Celestia gently took a bite out of yet another slice of cake, very rarely could she let herself gobble up a family-sized cake, and on her mother's grave, she would savor every bite and lick she could get. Even if it was just a dream.
The feel of cream and filling sloshing around in the warm currents of her tea, all over an extra-sensitive tongue, it was better than any imaginable drug.
Celestia's great feast was suddenly interrupted by an unnecessarily loud magical pop nearby, from its center, appeared Luna.
She usually didn't break in on somepony's dream, usually, she entered in a more graceful way, coalescing from the shadows, surfacing from the ground as if it was water or any other number of creative entries. However this time, she seemed more robotic in her approach.
" Oh why hello, Lulu, how has your night been going? " Celestia chirped, genuinely happy to see her sister once again, even though they sleep two rooms away.
"No time for this, Celestia, we mustn't waste precious time. " Luna spoke robotically, her gaze leaving no doubt about the dire status of the situation.
Celestia wanted to object, time was relative in the dream realm, they could chat a little bit, but seeing Luna so serious was a rare occurrence indeed. Celestia rose to her hooves, meeting her sister's gaze head-on and nodding.
There was a second of silent communication, something only achievable with centuries of siblinghood, and with it, Celestia let herself be enveloped by Luna's magic, let her dream be twisted and shaped into something else.
°§°§°§
Everything was dark, unimaginably dark, and not the "evil wizard" type of dark. It was something more, something primordial. In the distance, a tiny light flickered into existence, small and weak and unable to provide any visual leverage for Celestia. Slowly, maddeningly slowly, more lights popped into being, and more patterns of light began taking shape as if the very universe was forming in front of Celestia's eyes. And it damn well appeared to be.
A light popped near Celestia, cosmically speaking it was still millions of kilometers away, but it was close enough that Celestia could recognize it. The Sun, not a sun, this was her very own Sun and it shone as it did back in the waking world.
It was a glorious sight, and a glorious heat accompanied said sight, Celestia basked in the heat and light as if she had been deprived of it for countless eons. And it felt like that.
She could have spent eternity like that, for a celestially aligned being this was the best state of existence.
That was when it happened.
The universe around Celestia seemed to stop. Completely. Stars and constellations and galaxies ceased forming, the already existing ones halting their gravitational movement.
It happened so suddenly that it caused Celestia's cosmic awareness to begin screaming warnings, it was impossible for the universe to cease churning out new bodies, for gravity to stop functioning en masse.
The sheer coordination of the occurrence would be impossible to perceive due to light lag, yet it all was happening.
"Is the question not how, but why? " The thought flew by calmly.
As if on cue, Celestia's cosmic awareness picked up something that could only be described as a sound, if that was possible in the vast emptiness of space.
It was unlike anything else she had picked up before, it wasn't a constant release of magnetic waves like planets or stars, it sharply increased and then plummeted back down almost like how a pony would cackle or an animal would cry out.
Perhaps it was both.
That same... Animal cackle, began moving and following it's path a trail of nothingness followed, stars were snuffed out, constellations were broken and galaxies were split apart.
It was unstoppable, the trail of nothingness picked up speed and thickness, growing bigger with every star consumed.
It reached the point Celestia didn't need her cosmic awareness to see it, her eyes did the trick.
And just as suddenly as the trail began moving, it stopped, Celestia still registered movement, but not in any cosmically discernable direction.
The animal cackle got ever stronger and louder, almost as if it was getting closer, almost as if it was heading for the Sun.
Almost as if Celestia could see gold and wings and nothing.
°§°§°§
Celestia awoke with a scream, trashing around in her silken covers, she felt her wings spasm and flare behind her and her horn light up the room with pent-up magic, ready for self-defense.
She took off her covers, standing on top of her bed and shining her horn even brighter until no corner in the room was dark until there were no shadows.
Only then did Celestia feel safe enough to drop her guard, she took the next few minutes to control her breath but it just would not stop.
Celestia's immortal mind was good at remembering details and the fact she was a trained oracle exacerbated the visions, of gold and of demise. The dream vision kept replaying within Celestia's head, revealing more details, revealing more impossibilities that had happened.
"Is this some sort of sick joke, Luna? " asked Celestia, knowing full well she was listening in.
Luna entered from the balcony, wincing a bit from the powerful light striking her eyes, even with her conscience guilty, Celestia did not lessen her protective light.
" I wish it was, what you saw was what had been happening for the last millennium, something has been..." Luna's voice trailed off, searching for the right word.
" Murdering stars," finished Celestia for her sister, " but what could have done such a thing? Not even Discord in his prime could have pulled a stunt so massive"
" Not even the entirety of Equus' magic focused into a single pony could replicate even a fraction of this feat, that is why I require your help Celly, this is no asteroid or Gamma-ray burst," Luna sounded far less composed in the waking world.
Finally, Celestia let the light of her magic die out, instead opting for the lamp on her nightstand.
"What do you think it could be?" Asked Celestia inquisitively.
" I don't know, it could be anything, an illusion, a new void forming, an unknown cosmic phenomenon, a hyper-massive black hole sucking the light of the stars it passes by, " Luna sounded like she could keep going, but decided not to.
" What if it's all of them." Thought Celestia out loud, not questioning
" So what? It's a hypermassive unknown cosmic Illusion forming a void?" Joked Luna.
Celestia looked at Luna, deep into her eyes, implying many things that could not be put into words.
Luna stepped back, and she slowly began shaking her head, whispering 'no' and 'it can't be' over and over again.
" NO, we already hid our entire system from it, when I was on the moon the only thing keeping me sane was polishing the seals!" Luna nearly yelled that last part, stomping her hoof on the ground.
Celestia gently got off her bed, gracefully walking past Luna to the balcony.
" We have to accept the possibility, please have some sleep of your own, I will clear up our schedule and gather the necessary individuals for further research, "
Luna'd presence began fading, then returned, then faded away completely. Celestia couldn't help but chuckle, Luna was always prone to indecisiveness when afraid.
"Not like I'm not afraid," Celestia chuckled again.
