The Tower

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Things don't always go the way you plan, but that's okay, Twilight thought.

The mare had learned long ago to accept that life had its ups and downs and that sometimes there was nothing you could do to stop the 'downs' that cropped up every now and then. Sometimes the only thing you could do was try to make the best of a bad situation, and as the years went by, Twilight learned to do just that. It used to be that even the slightest error in judgment—the slightest mistake made in what she thought was a foolproof plan would send the mare mentally reeling off the deep end, but time, experience, and a group of wonderful friends had changed all of that. Her neurosis and obsessive-compulsive personality had faded almost completely away and Twilight truly believed she'd become a better mare than she was before she moved from her hometown and met those five wonderful friends.

But they were gone now.

They'd all passed some time ago, and that was okay, Twilight thought. It wasn't as though she hadn't expected as much to happen. Everypony meets their end at some point eventually; unicorns, earth ponies, pegasi... not alicorns though. When she took on the role as sole ruler of Equestria after Celestia and Luna abdicated, Twilight did so with the knowledge and expectation that she would outlive her friends. It certainly caused no small amount of heartache, but after talking to Celestia about it, they both decided it would be best if Twilight and her friends all sat down to have that conversation together. That conversation was long and far from pleasant to be sure, but it was necessary and in the end, it did Twilight a world of good.

After all, her life may have outstripped theirs by an immeasurable amount, but even Twilight's light would fade one day, and she could join the rest of her friends in those eternal Elysian fields... or so she was told. But no, that wasn't the case and that she hadn't realized sooner was her own fault really. She had talked to Celestia and when her long time mentor and mother figure had stood there and smiled her impossibly warm smile while lying through her teeth, Twilight had devoured her explanation no questions asked, and that was the problem. She hadn't asked any questions; she was afraid to ask any questions. The one that had been at the very tip of her tongue at the time she'd bit back at the last second.

Deep down she knew the answer to that one simple question could very well have destroyed her, and looking back, perhaps that was why Celestia lied in the first place. Twilight couldn't fault her if that was the case; she'd made great strides in shedding herself of her old neurotic tendencies, but it wasn't like they didn't still lurk somewhere beneath the surface. Had Celestia been honest, Twilight wasn't sure all that progress would hold up against the weight of her words. Of course, there was always the possibility that Celestia would have lied again, but at the time, Twilight couldn't shake a horrible sense of foreboding—the feeling that she wouldn't have liked Celestia's answer if she had asked that one simple question... so she didn't. Instead, she buried her doubts deep within the recesses of her mind and accepted her previous mentor's words as truth, and that was her folly.

She'd smiled and said nothing about it. She'd taken up the throne she'd been groomed for. She held that throne for decades with her faithful assistant and royal advisor, her brilliant student that reminded her so much of herself back all those years ago, and of course, the welcome council of her friends. For a long while, everything had gone exactly as she hoped it would after she'd taken the throne. Things had gone so smoothly for so long that it was like a beautiful dream that would never end, but though she'd learned to loosen up and go with the flow of things, at her core, Twilight was still a rational mare, and rationale dictated that no dream could last forever—or rather, that no dream could be allowed to last forever. She'd asked Luna about that at some point, but the mare had—in no uncertain terms—warned her that to extend one's dream beyond what their mind could handle would be a mistake of the gravest kind.

She hadn't explained any more than that, and having not learned her lesson then, Twilight left it at that and asked no more about the matter. She had her reasons for asking and maybe Luna refused to speak too much about it because she had picked up on those reasons. Twilight couldn't fault her if that was the case; her old doubts had resurfaced and though it was only a brief moment of weakness, that brief moment was enough to drag the question out of her. She'd come to her senses soon enough and realized what an absurd and irresponsible turn her thoughts had taken, and there was no real need to push the issue anyway, or so she told herself. She still had her friends, her student, and her royal advisor, though her friends had all gotten on in years and Spike had chosen to scour the Dragonlands in search of his parents, something Twilight was more than happy to let him do at the time.

And then, one by one they passed on, leaving Twilight behind before she knew it. It hadn't been just her body that had gone through drastic changes, but as the years passed, so too did her perception of time itself begin to change. In the blink of an eye it seemed, she'd lost all but one of her friends, and it was only by the grace of Discord's meddling that Fluttershy managed to live as long as she did, but Fluttershy was a smart mare—perhaps smarter than Twilight herself the Princess began to think. At the very least she was more perceptive, or perhaps it was simply that she was more willing to accept the inevitable. No... if Twilight was being honest with herself, she knew; she'd known all along what Discord had done.

To take it a step further, she'd already had a strong feeling he'd work his own brand of magic to squeeze out a little more time with the mare he loved... and Twilight, knowing this would be the case, had chosen to turn a blind eye. But Fluttershy...

Sweet and kind and caring Fluttershy...

It took her some time, but once she realized what Discord had done they both had a long talk not unlike the one Twilight had with her and the rest of her friends so long ago. It was a talk Twilight was familiar with; it was a talk of love and acceptance. It was a talk about respecting one's wishes and letting go no matter how much it hurt. It was a talk Twilight desperately needed to hear again, but sadly, that day, she hadn't been around to hear it and perhaps if she had, things might have turned out differently than they did in the end. Perhaps if she'd heard it from Fluttershy or even Spike, then maybe it would've meant more. As it stood, and with no small amount of reluctance from Discord, Fluttershy too was allowed to finally pass on, leaving Twilight to grieve the loss of the last of her closest friends.

As it stood, with Spike still absent from her side, it was Celestia and Luster Dawn who'd taken up the role of consoling Twilight in her time of need. While both did an admirable job, in her sorrow, Twilight couldn't help but compare the two. Luster Dawn was already well past her prime and in complete contrast, Celestia was still just as eternally beautiful as ever—an immovable stone that refused to be eroded by the sea of time. Though her parents and brother were long gone, and Cadence had abdicated her own throne to let Flurry Heart rule the Crystal Empire in her place, her sister-in-law looked just as radiant as Celestia, Luna, and Twilight herself. Twilight had no doubt that Flurry Heart would end up much the same, and with these thoughts in mind, the distraught Princess could no longer hold back the question she'd refused to ask all those years ago.

If they weren't immortal, then just how long did alicorns live?

Regret filled the mare almost immediately at the question, but she pushed it aside and focused on Celestia's reply, and Celestia, having long since prepared for the question to arise simply replied that an alicorn would live as long as they were needed. It was an answer that said little but implied much—far too much for Twilight's liking. It was an answer that horrified her the more she thought about it. She looked into Celestia's warm and sympathetic magenta eyes and pleaded the mare to explain, but Celestia, in her own gentle but firm way, refused to say more. Desperate for an answer, she asked Luna but was given the same reply. She asked Cadence and even Flurry Heart, but both mares were just as clueless as she was.

Neither Celestia nor Luna had told them anything, and it was then that Twilight finally had to accept what she'd already suspected in the very beginning. The two sisters enjoying their retirement were clearly hiding something from her, something fundamental about alicorns and how they functioned, Twilight was certain of it. Thinking back on it, Twilight never really understood all that much about alicorns in the first place. Twilight knew from a story she'd heard from Celestia long ago when she was still a filly studying under her mentor in Canterlot, that she and Luna weren't born in Equestria but were sent here by means unknown to her from a land far away. When the filly had pressed, Celestia had claimed that she remembered nothing about that land and that Luna had no recollection whatsoever either.

They'd been far too young to remember how and under what circumstances they'd arrived in Equestria. Celestia had even admitted that them being from a faraway land was only pure speculation born of a feeling she couldn't quite place but was enough to convince her nonetheless. Most of what Celestia and Luna remembered of their foalhood years involved Star Swirl finding, raising, and tutoring them. That story had been told to her what already felt like ages ago, and now with what Celestia had told her, Twilight couldn't help but wonder just how much of it was true. How much did Celestia and Luna really know?

Just what was an alicorn?

It was a question Twilight should've asked long ago and was both surprised and upset with herself for not asking sooner. Outwardly she let the matter rest, assuring her concerned predecessor that she needed time to think, but otherwise, she was okay. From the moment she realized Celestia was keeping secrets, she chose to keep her own true thoughts and growing distrust hidden going forward. She played the role she was meant to play as the ruler of Equestria—the role she was groomed for by her long time mentor. All the while those hidden thoughts spawned more and more questions and doubt; like a small seed sprouting into a grandiose tree, so too did her troubled mind grow ever more restless. For so long, Twilight simply took whatever Celestia told her at face value, never questioning or wondering at her true intentions, but now...

