As an Ancient Airship Flies
“You believe the new emperor and the bat mare to be connected.” Luna doesn’t so much accuse as she states with a tone that makes it very clear she thinks this is something obvious. Which, to her, it was. Even a thousand years apart she still was able to read her older sibling like an open book.
Celestia dipped at yet another cup of tea. Her fourth today if Luna remembered correctly. They were walking toward the airship docks now, almost there in fact, while royal guard walked or ran around them. Shift changes, messengers, and airship crewponies were all working hard today to make sure that when the princesses left, it would be with little hassle.
Celestia has no doubt had to sweet talk and wrangle the nobles in and outside of the council to be able to get an entire week for the both of them like this. Luna was a no fool. The council liked to believe they held more power than they actually had and the only thing holding Celestia back from disbanding them all together at this rate were the few good ones in the mix.
“And what makes you think that?”
“We are going to fly in an airship when we could simply teleport to both locations. Just the fact that both of these things were made aware to us at the same time cannot be a coincidence, sister. You even brought up those dreams I was traveling and trying to piece together before I went mad!”
“You do bring up good points.” The larger white alicorn neither confirmed nor denied any of that. “I must ask you though, when you finally see the inspiration for your guards, mm, aesthetic. The mare whose unfathomable dreamscape started you down that path of dream interpretation and the foundation for modern psychology as we understand it. What will you do?”
Oh.
So that’s what her game had been. To know what Luna would do with this first half of their trip?
“Well, I-“ Luna started to say before she could really think, backpedaling when no plan formed in her mind, “I would talk to her.”
Celestia nods her head and hums in this way like she knew this would be the kind of answer she’d receive.
“Just talk?”
“Well, what would you suggest then, sister? That we ask how she came to be the way that she is? That we ask where she plans to make her home?” Perhaps they should also ask if thestrals truly existed and if she was the only one of her kind before her ascension. That would go over really well, Luna thought to herself with a grumbling sarcastic tone.
Celestia stopped in front of the door that would lead to the hanger which housed the airship they’d be taking for this trip, “That second question is a good one. I hadn’t thought of it.”
Luna snorted, “Oh please.”
“No, really. I hadn’t thought to ask as, by the letter, it appeared that this alicorn has been around for centuries and yet we’ve never seen or heard of her before your dreamwalking came across her. That she all but disappeared during those thousand years and that not one of these others she mentioned not even her relative, Rose, has shown up in that time either. No, I had thought that wherever she made her home, whether it be the griffin lands or elsewhere, it is quite remote and she doesn't wish to be disturbed.”
“You’re worried.”
“No.” She opens the door to reveal the hanger, finally, teleporting her now empty cup back to the kitchens, “Just cautious. Our homeland may be lost to us now, but that doesn’t mean it is lost to others or that we were the only ones to have left.”
But Luna wasn’t focused on her sister’s words at that moment.
“Okay. Okay, but consider that you are the best sister an alicorn could ever ask for?”
Cue a raised eyebrow in her direction.
“You created a replica of my Wandering Star!”
Realization dawned on her face and Luna thinks she was about to go and explain before the white alicorn burst out laughing. Right there in front of the royal guard who paused for a brief moment to listen and wonder. Right there in front of Luna’s prized airship that had won her both many a race as well as many a battle.
“I’m. I'm sorry Luna. No. This is hardly a replica. I wouldn’t know where to begin and blueprints were never found for it. No. This is the original.”
“You preserves it.” Preservation magic wasn’t complicated, but the amount of magic it took to renew it over and over for near to a thousand years? That she did this spoke more than Celestia’s words could say.
“Yes. Yes, we of course had to tweak a few things to keep it to code and regulations but I personally made sure that any changes made, as you weren’t aware, were only those ne- Luna. Luna. You’re kind of choking me.”
Oops.
“Do you want to go check the inside?”
Luna was already trotting up the ramp and through the entrance. She barely registered the, “Guess I don’t have to ask twice.”
