It was evening and Princess Luna watched the rain run down the length of the balcony door. She sat on a purple cushion in her room, at a low table. The clouds outside were coloured by the sun, going from red to rust. She’d have opened the door if it weren’t for the direction of the rain.

On the table before her were some documents, an empty teacup, a kettle of tea, and a mug of the greatest concoction that she had ever drunk: coffee. One of the castle’s servants had recommended it to her in her first days back and after that the drink had become like water to her. She always had some whether she was in class learning about the modern world, or in her bedroom like now, waiting for her sister.

The past week had her sister swamped with work and so, they hadn’t been able to convene in the evening as they usually would. Today, she was finally free from work.

There was a familiar knock on the door. Luna turned her head to see her sister walking in, carrying with her a plate of pastry. Not for her, quite obviously; Luna disliked most pastries, finding them too sweet for her taste.

“Good evening, sister. How has your day been?”

“Ah, it’s been fine, Lulu. What about yours?” She took a seat opposite to Luna and poured out some tea for herself.

“My lessons continued as normal. Miss Scribe is quite a good teacher when it comes to history. Nihornese history was quite interesting even though we only glanced over it.” Luna took a sip of her coffee.

Celestia took a sip of her tea and then looked at her with an eyebrow raised and a slight frown. “You know that you shouldn’t be having coffee all the time; it’s not healthy in those quantities.”

“The pot calls the kettle black,” Luna said with a slight grin. Modern sayings were probably one of her favourite lessons by far.

Celestia, who had raised one of her pastries to her mouth, paused at that. She opened her mouth to say something, but stopped. After a moment of thought, she shrugged and devoured the pastry. Luna snickered at the display.

“Say what you want, sister, but my preferences are simply better than yours,” Celestia stated. To display her conviction in the statement, she stuck out her tongue at her sister. Luna merely rolled her eyes, deciding she would not win the argument if it were started.

Celestia took another sip of tea. Her face shifted to a more serious one. “And what of… her?”

“She has a name,” Luna replied with a snort, frowning a bit. She took another, longer sip. “But to answer your question, Nightmare Moon is progressing quite better, outpacing me as always. T’s a shame I cannot say the same for her progress in trying to be social. She shut herself in her room as usual.”

Celestia hummed, her expression softening up a bit. It was relieving to know no changes had occurred with her. Yet. With that out of the way, she took another sip of her tea, only to find it was all gone. She poured out some more.

“Sister, you visited Ponyville some days back,” Luna piped up, changing the subject to a less contentious one. “How did it go?”

“It was a nice break from my regular duties; not exactly what I had planned, but nice nonetheless. It was meant to be a simple casual visit but it became a bit more elaborate with Pinkie Pie having set up a party.”

“Ah, but Miss Pie must have made up for that with entertainment.”

“Not really,” Celestia said, making Luna raise an eyebrow and tilt her head a little. “I’m not sure but I think Pinkie had something troubling her since I only saw her twice in the party, both times only for a few moments. Both times she looked like she was in pain.”

That didn’t line up at all with the image of Pinkie that Luna had. It seemed downright impossible for a pony like Pinkie to behave like that. “Something ailing her? Surely you jest, sister.”

“I wish.” Celestia stared off into the distance after that, troubled.

Luna set her mug down. “Tia, what’s wrong?”

Celestia looked right at Luna. She sighed and looked down at the table. “Luna, ever since we learnt of the filly, Nemo, I’ve kept a protection spell around myself.”

Luna narrowed her eyes. Her sister, warrior of the light, afraid of a little filly who was at her mercy? It would’ve been unbelievable. But Luna listened on.

“The spell is simple in function — it causes pain to those under the influence of…” Celestia leaned in to whisper, “them when they near me. The closer they get to me the more debilitating the effects.”

“So, you believe that Miss Pie — bearer of the element of laughter — is under the influence of dark powers?” It was a downright preposterous idea to even think of, let alone say out loud. Celestia sighed at her sister’s skepticism, and at herself as well. In hindsight, it was probably a coincidence and nothing more.

“That isn’t all. This happened twice, ponies experiencing pain when I came near. During the party, Fluttershy had taken away Philomena for a while. Twilight sent me to the library while she looked for Philomena. You remember that mare, Anya, right? The one who was there at the castle that day.”

“Yes, I do.” And before Celestia could continue, Luna cut her off with her own concerns, “Sister, methinks you are thinking too much of mere coincidences. Chasing phantoms out of fear.”

Celestia brought her hooves down to the table harshly, rattling the crockery a bit. “You read the same reports that I did. You know what their agents do. I’m justified in my fear!”

Luna winced. “I’m not saying your fear is unjustified.” The reports of the Cloudsdale incident were still terrifying to think about despite her only reading them a month ago. “I’m saying that you’re letting your fear drive you irrational. You should at least get some more evidence before you go after somebody.”

“Luna, Anya left the library right after I left to have tea with Twilight. I had asked Twilight to keep watch on her and yesterday, Anya had not shown up to her work. Do you know what she could have been up to at that time?” Celestia gestured with her hooves wildly as she explained to Luna. She quite obviously referred to all manners of dark arcane rituals with her question at the end. It ruffled Luna's feathers even though she had none.

Luna was tired of what she thought was her sister grasping at straws. She answered Celestia’s rhetorical question, “Sleeping.”

Celestia paused and looked at her sister. “Sleeping?”

“Yes. Sleeping. The entire day.” At her sister’s bewildered silence, Luna sighed and explained, ”In my free time, I’ve been taking up my duties as guardian of dreams even though that title is long defunct. I’ve come across her nightmares and monitored her sleep, and though I cannot reveal much, I can tell you that Anya is not exactly sound of mind, or of physical health. What you are attributing to darker powers can be very simply explained by her poor health. There’s certainly at least one new nightmare beast burrowing in her dreamscape since I last saw her.”

Celestia didn’t say anything. Luna sipped her coffee. The rain provided the only sound in the room for a few short moments.

Luna got up, her mug empty and in need of a refill. “Sister, I say you shouldn’t let yourself lose sleep over this matter. You’ve instructed your student to keep watch and I’m sure Twilight will. I suggest you retire for the night and get some rest.”

Celestia finally spoke, making sense of what Luna said, “Right, yes. I suppose I was being unreasonable.” Luna’s explanation simply made more sense than whatever she had, and with her accepting the explanation, her own lost a lot of its credence and sounded stupid in hindsight. She got up and left the room, wishing her sister a good night. She hadn’t left the issue entirely though and she thought of what she could do, besides asking Twilight to keep an eye on her friends.

Author's Note

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