Now she wanted answers, and she had managed to convince herself that she wasn't going to get them from Celestia or Luna. Not only that but with Celestia and Luna choosing to travel the world in their retirement, Twilight didn't always have access to the two sisters. Certainly, they made time to visit Canterlot and Twilight herself every now and then, but there long stretches of time where Twilight had no contact with them at all. With that in mind, she decided to take matters into her own hooves and investigate. If neither sister wanted to answer her questions honestly, then she'd simply have to find her own answers. What else could Twilight do? It wasn't like she could let the matter rest now, though she'd changed much over the years, it still wasn't in her nature to ignore such a profound problem.

While there may have been some questions she could overlook as unimportant in the grand scheme of things, there was one question she had to know above all others, one question she felt could answer so many others all at once, one question she was disgusted at and almost hated her past self for not asking back then. That place... that alien void of memories where she'd met Celestia and ascended to the mysterious being that was an alicorn... what was it? Where was it? How did Celestia get there? How did Twilight herself get there? She didn't know, but she vowed that no matter how long it took, she would find out.

Despite her suspicions, she had asked Celestia about that place but the answer she received had been just as vague as her reply to the lifespan of an alicorn. She claimed she wasn't certain of the details, but that it was known as the 'Realm of Ascension'. Dissatisfied, Twilight pushed for more information, but her predecessor dismissed the subject entirely. The years continued to pass and Twilight's peaceful reign continued unhindered. Decades came and went; Luster Dawn had finally shed her mortal coil and Spike had returned from his journey—sadly, with nothing to show for his efforts. Still, the Princess was glad to have her royal advisor back all the same.

But even his presence wasn't enough to staunch the continued flow of unrest in Twilight's heart and mind. Much like Spike's attempted search into the whereabouts of his true parents, she herself hadn't made any progress in her mostly hidden research into what it meant to be an alicorn. There were no written records or documented theses that even attempted to explain an alicorn's origin. Even searching the restricted archives, Twilight found nothing at all about alicorns or their supposed homeland, but how can that be? Celestia had mentioned long ago that an alicorn was a creature blessed with the unique gifts of each pony tribe, and from what Twilight had experienced, this did indeed seem to be the case.

That was a truth that Twilight had been able to confirm herself, but then if Celestia knew that much, then what else did she know? Why hadn't she documented as much? Twilight understood that such a conclusion that an alicorn held the traits of all pony tribes could be reached with simple experimentation, but what of an alicorn's biological makeup beyond that? There had to be more, Twilight was sure of it; the question had to be asked: How does slapping earth pony, pegasus, and unicorn magic together into one being give you a lifespan stretching into thousands of years? How did that work, thaumatologically speaking? Brilliant as Twilight was, she couldn't wrap her head around it, and she'd spent more than a few sleepless nights trying. If she could solve that mystery, then perhaps it would be possible to isolate the gene that gave alicorn's their long life and...

But no, she was getting ahead of herself.

It had taken some time, but Twilight eventually moved past the death of her friends and the mare that was her student once upon a time. That said, she hadn't gotten that close to anypony else since—not counting her long-lived royal advisor—and she had yet to take up another personal protégé since Luster Dawn, much to Celestia's concern. Twilight had taken over Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns at Celestia's request, but whether she took a student under her wing was something the mare had left to Twilight's discretion. Twilight had meant to at some point, but her increasingly obsessive thoughts took precedent over the molding of the young minds of Equestria's unicorn population. In the presence of her subjects, Twilight hid it well enough but frankly, the lack of progress made in her endeavors was driving the mare to madness.

She'd already confided in Spike, and her now much larger royal advisor and friendship ambassador, in turn, had—as he'd always done, and would always try to do so long as they were together—attempted to be a calming voice of reason to the mare when she felt there was no reason left to be had. Though Twilight felt she'd made a very good case when speaking about her ascension and Celestia's apparent non-understanding of the mechanics behind the phenomenon, her oldest confidant's response was less than ideal in her eyes. Try as she might to explain the best she could, and though Spike tried to hide it, Twilight could read the skepticism on her advisor's face clear as the day she brought about at the end of each night.

A withering glare was enough to get Spike to amend his imminent dismissal of Twilight's worries. Rather, he tactfully but somewhat disappointingly stated that even had Celestia and Luna been hiding something about the process of ascension and what it meant to be an alicorn, perhaps it was for a good reason. After all, it hadn't been the first time Celestia had hidden something from her faithful student in the past for her own good—far from it. Did it hurt Twilight to learn much later that she'd been led on by the mare she trusted above all others? Sure, but with time, Twilight understood that it was never done out of malice or distrust. It was always to help her grow as a pony, to give her the space she needed to accomplish the innumerable feats she knew she might not have been able to had she simply been given all the answers on a silver platter.

This though? This was different. This felt different.

On the surface, Twilight couldn't explain just why she felt so strongly about the issue when she'd already learned to accept that some things were best left unsaid, but deep down she knew exactly why. She knew that Spike was almost certainly right to suspect that Celestia and Luna had their reasons to hide the truth, and even knew that they were probably very good reasons. Had she not been the one to ascend to alicornhood, then perhaps she could've let the matter go like Celestia, Luna, and Spike wanted, but it was because she herself had become the anomaly that she couldn't. She couldn't say that she wasn't grateful for what she'd been able to do since becoming a Princess, but it was also true that her life had been unalterably changed against her will.

She'd gone along with it in the past largely because Celestia deemed that it was a good thing—and ultimately it was in the end—but the questions remained nonetheless and they repeated themselves over and over again in her mind without end. What was she? What was Celestia? What was Luna? What was Cadence? What was Flurry Heart? What was an alicorn? Twilight knew that the answers to those questions and that of the entire process of ascension all lay within that ethereal dimension where she stood alongside her mentor and her own memories. If Twilight could figure that out, then perhaps she could finally find some sort of closure. She just needed a lead, but there were none to be found no matter where she looked and no matter who she asked. Unsatisfied with Spike's response, she began to feel as though she had nowhere left to turn—as though she was slowly losing her mind.

But what the beleaguered Princess didn't know was that, in spite of her attempts to hide her consternation, there was one who'd taken notice. What nopony knew was that a certain spirit of chaos had grown discontent with a world that was practically drowning in its own saccharine peace and prosperity. Though Twilight claimed she'd overcome the grief of losing her closest friends and loved ones, the spirit of chaos who was so discontent and unhappy with the world, had most definitely not. That spirit of chaos had, in fact, never felt the terrible sting of losing a loved one until recently in his long, long life. He'd learned of friendship, he'd learned of love, but the loss of both was still a foreign concept to the embodiment of chaos. He'd toed the line of losing his friends before a couple of times in the past, yes, but it had all worked in his favor in the end.

Now, without Fluttershy by his side, that colorful world full of life and peace and magic had quite literally become grey and lifeless in his eyes. He'd let Fluttershy go for her sake, but in reality, acceptance was too much to ask; he couldn't do it. He didn't want to accept it and so he didn't, nevermind the heartfelt and emotional discussion between him and Fluttershy about that very subject. With his first and only true romantic partner dead and gone, Discord—a creature who often went out of his way to be the center of attention—had seemingly vanished from the face of Equestria. Most took no notice of his absence but those few who knew him as more than a mild nuisance figured it would be best to give the draconequus some space. Perhaps he needed some time alone to process his loss, they thought. Maybe he has his own way of grieving and would rather nopony see him in such a state. Even a powerful chaotic spirit such as himself had a sense of pride after all, fickle and strange as it may have been from time to time.

As more and more time passed, even those who worried for Discord had not so much forgotten about him, but rather became accustomed to his lack of presence in the world. Some were even relieved that he had vanished without a trace, with a few hoping he would never return. Even if anypony wanted to look for Discord, nopony knew where he had gone or how to contact him. Twilight herself surmised that he had shut himself up in his own realm of chaos, but with no way to enter without Discord's assistance, there wasn't much she or anypony else could do if that was indeed the case. There were a few ponies who claimed to have stumbled into Discord's dimension in the past, but beyond the extremely rare cosmic fluke, there was no known way to enter willingly without Discord's say so.

This had suited the draconequus just fine.

Where once he secretly longed for the company of another in that isolated plane of existence, now he wanted nothing to do with Equestria and its inhabitants. More specifically, there was never a day spent in Equestria where he didn't feel ill at ease or like a stranger in his own skin. It had already been said before, but Discord was a spirit—more specifically, a spirit of chaos—and as such he was sensitive to the subtle shifts in the balance between harmony and his own namesake. As things stood, ever since the whole of Equestria had banded together to defeat Tirek, Chrysalis, and Cozy Glow, that balance had slowly been shifting more towards the former, and it was quite literally making him nauseous.

