The last light of sunset was fading from the sky, deep blue night creeping over purple twilight. Twilight Sparkle smiled at the thought of the familiar pun—did that qualify as a pun? Surely it must—and snuggled a little bit deeper into her bed. It had been another long, productive day, and she needed her sleep.
She also snuggled a little bit more against the warm body beside her, and was rewarded by having a large white wing tucked over her. Twilight sighed contentedly. The only thing better than falling asleep in a soft bed after a day well spent was falling asleep in said soft bed beside Celestia.
Twilight could remember when that had been a rare and precious thing. They'd begun dating when Twilight still lived in Ponyville, and Celestia (of course) resided in Canterlot. Few indeed were the nights they could spend together, then, but Twilight had turned over the keeping of the Crystal Castle of Friendship to Starlight Glimmer's capable hooves some years ago. She tended the Cutie Map now, with its ever-widening network of friends of friends that could be summoned to bring harmony across Equestria.
That had been fascinating to observe in action. The map had at first been Twilight's alone, and had summoned only her own closest friends. But gradually, it had begun summoning those who were friends of her friends, especially if they were friends with more than one of them. Starlight herself had been the first of those, but by now the extended group included ponies who barely knew Twilight's original little group of six, friends of friends of friends. The workings of primordial harmony repeatedly proved that friendship was indeed magic.
Love is magic too, thought Twilight, and murmured, "Love you," softly into the gathering darkness.
Celestia beside her sighed softly, contentedly, and replied, "Love you too."
Then Twilight's eyes fluttered closed and sleep claimed her.
She stood amid a cluster of buildings on a low, grassy hill. It overlooked a flat concrete slab, large enough to be several parade grounds, with a towering structure that confused and baffled her eye standing in the center. She'd never seen anything like it. Around her ponies moved and bustled, intent on some task that had to do with both the low buildings behind her and the great tower ahead of her.
"The Queen's design is amazing," said a voice, and Twilight turned to see one pony, dressed in a peculiar bulky jumpsuit that covered her entire body, with a strange metal ring loosely around her neck, speaking with another.
"It's inspired, yes. We'd never have built this without her." The second pony, similarly clad, walked beside the first, and both passed Twilight without even glancing at her. They climbed into a kind of carriage, which drove itself towards the tower with no ponies to pull it. When it arrived, the oddly-clad ponies climbed from it, and stepped onto a platform, which lifted itself up what Twilight now perceived was a sturdy metal scaffolding that supported and partially enclosed the true tower, a thing of sleek, silvery metal and swirling runes.
Twilight wondered who this Queen was. Surely they couldn't be speaking of Celestia? She had always refused the title of queen. The thought made Twilight wish Celestia was there. She looked around, seeking, but saw no sign of her.
A feeling of sudden loss and need filled her. Celestia—her other half—was missing. She should find her. She began to wander among the buildings, searching. The ponies around her ignored her as if she didn't exist. She walked among them, hearing incomprehensible snatches of chatter. They were preparing for something that seemed incredibly important to them, but Twilight put it out of her mind. She needed to find Celestia!
She found herself outside again. A voice was counting down, broadcast over some sort of amplification system. She looked again at the tower. No ponies clustered beside it now; all of them had retreated to the hill where she stood. Most were inside the buildings, but a few watched whatever was going on from the hill itself.
Twilight's eyes were caught by the runes on the sleek tower. There were runes of protection and strength, and also runes to gather power and direct it. Her eyes widened as she realized that she was not looking at a building. She was looking at a ship! Like an airship, but so much larger. The strange shape with its stubby fins near the base suddenly made sense, as did the runes. Their beautiful elegance burned itself into Twilight's mind. She would consider her life well spent if all she ever did after this was create such a set of runes.
A low, rumbling hum began to rise from the base of the ship. The slowly counting voice reached zero. Fire suddenly bloomed under the ship, and light raced along all the runes. The light and the fire both billowed from beneath the ship and slowly, ponderously, it began to rise. It rose faster and faster, arcing up into a clear blue sky, trailing fire, light, and cloud behind it. Then, almost too suddenly, it was gone, vanished into the impossible blue distance overhead.
Twilight woke. Early morning light flooded the room, so she wasn't surprised to find no sign of Celestia in bed with her. A hint of the dream lingered, though, and Twilight found herself strangely anxious to find her Celestia. She rose and took only the briefest possible moment to groom herself before venturing out into the palace.
She found Celestia at the breakfast table, with a yawning Luna. The feeling from the dream popped like a soap bubble at the sight of Celestia's beautiful face, but the details of the dream itself stuck with Twilight with strange clarity. Usually dreams faded quickly, but she felt she was a hairsbreadth from clearly picturing the runes on the strange, sleek ship. For a moment she almost wanted to start trying to transcribe them, but there was no way that the three-dimensional way that they'd wrapped around the ship could be captured on paper, and she'd only seen one side of them in any case.
And probably they wouldn't be real. How could she dream real, working runes? And yet... what she remembered of them did seem to make sense—as if they might actually function. Well, she worked with runes nearly every day; no doubt her subconscious had just constructed a likely-looking set. Still, she resolved to make a few notes on the subject later on.
Meanwhile she seated herself at the table and soon was served up a heaping plate of waffles.
Luna yawned and mumbled a tired good morning. Celestia leaned over and gave Twilight a kiss, which she happily returned.
"You look like you're a thousand miles away," said Celestia, smiling.
"Just thinking about some spell runes. And also about a dream." She looked over at Celestia. "I had a very strange one last night."
"Oh?"
"Yes." Twilight proceeded to describe the dream. "It's still so clear, too," she added when she finished. "That's the really odd part. Dreams usually get all fuzzy and fade away after you wake up." She looked over at Princess Luna. "Do you think it means anything?"
Luna gave Twilight a small smile. "It may, or it may not. Dreams are unpredictable things. Yes, they usually fade upon waking, but if one does not, it may merely be because it was so meaningful that you rehearsed it in your mind before it could fade, and have cemented the memory."