No, Luna wasn't going to let that previous conversation just lie there where they had left it, but there were other matters that currently needed her attention. Such as seeing exactly what all has changed according to these new modern standards. From what she sees almost immediately upon entering, none of the pipework is exposed as some of it had been before. The steam when one of them broke had admittedly caused problems so Luna only paid it a passing thought. The exposed walkways on the outside had new guard rails. Luna could hear one of the crewponies inside arguing with somepony, likely a technician or designer for the updates, about hallway width, ceiling height for the pegasi that would be aboard, and emergency exits, but turned down another hall before she could draw too close and interrupt.
There were the quarters for the crewponies, she marks off a checklist and mental map as she trots, and the small kitchen and cafe she'd be passing just up ahead. The engines were down below, more toward the back, but that's not where she was headed. No, Luna's destination was her personal rooms. They held papers, information she'd written down about the weird dreams and notes on the pony dreamscape before her fall. The night alicorn also, once she reached a lift to bring her up a level, reached out to teleport some of her more recent notes to her side. Ones that she'd written down as soon as she could think to, that pertain to the dreams of those she'd wandered whilst slumbering on the moon.
Celestia catches up to her as soon as she trots through the door, having also teleported a chocolate doughnut to her from the castle kitchens in the meantime. No use in studying over an empty stomach.
The larger alicorn closes the door behind her, taking her time to look around while Luna beelined for her desk where rolled up scrolls and half-filled parchment littered it and the floor around it. Mere seconds later, the solar diarch found several of the filled scrolls bumping into her muzzle.
"Luna," She takes the papers into her telekinetic grasp and opened them up, "What's all these..." It takes her a minute to process what's on the first one her eyes fall on, "May I send them over to Dr. Code?"
Luna was already bobbing her head by the end of her sister's question, "Yes, yes, you may do just that. Wait... Isn't Dr. Code the one that evaluated me when I first got back?" She'd liked her. All wit, that one.
"The very same." With a blink of amber gold light, the scrolls were gone, presumably now on the pegasi's desk. She'd know what to do with them when she arrives sometime in the next few hours.
"Good, good. Wouldn't trust anyone else to do it, to be honest with you." Celestia rolled her eyes and huffs.
"She's the only one you know of in her field, currently."
"My statement still stands." And with that, Luna was back to focusing on the papers that were left and the ones she'd brought in with her. She shoved aside clutter and removed other documents that had been pinned to a corkboard to make room for these some odd dozen. By the end of it, it looked as if a conspiracy theorist had taken to it.
Celestia debated in her mind whether or not she should teleport some coffee in here to complete the image before dismissing it. Luna has already had enough for the morn- oh. Well. Maybe not enough, actually, if Luna was bringing in here boxes her favorite flavor and a kirineg to make more.
"Okay, so." She gets herself settled on a large cushion and listens because the likelihood of the lunar alicorn going on a full ramble was nearing its peak.
Maybe she shouldn't have encouraged her and Twilight to bond and interact more? No, no that was a silly thought. The jargon, whatever that came up that she didn't know, she'd simply have to summon a dictionary for if she didn't understand it.
"So," She repeats after a beat where Luna is just standing there skimming over the board that's organized in a way Twilight would definitely have a fit over.
"So we have fourteen different... outliars in the dream realm. One of which," Here she points to one of the papers that was only halfway filled, "is the one we are going to go see now in- when are we leaving?"
Celestia waves her to continue as she replies, "In an hour. The crew still needs to make final preparations and get the engine ready."
"Right. Right. She's the one that we will be seeing within the day. The other thirteen are still, regretfully, unknowns. I do not remember everything that I had done in that realm while on the moon. It all mostly felt like one of my own dreams, but I do remember some things."
There was a pause as she turns around to slump down onto a second cushion, "Not all of them were good, Tia."
Oh.
"Are you at liberty to share what you know?" It was an important question to ask here, seeing as personal information could be contained in any of them. Or all of them, really. Luna took her doctor-patient confidentiality very seriously.
