughters, welcome to my home.
“I apologize for the trials that you endured to get here. They were necessary. This place is a fortress under siege. That, I fear is all that I may tell you of the matter.
“You are not here to do battle. You are here to learn how to undo the damage that has already been done. You have both noticed already that the heavens are not in proper order. Without your guidance, they will slowly get so far out of order that the whole of this wonderful world of yours will die.”
Celestia thought that over carefully and then asked, “How can we possibly do such a thing? I mean, as alicorns, we have a great deal of magic but can it possibly be enough to move the heavens?”
Skyglow smiled. “No. You cannot truly move the heavens. The truth of what you will really do is a bit more complex. If it were so easy, I would have simply fixed the heavens and been done with it.
“The fault lies in the incomplete nature of the world itself. That necessitates continuous adjustments. These changes are small enough for you to manage. You will be responsible for those alterations that cause the appearance of a sunrise or sunset through its proper cycles to be what is needed again.
“The moon travels about the world and the adjustments that it needs, Luna, are your task. Though they do not need as much strength as Celestia’s work, they are more subtle and equally important.”
Luna nodded soberly and asked, “How can we do these things, Skyglow? They are not something that we know how to do.”
Skyglow bent her head down and nibbled some more of the grass before answering. “You have guessed that I imbued you with a form of Creator Magic. It will manifest more in a little time.
“I have taken a great risk in giving it to you. What is done by that magic cannot be undone. It will require both great care and great responsibility in its use. I will guide your early use of it to be sure that you understand how to do what you must.”
De Writer paused to take a mouthful of the grass too. He grinned in delight at the taste. He said, “I have been chronicling the assorted small adventures of the fillies.” His face sobered. “I only figured out, far too late that the Chronicle is a vital weapon to defend them.
“They will have to rule a fair sized kingdom to be able to carry out their duties. If they do not, invasions or other disasters could interfere with what they need to do.”
At that, Skyglow wept. “I am sorry that you had to learn those lessons at such a terrible price. Never forget them.”
Changing mood with mercurial speed, she spoke to the twins, “To the top of the tower! I shall show you what you must learn! Really, this can be fun!” With a flutter of wings, she raced up ramps and passageways, emerging on the roof of her tower.
Celestia and Luna were close behind her. Though it had been daylight when they entered the tower, it was now predawn. The sun showed only as glow at the eastern horizon.
Skyglow gently enfolded both Celestia and Luna in a radiant magic like none that they had ever seen before. She laid a wing over the back of each of them and said, “I use the horizon as a guide. Now, feel this as I reach out. We must grip the fabric of the world like so …”
In a few moments, the first flare of the sun came to horizon and the tower roof was bathed in the earliest light of the coming dawn.
–The End–
