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                          Sunless                          
                       -by Lunatone-                       
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                    i - Sunless Part 1                     
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i - Sunless Part 1
The flickering and cracking fire in Celestia’s study filled the room with a faint illumination. Some of the shadows trickled across her face. Bookshelves lined the walls in the scant few places where there weren’t many tall windows. A comfortable pile of cushions filled the centre of the room, where Luna was nestled, her legs tucked beneath her body as she stared at her sister, Celestia, who stood out on the balcony.
Taking a deep breath and exhaling shortly after, Celestia stared out at the dark horizon and past the mountaintops, which oddly filled her with a sense of euphoria. The night was truly beautiful, a blessing from the light even if that was what she favoured. Sometimes Celestia appreciated the night more than the day, but it was something she would never outwardly express to anyone, let alone her sister.
Pain. There was so much pain. The volume of agony would be far too much for most to bear.
The sight wasn’t any better, for there were ponies surrounding her as far as the naked eye could perceive. Many of those who stood before her only sought to be bestowed the divine knowledge she had accumulated over the years as the Sun Princess, who was, without a single doubt amongst those who bore high intellect, one of the greatest empress of time.
Celestia would sit on her mantle, day in and day out, and watch her subjects ascend the stairs leading to her golden throne; they would her endure their nonsensical, exaggerated questions. It quickly became exhausting for her, and she often thought about segregating herself from all the ponies who sought her knowledge, but she had to maintain her royal mask and crown despite tediousness and agony.
And as the years passed, her divination had dwindled like a dying star; and with it came a false perception of her true self—a suffering soul condemned to the depths of hell for eons where there was no escape. Often times, Celestia would let the mind wander aimlessly to the conceited   scholars in front of her as they talked about nothing of value, while subconsciously bobbing her head to indicate she was listening.
For the longest time, she wished to be done with this senselessness to more important matters that would surely benefit her more than the egotistic loudmouths. She thought about Twilight and yearned for her presence. A smile, genuine smile graced her face for the first time in months. The pony in front of her seemed to believe Celestia was taking an interest in what she was saying, so he buffered his chest and indulged in self-pride. If only the poor fool knew he was being led to a false sense of security.
Reality came crashing down on her as the pony in front of her bowed and said, “That’s all I have for you today, your majesty.”
“It was good listening to you again,” Celestia said, paining a fake smile on her face. Although the past few years have been dull, she was able to easily convince those around her with deception, given that’s all she could do without losing her title.
When he left, an uproarious, imperious pony shoved himself through the line of patiently waiting individuals, and stepped up to the princess. “Move you, pigs!” he said aloud.
The earth pony continued traversing through the long line; and when he arrived at the princess’s threshold, her guards readied in anticipation for an attack. Celestia raised a hoof and commanded the guards to lower their weapons. Despite the unorthodox and, perhaps, malapropos entry, Celestia took this as something exciting and less formal than that of the supercilious ponies blabbering on about nothing.
With a smile crossing her face, Celestia said, “What is on your mind, little pony?”
Later that fruitful night, Princess Luna could be found trailing along the glass flooring in the Canterlot Castle corridors. She had just risen the moon, and its brilliant light shafted through the windows of the castle. Paintings and other rich ornaments decorated the place. Sights like this was one of the many reasons Luna adored strolling through the corridors of her home. It filled her heart with warmth and memories that even the darkest flames couldn’t extinguish.
A thought had crossed her weary mind and she moved in the opposite direction and made a beeline to Celestia’s chamber. Upon arriving, she nudged the door open, walked in, and said, “Sis?”
“Hmm?” Celestia humbled, her voice faint with warmth, as she continued to stare pensively into the large mirror by her bedside. In many ways, Luna was one of her few joys left, but even then her voice resonated distantly and tiredly. Evidently, there was no need for Celestia to hide what she was truly feeling when it came to her sister. There was only honesty and truth. She looked at her sister and smiled. “If you’re wondering how the meeting went, it was nothing more than the usual business.” Her eyes were deceiving as they drifted from Luna and back to the mirror. A sigh of discontent escaped from her mouth as her reality grew faster as time passed.
“You needn’t lie, Celly,” Luna said taking a seat on the floor and pouring a cup of tea with magic. “The machines are coming, aren’t they?”
“They’re on verge of striking us, yes.”
“Oh my. That can’t be good. Why are they making such a threat? I thought we had a treaty with them?”