"Some of it? Maybe? The most I remember are faces, not names, unfortunately. I don't all know what I could tell you, but some of those dreams were nightmares like the first that the bat mare had." She pauses again to think for a second before adding, "And some that were worse."
"Is there anything that isn't a heavy subject that you could tell me, for now?" Celestia would rather the guards, should they come looking within the hour, not find them both bawling like foals before they even get airborne. Thank you very much.
“There is..” Luna is silent for what feels like minutes, thinking hard with her face scrunched up and her tongue half sticking out, “There is one thing, although I will say now it is but a minor detail, sister. Wait. Did I or did I not tell you what Rose said in the first dream?” She was forgetting in the moment and, due to the confidentiality she normally kept, as nervous to think that she may have broken it in the state she’d been so long ago.
Not to mention the state she’d been in upon her return.
Celestia had to think on it too, but eventually shook her head. It was a relief to know, and with that knowledge Luna continued on.
“Two of the alicorns had traits of a crystal pony.”
All Celestia gave was a raised eyebrow, “First a bat pony alicorn mare. And now two crystal pony alicorns?” Luna nodded her head, “Must be a fun herd.”
“Tia!”
“What? Did I say something wrong?”
“There’s. There was more than one stallion in those dreams and. And the dreamers I’m fairly certain were, are, all still colts and fillies!”
“No.” Oh now Celestia was laughing again. Great. What was it this time?
“No, no.” Her sister repeated, “I meant as a family. Herds. They aren’t like they were a thousand years ago, Lulu.” More giggling, “I’m sorry I gave you the wrong impression.”
Luna just grumbled instead of replying. Once the solar diarch calmed down though she asked, “How long now until we depart?”
She was all too willing to put this behind her it seemed.
Celestia smiled even though Luna was too busy not looking at her to see it, “Exactly three minutes ago by the time I’m done saying this sentence.”
Luna had always had duties differing from that of her sister. She was the more combative one, and so when matters of the guard needed to be tended to, she was usually the one tasked to do so. She was the more creative one, and helped fund and kickstart many aspiring artists, writers, and playwrights. Some playwrights were commisioned specifically for her sister, as she knew she enjoyed them. She held court in the later hours of the day, when the light of the sun grew dimmer with each passing hour, and ended when she rose the moon.
Attending to the dreams of her subjects was simply one of these duties. She would passively scan with her magic to find what troubling dreams and nightmares plagued the populace, and did her level best to soothe them when and where she could. However, as with being a diarch of her country, the lesson that you cannot save everypony is a hard one to swallow, yet one that she begrudgingly accepts.
It had led her to pass by a specific door, a particular bubble, which was painted over a mix of dark navy blue and bright pastel pink. The mark adorning each door was usually one of their cutie mark, or the marks of their parents, guardians, or caretakers if the colt or filly had not found theirs yet. This one was completely unmarked.
And yet it was not the lack of a mark that drew her to this door, but the aura it was exuding. It was a terrifying thing that had been nagging at her since the moon first rose, and it had lingered in lesser forms for nights before this one. She had merely cast a spell as she always did with those, one that let the dreamer fall into a deeper, dreamless sleep.
It was a bandage for a wound, but not anything that would help it heal. Sometimes the wounds closed on their own with no need for further examination or treatment. Other times, like these, it was best to take a more direct approach.
And so the alicorn opened the door with a gentle pull of magic. A tug was all it took for the door to swing open with a yawning darkness awaiting her on the other side.
Stepping in with caution, and quickly closing the door behind her, Luna found herself in darkness so thick she could not see her own front hooves. Using a horn-light to see as she went, she took careful note of everything that could be observed. There was a ground even at the edges of this twisted dream, and there were whispers on all sides of her. Things tugged at her mane and tail like curious foals, yet she dared not stop or look around to see what they were.
She fears for a moment, as the nightmare resolves itself into a more visible form, that maybe she had been too late.
What awaited her was chaos and madness. Large tents and odd contraptions created a backdrop with buildings somewhat more familiar to her. The plaza she stood in had hard, tough, unforgiving ground that was not the cobblestone streets of unicorn make that she had grown used to. In front of her was yet another oddity and yet, this one nearly broke her concentration.