There hadn't been another major or even minor villain since those three were turned to stone and without some chaotic element beside himself to shake things up, Discord was finding it harder and harder to live in Equestria. He found he had to spend more and more time in his own realm and not too long after Fluttershy's passing, he stopped appearing in Equestria altogether. He could no longer bear living in that place not only because everything seemed to remind him of his lost love, but because it was—in his own words—bad for his health. It had gotten to the point that he would need to revert back to his old ways to survive, unleashing his full chaotic might anywhere and everywhere he went. Unfortunately, Discord was no longer that inconsiderate and though he had admittedly given it some thought, he couldn't act on those thoughts without seeing the disappointed and betrayed visage of that mare in his mind's eye.

So he took his melancholy and bitterness and ruminations and fled into his own realm of chaos. There he remained, watching the increasingly dull and monotonous events of that peaceful world unfold from afar, his disinterest with Equestria and the creatures within it growing more by the day. Then, by pure chance, Discord just so happened to come across the former and current Princesses of Equestria in the middle of a heated discussion. Unable to help himself at such a rare sight, he listened in from his isolated home within that chaotic void and for the first time in a long time, Discord felt a tiny spark of interest. It was so minor he could only just barely feel it, but for the first time in a long time, he could sense the beginnings of cosmic unrest seep back into the land of Equestria.

If he focused, he could see the threads—the tendrils of chaos writhing and twisting restlessly, desperate to reach back into Equestria and spread their influence. With a slight shift of perception, he could even trace those threads to their point of origin. Discord couldn't help but laugh and smile wryly as he watched each and every thread converge on the one pony whose responsibility was to uphold the peace and harmony her kingdom so enjoyed. A warning would have been prudent no doubt; a discussion with the current Princess about her growing obsession with the truth about alicorns and their nature—and oh what a truth it was, Discord thought. Discord—the timeless, ageless being that he was—knew enough of that truth to know that the answer would surely break the poor misguided mare.

Celestia and Luna had certainly been right to hide what little they did know from the nosy Princess. Just thinking about how unnatural alicorns really were and about that place and the thing living there was enough to send chills down even Discord's spine. If that was the subject that lay at the heart of Twilight's obsession, then it was no wonder the threads of chaos were gathering around her. Yes, it would surely behoove him to step in and turn Twilight away from the path she was beginning to tread, but Discord found he didn't want to. The promise of that wonderful chaos he so dearly missed making its way back into Equestria was too tempting to ignore after so long. If anything, his chaotic nature was telling him to fan the flames, to push the boulder of chaos down that hill and watch as it crushed flat the harmony Twilight and her friends had worked so hard to build.

He could no longer resist, he no longer cared to, and with that in mind, he decided to pay Twilight a visit. Ignoring the now distant and muffled voice of the mare that had become his conscience, he fought through the sickening haze of harmony to give the Princess a bit of friendly advice, and not a moment too soon. It was just as Twilight had decided to give up and accept that she would never find the answers she sought that she was granted a boon in the form of an old friend she hadn't seen in roughly a century—an old friend she was ashamed to admit she'd completely forgotten about as the years went by. That old friend took no offense and, after a few pleasantries and some catching up, the desperate Princess decided to open up to Discord about her dilemma.

Who better to ask now that he was here than an ancient and powerful being like Discord, Twilight thought with a burgeoning hope filling her chest. Much to her delight, and much unlike Celestia or Luna, Discord admitted to having some knowledge of an alicorn's true nature and was more forthcoming than those before him. Of course, Discord being who and what he was, he refused to give the mare the answer outright, much to Twilight's chagrin. Rather, the wily spirit made good on his promise to give the mare some friendly advice. With said advice given, Discord abruptly went on his way, vanishing from sight, disappearing once again from Equestria for who knew how long. With his sudden departure, Twilight was left to ponder over his oddly innocuous counsel—completely ordinary advice made less so by a small, mysterious smile upon the spirit's face as he spoke...

"What is an alicorn you ask? Where did they come from? How do they work? Well... if you're having trouble finding the answer to your questions, then perhaps you should sleep on it. Maybe then you'll find the answers you seek."

Flipped

Twilight was by no means a daft mare, though even she had to admit that it was her sharp wit and boundless curiosity that more often than not had gotten her into trouble that could have easily been avoided in the past. She knew somewhere in the back of her mind that her obsession with the truth of what she was fell in line with some of those past blunders, but she'd worried about this for too long to let it go now. Yes, she was ready to throw in the towel when Discord showed up and had he not appeared when he did, she may very well have right then and there, but things had changed. Though Discord's advice seemed simple enough on the surface, Twilight was all but certain there was a hidden meaning in his words.

His suggestion threw the mare for a loop initially, but in the end, it took Twilight little time to come up with a few ideas as to what the draconequus meant. The problem was that most of those ideas would require her to speak to Luna about certain topics they'd discussed in the past. Thinking back, Twilight remembered how well those conversations had gone, and that—like her research into alicorns—those conversations had gone nowhere. Still, it had been quite some time since she and Luna had spoken about such things; it had been some time since they'd spoken at all really, at least without Celestia present. She'd stopped showing any sign of her interest in the subject of dreams, alicorns, and the 'Realm of Ascension' in front of the two sisters a long time ago, with the last time she'd brought any of the issues up being three or four decades ago.

It would've been something her past self would've struggled hiding, but over the years of ruling in Celestia and Luna's place, the mare had gained much experience in hiding her true intentions. Twilight had applied a combination of watching Celestia work during her time as Princess and intensive psychological study on her own time to combat the occasional bouts of anxiety that would slip through every now and then during the early years of her reign as the sole ruler of Equestria. As a result, she'd become fairly confident in her ability to keep a secret, among other things. That said, she didn't feel all that good about what she'd decided to do, but she had already tried the direct approach many times with little to no results.

After several sleepless nights of warring with herself and the morals that had been instilled within her by her mentor, Twilight had finally come to the conclusion that if she was going to get anywhere, she'd need to be a bit more... subtle in her approach. She needed a plan, she needed several plans, she needed backup plans in case those plans fell through. Some of those plans were less than savory, but as Twilight's mind worked tirelessly to concoct these plans, the question of whether her ideas were tenable or not began to take a backseat. What Twilight failed to realize during this time was that she and Discord had become, in some ways, very much the same. After the death of her first and last student, Twilight—like the draconequus—had slowly but undoubtedly distanced herself from any meaningful relationships save for Spike.

With the everflowing passage of time came greater and greater change and the peaceful land of Equestria was no exception. Even if all seems well on the surface, certain changes can and will affect most in ways one would never expect—often without them even realizing until its far too late. Unfortunately, it's these types of changes that more often than not cause the 'downs' one experiences in life, the 'downs' that most are helpless to do anything about for any number of reasons. It could be because they didn't act fast enough or they might've ignored the problem hoping it would go away on its own when in reality that problem was only growing worse. It could be subtle emotional changes brought about by some horribly traumatic event in the past or it might be something as simple as life passing you by while you weren't looking.

No creature is immune to the subtle and drastic changes that time brings, not even those rare creatures who fancy themselves immortal. If anything, it's those timeless beings who are most susceptible to time's ravaging hoof. The longer one's life stretches into the future, the more difficult it is to perceive those tiny, subtle, seemingly insignificant changes. If such a being isn't paying attention, those changes are easily overlooked. Without that constant vigilance, such a being can easily trip over their own ignorance and fall to ruin. If one was to search for an example of ruinous ignorance to the changes around them, one would need look no further than that old ponytale of The Mare in the Moon and the actions of the millennia-old Princesses that inspired it—more specifically, Celestia's treatment of her younger sister during the earlier years of the Equestrian diarchy.

As the mare became more comfortable with her throne, she fell into certain habits. As time passed, her focus began to narrow to the point that all she saw before her was her duty to her subjects. Such narrowminded focus made Celestia a brilliant ruler in the eyes of her little ponies but despite her benevolence to those who looked to her for guidance, she failed to give her own sister the same time of day. And so the Princess of the Night was cast into the shadows where her anger and jealousy and bitterness were allowed to fester and grow into something uncontrollable. By the time Celestia realized something was wrong, it was too late, and both sisters paid a heavy price. Of course, it isn't just the long-lived who need to be wary of time's flow and the changes that happen within, but it should be said that while time can indeed heal all wounds, the opposite can also be true.