Celestia took a sip of tea that was on her nightstand. “Apparently we’re not giving them enough resources for them to sustain theirselves. They’re dying and they’ve threatened to take all our resources by force if we don’t listen to their requests.”
“How do you know of this? Was from our recon team?” Luna said, her face in disbelief.
Celestia nodded. “Yes. We should never have let Flim and Flam Industries build those damn machines. Ever since their first one, the machines have been able to reconstruct and populate themselves into their own world. Clearly.”
“What will be done to remedy this situation, sister?”
Celestia was quiet. Some would say too quiet. She lowered her teacup, its clink barely audible, and her brow furrowed as she tried to ponder what to do with her nebulous mind. “I don’t know. I’m not sure I ever will.” Her voice was dark and ethereal. It sounded as though she was more frail than a snowflake.
The two sisters were in a deep, pensive thought; and for a moment, silence overtook the room, until Luna said, “Do you think she’ll be back?”
“You mean?”
“Precisely.”
“Celly. She’s—”
“Our best pony to help us out. If anypony can find a solution, it’s her,” Celestia said, getting up from her bed.
An expression of perpetual worry marked Luna’s face. “But…are you alright, sister? You seem different.”
“I promise you, I am alright, dear sister. I should get more tea before I sleep.”
As Luna watched her sister leave, she pondered about what had just transpired; but despite the volume of thought, nothing could explain this, nor was there a suitable conclusion to abide.
Immediately after thought, a loud crash ruptured from the corridors, sounding like vases breaking and the groans of pain…
“Celestia!”
There was no response—only the silence that hardens like obsidian.
⁂
Somewhere, an awful long way from Canterlot, stood a lone house in some verdant valley to the west of royal city. The sun was setting to the west, and its rays beamed on two ponies sitting on a porch outside the house. The volume of light was too great, creating a hazy sight for the smaller pony, but not for the larger one as it had its back facing the sun. Nonetheless, the smaller pony smiled tentatively as she sipped on a cup of tea, all the while of paying close attention to her mentor, who also bore a smile.
They had been situated outside for the entirety of the day, talking about their lives and ways they could bolster their relationship. It was no surprise that the smaller pony had created a multitude of ideas that were logical and reasonable. As the smaller pony scribed them down, her mentor had took notice of a matter that had to be remedied.
“More tea, my darling?” Celestia asked.
The smaller pony looked up with an expression of confusion. “Oh. Yes, please.” Her lips were curving into another warm smile.
A serenity enveloped the two ponies as they said nothing. Nothing had to be said; not because they didn’t have anything to say, but rather because nothing needed to be said. To them, this was their paradise, a place of temporary escape from all the madness that awaits for them back home. If they could alter reality, they wouldn’t go back home; they’d stay here where the world is theirs and everything in it.
Celestia placed her teacup down and motioned across the table, planting an unexpected kiss on the smaller pony’s lips. The two hadn’t kissed in a while, and for that reason it was a blessing. When the kiss broke, the smaller pony’s face was as red as the Equestria vista set ablaze by the waning sun.
“Twilight?” Celestia said.
“Yes, Princess?”
“I love you. You are very dear to me.”
“I love you too. But I’ve been curious about something. Surely you’ve had other lovers in your past, no? I’ve been alive for so long now.”
“I haven’t,” Celestia said. “In all my years of living, you’re the first pony I’ve even fallen in love with.
“Honestly?” Twilight asked. A strand of disbelief coursed through her, but her eyes opposed that disbelief, for they radiated with humility and honour for being the first. She couldn’t believe she was the first to receive personal tutelage from Celestia.
“You’re my everything, Twilight.”
“I’m honoured. Truly I am.
Silence.
⁂
Luna could be found pacing back and forth outside Celestia’s chamber. It had been hours since her sudden collapse, and there hadn’t been any reports from her personal doctor. Impatience got the best of her, and she barged through the doors, startling the doctor at work. “What can you tell me back my sister? What’s wrong with her?”
Luna’s eyes wandered to Celestia in her bed. She looked asleep, but it had to be much worse than that.
“I don’t know what to tell you,” the doctor said, stunned as she gazed over Celestia. “I can’t conclude anything that would indicate what the problem is.”
“Can you at least tell me something?”
“From what I can tell, there’s isn’t any physical harm,” he said, walking over to Luna. “I’m no psychologist, but how has her mental state been? Is she getting the proper amount of sleep, eating enough? Or is it something else entirely?”
