Author's Note

Okay, so I lied. The previous content warning is for the next chapter, not this one.

It Dreamt

At the crack of midnight, as she laid her head on her sister’s lap, Luna gently brushed her wet mane. They shared a bath that night, as they often did, and not once had her sister paid the hamper any mind. It hadn’t moved, and with the spell, it made no sound. It was dark in that basket, the bathroom cold, and with no milk the thing should’ve starved.

As Luna rubbed her back, Celestia couldn’t take her eyes off it. Her mind wondered what Luna would do if she pulled the baby from the hamper like a white rabbit from a top hat. Would she be as disgusted as Celestia felt every time she saw its large floppy ears and its dull face. There was no way she would believe Celestia created such an ugly thing—

And yet, she longed to feed it, and hold it, and store it somewhere more safe. Oh, her sweet baby, a baby she did not want, but as she laid in bed being held with love, her heart ached for the hatred she felt towards a creature that was half of her.

“Do not cry, my love,” Luna hummed, and she sang a song from a time long forgotten. It only brought more tears to Celestia’s eyes, and for a brief moment, she felt like a filly again. What a time to be alive, and to imagine she’d make it this far after all the violence, and hatred, and—

“Millennia of harmony.” Luna brushed the fur on her snout. “I don’t think a better pony could’ve ruled for so long. You should be proud of yourself, sister.”

Celestia raised her head. “Are you reading my thoughts?”

The brush settled on the bed while Luna gathered up her sister’s colorful mane and twirled it into a messy bun. “You’re half asleep. I couldn’t help it.” Two bobby pins were stabbed in her hairdo.

And Celestia’s heart skipped a beat. “What else did you see?” The hamper flashed in her mind, and though it had ties to thoughts of motherhood, she refused to directly think of her baby.

With such fear in her eyes Luna couldn’t help but grow concerned. “I barely peeked,” she dared to get closer to meet Celestia’s avoidant gaze. “Your brows were so furrowed I figured I’d see why, but I understand if I crossed a boundary.”

“You did, Luna,” she sobbed, yet she had no idea why she sobbed. Perhaps out of fear, perhaps shame. “Please don’t do that again.”

Luna laid down, her frosty eyes blinking in suspicion. “As you wish, but only if you tell me what has you so spooked.”

But her sister shook her head.

“You know I would never judge you.” Luna placed a hoof on her cheek. “I only want what’s best, so tell me what’s wrong.”

Celestia’s tears dried right up. She couldn’t be easily deceived, not with all her experience, but Luna was her weakness especially after she returned from her long stay on the moon.“What if it involved a stallion?”

“A stallion? As in you murdered one?” And the way her brow raised in hopeful anticipation let Celestia know that Luna would, in fact, judge her if she mentioned anything short of a touchless brunch with a nameless male.

“I, uh…” Celestia dropped her gaze. “Have you ever wondered about motherhood?”

“Changing the subject, Tia.” Luna shook her head.

“Or maybe it’s very relevant to this very subject.” The minute Celestia said that was the minute she felt more rejected than she had ever in her life.

And Luna had never looked at her with such disbelief in all her life, and maybe it was all in her head, but Celestia was convinced she saw contempt—a stronger contempt than the cold gaze of Nightmare Moon.

“Are you pregnant?” Luna didn’t need an answer, she had already come to her own conclusion. “Of course, but when would you have found the time?” Her mind raced for even more conclusions, and hypotheses, and theories that she would take to heart regardless of what Celestia told her. “When I go out to sip wine and paint, do you sneak stallions in here?! In our house?!” Her expression contorted into a grimace.

“What? No, of course not. I attend such outings with you—all outings.” Celestia felt like a brothel whore. She covered her reddening face. “I don’t know why I mentioned any of this. It’s not true, it’s just the hormones, as you said.”

It was far too late to backtrack. “Did you have relations with Captain Clash when we returned from our ski trip? Is he the father?”

