Princess Sweet DayDreams was, suddenly, awake. She blinked, groaned, and rolled onto her back. She could tell immediately there was no way she was going to get back to sleep. She rolled onto her stomach again, and sat up, rubbing one eye with one hand, and yawning. Her mind still clouded over with feelings that she didn’t (or wasn’t willing to) understand. But still heavy with sleep she could push those feelings aside and at least attempt to exist in her body. Hopping off her bed, she made her way to her window. Pulling open the curtains, she wasn’t surprised to see it was still night. It wasn’t tomorrow yet. She took a deep breath and walked to her door.

This wasn’t the first time she had woken up in the middle of the night. In fact, the young princess was beginning to wonder if this was becoming a routine. She walked through the long hallways of the now silent castle. Her hoof steps, and claw taps, felt incredibly loud. The only ponies around were the night guards who stood at attention and didn’t make a sound. She nodded at them as she passed. She didn’t know where she was going but that didn’t matter right now. She just wanted to walk, so she did. She wasn’t paying any attention to her surroundings, letting the walls of the castle blend together in her mind, and vision. If she focused she could easily find almost any room in this castle. She didn’t though. Her mind felt separate from her body. She walked through, aimlessly.

Then abruptly she stopped. Her breath caught in her throat. Somehow here she was. Maybe part of her was drawn to it, like the pull of some unnatural force. She turned towards it and stared, vision suddenly so clear.

She stared at the closed door for a long time. A door that hadn’t been opened for quite some time. A door she hadn’t thought about in a long time. Her aunt Luna’s room. It was locked, magically of course, but Sweets was an alicorn. She could unlock it. She could, in fact, very easily do so. Her horns glowed dimly.

Celestia never really talked about her sister. When ever DayDreams asked about her an uncomfortable silence filled the room. She knew about her aunt’s corruption, her banishment to the moon, and mother’s subsequent heartbreak, because of it. But not much more. When she was a child she had been curious. She asked so more questions and her mother answered very little of them. After experiencing loss for herself, she knew that pain quite well. Even though Luna didn’t die, Sweet DayDreams knew that to Celestia, it felt like death.

She reared up onto her hindlegs, and pressed a clawed foreleg to the cold wooden door that hid a cold empty space behind itself. She pressed her face against the old wood, listening to the silence. She wondered now, if the princess of the night, would understand her better. She shuddered, the light from her horns flickered before going out, like a puff of smoke. She pulled away, got back on all fours, and walked slowly back to her room.

Author's Note

This took a while to get done mostly because I felt it needed more work and I got some sad news in my personal life. It’s not bad but it still sucks. :( For what it’s worth I do think this chapter turned out well.