Luna thought for a moment. “Could the memories of Twilight Sparkle have to do with it?”
“I don’t understand,” the doctor said.
“Celestia, she said her name before she collapsed.”
“And?”
“Could that have something to do with it?” Luna asked.
“It very well could. Were the two linked in some way? And where is this Twilight Sparkle? Made she can help in some way.”
“Twilight Sparkle passed away five millenniums ago.”
⁂
A dreamscape. All sorts of colours blending and meshing and colliding into one another. A true depiction of the perfect world wherein there was only peace, love, and stillness. A lakefront washed over a sandy shore, and the sun was shining brilliant light across the landscape.
A white pony of the sorts was slightly burrowed in the sand, and merrily awoke to the soft melodies of the soothing waves.
In her own regard, she knew nothing of this world, though she did know what it would bring. As she stood, her eyes veered into the distance and she saw a floating, glowing form of lavender light. The embodiment of the distant pony slowly lurked its way forward before landing on the waters—the light dwindling down to nothingness, giving Celestia a view of who was in front of her.
It was Twilight, her love, her student, her wife.
Twilight’s form was akin to a ghost’s: Ethereal and too perfect to exist outside of this world. As she stared up at her mistress, a smile crossed her face and she said, “Celly…Wake up. I need you to be strong. You’ve gotten so far without me. I need you to let go, and be free of me.”
Celestia’s mind wandered in all directions, thoughts forging themselves on their own volition and clouding her mind, her judgement, even her outlook of what should and shouldn’t be. She knew this had to be a dream, a reality check, or even an epiphany to gather the very construction that is her mind together; but despite the dreamscape’s best efforts, she forced herself to ask the most obvious questions. “Twilight…is that you?”
“No. I am merely your mind telling you to wake up. What would Twilight want you to do? What would she tell you to do? And how?”
“But I don’t want to do anything!” Celestia said. “The only thing I want, is to see my Twilight!”
“I’m sorry,” Twilight said, moving closer to Celestia and putting a hoof on her chest.
The contact sent butterflies pouring out of Celestia’s stomach to to the rest of her body. It made her shudder, gasp for the faux air, and even process the best of memories she had shared with her mistress. In a desperate attempt to get the full truth, she touched the form in front, but was disappointed: It felt like Twilight, but it wasn’t the real deal.
Celestia did what she had to do. She knew what she had to do.
“Wake up!”
⁂
With a muffled groan, Celestia stirred from the depths of her sleep, the visionary world swimming back into her blurred sight. The darkness of sleep was no more, and instead was filled by the light of the sun, which, coincidentally, inflicted confusion upon the already distorted mare.
“The sun…?”
Almost instantaneously, she flung herself up, as if she were a firing catapult, and gazed around the room. She was regretting this, as her head was aching in severe pain (worse than a thousand acupuncture needles striking the eye), forcing her to lie back down. “I never raise to set the sun…” A horrid pang of terror and panic strikes the mind.
Her attention was snapped tot the sound of her bedroom door opening—whereupon Luna ambled in and noticed her sister awake. Luna rushed over to the bedside. “Sister!” She gently nuzzled her sister.
“Luna…” Celestia’s entire body felt relaxed and she sighed in relief as Luna smiled and had a countenance of content. “What happened? Did I blackout or something?”
Luna’s expression quickly fell from contentment to one of genuine concern. “You were in a coma since yesterday.”
A pause on Celestia’s doing. She took in what her sister had said. Weighed it. Evaluated it. “And what about the sun?” she then asked with a flat, monotonous tone, as if she didn’t care at all about what Luna had just said.
“I set it yesterday evening after you collapsed and raised it this morning. I hope you’re not mad. Sis, you should really—”
“I should really resume my duties. I am the ruler of the the Day Court, after all. Hasn’t it already begun?”
Luna nodded, her dismayed mien twisting even further as she look in the pitiful sight of her mighty sister lumbering out of bed. “Please, sister, won’t you rest? If not for yourself, then for me? I am worried and scared for you.”
“It’s all right, Luna. I need to attend my royal duties, like I said. Besides, I ned to see…” Celestia trailed off as she held in her words from completing her sentence, which would surely express her deeper, truer distaste that had grown toward her royal obligations.
“Sis, let me preside over the Day Court. You need your rest after what happened, and should not be so hastily to return to your duties. Please, sister. For me.”