“Who?” Celestia had to make a great effort to even recall that pegasus’ face. How many ex soldiers accompanied them on their many travels? Far too many to count, but both sisters tended to ditch their bodyguards the second they reached their desired destinations. Captain Clash had to be the maroon stallion pulling that particular chariot on that particular day if only because he was the sole pegasus who held the rank. There were about four guards accompanying him, all of which were male, and some of which were younger with better stamina. If put in a life or death situation and forced to pick one, Captain Clash wouldn’t be first choice.

“What makes you think I had anything to do with him?”

“When we arrived at the Hot Spring, and when I came out of the bathroom, why did I find you two alone together?” Luna cut her eyes to spot any signs of deception.

“I’m not doing this, Luna—“

“So it’s true!” She jumped out of their shared bed to trot around the room with high steps, pacing as if to solicit a challenge. “Oh, I just knew it even back then!”

“You weren’t gone for five minutes. How quick do you think a stallion can be?”

“You’d be surprised, especially when we’re talking about a pegasus.” And she huffed at that, upset as if Celestia had personally betrayed her by being so-called intimate with this male. “You’re supposed to be pure.”

Celestia rolled her eyes. “You don’t believe the words coming out of your mouth, do you?”

For a moment they both said nothing—one all tensed up, and the other remorseful towards an act she had no part in. Then, after some time, Luna slumped, and she swayed her head. With a snort, she got back into the bed, and she grabbed both sides of Celestia’s face with her hooves.

“Please, just give me the whole truth and nothing short of it.” Luna caught her eyes, and as she stared, Celestia felt the hypnosis her sister was attempting to lul her into. The second she fell asleep Luna would have free rein to explore whatever concerns sat heavy in her mind though her dreams. Such forceful magic wasn’t a thing Luna practiced often, if at all.

Right now, she expelled all of her strength to break through Celestia’s mental defenses.

“Stop, Luna!” The sun goddess shrieked as she violently yanked her head back, but Luna had an ironclad grip on her skull. Her horn glowed, but Celestia decided against using magic on her own little sister, so instead, they wrestled on the bed. Celestia thrashed about, and Luna used more magic to tame the beast, and yet there was an unsaid knowledge between them that Celestia wouldn’t retaliate. Luna took full advantage, laying on top of her, pinning her down with her body, and forcing her into sleep.

Soon the sun goddess fell, and only after her body went limp, did Luna let her go to join her in the land of slumber.

Run.

It was the only thing on her little mind. Run and don’t look back. She went as fast as her legs could take her, and her legs burned, and they were so sore, but she didn’t stop running.

She couldn’t stop running.

The halls were as long as the spine of a serpent. And on this snake’s back were multiple dead ends, and dead starts, and dead in betweens that running seemed pointless, but running was all she could do. And this maze of chaos wasn’t new. He liked to dangle her freedom from a string. It was no fun if things were impossible, if she felt too hopeless, and Celestia was all too aware of this fact too.

“Oh, where! Oh, where! Oh, where are you?!~” his singsong voice echoed throughout the catacombs. It shook the walls. It made the ground beneath her tremble, but she couldn’t stop pushing forward, especially when a light burned at the end of this tunnel.

Yet his shadow surpassed her, it had a mind of its own, and his shadow pointed and laughed on her left. It taunted her, just evil with an exposed tongue. She kicked it, it shattered like glass, and Celestia then galloped harder.

“Oww! Now that wasn’t very nice!~”

The exit was a yard away. A large red sign sprouted from the checkerboard tile. It pointed at the white light as if to mock her, and then was when she noticed the steel cage awaiting her instead of a way out.

Celestia made a sharp turn, her hooves struggled not to skid. The shadow reappeared behind her, but it went the opposite way, seeming to miss her altogether. With a heavy heart, she allowed her tears to fall.

She’d never be free, the games would never stop no matter how much she tried. If only her wings were large enough to lift her body off the ground, if only she could fly away—

The tile split beneath her small hooves as the long coiling body of her captor shoved through the narrow tunnels, crumbling the walls, and collapsing the ceiling behind him. She hated when he took a more dragonic form as it hurt more when he did bad things compared to when he took his sillier shape. This one, the ‘hydra’, scared her far more than the one he titled ‘devil’.

