Nightmares
Celestia awoke with a jolt through her body, her peaceful slumber came to an end with the same visions her and her sister had repeatedly saw in their dreams. Celestia was frozen in place, her heart pounding as she tried to bring her breathing back to its regular pace. Her sleeping chamber where still shrouded in darkness, meaning Luna would still be up. Slowly, Celestia slid herself onto her feet, lighting up her room with a white glowing essence from her horn as she did. She knew this was no longer a coincidence, Luna said it herself, two ponies dreams being disrupted by the exact same ghastly visions was rare, if not impossible. Especially in the case of the Royal sisters being two of only few who even knew about the existence of the creature that they saw.
Celestia immediately exited her chamber and headed to find Luna, whom she knew would be either studying in the Library or dealing with petty politics in the night court. She did not adorn herself with her crown or any other royal apparel, as it would add an unnecessary delay. As she navigated through the winding hallways of the castle, she passed a few guards, all of which looked surprised to see her at this hour, but being half asleep did not bother to make much of it among themselves, it was her castle after all. Nearly at a gallop, Celestia walked into the Library wing of the Castle. Two of Luna's personal guard stood around the entrance archway, they greeted her and gave a bow to Celestia as she entered. They noticed the dread that they saw on Celestia's face, but they dared not speak of it to each other, gossiping about the princesses was highly frowned upon by all ranks of the Royal Guard.
"Sister.." Celestia softly called to get the attention of Luna, who was standing aimlessly, staring out of the large library window, the few coloured panes of it being lit up with the bright high moon outside. Luna slowly turned to face her, Celestia could immediately tell that her sister was not behaving normally, it was unlike her to be in the library and not reading, especially so for her to be seemingly gazing off, lost in thought. Her thoughts where confirmed when Luna slowly turned her head to face her, her face pale and her eyes almost filled with sadness, but perhaps hoping for her own worries to be false.
"Again?" Luna asked, sounding partially defeated as she did. Celestia nodded sadly in return, causing Luna to sigh and turn to her sister.
"Can we be certain something is amiss? Luna winced, again hoping the answer was not as she expected it to be.
"This is no longer a coincidence, the last words spoken about them was thousands of years ago, why would they drift into our thoughts now, of all the years between then and now, why this week, these thoughts have come back for a reason. But what reason?"
"Understandably, I had hoped this was nothing but faded memories, but I saw it again as well, however not in my dream, nor yours. I was exploring the dreams of other ponies not moments ago, helping out with any worries they may have ,when I started noticing an occasional pattern..." Celestia listened with great worry, since herself and he sister where the only remaining ponies that knew of the events of long ago, they could cope with the mental task of dealing with those grim memories. The pure minds of her subjects would not be able to cope with the images of war and death like Celestia and Luna could. They had lived it, and would have to live with it forever, all the ponies who had lived through it had perished long ago and even the tales though told their children had eventually been forgotten and replaced with Discord, Nightmare moon and Chrysalis. Far, far lesser evils than what was now resurfacing to the royal sisters. "The screams Celestia, some ponies are hearing the screams... even dearest Fluttershy, poor innocent girl. It is only a tiny number, but the screams, the blood... I don't understand..." Luna's speech had grown frantic "They all perished, did they not? We, we, kille-"
"LUNA!" Celestia barked, shocking both of them.
Within a few seconds Luna's guards had entered the room, ready to pounce and threats they saw. But it quickly became apparent to them there was no panic or immediate threat to the princesses, and instead they wondered if they had interrupted a private personal matter. Immediately Celestia looked into Luna's eyes with remorse, feeling a hatred in herself for lashing out at her sister, something she had sworn to herself she would never do again since banishing her. Luna was completely shocked, however she knew she had crossed a boundary with what she was saying, and the subject at hand called for such extremes, the very subject had ultimately lead to thousands of ponies dying years ago, she had the right to be upset, they both did.
"It is nothing guards, return to your posts"
The two guards looked at each other, before bowing at the sisters and quickly walking back outside.
Celestia could feel tears building up. "Luna, I'm so sorry" she said sincerely. Luna responded by embracing Celestia, before leaning back.
"Don't worry Celestia, I understand, I went too far. We haven't properly spoken about this in hundreds of years, I suppose I had forgotten the true repercussions of doing so again."Celestia smiled as her sister embraced her, a small amount of happiness filling her heart as she thought about how forgiving and kind her sister had become, ultimately still angry at herself however for lashing out.
"This is true, we have not mentioned them in hundreds of years, and I never thought we would have to again" Luna nodded in agreement. "However, I fear the worst dear Luna, this is an omen. I must send for Twilight at first sunlight. I hate to bring her into this but if this is what we think, we could be on the brink of war..."