Discord failed to recover from his loss and with nopony to lift him up or the emotional means to do so himself, he shut his eyes and ears to the world in a sense. As time wore on in Equestria, bitterness and despair gave way to apathy and indifference to the plight of the finite creatures that lived their short lives day-to-day. He lost touch with who he'd been when Fluttershy was alive and eventually, unable to bear it anymore and desperate to regain a sense of self, he chose to cast away the relatively moral character he'd built over the years to revel in that which defined him at his core.

Twilight, in her obsession to know the truth, hadn't realized that she was making the same sort of mistake her mentor and mother figure had made well over a millennia ago. Tunnel vision had caused the Princess to neglect the very connections and principles that had made her into what she was today. Where her duties as a teacher at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns were concerned, she had become somewhat distant and unapproachable. Where her remaining friends and family were concerned, her warm and caring smile had grown more and more into a mask to hide impatience and irritation. Had she been asked on the spot to recall the names of the current Headmare or Headstallion or any of the students attending the school she'd built from the ground up to promote and foster the very idea of friendship and harmony, a perceptive pony would notice more than a bit of hesitation in her response.

She lost touch with who she'd been when all of her closest friends were alive, and in doing so—unnoticed even by Twilight herself—she had closed off her heart to those around her. What remained was what had always been there lurking inside her, that cold and curious and logical little filly unswayed and unimpressed by what having even one good friend could offer. Without the bonds she shared with the other Elements of Harmony to keep her afloat, the questions she so desperately desired to have answered had eaten away at those few bonds remaining until she could hardly feel them anymore. She couldn't be swayed to focus on what she had rather than what she'd lost or didn't have, and so, ignorant of her own changes as well as the changes around her, her meticulous plans turned to amoral schemes.

Once she'd gotten over her initial misgivings, the unfiltered influx of ideas came readily and easily. With renewed purpose and feeling more at ease than she'd been in a long while, Twilight went about focusing on her duties as the ruler of Equestria. Though she would've much rather carried on with her plans, time was not a terribly important factor as far as she was concerned. Given how long it had been since she actually spoke to Celestia or Luna, she was fairly sure she could avoid suspicion if she were to approach the latter mare now with her request. Still, with what she'd planned to ask of Luna, it was probably better to err on the side of caution and wait for a while longer, Twilight surmised. She initially found it strange that with all the time and effort both Celestia and Luna had taken to teach her the finer points of being a ruler, not once had Luna proposed she learn of dream walking or anything else related to oneiromancy for that matter.

It wasn't until she'd asked Luna that nonsensical question back then that she understood. There was something Luna didn't want Twilight or most likely anypony else to know when it came to dreams and the role she played within them. Like her research into alicorns, she found no documents relating to oneiromancy; she found nothing at all on the subject of dreams outside of a few texts on dream interpretation and symbolism, none of which were of any sort of repute. To Twilight, this couldn't have been a mere coincidence and she wanted more than anything to continue forward with the assumption that dreams, alicorn nature, and perhaps even that place were all somehow related, but she couldn't—not until she could convince Luna to teach her oneiromancy and find out for herself.

So Twilight waited.

She played the role of a good leader and waited for a prime opportunity to present itself though she was far from idle; she even took the time to choose and personally teach another promising young student, much to the delight of her royal predecessors. It was another three decades or so before just such an opportunity arose in the form of a request from her now positively massive and ever increasingly drowsy royal advisor. Evidently, when they reached a certain age—usually around 150 to 200 years of age to be exact—dragons experienced a desire to return to the Dragonlands where they would go into something akin to hibernation. It wasn't quite the deep centuries-long dreamless sleep experienced by older dragons who'd lived for thousands of years, but it would still see Spike—who'd just about reached that age range—gone from Twilight's side for at least a dozen years give or take.

Having learned of this natural occurrence from his time abroad in the Dragonlands, Spike had, with a heavy heart, asked Twilight for an extended leave of his duties. Once upon a time, Twilight would've been reluctant to let the dragon go. She would have hesitated but knew that in the end, she'd have no choice but to let him do what came naturally. As things went, she had no issues, and though the goodbyes were heartful and emotional, Twilight saw her number one assistant off with a warm smile—a smile she couldn't help but twist into a small grin of satisfaction as the dragon flew up and out of sight. She still cared for Spike like he was her own son, of that there was no doubt; the problem was that she also knew the dragon as well as he knew her, and given some of the things she envisioned having to do going forward, she knew he would make things... difficult.

In other words, Twilight didn't yet know how things would go exactly, and wouldn't until she could appeal to Luna, but she knew it would be better not to have Spike around for whatever transpired. What she needed now wasn't a voice of reason ready to step in with words of caution and disapproval, but rather somepony ready and willing to give their wholehearted cooperation to her cause; she needed somepony she could use. But for now, Twilight would focus on her conversation with Luna and worry about the rest afterword. She'd taken the time to establish a firmer and more constant line of communication with her predecessors, particularly Luna. While Twilight had always considered the mare a friend of sorts since the Princess of the Night experienced her first Nightmare Night back in Ponyville, they had rarely, if ever, spoken on a personal level since.

It wasn't until she was crowned as the new sole Princess of Equestria and underwent further training for her role that the situation changed, and even then she'd often felt that Luna preferred to keep her distance. What Twilight had to do was clear; if she wanted to learn what Luna had to teach, then she had to build a trust that didn't yet exist between them, and for that, she needed to grow closer to the mare. Luna had never outright stated that she wouldn't teach Twilight the secrets of oneiromancy, but the implications were all too clear in her response to the foolish question Twilight had asked so long ago. Perhaps if they'd been closer, perhaps if there was more trust, things might've gone differently.

Whatever the case may have been, trust was a factor that could not be overlooked. And so Twilight worked tirelessly to build that trust over the last few decades leading up to Spike's departure, and now she felt it was time to see just how far that trust had actually gotten her. Twilight planned to make a heartfelt entreaty to the mare, requesting her teachings under the guise of easing the burden Luna had chosen to carry alone for so long. Ready to enact her plan and making doubly all her affairs and backup plans were in order, she contacted Luna to meet with her in Canterlot for a visit—to which Luna agreed readily. Luckily, both she and Celestia had chosen to travel to different destinations for the time being and Luna's happened to be closer to home. Twilight, happy that things were coming together so nicely, greeted the mare warmly upon her arrival to Canterlot Castle.

After having one of the castle staff serve a plate of scones and Luna's favorite bitter tea, Twilight and Luna proceeded to exchange pleasantries in the form of what the former felt to be an amiable but rather vapid and vacuous conversation. Luna was by no means a daft mare and could be just as perceptive as her sister on occasion. Twilight also knew the mare to be the straightforward type, and so wasn't surprised when she was pressed by Luna—albeit kindly—to cut to the chase. Shoving down her anxiety and pouring as much charm and earnestness into her words as she possibly could without overdoing it, Twilight made her case. It was a heartfelt plea, an earnest desire to help ease Luna's burden. It was a steadfast entreaty to entrust the current Princess with more responsibility now that she'd had a decent amount of experience ruling the kingdom.

They were the wholesome and honest words of a mare desperate to prove herself worthy of learning what Luna could teach. While Celestia evidently had no talent for acting, Twilight was, or rather had become over the years, an entirely different story. It helped that while her methods had been calculated, her desire to learn was completely genuine, and it was that genuine, almost foal-like eagerness, that Luna saw when she looked into the mare's eyes. Unlike her sister, Luna hadn't been around to experience Twilight's foalhood, but she'd heard enough stories from Celestia to imagine the fully grown mare before here as she would've been back then, and Twilight's eyes were enough to bring the Princess of the Night back to a time she'd never even been a part of. That itself was one reason that she hesitated to deny the mare outright, even though she had ample reason to.

The moment Twilight had mentioned wanting to learn oneiromancy, Luna's expression had become guarded, but as Twilight's words grew ever more impassioned, that expression began to slip more into something resembling uncertainty. In recent years the two had become closer than they'd ever been in the past—so much so in fact that Luna had begun to wonder lately if there was something more there, something that surpassed friendship. These budding emotions were the second reason Luna couldn't bring herself to immediately refuse Twilight's request. Having a greater understanding of what the Dream Realm truly was, Luna and her sister had resolutely agreed that Twilight hadn't been ready to learn the secrets oneiromancy had to offer... but that had been when she was first crowned as the Princess of Equestria almost two centuries ago.