“There you are, my sweet filly,” the creature hissed a pleasurable moan. “Don’t run, you know how much I crave the chase! I only want to play!~” The voice of many puked from his twisted head. From a deep baritone to a mouse’s squeak, they all blended into mayhem, a chaotic serenade sang just for her.

Celestia made the mistake of looking back, and when she did, she saw his large jaws burst through an archway to her right. His mismatched front legs dragged his large serpentine body at a speed she could not out pace. Stone collapsed from the ceiling in front of her. When Celestia staggered to a clumsy stop, the hall started to spin. It went round and round like the innards of a typhoon, and her hooves were no longer on solid ground, but she was floating in midair. In the mists of this storm, she saw the hydra at the bottom of the pit, just misshapen and contorted into knots.

“Round n’ round the little mare went. Pop! Goes the weasel. With eyes so wide she couldn’t be spent. Pop! Goes the weasel~” a tune began to play but where the source came from was unclear. His mouth never moved, this voice was unfamiliar, just one out of his many. “You run, and cry, but dry your eyes! Pop! Goes the weasel—!”

“No, my lord! Please, no more!” She screamed, hoping that her show of reverence would encourage him to go away.

It did the opposite, as this reality sat upside down, and a god of disorder did not have to oblige by any rules nor logic.

“Pity. You interrupted the rhythm.”

Celestia could do nothing but stare into the light emitted from the monster’s agaped mouth. Razor teeth and a slit tongue both waved her forward, but she knew he had no intentions of eating her. No, he was a different sort of predator, so what he wanted was far worse.

“In we go, dear~” his eyes smiled as he cooed gleefully. “Right where you belong.”

Not a sound left her. Not a peep as her body was forced closer and closer towards his jaws. The thought to run sat prevalent in her young mind—the thought to run was the only thing on her mind.

Her body did not move.

She could only stare into the light.

“Tia,” a voice called out, very close. It was just above her. It was soft. It was Luna. “Tia, I finished with your mane. Thought I’d give you a fish tail to go with your tan.”

Celestia opened her eyes. A pair of sunglasses were lifted from her face with a cloud of dark magic. She could better see the underside of her sister’s chin, and the solar eclipse that covered one third of the starry sky. A sea of still water sat beneath them, a mirror to gaze into, a mirror to submerge themselves in, yet they laid on top of the surface as if the water was simply silk sheets.

“Luna,” Celestia cried with a trembling bottom lip. “Luna, why would you do that to me?”

“I didn’t think that would happen.” In a poof of magic, a handheld mirror materialized out of thin air. The night alicorn aimed it at Celestia’s mane to give her a chance to look. Luna leaned down and kissed her at the top of the head, avoiding her large horn in the process. “What do you think?”

Celestia didn’t care about her hairdo, so she pushed the mirror away, and she repeated herself more clearly. “How could you force me to remember that?” She covered her face from the gaze of the sun and moon.

“Because,” Luna’s voice lacked an ounce of emotion. “Because I needed you to remember why males are bad for you, Tia. You don’t need to open yourself to them. You can get plenty of affection from me without having to worry about doing all that awful stuff to your body.”

“I don’t know. I don’t even know what happened to me.” A calming wave tumbled over their laying bodies, washing their hooves in cold water. “I don’t know, Luna.”

“Where is the baby?” And the emotionlessness in Luna’s voice graduated to something tender, something soft.

But Celestia wouldn’t be fooled that easily and reveal such a damning secret like the birth of her mule. “I don’t have a baby.”

“The body never lies.” Another wave washed over them. “It keeps score of every scar, every cell, every life it creates. It told me everything I needed to know, so where is it?”

Celestia didn’t want to tell her, she didn’t even want to think about it.

“She’s dead, Luna.” The waves grew larger, more hectic as dark clouds formed beneath the lunar eclipse. And as the winds blew, and as the sea rocked with unforgiving rage, Celestia shut her eyes in the hopes of waking up. “My baby is dead.”