Twilight nodded. "Still... there was something about it that seemed very real. I wonder what would happen if I tried to use any of the runes I dreamed?"
"Try it and find out?" said Luna, smiling a little more broadly.
Twilight chuckled. "Maybe I will." Her gaze turned to Celestia and she added, "The thing that sticks with me most, though, isn't the runes. They were beautiful, but, well... I wanted so badly to find you, to share that moment with you. I wanted to have you by my side so that we could watch this amazing ship with its beautiful runes rise up to the heavens. It was distressing almost to the point of being a bit of a nightmare, the way I looked for you but couldn't find you anywhere."
Celestia smiled, and reached out to put a hoof over Twilight's in a warm gesture. "I've had dreams like that as well, where I was looking for you, or for Luna, or for somepony else close to me. It is very distressing. And it's sad here in the waking world as well, that we are so bound by duty that we cannot simply spend every moment together. We should spend what time we can, though. It's easy to forget that."
"I'm not saying that the dream was some kind of message about us needing to spend more time together," said Twilight with a wry little smile.
"Perhaps not. Still, that's not a bad moral to take from it. Alas, today is full of things that I really shouldn't reschedule. But how is your evening tomorrow, Twilight?"
"Oh, you know how it is with me. I have a thousand important projects, but nothing at the moment is so time sensitive I couldn't take a few hours off."
"Excellent. Consider it a date, then. What do you feel like doing? Dinner out, perhaps?"
"Sounds good to me. The Tasty Treat again?"
"I don't know, I was feeling more like Prench cuisine. Mareché, maybe?"
"Ooo. That's the place with that beet and watercress salad, isn't it?"
"It is, yes."
"Call it a date, then," said Twilight, smiling happily. She leaned over and gave Celestia a kiss, which Celestia returned briefly but warmly.
Twilight didn't dream that night, and she woke the next morning feeling alert and excited. It was a little bit like waking on Hearth's Warming, or some other holiday, knowing that good things were going to happen very soon.
Still, the date was not until dinner, so she threw herself into her work in order to make the time pass more quickly. She couldn't quite gain the focus she needed to finish anything, though, and found herself hopping from project to project to project, doing a little bit here and a little bit there, but never quite able to settle down and concentrate. The prospect of spending a whole evening with Celestia was simply too distracting. Oh, sure, they spent their nights together, and they saw each other at meals, but neither sleep nor stuffy formal or semi-formal affairs were at all conducive to truly intimate conversation. Spending an entire evening together was going to be a rare treat.
Twilight made a note to check with Raven, Celestia's secretary, for times when Celestia might be available and organize dates more often. They'd both let their duties suck them in, and though Twilight's were less strictly scheduled than Celestia's, it was all too easy for her to spend just one more hour on something, and end up coming to bed exhausted, able to do no more than have a brief cuddle before falling asleep.
Dinner time finally drew near. Twilight knew she probably should keep working, but she was too excited. The day had mostly been a loss in any case, so she wrote off the last hour and teleported back to the rooms she shared with Celestia to prepare. She showered quickly, finding herself rather wishing that Celestia had had the same idea and could have come shower with her... though, on the other hoof, that would probably result in them missing their dinner reservation. Sure, they could probably get away with showing up at whatever time they chose to, but it wasn’t in either of their natures to claim that kind of ‘perk’ to the job.
A quick spell dried her hair and coat in seconds, but she spent quite some time brushing and arranging her mane and tail. They were as stubbornly straight as always, but lately she'd noticed a tendency for the ends to lift up and curl a little bit. The faintest hint of an ethereal nimbus clung the the tips. It seemed a safe bet that eventually it would creep all the way up, and her hair would wave and flow the way Celestia's did.
That was a strange thought. It would probably look a little weird in the interim phases. Right now, it passed for having an actual hair style, so she didn't really mind—though she had a momentary wish that she had Rarity's skill with hair. A nice updo would be very elegant. But then this was a fairly casual date, wasn't it? So her normal style would probably be just fine.
Still, with her hair brushed, she next went and rummaged through her closet, looking at her surprisingly large collection of gowns and dresses. When had she gotten so many? She could remember where each had come from—there was the oldest, the gown she'd worn to that disastrous first Galloping Gala, and there was the gown from her coronation, which was certainly too formal for tonight—but the number that had piled up over the years was still surprising. She picked out a fairly simple dress in dusty blue—something Rarity had made her a year or so ago, to wear to a garden party—and donned it. It was meant to be worn without shoes, which she appreciated. Trying to balance in even the lowest of heels was always difficult.
Twilight recognized that her brain was going around in circles, obsessing about details that didn't really matter. She shouldn't be nervous—and nervous wasn't really the word—but she really did want tonight to be perfect. With a little smile she lifted her hoof to her chest and slid it out, letting out a long breath and consciously letting go of her worries.
She and Celestia had been together for years now; there was no reason to fret over this date. It would be wonderful, even if it wasn't perfect.
The door to their suite swung open and Celestia entered. "Good evening, Twilight. You're looking lovely."
Twilight felt a little thrill, and knew her cheeks were touched with a faint blush. Celestia's admiration never grew old. "Thank you."
"Give me but a moment to shed my formal attire and put myself in order and we can depart."
"Of course." Twilight settled on a loveseat to wait while Celestia took off her regalia. Celestia didn't need to brush her mane and tail, of course, but she vanished into the closet and emerged a few minutes later wearing a simple dress in amber voile that draped and flowed over her figure, leaving one shoulder completely bare in a way that was far more tantalizing than nakedness ever could be.
Twilight found herself staring, and Celestia, catching her gaze, gave a little rump wiggle that sent things swishing around in a very delightful way. Twilight blushed and looked away, and Celestia chuckled, a rich, throaty sound.
"Our reservation is in twenty minutes, so I believe we should depart. We wouldn’t want to be..." Celestia paused with an impish smile as she touched on one of their long-running shared jokes, “...late.”
