“Go to sleep soon, Spike!” Twilight said, her voice a bit too rushed. “Make sure you’re not up too late.” Spike muttered an affirmative, looking away to hide his bemused expression as the lavender mare practically tripped over her own hooves bolting up the stairs to her bedroom. He had actually become better at hiding it over the last few weeks; If somepony had told him a month ago that Twilight would be skimping on book organizing duty, Spike would have laughed in their face. The strange behavior had begun the night Twilight had asked him to move to the other bedroom, only offering the explanation that he was ‘getting to be that age’ where he slept on his own. The sleeping arrangements in and of themselves didn’t bother him, it was more the manner in which the typically nocturnal unicorn had been conducting herself since then. She had been going to bed... early! It was almost unthinkable for Spike, a Twilight who actually hurried to go to bed. Years had passed since the first time Twilight had gone to sleep before him, and that was after a 72 hour study binge. Now she went to sleep before him early nearly every... single... night. Naturally, he was suspicious, and investigated on the second night, worried that the mare might have been sneaking out for some reason and getting into trouble. The door was as far as he got, however, as gentle snoring echoed out from the room. It was bizarre.

What normal pony is in such a hurry to get to sleep? Spike sighed; Irritation aside, he was truly starting to worry. Maybe it’s normal for ponies of her age... or maybe she’s getting old? Now there was an idea that frightened him. Closing his eyes tightly, he reminded himself several times over that, for a pony, Twilight was barely an adult, and he was dramatizing things. It was a long harbored fear that Twilight would likely be gone well before he reached adolescence, one he would rather repress than deeply dwell on. Speaking of things that he would rather repress, he subconsciously smacked himself in the head, trying not to think on the events of that particular night. Concerned about Twilight, (okay, maybe he had gotten a little lonely) he had snuck into bed with her, after first making sure the mare was asleep. A fleeting moment of blissful peace passed, but Twilight began to make noises. Odd noises. Originally under the impression she was in pain, Spike had panicked, nearly shaking her to wake her up, but her unconscious, flushed expression had stopped him cold. That was not a look of discomfort. He silently removed himself from the room, resolving never to think of it again. This would be the perfect time to go over and talk to Rarity, nothing pertaining to whatever the heck was going on in Twilight’s little dream adventures, of course, but just to blow off some steam. Thoughts of the alabaster unicorn made the uncomfortable, tight feeling in his chest even more painful. She may have never reciprocated interest in his crush, but she had always made time for him, a small gesture that had meant the world the Spike. The extinguished lights and vacant appearance of the current Carousel Boutique always served to sour his mood, so much so that he had made a habit of not even looking at the establishment as he walked by... though somehow he always wound up taking a peek, on the off chance the object of his affections had returned unannounced.
“... Where are you, Rarity?”

As Canterlot mare living in ponyville, the lavender unicorn had always been stuck between two worlds, to some degree. Rarely, however, had the experience been so literal. Forcing her eyes shut, Twilight began to recite the books in the ponyville library alphabetically, trying to lull herself to sleep. Just as light began to leave her, she jolted awake, realizing she had completely forgotten to check the state of her hair. Trotting over to the mirror, she briefly pondered whether or not her physical attributes carried over to her dream state, before disregarding the notion as irrelevant, and grabbing the nearby comb. ‘Better safe than sorry.’

It had started nearly a month ago. Twilight was reaching the depths of her depression, and though she made no small effort to fight it, it was beginning to affect her productivity. She was sure Princess Celestia had a good reason, that something was going on that required her focused attention, but that particular platitude did not nothing to diminish the growing sense of abandonment Twilight felt. Her mother was renowned throughout Equestria as the ‘go-to’ archaeological expert, but the demanding nature of the work had often stole away any potential family time. Try as she might to write letters to her mother now, they often carried the feeling of two scientific experts of entirely different fields, awkwardly trying (and comically failing) to find common ground. When there was an overlap, for instance, when Twilight needed insight on the archaeological origins of a magical phenomenon, such as the asymmetrical geographic dispersal of the first magical runes, her mother was a gold mine, all too willing to write pages and pages of informative content. But any sort of qualitative subject, such as the nature of love or friendship was typically replied to in a vague paragraph, a technique Twilight easily recognized as ‘Researcher’s ‘not enough data’ horse apples’. Without Celestia to fill that void as she had in prior years, the recent absence had left Twilight feeling rather empty. In the last month, though, something had changed.