There were a raised platform and a roof overhead similar in designs to the tents. There were no walls and thick metal poles connected the top to the bottom, with a cylinder at the center of this contraption which rotated. The rest of it rotated along with it, revealing what was so shocking to her.
Mounted on one of these poles, held maybe half a foot off the ground, was a pony. The dreamer, if the emotion radiating from her was anything to go by. Yet she was unlike any pony she'd seen. It was a mad alchemist's dream, to think up a pegasus pony mixed with a bat. Or a dragon, as the case may be, yet she saw no scales and it did not seem as if the dreamer was capable of breathing fire.
Nevertheless, the pole, bright red and glowing unlike the others of brass and gold, was going cleanly through this young mare's midsection. Her hooves were suspended as if in mid-run, supported by nothing. And it was not just this wheel that was the dream. Oh no, it couldn't be that simple. Even if Luna could safely cast the spell to release this young mare from the dream she was trapped in now, doing so without rooting out the cause would risk this nightmare occurring again.
And so she waited.
The world was a dark purple-grey compared to the decorative, colorful contraption and the dreaming pony within it. It was not long for the monochrome landscape to be broken by a light shining in the distance. One that steadily grew as it drew closer. The light twisted in shape, forming an alicorn, though this was not the light of the Eternal Sun that Celestia was. This felt different, and the alicorn's colors, while similar to her sister's was different as well.
A pale gold-white coat with darker hooves and a mane and tail that was shorter than what Luna was familiar with. They too, though, shone like golden fire. She was clothed in a beautiful ruffled dress, while her cutie mark showed an open eye above a closed book.
Though the most peculiar thing about the alicorn was that she stopped and stared with bright purple eyes right at Luna for a long moment, before turning to the distressed bat-mare fusion.
"Mom!"
Luna double checked, and yes she should in fact still be hidden. She shook off the vulnerable sensation she had felt and refocused. The mare called this unknown alicorn her mother. Perhaps the status is simply because she put her mother upon some high pedestal?
The alicorn spoke something that Luna couldn't understand, before stepping back and bowing her head. The mare, likewise, had fallen silent and bowed her own as much as she could before the bottom of that sideways wheel caught fire.
None of this is real. You will not be harmed. You will find the source of this madness and put a stop to it.
Yet so far nothing showed that aura of being the root of the dread and fear that had called Luna here in the first place. The fire engulfed the entire contraption, and yet from it the mare, now freed, leaped and stood in front of the dream realm alicorn. Only now she was sporting a horn and was also completely healed.
"Why do you dream of this? It is a twisted mockery of what we've gone through." The mother asked, wings and ears drooping. It was as if she already knew the answer.
"Because I haven't seen any of the others, or you, in a long time and-" A trident sailed through the air and plunged straight through the mare's mother.
The alicorn's form shrunk to the same size as the mare, her mark changing so that there was a bright stylized sun surrounding the eye, now printed on a page of an open book.
"-Rose!"
The next morning, just as the day court was coming to a close, Luna told her sister of what she saw, and more importantly, how she could not stop it before it so abruptly ended. Celestia, her princess mask slowly sliding off, suggested that she seek out this pony if this dream is not resolved in the next few nights, or to have her invited to the castle if it proved important enough.
It was nights before she found the nicknamed "Bat mare's" dream again. That night there was the Bat mare’s mother, Rose, facing off against a giantess of an alicorn alongside a stallion. Both were of alicorn status. Another figure that this dreamer holds of high esteem? The being they faced carried the traits of an insect as well as a fish and had a carapace that was dark as ink.
This dream, a blur of motion that it was, was one that ended with Rose and that alicorn stallion slain by a trident.
A third unresolved dream passed that was tamer, calmer, and yet somehow no less distressing. The two mares had switched roles, and so now Rose was the daughter, yet there were continuous slips that the bat hybrid made, calling her mom instead of Rose or daughter. It seemed to be that way on both sides. They wanted to call each other by their names, and yet mother was uttered in its stead. It caused frustration for the both of them or in just the Bat mare, leaving Rose, the dream construct, confused.