Twilight gathered her somewhat scattered wits enough to stick her tongue out briefly at Celestia, and rose to her hooves. Celestia always knew exactly what time it was, for she always knew just where the sun was, even when it wasn't visible. It had set now, of course, and the pair took wing over Canterlot through a fine, cool evening. Two of Luna's night guard, now on duty, trailed behind them at a discreet distance. Celestia was only ever truly alone behind closed doors. Twilight was glad to be free of such constraints so far. She was technically also a ruler of Equestria, but much of her duties were out of the public eye. Others, such as her now-infrequent cutie-map missions, or quests to eliminate threats to Equestria's safety, were best served without a gaggle of retainers getting underhoof.
My mind is wandering a lot today, thought Twilight, as she shook herself back into the moment. The evening was cool and clear, the sky nearly free of clouds, and the stars were starting to come out as she and Celestia flew wingtip to wingtip over the city. They dipped and soared and finally began a descending spiral above a particular street where the restaurant they had chosen stood.
They were greeted inside with rather more fuss and fanfare than Twilight preferred, but she was getting used to it by now. Celestia was graceful and regal as always, accepting the fuss with a calm certainly that settled Twilight down perhaps a little more than it should. Really, she ought to be able to deal with people fussing over her royal status by now, but it tended to fluster her just a little. Imitating Celestia was a sure way to get through it, though, and thankfully they were shortly seated in a small private room.
The waiter was very good, and so, nigh-invisible; the pair set about eating and chatting and enjoying one another's company with no interruptions that they could remember. The food was excellent, but Twilight was very certain that the company was even better.
As they waited for desert to arrive, she said as much. "This has been a wonderful evening. I always love being able to just talk with you."
"Especially about something other than duty," said Celestia, nodding. "I can remember being unsure about courting you, but I am very glad that we both eventually overcame our doubts."
"I'm not sure if I really overcame mine, so much as had them forcibly tossed out." Twilight blushed. "That letter..."
"Arrived just where and when it should have, I think." Celestia smiled. "The reality has been far better than I ever dreamed it could be, thus far, and I feel certain that the future will be even better."
"The future..." Twilight gave a little sigh, her ears going down slightly. "What do you think should be in our future?"
Celestia tilted her head, her expression inquisitive. "What do you mean?"
"Well... the usual pattern is courtship, marriage, and then foals. But we're both mares, and, well..."
"Foals are not impossible. We could adopt, to begin with."
Twilight blushed and gave an embarrassed little throat-clearing. "I know. Or get a, ah, surrogate stallion. I know a few mares who have."
"Indeed."
"I just... I'm not sure if I want foals. For that matter, I'm not entirely sure about marriage." She paused and looked at Celestia, who was still regarding her with that questioning expression, though one corner of her mouth had turned up slightly in amusement. "I mean I'm not trying to say I don't want to marry you! If I was going to marry anypony, there's only one pony I would, and that's you! Just... a double royal wedding." She shuddered. She wasn't Fluttershy; she didn't have nightmares about watching eyes, but the idea of being at the center of an event like that was still mildly terrifying. Though there would certainly be a great many checklists to make and check off...
"We could always elope," said Celestia, her smile broadening slightly.
Twilight blinked. "Uhm..."
"There would be a certain amount of fallout, and some of the worse news outlets would have a field day. Certain world leaders might also be offended at not being invited. But it is still an option."
"Oh. Well. I don't know, though. I'm not sure I want to cause multiple diplomatic incidents just to get married. I... do you want to get married?"
Celestia's smile warmed and she reached out a hoof to put it over Twilight's. "I want to be with you. That's the thing that matters most to me."
Twilight smiled, feeling a warm spark flare up inside her at Celestia's words. "I want to be with you too. Marriage... maybe someday, I don't know. But I'm happy without it."
"And are you happy without foals as well?"
"I... Oh geez. I don't even know. I mean, I love being Flurry Heart's aunt, that has been an amazing experience. Watching her grow is wonderful and surprising and rewarding in so many ways! So I can picture being a parent, and it being like that, but even more so. But I also know how much it's disrupted Shiny's life, and Cadance's even more than that! And they have the ability to have basically infinite nannies to help out. Which I guess we would too, so there's that. But still, it's a big responsibility, and even though I've thought about it sometimes, and imagined it, I'm not sure I actually want it. Uhm. What about you?"
Celestia sighed softly then. "I have mixed feelings as well. There was a time, long past, when I might have chosen a family rather than rule. I let that choice slip away from me then. I think back on it sometimes and wonder... Yet as you say, it would change much. I think my greatest worry is that it might change what we have between us. That is very precious to me. Having another person in our relationship... how could that leave anything unchanged? Yet I think I do want foals, eventually." Her eyes went distant as she continued. "It's always been easy to add that 'eventually' on, and remind myself that I am immortal, and put off that day just another year or two. Yet another year or two once turned into decades, and then the moment had passed."
"You'd regret doing that again?"
"I think so." She caressed Twilight's hoof again and reached out with a wing as well, brushing her feathers along Twilight's side as she added, "It's a regret I could live with, if you decide you don't want foals. So don't feel obliged to have them simply because of my feelings."
Twilight nodded. "I won't. Knowing how you feel makes a difference in how I decide, though. I'm not just one pony, I'm your special somepony, and that means I want to make you happy."
"Not if you'll make yourself miserable, though."
"I know. Though I guess I don't really know, to be honest. The idea of raising a foal with you is particularly appealing in many ways." She grinned suddenly. "You'd make beautiful babies! And maybe them being not genetically both of ours would be a good thing. I mean, heaven help us if we have any alicorns! Flurry Heart nearly destroyed the Crystal Empire more than once."
Celestia chuckled. "Indeed. I'm sometimes not sure how we all survived those years."
Desserts were suddenly slid in front of them both with quick, quiet professionalism, and they paused while they tasted them. The conversation turned back to the food, and desserts in general, and they lightheartedly compared donuts to cake and bonbons to peppermints through the last of their meal.