Deep sleep was something Twilight was not prone to experiencing. Semi-consciousness was her preferred state; mentally running through her checklist of the day, recapitulating research, or pondering recent articles on magical theory. It was in this semi-awake state that Twilight had first become aware of it; a dark presence watching her, immensely powerful, looming just beyond her senses. Instinctively she had recoiled from it in fear, but her analytical side had kicked in shortly after the shock. Potent as it was, there was nothing remotely... ‘offensive’ about the entity. It maintained a surprisingly comfortable distance, despite the innate invasiveness of its current location. In fact, when she discarded her mental checklist to study it in greater detail, it had shrunk back, peeking out of some unknown veil of her misty subconscious in an almost foal like manner. Seeing an entity with such large magic potential run from her and hide was more than a little comical, and Twilight couldn’t help but giggle every time the behavior was repeated.. Perhaps it was some magical aspect of her subconscious, or some sort of friendly mana sprite. She would have to monitor it carefully, of course, but there was little concern in her mind that the anomaly meant her harm.

Although friends had become incredibly important to Twilight in recent years, aside from Celestia herself (who Twilight would never dare refer to as simply a ‘friend’) none of them could really match her on an intellectual level. It wasn’t so much that she considered herself superior to them, rather, the disconnect created a personal bubble of loneliness that she could never really explain, or address. The telling way Rainbow Dash’s eyes would glaze over when she tried to discuss the physics of Pegasi flight, or even Applejack’s attempts to look interested when she brought up the importance of agriculture in the modern Equestrian economy. Contempt at their lack of interest would have been selfish and unfair, ignorant of the other important factors: Practicality and the ability to take action, were both massively important traits her friends all shared, and attributes she herself somewhat lacked. Theory was relatively useless to them, unless it was immediately relevant to their current endeavors. But regardless of the justification, this distinction created an unfortunate gap, one that often led her to loneliness.

Perhaps it was due to the aforementioned gap that over the span of the next few nights the ethereal observer slowly became dear to her. Whatever sparked the process remained unknown to Twilight, but she began to appreciate the dedication of the aura. There was never any feeling of need, or malcontent. It was satisfied to quietly hover a small distance away from her, observing as she went about her nightly decompress, meditating and committing the day’s events to memory. As time passed she began to realize that her visitor wasn’t simply a displaced magical sprite as she had originally hypothesized, rather something far more intelligent.

‘Oh horse apples... what was the author’s name? I was planning to write him a letter tomorrow letting him know how invaluable his research on astral projection across mana threads was. Was it Treisenbloom? No no, that was the first article I came across on mana lines, which didn’t properly cite the sources. I’m convinced it started with an E...’ Try as she might, the name wouldn’t come to her. Near the point of waking up for the sole purpose of soothing her irritation, a disembodied voice suddenly called out from nothingness. ‘Dr. Eisenhooves?’ Twilight’s attention focused on the entity, the relief she felt from obtaining the correct name dwarfed by a growing sense of confusion in the pit of her stomach. Though disconnected, the voice had been unmistakably feminine. Why hadn’t it spoken before?

Productivity was more of a secondary reason why Twilight disliked deeper sleep. Primarily, it was due to that her dreamstate had been plagued by a growing number of nightmares in the last few months; Though she had trained herself to be able to go nearly a week without entering deep-sleep, it was an unfortunate inevitability. It was always the same dream, recurring in its base form, though deviating in small details. She was held in a cube made of two way glass, able to see everything perfectly, but unable to interact with anything. In the process of watching her friends live out their lives, an unforeseeable tragedy would strike. Fluttershy would gravely injure herself in the forest, or Rainbow Dash would lose control of her flight and start plummeting towards the ground. The event itself would be different every time, but she would always be too late, unable to break out of the cube to help her fallen friend.