Luna had spent hours pouring over notes she’d taken and laboring over what possible meaning to this there could be. Alicorns everywhere. The dreamer being some mix of a pegasus and a Bat in her dream before becoming an alicorn herself. That odd multicolored fire and a whole list of other things.
Not to mention what that alternate Rose, with the cutie mark that contained only the eye and open book, had said to her.
A twisted mockery.
The last dream that she encountered, before her descent into becoming Nightmare Moon, was a battle with the great bug-fish alicorn mare that the dreamer was apart of. The same one that the older Rose and that stallion from the previous dream fought against. The younger version of Rose was there fighting at her side, along with two others she could not identify. A male alicorn that was different from the one she’d previously seen, a colt this time, and an insect-like pony not too unlike the being they were fighting.
She heard snatches of conversation in the previous dreams, but this one merely contained overwhelmingly loud music. No. A cacophony of sound. They had fought and to Luna’s eyes they had lost before she and the dreamer were violently thrown out.
~*~<>~*~
1000 years later...
4 RoL, 13th Of Harmonia
“You wanted to see me, sister?”
Luna stepped into Celestia’s personal chambers with a slowness that was afforded only to those weary insomniacs who’d forgone nights without sleep several times before. Ones whom then found it hard to wake themselves without the aid of some flavor and strength of coffee that they could not drink for several minutes without scorching their own tongue.
The mug was held aloft in silvery blue magic still steaming as Luna yawned and glanced around. Her sister mustn’t have heard her it seemed. How was it again that she always found it easy to wake with the sun’s rising? Not even Luna could accomplish such a feat.
“Morning Tia.” She calls again after the door behind her had closed, “I see you’re hard at work already. What’s gotten you in such a rush?”
“Hm?” Celestia’s head snapped up from the scroll she was reading over, blinking her eyes as if she was riding from the depths of sleep herself.
“You asked for me...” Luna didn’t bother to finish the sentence, sipping at her coffee and raising an eyebrow instead.
“Ah! Yes. Yes I did, though I did not expect you to visit so early.” Luna snorted at that.
“You said it was urgent and so I came post-haste.”
Celestia grinned knowingly, “But first, coffee.”
“Oh but of course sister dearest. Whoever would I be without it. It is like you and that tea you’re so fond of. Now, could we get to the point? As much as I’d love to spend time with you we both have duties and if this is big enough to cause you to take more than a day off-“
“Enough for the both of us to take a week off, you mean.”
Luna nearly dropped her coffee right then and there.
“What?! Who would be in charge then? Cadence?”
Celestia rolled her eyes, “It’s not as if she isn’t capable. She will however have the council to help her, plus her fiancé, and let us not forget Twilight has sat in on most of my court sessions since she was a filly. She’ll be fine.”
“You say that and yet somehow I am finding it hard to believe you. Also, you’re stalling.”
“The Crystal Empire has returned.”
Oh no.
“Oh. And some unknown pony has shown up in griffin lands and has been...ah, let me see here. Conjuring bits out from nogriffin knew where, conjuring food in the same manner, and as this pony is quoted in saying, “just helping you out and oh wait I know that look what did I do now?”
Luna leveled a glare, “That sounds like Pinkie Pie are you certain it isn’t her? And how does that add up to equal importance to Sombra being back?”
“Well. He isn’t.”
“You jest.”
“I do not. He isn’t back. A crystal pony arrived last night, forgive me I didn’t want to wake you. But he delivered a message that a their new emperor was the one to defeat Sombra.”
“And what does this “new emperor” have to do with the pony in griffin lands that may or may not just be Pinkie Pie?”
Luna took another sip of her coffee. A long one. One that lasted until the mug was drained because sometimes you just have to love the perks of being an alicorn.
“Well I thought you’d like to know about it seeing as the description this letter gives is: a young unicorn mare with the wings of a bat.”
The coffee winds up all over Celestia’s coat.