When it was done and the bill settled—Celestia had had to insist on paying; the restaurant's owner had wanted to waive the bill—the pair once more took wing side by side.
The night was fully dark now, a crescent moon shining above. Celestia was a shimmering white glow in the darkness beside Twilight, and the wash of her wings a cool presence. She had the thought that they could just fly like this forever, together in the starlit sky, fly over the palace and away, out to some trackless wilderness or distant shore, fly until the dawn came and then fly on still...
She sighed softly as they landed on the balcony and left her little dream of infinite sky behind, but then Celestia turned to her and kissed her and she had no more sighs, save those of pleasure, shared together in a different sort of infinity in the darkness of their room.
Twilight dreamed again that night.
She found herself walking the streets of a massive city. Sleek carts that drew themselves rushed along the streets. Overhead, winged traffic threaded through convoluted lanes of flying vehicles that streaked amid gleaming towers of glass and steel. Everything was bright and clean and often even beautiful. The great towers were adorned with gardens that crowded their roofs, rioted in green on their balconies, and sometimes spilled down their sides in trails of leaves and flowers.
The city reminded her of Manehattan, and a few of the smaller skyscrapers were definitely landmarks from the Manehattan she knew, but they were dwarfed by the grand structures surrounding them.
Ponies and other creatures thronged the streets around her. Some were dressed strangely, or carried devices she didn't recognize. There were species she didn't recognize too, but like the buildings, many were familiar.
There was a ripple of sudden excitement from the crowd of pedestrians. Many stopped and pointed up, and she heard excited murmurs of "The Queen!" all around her. She looked up too, and saw that the sky was clear above the street where she stood, all the air traffic having been directed elsewhere. Directly overhead a sky chariot, not entirely unlike the sort she knew, drawn by four pegasi, was passing. From this angle she could see nothing of the occupant, yet her heart leapt.
Perhaps it was Celestia. She took to the air herself, chasing after the chariot. It was headed towards the heart of the city, where the towers were tallest. The clear skies around it made it easy for Twilight to follow. She saw uniformed ponies at the intersections, directing traffic and fliers away from the chariot's route, but they seemed to take no notice of her. She pumped her wings faster, hoping to catch up. The chariot's high back still hid any glimpse of whoever might be riding it, but she was certain that she needed to find this person, to see them.
Surely it would be Celestia, despite the paradox of the title Celestia had always refused to take.
Why else would her heart be drawn so stridently after this mysterious Queen? She flew a little faster, desperate to finally catch up and be with the one she yearned after so, but just as she was drawing level with the chariot the dream dissolved around her, like a chalk drawing in the rain, and she found herself lying in bed, awake. Her heart was pounding, her wings twitching as if she had actually been flying, and she felt an immense frustration that she hadn't been able to catch up, to see this Queen.
Yet Celestia was beside her, and as she lay in the warm dark with her love she felt her tension flowing away. Celestia was there. It had only been a dream. All was well.
Later, when Twilight woke again some hours after sunrise, she found the dream still vivid in her mind. She decided to take a little bit of time and go consult with Princess Luna, assuming she was still awake.
The guards stationed beside the ebony doors of Luna's suite let Twilight in, and she found the parlor was shrouded in dramatic gloom. The lighting there tended to change depending on Luna's mood and the time of the month. The moon was waning right now, so the darkness didn't worry Twilight. Luna herself was nowhere to be seen, so Twilight ventured onwards, into Luna's studio.
This proved to be brightly lit, to better aid Luna in her work, and she found her fellow princess there, hock-deep in a pile of clay, which she was kneading vigorously.
"Good day, Twilight! What brings you here?"
"I had another weird dream, and I wanted to ask you about it."
"Tell on, then." Luna slammed the wad of clay she was kneading against the canvas-covered table she was reared up beside. Twilight twitched slightly at the sudden sound, but nodded and started to describe the dream to Luna. The regular loud thuds of the princess slapping clay about made Twilight pause frequently, but eventually she finished.
"And then I woke up, and it was still the middle of the night, so I just went back to sleep. That's what makes this seem so weird. Usually I forget dreams like that. Maybe I'll remember some tiny snippet, but the whole thing is still really clear. It's odd. It makes me think it must mean something."
"Perhaps it does." The clay thudded again. "Do you wish me to attempt to walk into your dreams, when next you sleep?"
Twilight nodded. "If you don't mind, yes."
"It would be both my pleasure and my duty," said Luna, smiling.
"Thank you," said Twilight. Luna slammed the clay down again, and Twilight asked, "What are you making?"
"I have no idea." Luna grinned. "The muse will speak as I go. I suspect it may be a sculpture, perhaps in clay first and then later in bronze... But perhaps not. Today I have no plans."
"I see. Well, I'm afraid I do have plans, since there's going to be a Dusk Court today. So I'll leave you to it."
"Fare well, then," said Luna and returned her full attention to the clay. Twilight had no idea why she kept slamming it into the table. Presumably this served some purpose, but she'd spoken the truth when she said she had plans, so she couldn't stick around and ask. Today would be a busy day.
Dusk Court was, though, at dusk as one might expect, so she had many things to do first. As she trotted away from Luna's chambers she headed down towards the Royal Library. She'd been in charge of instituting a new system of organizing and tracking periodicals, especially scientific journals, which promised to be very important for future research all across Equestria. Twilight was of the opinion that the importance of organized references couldn't possibly be overestimated.
She held Dusk Court every other week. Each of the three princesses in Canterlot had their own role and their own tasks, which were somewhat self-appointed, somewhat by mutual agreement, and occasionally by request of the other branches of government. Celestia did much of the visible governing, holding Day Court each day and attending a great many public events, though both other princesses did that last also. Luna in particular was a patron of the arts, as well as an artist. Her Night Court happened by her whim and by the cycles of the moon. It was an odd sort of construction and very frustrating for a pony like Twilight who believed strongly in proper scheduling, but it seemed to work for many ponies. One had to turn up and see if court was in session, and no appointments were made—it was first come, first served, but it somehow was always busy while never being overwhelmingly packed.