This time it was Pinkie Pie, staring at the burned out husk of what Twilight could barely ascertain to be the remnants of Sugarcube corner. To her horror, Twilight realized that the cakes must have been trapped inside when the fire started. Crying would be the normal reaction, for any pony. But there wasn’t a tear to be seen on Pinkie’s face: her expression was vacant, devoid of emotion... dead. Twilight needed to hold her, to comfort her friend, but as always, the transparent wall held her back. Pinkie slowly sat down on her forelegs... Twilight could almost see the life leaving the Pink earth pony’s eyes but as always, the box held strong, even as she wailed against it, horn ablaze. Slowly, Pinkie turned towards Twilight, eyes never focussing directly on her, and spoke in a half croak, half whisper
“...Where were you-”
Without warning, the dream ended. Twilight looked around, barely recognizing the misty void of her subconscious through blurred eyes that brimmed with tears. The dream had always ended with her drenched in sweat, completely awake, after torturing her well into the morning. It hadn’t lasted nearly as long, something seemed to have brought her out of it... the sensation of something holding her finally registered. Cradling the lavender mare gently, the aura held her close, emanating concern, its previous self-imposed distance completely discarded. An ethereal hoof reached out gently, stroking her mane, and she realized it was whispering to her gently.

‘There there, it’s over, let it out...’ something about the knowing, compassionate voice pushed her over the edge, and any pretense of repressing her emotions was suddenly lost. Months of culminated frustrations and fears came out in a stream of emotion; she hid her face against the aura as she sobbed, only as a filly had she ever lost it to the current extent. The aura touched her horn, a gesture that felt embarrassingly similar to a kiss, and a feeling of peace passed over her, misty surroundings fading away into a beautiful darkness cascaded with stars. It like they were flying, and in the shock and wonder, Twilight’s pain began to ebb away. So many stars... she almost wanted to ask if they could stop so she could just bask in their glory. Looking down, she gasped and grabbed on to the aura tightly; Equestria was tiny beneath them, it’s size alarming when she considered what their current height must be. Only when an ethereal foreleg linked with hers reassuringly did Twilight begin to breath again.
For whatever reason, they began to slow, and the lavender mare looked at her ethereal escort quizzically. Pointing to the left, the transparent blue hoof outlined out a sight that left her slackjawed.

Gemini had been her favorite constellation as a foal. She had always associated the twin stairs with the story of the royal sisters. now, before her, Castor and Pollux were literally larger than life. The viewing angle was perfect... It was doubtful that any pony had ever seen them both in such perfect detail. Twilight was suitably awestruck, soaking in the magnificence of the twin stars.

‘You don’t have to be alone Twilight Sparkle... do you like it?’ The more the ethereal mare spoke, the more maddeningly familiar the voice became.

‘I love it, though I’m not sure how I feel about you reading my mind to find my favorite...’ Try as she might there was no weight behind the caveat, she was too awestruck... and strangely happy.

‘Not the constellation, silly mare... look closer.’ It took her a moment to spot it, though when she did, she could have kicked herself for not seeing it sooner. Near Castor, the second brightest of the main twin stars, Twilight spotted the inconsistency: a tiny purple star, one she was more than certain had never been there before.

‘It’s beautiful, but how...’ the symbolism, realization, and accompanying epiphany hit the lavender unicorn like a ton of bricks. There was only one pony in all of Equestria who could alter the stars as she saw fit. Had Twilight not already been unconscious, there was no doubt she would have fainted. Choking on a sudden surge of emotion, Twilight’s voice was barely more than a whisper.
‘...Luna?’

AN: Well, hey there everyone. It’s been a long time, but I think I’m back. Lots of big decisions and problems popped up after finals, and instead of dealing with them, like a normal person, I decided to run as far away as humanly possible and put my entire life on hiatus... which somehow extended to my hobbies (writing) as well. Lesson learned: Running away from problems just makes them hit harder when they catch up. That combined with a move into my new apartment and I haven’t made much progress, but that’s over now, so expect updates more frequently. I tried a few times to write early on last month, but I tend to write what I’m feeling, so after writing a few unintentionally grim/dark versions of the same chapter, I took a break altogether. As you can see, after gaining some perspective (I was kind of getting tunnel vision on Rar/Cel) I’m now actually trying to develop my secondary characters *shock/awe*. Also, Twi/Luna is here, and you’re welcome :). I hadn’t planned on Luna being a semi-stalker, but hopefully she came off as more cute than creepy. More Twi/Luna and a continuation of the Rarity + Stanza interaction in the next chapter. Constructive criticism is always welcome.