1) Prologue in the Library – five years ago
Staring into the crackling fire of her fireplace, Twilight tapped her chin thoughtfully. The princess across from her sipped gently her cub of tee while looking at her hosts reactions. The two ponies find themselves after an hour-long discussion of the modern times in Twilight's living room, inside the golden oaks’ library. The magically protected fireplace bathed the room in a cozy reddish yellow light and spend welcoming warmth for the two ponies in front of it.
Surrounded by books, Twilight was at home. When she was out in the open, she always had an inkling of fear that she might be rejected, or outcast, but surrounded from her books, such a fear did not exist. Books did not judge, and books did not hurt anyone. Not her, at least.
But the pony across from her could judge her, so she wracked her brain for an applicable answer.
“No, I … I mean we, did not fear you, Luna … or Nightmare Moon for that matter. It is true that I was the only one who knew of your coming and by extend, of your powers. But, … Celestia was missing … and it was night in the middle of the day … so, I … or rather we … had to do something! I guess.”
“Tis not a scandal if thou would admit to be frightened of us.” – The Lunar princess across from her spoke, now also looking into the fire.
“But its not like we had any time to worry, Luna. That day, everything went by so fast that I not even had the time to sit down and ponder over what would happen if we confronted you. Our only goal was to reach the Elements of Harmony and free Celestia, … to free you, … was never actually my plan in the first place. It just kind of happened.”
“Tis does not make thine actions any less noble and thank worthy.”
“I guess so …”
Luna lowered her cub and forced herself to look at the purple unicorn right next to her. – “We didst not actually thank thee that day, did we?” – she wondered.
“You don’t have to, princess. As soon as I felt some one’s others magic inside of Nightmare Moon, I kind of knew that it was not evil, I knew that it was trapped inside of Nightmare Moon and I feared for the pony trapped in such a foul creature. So, … I tried to save it. Everyone would have done it, I think. That the Elements of Harmony would outright destroy Nightmare Moon, I had no idea of. True, I had the control of what they would do. But right at this moment, all my concerns where about the pony inside of her.”
“And that’s the noble part of thine deed. Thou didst not care of who we were. Thou only cared on how to save us.”
Luna tried to speak but hesitated for a moment. - “Thank you, Twilight Sparkle.”
Blushing and nodding to herself, Twilight did not look at the Night Princess.
“Princess Luna, what … if I might ask, could you have done to us? I mean, … was Nightmare Moon really so powerful, that the only reason we won against her was because she did not see us as a threat?”
The question, it seemed, hang in the air. The silent crackling of fire was the only sound that could be heard in the room for quite some time. At last, Luna's gaze dropped, and she inhaled audible.
“Friend Twilight, be assured that thou would not like to hear what we could have done when we were at our lowest.”
“I … I am sorry to say so, but this does not answer my question, princess. I … I need to know.”
Nodding in understanding, Luna looked back into the fireplace and thought for a moment. The silence falling onto the room was bone chilling for Twilight, and she hoped that she had not offended Luna in any way.
“An Alicorn is not just a pony with wings and a horn, Twilight. We are an aspect of the world incarnated. For us, we are the incarnation of the moon and therefore its guardian. We hold power over the night itself and every aspect of it. We hold power over the light and the form of our celestial body, but we also hold dominion over the dreams of our ponies beneath it. We could have done cruel things, friend Twilight. Things that we are unwilling to tell thee, not because we fear thine reaction, but because we fear what could have happened. We … I mean I, don’t want to think over it, please.”
Twilight shuddered at the implication of such horrors that would give Luna pause and nodded. The silence returned to the room as the two ponies stared into the fireplace and at its dancing flames among the logs. Something Luna had said came back to Twilight though and she could not help it than to voice the question it brought.
“What do you mean, you hold dominion over the dreams?”
Giving her host a sidelong glance and only seeing the curiosity of a scholar towards a new subject, the night blue Alicorn smiled wryly.
“As we said, we hold powers of every aspect of the night and dreams are a part of the night as well. So, to answer your question, we can see and visit the dreams of anypony and creature, for that matter, and help them if they have troubles.”
“Visit dreams? So, the legend telling that one sister could walk through dreams as good as Pegasi could fly are true?” – Twilight wondered.
“Tis true, in fact, quite literally so. As soon as someone lays down to sleep, their mind enters another plane of existence. “The dreamscape”, some scholars of our time had named it. In this plane, every ponies, griffins or other sentient creatures’ dreams are connected. They are linked and interact with each other and they help the sleeper to come to terms with what had happened in their waking hours. But they are not alone there. Since the dawn of time, ponies have nightmares. It is our duty, to protect ponies from them as good as we can and to shield them from their own destructive fears and doubts. But in our absence, we could not do so. Nightmares once where a seldom thing to have, but in modern times are quite common due to the fact that we could not help our ponies for such a long time. We think we need some time to squelch those cursed dreams once more, but we will manage it in a couple of years.”
“So, you can literally walk into a ponies dream and see what they are dreaming?” – Twilight asked, interested.