Twilight's court was strictly by appointment only, and she required full briefings on exactly what petitions any given pony wished to bring before her well before they arrived. Celestia had her own rather convoluted system that she'd developed over the years.
The bi-weekly courts were a good way for Twilight to keep in touch with what was going on in Equestria, she felt, and a good way to remain a visible presence as a princess while conducting most of her actual work behind the scenes. She conducted, sponsored, organized, and even sometimes personally funded a wide assortment of projects, centering mostly on the sciences as Luna centered mostly on the arts.
It was, perhaps, a bit of an unusual system. Twilight wasn't aware of any other nations that had anything like it, but so far it seemed to work quite well. Some ponies preferred one princess while some preferred another, but all were able to find a way to redress their grievances or petition the government that suited them.
Arriving at the Library, Twilight set her musings aside and dove into the organization problem, only coming up when Spike arrived with lunch. The now-teenage dragon had finally enrolled in a conventional school, since Twilight had become too busy to tutor him properly. That had been a sad moment for her, but he still made sure she ate lunch while on his own lunch breaks, and occasionally checked her studio and shooed her off to bed before going to sleep; both things she appreciated greatly, and both things that kept their bond alive, even if they saw each other much less often than they once had.
"Life marches forward," murmured Twilight around a mouthful of daisies.
"What was that?" asked Spike, pausing as he crunched a plate of second-quality emeralds.
"Nothing, really. Just thinking about life's changes. Things have changed completely for me several times. Becoming Celestia's student, moving to Ponyville, becoming a princess, dating Celestia, moving back to Canterlot... I'm sure there are a lot more changes coming, too."
"Yeah, probably. Good changes, I hope."
"I hope so too! All the ones I just listed were good changes. Hard, sometimes, because you leave old things behind, but good."
"Yeah."
After lunch, Twilight did several more hours of work at the library, then she went to prepare for Dusk Court. She met her secretary, Quick Quill, in the little antechamber behind the throne room. The room itself was currently empty, since Day Court was held in the morning and Dusk Court after dinner. Quick Quill was carrying a stack of paper, and Twilight had to keep herself from snatching it from the stallion. She waited until he set it down at the small desk on one side of the room, then swiftly seated herself in front of it. She didn't quite have the close working relationship with Quick that Celestia had with Raven, but he did do a very good job of managing her schedule and keeping up with the paperwork her method of holding court required.
"Thank you," she said sincerely, and then she couldn't hold herself back any more, she dove into the stack. Studying! It was the best part of holding court, as far as she was concerned. The problems brought before here were often extremely mundane, but even those tended to have little interesting quirks, and some of the more outré issues she was presented with, well...
Quick stayed in the room so that she could send him in search of any additional materials her studying turned out to require, and she did indeed have him run down to the library, the archives, or once even to Celestia herself to request a book Twilight knew she had in her personal collection.
Each issue was examined in detail, its history researched, and potential solutions exhaustively considered as Twilight worked her way through the stack. She finished just as a distant chime from the grand clock in the nearby formal ballroom told her it was dinner.
With another thanks to Quick, Twilight set the stack of papers down, neatly ordered once again, and stacked the reference books and scrolls into several neat piles, organized by source so they could be efficiently returned to their proper places.
That done, she left the room and trotted towards the formal dining room. Dinner tonight would be a somewhat involved affair—there was an ambassadorial delegation from Saddle Arabia at the palace currently, so dinners would be formal for at least a week. She was well used to formal dinners by now, though, so it passed easily enough. So did her court, thanks to her preparation and the extensive paperwork. In the past, she'd had a few cases where the paperwork had been filled out incorrectly. For the most part, it was likely by error, but there had been at least one time where she suspected a deliberate deception. The thorough chewing-out she had given the ponies responsible for wasting her time with incorrect information seemed to have discouraged repeat offenders, she hadn't had that particular problem crop up for months now.
With her duties finally done at the end of a long day, she fell into bed beside Celestia, who cuddled up next to her immediately. Twilight sighed contentedly and buried her muzzle in Celestia's coat. She inhaled her love's warm scent—musk and sun-warmed grass—and then let out all of her tension in one long breath. Life was good.
Yet as she lay in bed, she found her mind suddenly jumping back to the conversation they'd had the previous evening. Life was good, yes. Perhaps it would be better to leave things as they were. Yet there were things missing. Marriage. Foals. Did she want those things? She'd told Spike that the changes she'd experienced so far had been for the better. Would those changes be good too, or would she regret them?
And would she regret it if she put them off, and missed her chance to have them? Those thoughts lingered in her mind, and it was longer than she'd expected after such a busy day before sleep finally claimed her.
Twilight opened her eyes on another strange city. This one was not constructed of massive towers, however, but of buildings that were mostly low and practical in appearance, with few windows and even fewer decorations. They were not ugly, though, but had a kind of stark, simple beauty to them. Over them arched a clear dome that shimmered faintly with magic, and beyond it the stars burned in an impossibly black sky, though the sun was high overhead.
Ponies and other beings moved all around Twilight. Vehicles here were few. Many flew, and those that walked moved in a strange, bounding gait. Twilight took a step, and found herself bouncing as well, though she had not leaped. All this clicked together in her mind and she realized that she must be on the moon, where the low gravity would amplify every movement. She leaped, and jumped higher than her head had been. She let out a delighted laugh and jumped again, then looked around to see if anyone had noticed. The people around her, both pony and otherwise, all seemed oblivious to her presence, though. She shrugged and began walking, bounding along the street, looking for anything of interest.
Before long she came to a building, the tallest of those she'd encountered so far, that bore Luna's cutie mark emblazoned over the door, which was broader and taller than any of the other doors she'd passed. It stood open, and people passed in and out freely, so Twilight walked inside.