Perhaps it was fine now that she had more experience. The mare had come so far in the time that she'd been crowned. Equestria has experienced an unprecedented era of peace and prosperity under her rule and even putting that and her growth as a pony aside, magic was and still is her talent. She's already learned everything else Celestia and I have to teach her and has surpassed our expectations in every regard. Maybe... maybe it really is time to pass the torch...

These were the thoughts that ran through Luna's head and as she lowered her gaze to the fine white marble of the table they each sat on either side of, her brow furrowed and her mouth set in a worried frown, realization struck her; She was making excuses where none were needed. Deep down she had already known her answer from the very beginning. It was only a matter of accepting it and saying it aloud, and so—casting the doubt from her mind—she raised her head, looked the mare she may or may not have had certain feelings for, and resolutely gave her answer. Twilight Sparkle would have her lessons, and Luna would be there every step of the way to ensure her mental health and that she didn't stray off the path and into darker waters. There were, after all, certain things about the Dream Realm that ought to be left alone and kept hidden, even from Luna's eyes and ears.

Unbeknownst to Luna, what Twilight sought just so happened to be hidden beneath those darker waters, but at that moment, the only thing that mattered to the mare was the radiant smile that lit up Twilight's face, making her expression shine like the sun she'd been raising every morning on her own for some time now. Seeing that, any lingering doubts Luna had about her decision or how she felt about Twilight herself blew away like so many leaves on the wind. If Twilight felt the same way she didn't show it, but that was fine for now. They had all the time in the world to grow even closer and Luna could also be a patient mare when she needed to. In the meantime, Twilight's focus lay solely on absorbing each and every word Luna had to say about oneiromancy.

As far as she knew, there were only two ponies in the world that had mastered that particular branch of magic—one of which was tutoring her in its use and the other being none other than Starswirl the Bearded, from whom Luna had learned the magical craft. Had Starswirl been alive, Twilight might've asked the old stallion, but as it was, he and the rest of the original Pillars of Equestria had, like the rest of the Elements, long since passed. Evidently Celestia hadn't the horn for that sort of magic and had given up very early in her own studies, settling for knowing the bare minimum at most. Twilight on the other hoof had no problem whatsoever in her attempts at learning such a complex branch of magic. While oneiromancy may have been in the realm of Luna's special talent, Twilight's talent was still that of magic in and of itself, and that talent hadn't waned one bit in the years since she'd become the sole ruler of Equestria. Still, even with Twilight's affinity, the lessons took some time and as time went on, the Princess began to catch on to Luna's affections.

The mare hadn't exactly tried to hide those affections, but she hadn't embellished them with flowery words or actions either. It was unfortunate then that Twilight had no such feelings to give in return. Romance, as it turned out, was the furthest thing from the Princess's mind and had Twilight realized how Luna had been looking at her sooner, she might taken a different route. As things stood, however, Twilight could either humor her teacher, ignore her affections entirely, or reject her outright. For Twilight, the latter was out of the question, as it would've likely thrown an even bigger wrench in her plans than if she were to accept her feelings. At the same time, she couldn't return those affections, not only because she didn't feel that way, but because it would certainly cause problems for both of them in the future and neither did she didn't want to upset Celestia.

It wasn't as though Twilight didn't find Luna attractive—far from it in fact. The mare was beautiful, and when given serious thought, it would've been a blatant lie to say that Twilight was entirely disinterested, but her own wants were far too strong to be ignored. Maybe once she had her answers... maybe once she was satisfied then she could try for a relationship, but until then Twilight would continue to play the role of the oblivious student. On the subject of oblivious students, Twilight had, up until now, left her own protègè in the dark about her plans, mostly because of the role the young stallion played within them.

Path Seeker was a unicorn stallion whom Twilight had taken under her wing back when he'd been a colt studying at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. He'd moved to Canterlot from Trottingham along with the rest of his family at a tender age and his considerable talent for magic had earned him a place at Celestia's School. Not only had the colt consistently been top of his class, but he'd shown practically all of the same traits personality-wise that Twilight had been known for back when she was a filly, right down to the blind adoration and admiration of the current Princess of Equestria. In other words, Path Seeker was a colt after Twilight's own heart... but that wasn't why she'd chosen him as a personal student, at least not entirely. Twilight had taught him just as Celestia had taught her and had given the colt the same sort of attention she'd gotten from her own past mentor. In time, they built a relationship that, on the surface, was much the same as Twilight had with Celestia.

In reality, however, this was not the case.

While Twilight felt some sort of affection towards Path Seeker as his teacher and at times guardian—nopony could spend so many years together and not feel something—it was nothing like the genuine mother-daughter type of relationship she and Celestia had shared. To Path Seeker, there was a genuine bond between the two, but to Twilight, that bond felt hollow and very much one-sided. She'd chosen Path Seeker—no, she'd chosen a student for one purpose and one purpose only, and she was reminded of that every time she looked at Path Seeker. She thought about it every time he flashed her that wide innocent smile as a colt, and it always made the smile she gave him in return that much more bitter. For the sake of her goals, Twilight had set the merits of friendship and harmony to the wayside for the most part while nourishing the colt's love of magic and in time, Path Seeker had grown to be a stallion wholly devoted to his studies and to the Princess that had brought him so far.

It was exactly what Twilight had wanted, and now that she'd been taught the magic of oneiromancy, it was time for the next phase of her plan and for that studious young stallion to fulfill that role. It was a role Twilight herself would play if all went well, but as things stood now, and given what she'd learned from Luna, there may have been certain risks involved in what she planned to do next—risks she couldn't afford to take being the sole Princess ruling her kingdom. It wasn't Twilight's intention to turn Path Seeker into the next monarch of Equestria via an alicorn transformation, but if what she'd hypothesized turned out to be correct, then the stallion might very well become the next alicorn created since Flurry Heart. With what she'd learned from Luna, Twilight could turn her hypothesis into a running theory, and Path Seeker was the final piece she needed to solve the puzzle.

If all went well, Twilight would finally have found that elusive link between a simple pony and the mysterious creature known as an alicorn. If all went well, then Path Seeker would ascend and at the very least, Twilight would have another potential heir to the throne of Equestria. If all went well, she could finally rest her tired, scheming mind and wash herself clean of the constant feeling of guilt and betrayal she'd buried deep within for so long all for the sake of her goal. If all went well, if all went well... but would things really go that smoothly? As Twilight prepared to explain Path Seeker's role to him in her 'experiment', she couldn't help but wonder.

If all didn't go well, then Path Seeker might've very well become—in the unsettling words of an infamously zealous tyrant and cult leader of the past—a lamb to be sacrificed upon the altar of progress to the god known as knowledge. Twilight had meant to refrain from turning the stallion into a puppet who knew only mindless obedience, but his devotion was absolute nonetheless and she knew Path Seeker would brave the risk without hesitation—if not for her sake then the sake of his own indomitable curiosity and unquenchable need to know. He truly was a stallion after the Princess's own heart and it was because of this that she felt she could be somewhat candid in her explanation of what she expected of him; she at least owed her faithful student that much, and just as she expected—just as she'd hoped for—Path Seeker was more than willing to help her accomplish her goal.

With that, everything had almost fallen into place, and she could narrow down her many potential ideas on how to proceed to just a few realistic plans based on what she'd discovered thus far. All that remained was to ensure she wasn't disturbed during the experiment. Her royal duties, her schedule, the time and location in which she intended to carry out the experiment, and any potential witnesses Twilight had all taken into account and had all been planned for accordingly, but that still left the most difficult hurdle to overcome if she were to succeed in her endeavors without any outside interference. Unless she could avoid the vigilant eye of the Princess of the Night, all her planning and scheming would be for naught. If that happened... if she was discovered by the mare who'd entrusted her with the knowledge that made this all possible...

Twilight shuddered at the thought and refused to even entertain such a horrendous scenario.

Upright

Oneiromancy was a branch of magic that, while incredibly complex, could allow one who'd mastered it to almost limitlessly manipulate the mind via dreams. Most creatures often wound up slaves to the whims of their subconscious when asleep and to take advantage of those creatures in such a vulnerable state was nothing less than an unforgivable taboo in Luna's eyes. She had made that much clear to Twilight during their lessons; to be a dream walker meant more often than not that one was a silent observer, an unseen bystander, a guardian who hid within the shadows of one's subconscious making sure that one's sleep was unbroken by nightmares. It was only in that instance that interference was permitted, and even then interaction with the dreamer was often kept to a minimum unless absolutely required. Luna had, of course, made exceptions in the past Twilight knew, but those had been special circumstances.