“Quite so, yes. We could also wonder around in their mind and find information, like secrets, fears or feelings, but we do not do so, if we don’t have to. Not even in times of war. The mental plane is sacred, and we vowed to our self that we would never abuse those powers if we can help it. Nor would we tell any other living creature what we have saw in once mind. Not even our sister.”
Twilight's eyes went wide at the revelation.
Secrets and feelings.
Did the Lunar Princess already know of her feelings towards her sister or herself?
Since Twilight became Celestia's personal student, she looked up to her mentor and adored her. At first this adoration was only between student and teacher at the prospect of knowledge. But as the years went by and her body changed so did her feelings. The thought of being with somepony was always met with the thought of Celestia since she saw the princess once sleeping in one of her cushions after falling asleep in her lecture after a long day of court. At that time, Twilight did not know what the sensation in her hard was and she shrugged it off in the prospect of her ruler, mentor and friend laying sleeping in front of her, shivering.
At that time, Twilight had brought her a blanket and laid it gently over the white Alicorns body. The soft smile finding itself on Celestia's muzzle made it for Twilight clear that she would never want to disappoint the Alicorn, simply for never having to see this soft smile vanish.
But as the weeks went by, the thought of Celestia never left her mind once. She imagined herself to be hold by those strong arms in the night and protected from her petty insecurities like so many times when she was a filly. She imagined herself to nuzzle into her soft fur like she did every time they hugged. She imagined that the white Alicorn would love her as much as she did love her, but never dared to voice her feelings. Not even once. The fear of being rejected or send away was too great.
And so, Twilight held this crush now for many years. At first, she thought those feelings would eventually vanish, but they didn’t. The longing of her mentor’s body grew from day to day and would she not have been sent to Ponyville, Twilight was sure she would have either gone insane by now or would have done something she would regret later.
Being sent to Ponyville was her own doing and as much as it stung, she needed the distance. But after freeing her sister, she started to translate her feelings also to the younger monarch. Seeing Luna once so small and powerless made her almost approachable for her. Celestia, the literal god of Pony kind, had a sister. A sister that was for all intend and purpose the same as Celestia in power, majesty and kindness. But she seemed approachable for her, having freed her made her not perfect in Twilight's eyes. Celestia was perfect, untouchable and unreachable. But Luna was not so far away.
So, her feelings for the pony across from her blossomed over the 6 months she had returned from the moon but the feelings for Celestia did not wane in the process. Not in the slightest.
Twilight felt that it was pure selfishness from her own part, but she wanted them both. She wanted her mentor and her sister. She wanted the two rulers of the very nation she lived in. She wanted two of the three Goddesses pony kind had to offer. And she wanted them for her alone.
But she couldn’t. Twilight felt not ready to confess to even one of her crushes, never speaking of both.
She was only a unicorn. The student of the princess, true. But she saw herself never as more than an ordinary unicorn. She thought of nothing special about her and could not think of any reason why one or for that matter two of the beings so high above her would want to have anything to do with her.
And so, Twilight tried to bury herself in her work, in her studies and in her friends. But the feeling of longing never left her hard.
And now, one of those beings she so admired sat in front of her and casually said that she could, if she so desired, find out her greatest secret.
The prospect of being found out run ice cold down her spine, like if someone had tossed her into one of the snow piles outside and left her there for an hour. The shudder rippling over her body did tell the pony across from her of her distress.
“Aren’t thou feeling well, friend Twilight?” – Luna asked, concerned over the sudden change in Twilight's posture.
Snapping back into reality and back from her musings, Twilight briefly looked at Luna before quickly lowering her gaze to the floor. – “No, no … everything is fine, just … cold … I am just a bit cold.” – she lied, trying to justify her sudden stiffening.
Taking Twilight's word at face value, Luna smiled, shuffled over to the purple unicorn and gently laid a soft wing over her back.
“Tis quite late now. If thee wishes, we could leave and come back next week for another of thine lessons. We quite enjoy these.” – The Lunar princess reassured.
Nodding softly, Twilight glanced at the princess next to her. The smooth and soft fur over the princess’s body did not help her in any way keeping her thoughts proper or at bay and she didn’t want the princess to go away. But she did not dare to voice her desire and kept to herself.
“Then we thank thee for thine hospitality and knowledge and we hope to see thee very soon.” – Luna said, without moving an inch. The voice of the princess gently tickled Twilight's ears as well as the soft vibrations she felt coming from the monarch’s chest at the points where they touched.
Gathering every last resort of willpower which she had left in her body, Twilight looked at the Alicorn and nodded. The following squeeze that came from the princess made her revel in the feeling of downy soft feathers against her body. But much too soon for Twilight's liking, the night monarch rose from her spot next to her and she could suddenly feel the cold of the room again.
After her farewells with the princess, Twilight frantically searched through her library for any book she could use to create a ward for the princess, to never enter her mind.
She feared that if she would ever see what she held in her hard, she would be disgusted and would never want to see her again.
And so, Twilight worked late into the night to create a spell Equestria had never seen before or needed for that matter. A spell to keep Princess Luna's power out of her head. The thought stung, but she told herself that she had to do it.
Author's Note
Hey folk, this is my first story ever published on the internet, or at all. So ... feel free to let a comment here!