Thestral guards dressed in strange, elaborate armor that covered everything but their faces flanked the door just inside, but they took no notice of Twilight's passage. Their eyes tracked everyone else who passed. Twilight frowned, and wondered why she was so invisible. Something strange was going on.
The hall she was in led eventually to a large staircase, that swept up in one straight flight to another set of guard-flanked doors. These too stood open and led to a huge room, which she swiftly realized was a throne room. At the far end a giant window, the largest she had seen by far, looked out over the city, the dome, and the empty moonscape beyond. Before it, on a low dais, stood a great, dark throne, and upon that sat Princess Luna.
Seeing her, memory rushed through Twilight's mind. She'd seen Luna earlier, and had asked her to step into her dreams and tell her if they meant anything. She was dreaming, that was why everything was so strange! Of course.
The realization of the dream didn't seem to change anything, though. Normally Twilight only had the thought that she was dreaming just before waking, but this dream simply continued. She was still standing at the top of the stairs, the guards were still ignoring her, and Luna was still sitting on her throne within.
Twilight gave a little mental shrug and walked forward, into the throne room.
Luna looked up from the conversation she'd been having with a creature Twilight didn't recognize, and her gaze locked with Twilight's, the first pony in the dream to be able to see her. Luna's expression was puzzled for a moment, then her eyes went wide. "Twilight Sparkle!" she said.
The creature she spoke with looked around as well, but it's small, beady eyes passed right over Twilight. "Your Highness?"
"Come, draw near me," said Luna, beckoning.
"Who are you speaking to?" asked the creature.
Luna looked over at it and nodded once. "To a phantom of the past, it seems. Permit me a moment and I shall return to our business shortly."
The creature nodded and stepped away from the throne. Twilight walked up to it, looking around the throne room, which was lined with more thestral guards in their strange armor, and thronged with other beings, both familiar and strange. "Princess Luna," she said as she approached. "I think I'm dreaming."
"It would explain much," said Luna. "I dream and I do not dream. That of me which does not dream sees you as a vision of the past."
"The past?"
"Indeed. You are as I knew you many centuries gone, when you ruled beside my sister and myself, on Equestria below."
"So... this is the future."
"From your point of view, yes."
"And... you talk like I don't rule Equestria anymore."
"You do not."
Twilight felt her gut knot. "Who does, then?"
"Aurora, Queen of the Dawn, does," was Luna's reply. "She had led Equestria, and all the world, into an era of unmatched peace and prosperity."
Twilight shook her head. The mysterious Queen now had a name, but she was no less mysterious for that. "But... who is she?"
"She is also known as Aurora The Well Beloved," said Luna, and something about that seemed to amuse her, for she smiled. "It is a title well earned. All love her, including myself. She it was who drove the space program, which allowed this thriving colony here on my own moon, which I now rule. Though that is least among the reasons why I love her."
"I don't understand. What about Celestia?" Even as she spoke, Twilight felt the dream begin to dissolve around her. "Where is Celestia?" she cried out, and she heard the faintest ghost of Luna's voice say, "Fear not, Twilight..." but whatever else she might have said faded away with the dream and was gone.
Twilight woke in confusion, in the darkness that comes just before the dawn, and when she felt the warm bulk of Celestia beside her in bed she turned and clung to her, wrapping her hooves tightly around her. She couldn't qualify any of her recent dreams as nightmares, but the fact that Celestia seemed to have been replaced by this Queen Aurora in them was disturbing to her.
If they were true visions of the future, why wasn't Celestia there?
Celestia turned, half asleep, and held Twilight, and her fears calmed slowly. Luna had not seemed distressed or upset, and her last words had been for Twilight to "fear not". She should trust that, and not let her fears get away from her.
"Twilight?" said Celestia drowsily, nuzzling against her. "Is everything alright?"
"I had another dream. It wasn't a nightmare, but you still weren't in it. I keep looking for you in these dreams, and all I find are ponies talking about this Queen instead. Who I guess has replaced you. It makes me worry. Why am I dreaming about a future where you've been replaced?"
"I don't know," said Celestia, and she squeezed Twilight a little more tightly. "But here in the real world I don't plan on going anywhere."
"That's good," replied Twilight, and buried her muzzle against Celestia's chest. Celestia smiled and stroked her mane soothingly, and the pair rested together like that for a time.
Eventually, however, Celestia said, "The sun must rise soon."
Twilight heaved a sigh. "I suppose I'll let you get up, then." She released Celestia and scooted back in the bed a bit. Celestia leaned over and gave her a soft kiss before rising and preparing for her day. Twilight rolled over in the bed, sprawling across the warm spot Celestia had left. She yawned, but found that she was too awake to simply fall back asleep. With a shrug she too rose and set about her morning grooming.
She tagged along after Celestia as she went to the balcony where the sun was raised and lowered each day. Luna was already there, and the brief ritual of changing night to day took place while Twilight stood aside and watched. She could sense the profound and powerful magic at work there, and it was always fascinating.
When it was over, Twilight approached Luna.
"Ah, Twilight. You wish to speak with me about your dream last night, yes?"
"Yes. I saw you in the dream, but I don't think it was actually you."
"It was not. I found your dream, and was able to watch it progress from without, but I was barred from entering by some power."
"So the dreams do mean something."
Luna nodded. "Likely, yes. I suspect they are sendings."
"Sendings?"
"Dreams that are crafted, shaped, and sent out. I make them at times myself, both as an art form and as a way to reach ponies that I cannot help any other way."
"Who would be sending me weird dreams about the future? And... I still don't know if they're real, if that's actually the future or just some kind of fantasy."
"I cannot say," said Luna, shaking her head. "I know of no other ponies, nor other beings capable of crafting sendings. A few knew the art in ages past, but none know it now. Yet if they are in truth from the future they might be sent by some pony not yet born, that I would have no way of knowing."
"Could they be dangerous?"