This hadn't always been the case when it came to the Princess of the Night. There was a time when, in her madness, her influence had spilled forth from her lunar prison and into unwary sleeping minds, causing terrible nightmares to run rampant until the dreamer was forced awake in a cold sweat, their eyes wild and their expressions terrified. The would-be tyrant, imprisoned as she was, had no control over such a phenomenon, but when she'd learned of what she'd caused upon breaking free of the shackles of Nightmare Moon, Luna had been slow to forgive herself. To Twilight, it just went to show how seriously the mare took her duties, and it was for that reason that she could, under no circumstances, allow her to find out what she and her faithful student were conspiring to do.

The problem lay in Luna's mastery of dream manipulation; one could say that the Realm of Dreams was her domain, and while not technically true, the level of control she could wield while there would undoubtedly convince many of the notion. Still, as much power as Luna had, the fact remained that the Dream Realm was not Luna's domain and so was not entirely under her control. With that in mind, Twilight was convinced that there had to be a way around her admittedly vast influence. At the end of the day, the Dream Realm was a different reality of sorts—a separate plane of existence created and connected by the subconscious minds of every being with the ability to dream.

Naturally, it would stand to reason that one would need to be unconscious and dreaming if one were to connect one's self to the Dream Realm, but Luna herself was evidence against that assumption. Luna seemed to be fully conscious upon entering the Dream Realm, at least it seemed that way to Twilight before her lessons. In actuality, things were a bit more complicated than that; the thaumic mechanics of the spell were more nuanced, but essentially Luna used oneiromancy to create a 'dream self' within the Dream Realm—a kind of pseudo-consciousness that lurked beneath her subconscious mind. It was this 'dream self' she used to wander the Realm of Dreams and carry out her oneiric duties as the Princess of the Night. The spell was so horribly complex that it took even Twilight a little over two years to finally pin down to perfection—and that was just that particular spell alone.

It was still an impressive feat considering it took Luna, who'd had a talent for this sort of thing, roughly a year and a half herself. That said, how long it took Twilight to master didn't particularly matter to the mare; what mattered was that she now understood the mechanics behind how Luna was able to wander the Dream Realm freely while using her oneiromancy. At first, Twilight used that knowledge to discreetly find ways around Luna's nigh omnispective sight under the guise of helping her with her nightly patrol. She hadn't wanted to tip Luna off by asking suspicious questions, but she quickly realized that not only were her efforts fruitless but would cause far more suspicion given that though she'd finished her lessons she was far from experienced in the ways of oneiromancy.

So instead she chose to rely on her wit and Luna's romantic attachment to avoid suspicion and get the answers she sought. Once she'd chosen her approach, it was a simple matter of inquiring as to why such a complicated spell was necessary to travel the Dream Realm. For Twilight, to ask such a scholarly minded question wasn't out of place in the slightest and upon asking about the necessity of the 'dream self', Luna was happy to reply. Evidently, bringing one's consciousness into the Dream Realm through means such as lucid dreaming was horribly insufficient for the kind of work Luna did. Contrary to popular belief, lucid dreamers—while consciously aware of their dream—had little to no connection to or control of the 'world' around them. It was impossible for even those that had some modicum of control to maintain it for long before their entire dream collapsed and they awoke.

By creating a 'dream self', one could bypass those limitations and do as they pleased for as long as need be or until the caster of the spell was awoken from their surface-level slumber. At the same time, it was almost impossible for Luna to sense a lucid dreamer due to their almost non-existent connection to the Realm of Dreams. No connection meant no presence and that was exactly the information Twilight had been looking for. With that revelation, Twilight couldn't help but wonder what Luna's solution was to those who gained lucidity if she couldn't sense them. Luna's response couldn't have been more pleasing to the Princess to hear; in essence, Luna might stumble upon a lucid dream on rare occasions, but more often than not she left them to their own devices, for their dreams never lasted long enough for anything dire to happen.

There had been nopony in existence aside from Luna and Starswirl who could take advantage of the phenomenon known as lucid dreaming—not even Discord himself, at least not entirely. And it was true, there hadn't been anypony who could do such a thing... save for the mare who now stood as the only other living user of oneiromancy to date. As things stood now, Luna's explanation had given Twilight a very simple solution to her problem and with it, she—along with Path Seeker—could finally move onto the experimental phase. Though, which each step closer to her goal, Twilight grew ever more paranoid about unforeseen obstacles, and so she'd taken great pains to account for as many as she could. One of those measures involved freeing up her schedule for the evening, something she'd accomplished several decades prior by holding Night Court every other night rather than each and every night.

The process had been far more of a hassle than Twilight realized, but the Princess had eventually managed to convince an upset Luna and a somewhat put off thestral population to agree, albeit with some initial bitterness that thankfully faded over time. That she had pushed for some time to herself every other evening was a perfectly understandable decision if you were to ask any pony on the street, but if somepony were to hear that the Princess liked to spend some of those evenings down in the crystal catacombs below Canterlot Castle, there would most definitely be a few questions raised—some eyebrows raised in suspicion or maybe a curious tilt of the head at the very least. But nopony knew what their wise and benevolent Princess got up to down there, or even that she made the occasional midnight trip to those catacombs in the first place, and that was exactly how Twilight planned to keep it.

She hadn't really taken that many trips in order to avoid those kinds of suspicions, and would've rather not taken any trips at all given some particularly bad memories, but like everything else she'd done in the pursuit of truth, she felt those trips had been necessary. That, of course, had been a few decades in the past, and with all preparations complete, it was time to put those dreadful catacombs to good use. Luna had left Canterlot a few days prior at the behest of her sister so there was no need to worry about the mare's physical presence. With everything taken into account, it was no difficult feat, even on such a quiet night within the castle, for the Princess to slip past the thestral guards and make her way to the hidden entrance to the catacombs, down the steep steps, and through the labyrinthine crystal caves to her intended destination.

Deep within the catacombs, Twilight had stumbled across a small naturally formed cavern in which she spent quite some time repurposing as her own personal lab, much like the one she'd had in the basement below the Golden Oaks Library. Not only would it suit her needs, but the creation of the lab brought back more than a few fond memories, though she couldn't help feeling a twinge of bitterness as well given the ultimate fate of her original home in Ponyville. It wasn't as grand as her previous lab and in fact, there was very little in the way of actual lab equipment; if anything, it was more a study than a laboratory, but that was fine for now. Aside from clearing the once empty space of excess rubble and other detritus that had gathered within the cave over many years, Twilight had moved a large bookshelf already filled end to end with tomes, a desk complete with a chair and several writing utensils and parchment, as well as a simple bed she'd placed in one corner.

Among a few other creature comforts and pieces of lab equipment, she'd also made sure to cast a few sanitation spells, put up several security wards, and enchanted some of the naturally formed crystals already embedded in the cavern walls to give off low but perfectly adequate light. In short, it was Twilight's own little private sanctuary, or that's what it felt like to the mare. It had been tricky getting everything situated without getting caught, but the effort and magic Twilight put in had been sufficient to get the task done without incident. All that remained was to have Path Seeker take his place upon the bed and for Twilight to cast the spells necessary to begin their dive into the depths of those dark waters Luna had warned the Princess about. Once her student was in place, Twilight began casting; one spell to induce sleep, one to lock the stallion's mind within the Dream Realm, and one to jolt him back to consciousness.

The timing was key and all spells had to be cast almost simultaneously to reduce the risk of Luna catching on. They'd begun the task earlier in the evening as a precaution, but Twilight refused to relax just yet. Once she was certain each spell had taken effect as they were meant to, she cast the final spell—one that would telepathically link her to her student. In essence, Path Seeker was fully conscious and effectively trapped inside his own dream and by extension, the Dream Realm. In order to keep her interference to a minimum and thus further lower her chance of being discovered, Twilight used a kind of telepathic link in which she couldn't see what the stallion saw, but she could hear his voice and vice versa; it was a bare-bones connection, but good enough for what Twilight needed.

Twilight was also intrigued and slightly amused to discover that, when used in this manner, the telepathic link caused a sort of uncontrollable somniloquy to occur at the same time. That oddity aside, everything else was set. Path Seeker was right where he needed to be, Twilight hadn't sensed Luna's presence within the Dream Realm so far, and she'd taken her place at the nearby desk, ready to document each and every one of their findings. The magical light had been turned down low, and all was quiet save for Path Seeker's soft and slightly sleep-slurred voice echoing throughout the cavern and the gentle scratch of Twilight's quill as it magically danced across the parchment atop the desk. It was half an hour or so before Twilight was satisfied enough to call the initial tests a success, but now came the real experiment. It was also around that time that Path Seeker fell quiet, both vocally and over the mental link.