Luna solemnly nodded. "Yes. Dreams may plant ideas deep within the mind, deliberately or by chance. Yet, I sensed nothing of malice, nor did I see anything that might do you harm in the dream I witnessed last night."
"Well that's good, at least."
"If these dreams concern you, I can prevent them from reaching you. Sendings can be blocked."
Twilight frowned, considering this. The dreams might be dangerous, it was true. There could be some plan, some plot against her behind them. Whoever sent them was getting some kind of access to her mind, and that was at least a little bit worrying. But if Luna blocked them, then Twilight would never figure out what they meant.
Finally she shook her head. "No. I'd appreciate it if you kept an eye out for them, and let me know if you see anything dangerous in any of them, but I want to know more, and the best way I can think of to do that is to keep having them."
"Aye." Luna nodded approvingly. "Best to seek out danger, rather than hide from it."
"It's more that I'm really curious," said Twilight, blushing just a little bit. "But yes."
"I go now to have my dinner before retiring for the day." Luna nodded at the exit, where Celestia had already departed. "Will you come dine with my sister and I?"
"Of course."
Twilight went about the rest of her day as usual, but the dreams kept floating through her thoughts no matter what else she was doing. Questions about what the dreams meant and who had sent them haunted her throughout her work at the library, during the lecture she gave the the School for Gifted Unicorns, all through another formal dinner with the Saddle Arabians, and all the way until she was once again cuddled up next to Celestia in bed.
"Bit for your thoughts?" asked Celestia as they lay side by side in the cool darkness.
Twilight gave a little shrug. "Thinking about those dreams again. I wish I knew if they were real. I mean, if the future I saw in them was something real, or just something made up by whoever is sending them."
"Didn't you say at breakfast the other day that you should try using the runes you saw in the first one?"
Twilight's eyes snapped open. "Yes! I'd completely forgotten."
"Do you still remember any of the runes?"
"Maybe. There was one that was just beautifully elegant, that had to do with movement. I think I could reconstruct that one, at least."
"Then that's what you should do."
"And maybe there will be runes in the dream again tonight. I'll try to pay more attention to details like that."
"Good idea. But if you are to dream, first you must sleep."
"Hah. Yeah." Twilight closed her eyes again, and tucked her head against Celestia's warm coat. "Love you," she murmured as she stilled her mind and sought slumber.
"Love you," Celestia replied softly. She closed her own eyes as well and spread a wing over Twilight. Together they drifted off into slumber.
She woke slowly the next morning, well after sunrise. At first her mind simply wandered vaguely. Then she remembered the dreams, and felt a wash of disappointment that she hadn't had one, or at least not one she could remember. That probably meant she hadn't, all things considered. But then her pulse jumped as she recalled her conversation with Celestia. She had work to do!
Teleporting straight from bed to the bathroom, Twilight brushed her hair and teeth as quickly as she could, then teleported again to her office. To her delight she found Quick Quill already away, doing a little bit of morning paperwork.
"Quick Quill! Can my schedule be cleared this morning?"
"Yes, Your Highness. You were scheduled to oversee further reorganization at the library, but that's not on any particular deadline, as you know. You have nothing else until after lunch, when there's an appearance at a foal's parade, which Celestia couldn't make it to due to a double-booking with the new hospital wing ribbon cutting."
"Right. Excellent. I'll be in my studio all morning, then. Have somepony come get me an hour before the parade."
"Yes, Your Highness." Quick Quill didn't even blink when Twilight simply teleported away again. He was quite used to his employer's quirks.
Twilight had no idea that she had been somewhat rude to her secretary; she was too busy rummaging around in her studio for a quill and paper. She was only good at social graces when she stopped to think about them. Enthusiasm about a magical project always tended to overwhelm her ability to stop and think about anything else.
She began by tracing the rune she knew well. If you treated it as a word, it said "lift" and was the rune for levitation. Of course one could levitate without ever having seen the rune—levitation was an innate and natural skill. Most simple spells could be performed without runes. More complicated magic, however, benefited from the organization runes provided, and a properly designed rune could be much more powerful, or much more precise, or otherwise much more useful than an unfocused, natural spell.
Twilight was good enough to seldom need runes, but she liked them. They were efficient. They were also predictable. The same rune, written the same way, and empowered with the same amount of energy, would always produce the exact same result.
The levitation rune that Twilight had just written would lift whatever it was written on with a certain amount of acceleration, relative to the power fed into it. The rune could be modified to point in a particular direction, and then it would go that direction. Twilight had just written it down as a starting point, though. The rune from the dream had been based on the levitation rune, but it had been a beautiful looping spiral of conjoined versions of it, which would funnel and focus power in an amazingly efficient manner, if Twilight had been reading it correctly. It should lift whatever it was written on with an order of magnitude more energy relative to the input.
She sketched out a rough version of the design and nodded. It was shaped something like that, but that wasn't quite perfect.
Some time and quite a few sheets of paper later, Twilight had a neat, smooth, beautifully elegant rune that was, as best she could tell, an exact copy of the one that had helped power the great ship from her first dream. She considered simply activating it where it was, but the paper was likely to shred itself if the rune as as effective as she hoped it would be.
Of course, the whole idea could be nonsense. Just because it was similar to a levitation rune didn't mean it would levitate. The looping design looked like it would focus energy, but it might just send the power around in useless circles, doing nothing at all. There was no way to tell without testing it.
Twilight rummaged around in her various supply drawers and boxes until she found a smooth, round river stone she'd picked up somewhere. Perfect. Then, picking up her quill with her magic again she carefully copied the new rune onto the stone. She would have teleported, but carrying an unknown magical item while hopping through a dimensional vortex was a very bad idea. So instead, she walked through the hall to the suite she shared with Celestia, and out onto their balcony. That would be a good spot to test the spell. She held the stone up, orienting it so it should head towards the Canterhorn, and checked for pegasi in flight. The sky was clear, so she tapped her back hoof for luck and dropped a carefully-measured spark of power into the rune.
It lit with a clear blue light and then in an instant, so fast she couldn't even see it happen, the stone took off like a rocket. It was gone in a single eye-blink, leaving a long streak of blue light behind it. Twilight's jaw dropped.
"Holy shit," she said, stunned into a rare curse.
The rune was real.
Were the dreams real too?
Twilight dreamed again that night.
She found herself standing in front of her parents’ house in Canterlot. Yet, the familiar home was different. The garden was thickly planted with flowers, neatly and perfectly tended, which Twilight's mother had never quite been able to manage. The curtains were all different colors. Perhaps they had hired a gardener, and redecorated? Then she saw a plaque on the wall, the sort of little bronze marker used on historical buildings.
She stepped close and saw that it read, "The birthplace of Princess Twilight Sparkle" with a little paragraph of mostly-correct details about her parents and childhood beneath it.
Twilight blinked at it, feeling confused. When had that been installed? Surely somepony would have told her about it? She looked around, and found that though the house and street were familiar, there were buildings she didn't know mixed with those she did. Some of them reminded her of the dream she'd had, though they were shorter than the great skyscrapers of that strange city. The people around here were like those in the dream too. Ponies seemed to be the most numerous, but far more members of other species walked among them than she could ever recall seeing in Canterlot.
Of course. She was dreaming again, and this was the future, where a Queen Aurora had replaced Celestia.
Celestia! Twilight's hooves began running along the path that led from her home to the palace without her consciously deciding to go. She knew that path so well—and she ought to, for as many times as she'd walked it during her childhood.
Everything was at once familiar and strange. There were more of the old buildings she knew preserved here than in what had probably been Manehattan, but there were still so many new buildings replacing the old familiar ones, and the mixture of what she expected and what she didn't was jarring.
Despite that, the way was still achingly familiar, and Twilight ran faster and faster until she reached the palace itself. She half expected the gates to be shut and barred against her, but they stood open. The guards flanking the gate were almost familiar, too. They were the white pegusi she expected, but their armor was strange, somehow both sleeker and more bulky than the armor she saw every day in her waking life. They ignored her as she passed between them and ran inside.
Her hooves clattered on the stone floors of the palace. Things here were even more familiar, less changed, yet the changes were all the more jarring for that. Celestia's sun, Luna's moon, and even her own six-pointed star were here and there on the banners and decorations, but a different mark, a straight-rayed sun, dominated.
Twilight's heart jumped each time she saw one of Celestia's solar marks. Surely that meant Celestia might be here after all? This Aurora might reign, but Celestia, changeless Celestia, eternal Celestia, could not possibly be gone, no matter how distant this future was.
The sun itself, glimpsed outside the broad palace windows as Twilight raced past, was setting, and Twilight felt a kind of panic rise in her. The sun would set, and Celestia would be gone, never to return. It was irrational and foolish, but the thought wouldn't leave her mind. The unseen Aurora would replace Celestia, and Twilight would never see her love again.
She raced into the throne room and skidded to a halt on the carpet before the throne. She hardly noticed that the rest of the room was empty, for her eyes were fixed solely on the figure that sat there.
For just an instant she thought it was Celestia. The pony there was as tall, her horn as long, her hair waving as majestically, but even by the ruddy light of the setting sun, Twilight could tell that her coat, though pale, was not white. It was a pinkish purple, and her hair had many of the same colors, but there was less of green and more of pink in it. Her heart sank. Celestia was not there.
The pony on the throne regarded her with interest, a hint of a smile touching wide, curious eyes. "My sending worked, I see."
Twilight looked up at the mare who must be Aurora and tried not to let disappointment color her reply. "I guess."
"I am Aurora."
"Where is Celestia?" asked Twilight, and her wings twitched uneasily as she did so.
Aurora smiled, and for a moment the smile was heartbreakingly like Celestia's. She was so very similar, and yet obviously different. Who was she? Where had she come from? "I believe right now Celestia is with you, at your castle in Ponyville."
Twilight blinked. "With me? I don't understand. I don't understand any of this. Is this... this future real? Who are you? Why did you send these dreams to me?"
The smile widened and Aurora's eyes twinkled. "Oh my. Mother was right to say that she was much more easily flustered when she was young. I apologize for confusing you. But as for why I sent these dreams to you... You suggested I should, Mother."
Twilight gaped. Mother? She stared at the mare on the throne. It was completely ridiculous, but the idea slotted into place in her head as naturally as any axiom ever had. "My daughter."
"I will be, yes. Yours, and Celestia's. Though I'm told I take more after her than I do after you."
Twilight tried not to gape again. "That's supposed to be impossible."
She gave a little head toss and laughed. "When has 'impossible' ever stopped you, Mother?"
Twilight laughed too, a little shakily. "You're right. I've done the impossible more than once already."
Aurora rose and descended towards Twilight. "You will find a way. Not just for me, but all my siblings, too." The twinkle was back in her eye as she added, "I won't spoil things by telling you how many, or what order we arrive in." Then she was standing before Twilight, tall and regal and beautiful, and Twilight could see in that instant how she encompassed all the best of both Celestia and herself. Not only in her person, but in the Equestria she had built, in everything from the elegance of her runes to the place Luna had on her beloved moon.
Aurora bent her head and gave Twilight a nuzzling hug, spreading one wing to brush the primaries along her side affectionately. Twilight hugged her back.
"I know you will find a way," said Aurora, and then the dream was fading, the warmth of her daughter's embrace turning to the warmth of the blankets wrapped around her.
As she lay in the pre-dawn darkness, with Celestia once more reassuringly beside her, Twilight knew that Aurora was right.
Author's Note
Thank you all for reading.
Special thanks to my Patreon patrons, without whom I would not be able to justify spending time writing that I could be spending on work.
Also thanks to everyone who's written other Twilestia stories. I totally steal little bits and pieces from other authors. This one in particular owes a few things to bigbear, whose Teatime is truly lovely.
And of course thanks to Jordanis, who is the best editor an author could ask for.