For Twilight, it was a tense silence full of anxiety and impatience, and in her opinion lasted far too long, but she chose not to break it. She instead turned to face her sleeping student, her quill at the ready, her brow furrowed, and her mouth drawn into a thin line of worry. Five minutes passed by, then ten, then fifteen. In the prolonged interim of silence, there was only the sound of Path Seeker's deep, steady breaths, the nervous tapping of a quill on the desk and the increasingly loud beating of Twilight's own heart. Another half-hour had come and gone before Twilight began to think that something may have gone wrong, but just as she was about to call out to Path Seeker over the link, he finally spoke again, his previously peaceful features scrunching up in what appeared to be confusion and his quiet voice bewildered and questioning.

"Something's changed, Princess... not quite sure what yet, but I... I feel different. Everything feels so... sluggish? No... that's not it... what is this...? Princess... how long has it been since I last spoke to you? Time... doesn't seem to be working as it should. Could've sworn we'd talked only a moment ago, but somehow I get the feeling it's been longer... but I'm not sure..."

The stallion spoke in a voice untainted by the slurring and mumbling of a pony talking in their sleep, and the odd clarity made Twilight frown, though she couldn't quite guess as to why. As far as Twilight could tell, his eyes were still closed and he was still asleep. Path Seeker's words also troubled her; one's perception of time in a dream was oftentimes roughly equivalent to the time that passed by outside of it, and that was doubly true for a lucid dreamer. That Path Seeker's perception of time was fluctuating so drastically couldn't possibly mean anything good from Twilight's perspective. Her tone wary, the Princess began to ask of her student's whereabouts, what he saw the and the like. This time she'd just barely begun uttering the first word when her student cut in, answering as though he'd known exactly what she was about to ask.

"A... park of some kind... I think it's the one I used to visit with my brother.... the one our parents brought us to play when we were both colts, but... yes... yes, it is! It's Buckington Park just east of Trottingham town square... but it's too quiet... There's nopony here... something feels off, but I can't put my hoof on... wait... Princess, I can see somepony approaching from a distance... he looks so familiar... is that... is that you, Way Finder...?"

An inexplicable chill passed through Twilight's spine and made her frown all the deeper. The repurposed chamber fell silent once again as Twilight watched her student, watched closely for any sudden changes. Luna never mentioned exactly what would happen if one were to stray into those dark waters, only that she'd know beforehoof. Perhaps this was what she meant, Twilight thought. Perhaps it was this strange sense of foreboding welling up within her chest. If that were the case, that would mean they were getting close to something. The Princess could vaguely feel Luna wandering the Dream Realm in the back of her mind, but she was nowhere close to them and didn't seem to be closing in. If anything she was moving further away, so Twilight continued as she was. She didn't stop. She couldn't now that there was a chance they were closing in on their goal.

It was just as she reasserted her convictions that she noticed a severe change in her protègè's expression. His brow had furrowed and his mouth was twisted in a deep frown of concern. What caught Twilight's eyes was the bright sheen of sweat she could see against his dark blue fur and the sudden paleness of the skin beneath. When he next spoke, Twilight could hear an odd strain in his outwardly calm but questioning voice.

"Princess... my brother, he... he spoke to me just now... but I don't think it was really him... his eyes were... odd. They were... there was nothing there... or m-maybe it was just my imagination...? He was so... his words... they were empty... hollow... like he was s-some kind of automaton... he's gone now... I don't quite know how to explain it, but... I got the strange impression... that he wasn't... part of my dream... he didn't feel real... or no, that's not right either..."

The stallion visibly shuddered, and while Twilight made note of that, she chose mostly to ignore it and press on. She pushed her student for more details, asking what his brother had said even as she frantically documented his every word. It took another moment for Path Seeker to reply, but in the end, he did so, albeit with that same oddly strained voice.

"I don't know what he said exactly, Princess... it didn't sound like any Ponish I've ever heard... but I... I understood the meaning behind the words... Princess... I think i-it was a... a kind of warning... I think maybe he's saying I should turn back, or that I shouldn't be here... but... but I haven't really gone anywhere... have I? P-Princess, I don't think..."

At that moment, Path Seeker's words trailed off and his expression suddenly slackened back into that of a pony lost in a peaceful dream. His serene visage did nothing to comfort Twilight, for at the same time the mental link they shared was severed, her connection to her student cut off entirely. The Princess' immediate thought was that they'd been found by Luna and she felt her heart skip a beat at the notion, but upon reaching out her oneiric senses in a panic, she found that the mare had paid them no more attention than when she'd last checked. Bewildered, Twilight returned her attention to Path Seeker and attempted to re-establish their connection, only for her efforts to be rebuffed. It was as though she was trying to pass an impenetrable wall only to bounce off of its immutable surface.

She tried cutting the dream short, but much like the wall that had denied her telepathy, the lock she'd placed upon Path Seeker's mind refused to yield even an inch. Desperate to bring her protègè back, she resorted to physically shaking the stallion awake as she called out his name over and over again with growing distress... to no avail. There was no change in Path Seeker's gentle expression or deep, steady breathing; he looked just as serene—just as lost to the world as ever. After a moment the mare backed away from the bed, slowly shaking her head in disbelief. With mounting horror, Twilight realized that—for all her planning, all her precautions, the years of work she put into making her wish a reality—she had wholly lost control of the situation. Something else had seized Path Seeker's mind, trapping him within the Realm of Dreams, something that had nothing at all to do with Luna's overwhelming presence.

It was as if a dark cloud that had been hanging over the mare for years suddenly vanished at the sight of her unresponsive protègè, and the realization of what Twilight had done finally sank in. A simmering terror of what the near future held due to her own actions mixed with the abject shock and horror she'd already been feeling; it manifested as a deep fear for her student's safety, for Luna's discovery, and for the loss of the one truth that would've made this growing nightmare worth anything. Her mind was a whirlwind, her thoughts alive and swirling with all manner of unpleasant consequences. Twilight clenched her eyes shut against the onslaught but that only brought the thoughts into greater focus. She tried to ignore the subtle tremble in her hooves and rising nausea assaulting her stomach but she couldn't.

She couldn't rid herself of the feeling that somepony or something was watching her with cold accusing eyes. The air had grown thick and heavy, the weight of it crushing her down and making it harder and harder to breathe. Some foul, cloying stench that couldn't be placed permeated the air around her and combined with her pounding heart and sudden vertigo, it was all Twilight could do to stand on her hooves. Then, just when she felt she could take no more, Path Seeker's gasped words echoed throughout the chamber, her student calling out to his Princess in a voice hoarse with raw emotion. Startled, Twilight turned to the supine stallion and gasped at what she saw, all prior panic swept away in the blink of an eye. His eyes had flown open wide and his glassy golden irises were trained on the ceiling above him—no, that wasn't quite right, Twilight thought. Those eyes were fixed not on the rocky ceiling above, but rather at something far beyond that, something only he could see.

"P-Princess! Princess, can you hear me? I... I think I've made it! I... I'm not sure how I got here... the answer escapes me when I try to remember, but... yes I'm positive this is it! This place, it's... it's exactly as you described! An endless void of ethereal blue with... with countless motes of light stretching as far as the eye can see! It's... a magnificent sight... truly stunning! So this... this is where it happened then? This is where you met Princess Celestia and ascended to alicornhood? This is the Realm of Ascension..."

At his words, Twilight should have been thrilled. She should have been ecstatic that they'd come this far, but all she could feel at that moment was a sickening sense of dread. She couldn't shake the idea that she'd made a terrible mistake and that it was too late to stop what would come next. This was all wrong, she thought. Twilight was told by her friends after her ascension that she'd completely disappeared, leaving only a burnt patch of land in her wake; they'd even been afraid that she'd died somehow, and there'd been times when Twilight wondered if that had actually been the case—that, perhaps she'd gone through a death and rebirth rather than an ascension. Was that an alicorn's true nature, she had wondered. Were she and the rest of her fellow alicorns in a sense more phoenix than pony?

She'd never gotten an answer to that question and seeing Path Seeker now, she wasn't sure if she wanted to know anymore. Seeing him now, she was all but certain that this was wrong on a fundamental level. It felt like she and Path Seeker were committing some kind of blasphemy against the natural order. She should've tried once again to intervene; she should've called for Luna to put a stop to this madness, nevermind the consequences, but all she could do now was watch. All she could do was look on with a mix of mortal dread and morbid curiosity at the student she'd abandoned in those dark depths. His brilliant golden eyes, so bright and full of youthful energy before, were now dull and glazed, not at all matching the unrestrained awe and bewilderment in his tone.

"Princess... there in the distance... I can see something. I-It's not... I don't believe it's a pony... No, it's some structure, a... a tower I think... yes, a tower judging by the shape of it. A tall tower stretching endlessly into the sky—well, not the sky exactly but... but was that there before? Princess, you never told me about seeing any towers... a-and I don't recall seeing it a moment ago... I'm going to get a closer look... maybe it's... part of a trial of some kind? Perhaps I need to physically ascend the tower to become an alicorn? Yes, that makes sense... though I do wonder what awaits me at the top... maybe I'll see you there, Princess, just as you saw Celestia all those years ago. Maybe that's why I haven't been able to hear your voice..."

No, this definitely wasn't how things were supposed to go. An excited grin split Path Seeker's face, but that only served to fill Twilight's veins with ice. There was no tower. There was never any tower. Celestia had never mentioned anything about a tower and Twilight was convinced that there was no Princess waiting at the top. Twilight herself certainly wasn't waiting to greet her student for a job well done, so what would he find? What in the world was this tower he spoke of? Knowing nothing good would come of this development, Twilight broke free of her hesitation and tried once again to reach out to Path Seeker. She tried to call his name, tried to shake him from his stupor, but nothing she did got through to her entranced student. He showed no signs that he'd heard her. His body, to Twilight's further horror, had gone rigid. The skin beneath his fur had turned deathly pale, and he was terribly, terribly cold.

It was like trying to wake the literal dead—like looking into the eyes of an actual corpse. And all the while Path Seeker continued to talk as if he weren't already completely lost to the world outside, never to return to the reality in which Twilight resided.

"I've reached the structure, Princess, and yes, it is most certainly a tower. That said, it's... i-it's unlike anything I've ever seen... I want to tell you—I need to tell you what stands before me, but I haven't the words... the thing defies perception! The shape, the angles, the color—i-it's all wrong! It appeared to be a simple—albeit impossibly tall—tower at a distance, but from here... as I look up, the tower seems to twist and warp in strange ways the higher it goes...

"The walls... they appear to be made of solid stone, but I get a sense that there's something... organic for lack of a better word, lurking just below the surface... I can't really explain it, but it's... quite eerie if I'm being honest... I fear I have a rather daunting task ahead of me, Princess... there doesn't seem to be an entrance of any kind, but—ah, I do see... there's a winding staircase on the outside... I don't know what lies at the top and having seen this tower for myself I find myself more than a bit nervous, but I've resolved to make the ascent... I'm going up... wish me luck, Princess..."

And with those words, Path Seeker took one final breath, what little light he had left in his eyes vanished, and he fell silent. His pale visage, animated only a moment ago, was now frozen in a mask of determination. He'd been ready to face whatever fate awaited him head-on and what he would find, Twilight couldn't say. The Princess, numbed by shock and disbelief all the way down to the tips of her hooves, stared down at her student, mouth agape and searching for something to say, but words failed her. What could she say? She felt for a heartbeat but found none. There was nothing more she could say—nothing more she wanted to say, not aloud. The only truth she'd gained for all her efforts was the truth staring her in the face, mocking her for daring to step into realms which no pony was meant to tread.

Path Seeker was dead, and that was a truth she couldn't escape from.

Twilight whispered the stallion's name, she whimpered it, shouted it, screamed herself hoarse, but as before, her student would not stir. She all but threw herself into the Realm of Dreams, desperately seeking his, but Path Seeker's was nowhere to be found among the countless other dreams made manifest by countless other subconscious minds. Her frantic and futile attempts to locate her lost protègè naturally made ripples across the Dream Realm, attracting the attention of a certain mare who, up until then, had been wondering why she hadn't sensed the Princess' presence. Drawn by the sudden spike in emotion, Luna hurried to its source, only to find the object of her affection lost in despair and completely inconsolable.

The former Princess' heart ached to see Twilight in this state, but Twilight, wracked by guilt and shame and confusion and a host of other unpleasant emotions, was unfit to answer any of Luna's many questions. Realizing this, Luna abandoned her nightly duties and chose instead to remain by her side for however long it took; that was all she felt she could do for now. But time passed as time does even in the Realm of Dreams, and eventually—when the Princess had regained a sliver of her composure—Luna asked of her whereabouts. Twilight, unwilling and unable to hide her folly any longer, gave up her location and bade Luna tell Celestia to come as well. She had something to tell both of them, and Luna was suddenly very sure she didn't want to know what her recent student and potential lover had gotten up to while she was away.

Nevertheless, Luna contacted her sister and together they made for the Equestria capital with all haste and worrying thoughts plaguing both their minds about what may have happened. They made the best time they could, but even so, it took them the better part of three days to arrive in Canterlot, and upon their arrival, they found the city and castle staff in a panic. Evidently the Princess hadn't been seen at all the last couple of days. The current captain of the Royal Guard had formed a search party but had no luck in finding the wayward Princess. Aware of the situation and of Twilight's location, the two former rulers of Equestria set the minds of the staff and the citizens at ease before making their way to where Twilight had told them she was.

The sight that greeted them below the castle and deep within the crystal caverns confirmed their worst fears. Inside the study was a disheveled and forlorn Twilight clinging to the bedside of what initially appeared from a distance to be a sleeping stallion. It was clear the mare had refused to leave his side for even a moment, and as the two sisters moved closer it was easy to see why. At the sight of the stallion whom they identified as Twilight's student, Path Seeker, both mares reeled back in shock—an involuntary reaction to the stallion's twisted visage. Path Seeker was indeed dead, of that there was no doubt, but the body...

The stallion looked as if he'd been writhing about in pain up until only moments ago, his legs bent at odd angles and his body twisted unnaturally. What disturbed the two sisters and drew the brunt of their attention, however, was Path Seeker's face; his features bore an expression so hideously warped by horror and agony that it was hard to even call it equine. The two sisters could almost hear the gut-wrenching, blood-curdling screams the stallion must've loosed in his death throes and just the thought of that grotesque cacophony of snapping of bones made them both sick to their stomach. Unbidden, Twilight spoke, explaining in a voice entirely devoid of life all of what she'd done and how she'd dragged her own student into her schemes. She explained the end result, how he'd died chasing after something that Twilight realized only now could never be.

She explained how mere hours ago, the stallion's corpse—or what she thought had been a corpse—had stirred violently and begun shrieking in terror, uttering half-formed, incoherent words before contorting himself into what they all saw before them. She told them everything, left nothing out, and in the end, turned to her predecessors with eyes empty of all but the question of what it was she'd actually done. In the end, Path Seeker had reached the top of that tower, but what had he found? What unfathomable horror had he seen? What had caused such a nightmarish reaction? What was it all for? All this and Twilight still hadn't found the answers she sought. Faced with such a lost and piteous expression, any anger or betrayal Luna might've felt was swept away.

Luna, blinded by the love she felt for the mare, could only sympathize and lament the fact that she hadn't told Twilight the truth sooner and potentially avoided this tragedy. Celestia had no such romantic feelings to get in the way, but she needed none. Looking at Twilight now, she saw not her centuries-old successor to the throne, but the intelligent yet woefully naive little filly she'd practically raised as her own daughter. Both mares were hurt by Twilight's actions, but neither could deny that the one hurting the most at that moment was Twilight herself, and that made it all the harder when they finally revealed that they themselves knew very little about the Realm of Ascension—really not much more than Twilight did.

The two sisters had indeed come from a faraway land, but not as alicorns as they'd told Twilight. They had both ascended in their foalhood years while under the care of Starswirl the Bearded, and what little Celestia and Luna did know, they learned from their then teacher. Starswirl never revealed where he'd gotten the information he knew, but he warned the mares never to look into the matter, for such forces weren't meant to be trifled with. In his words, to become an alicorn was a blessing bestowed upon mortal ponies by powers that existed outside the realms of equine understanding, and that blessing could only ever be given, never taken. That Celestia had walked alongside Twilight in that place all those years agodidn't surprise or upset the snow-white mare in the least, for that was as it should've been and she was proud that her student had been able to ascend to alicornhood.

Seeing her former protègè as she was now, however, Celestia could only feel a gnawing sense of guilt and a strange sort of unease leftover from years long since past as she revealed to the confused and despondent mare that who or whatever she'd seenduring that fateful day—whatever had guided her through her ascension in that place, Celestia had never been there to see it happen.

Author's Note

For this story, I wanted to try and write something that was a little more thought-provoking, and this is the result. Hope you guys enjoyed reading this, as I certainly enjoyed writing it. :twilightsmile: