1) Prologue in the Library – five years ago

Staring into the crackling fire of her fireplace, Twilight tapped her chin thoughtfully. Across from her, Princess Luna sipped her cup of tea gently, while looking at her host's reactions. The two ponies found themselves in Twilight’s living room inside the Golden Oak’s Library, following an hour-long discussion of modern times. The magically protected fireplace bathed the room in a cozy reddish-yellow light and spent welcoming warmth for the two ponies in front of it.

Surrounded by books, Twilight was at home. When she was out in the open, she always had an inkling of fear that she might be rejected or outcast but surrounded by books, such a fear did not exist. Books did not judge, and books did not hurt anyone. Not her, at least.

But the pony across from her could judge her, so she wracked her brain for an applicable answer.

“No, I-I mean we, did not fear you, Luna… or Nightmare Moon for that matter. It is true that I was the only one who knew of your coming and by extension, of your powers. But, Celestia was missing… and it was night in the middle of the day… so, I… or rather we… had to do something! I guess.”

“Tis not a scandal if thou would admit to be frightened of us,” Princess Luna said, her subtle melancholy revealed by the flames.

“But it's not like we had any time to worry, Luna. That day, everything went by so fast that I didn't even have the time to sit down and ponder over what would happen if we confronted you. Our only goal was to reach the Elements of Harmony and free Celestia… to free you was never actually my plan in the first place. It kind of just happened.”

“This does not make thine actions any less noble or thank-worthy.”

“I guess so…”

Luna lowered her cup and forced herself to look at the purple unicorn right next to her. “We didst not actually thank thee that day, did we?” she wondered.

“You don’t have to, Princess. As soon as I felt someone else's magic inside of Nightmare Moon, I kind of knew that it was not evil, I knew that it was trapped inside of Nightmare Moon and I feared for the pony trapped in such a foul creature. So… I tried to save it. Anyone would have done the same, I think. That the Elements of Harmony would outright destroy Nightmare Moon, I had no idea of. True, I had the control over what they would do. But right at that moment, all my concerns were about the pony inside of her.”

“And that’s the noble part of thine deed. Thou didst not care of who we were. Thou only cared on how to save us.” Luna tried to speak but hesitated for a moment. “Thank you, Twilight Sparkle.”

Averting her gaze, Twilight nodded dismissively. Receiving praise was always something that made her feel uncomfortable. “Well uh... thank you, but… what… if I might ask, could Nightmare Moon have done to us? I mean… was she really so powerful, that the only reason we won against her was because she didn’t see us as a threat?”

The question seemed to hang in the air. The silent crackling of the fire was the only sound that could be heard in the room for quite some time. At last, Luna's gaze dropped, and she inhaled audibly.

“Friend Twilight, be assured that thou would not like to hear what we could have done when we were at our lowest.”

“I… I am sorry to say so, but this does not answer my question, princess. I… I need to know.”

Nodding in understanding, Luna looked back into the fireplace and thought for a moment. The silence falling onto the room was bone-chilling for Twilight, she almost feared that she might have offended Luna in any way.

“An Alicorn is not just a pony with wings and a horn, Twilight. We are an aspect of the world incarnated. For us, we are the incarnation of the moon and therefore its guardian. We hold power over the night itself and every aspect of it. We hold power over the light and the form of our celestial body, but we also hold dominion over the dreams of our ponies beneath it. We could have done cruel things, Friend Twilight. Things that we are unwilling to tell thee, not because we fear thy reaction, but because we fear what could have happened. We… I mean I, don’t want to think over it, please.”

Twilight shuddered at the implication of such horrors that would give Luna pause and nodded. The silence returned to the room as the two ponies stared into the fireplace and at its dancing flames among the logs. Something Luna had said came back to her though and she could not help but voice the question it brought.

“What do you mean, you hold dominion over dreams?”

Giving her host a sidelong glance and only seeing the curiosity of a scholar towards a new subject, the night blue alicorn smiled wryly.

“As we said, we hold powers of every aspect of the night and dreams are a part of the night as well. So, to answer your question, we can see and visit the dreams of anypony, or creature for that matter, and help them if they have troubles.”

“Visit dreams? So, the legend telling that one sister could walk through dreams as good as Pegasi could fly are true?” Twilight wondered.

“Tis quite true, even literally so. As soon as a sentient creature lays down to sleep, their mind enters another plane of existence. Some scholars of our time had named it 'dreamscape'. In this place, every being's dreams, like ponies, griffins or dragons share a singular home. Within this plane, particularly close dreamers may even harmonize to form a shared dream. But a certain malady has found its way back into this sacred plane.”

“Since the dawn of time, dreamers are haunted from nightmares. It is our sworn duty, to protect the vulnerable from them to the best of our ability, and to help them deal with their own destructive fears and doubts. But in our absence, we failed to do so. Nightmares were once a seldom thing to have, but in modern times are quite common due to the fact that we could not help our ponies for such a long time. We think we will need some time to squelch those cursed dreams once more, but we will manage it in time.”

Fascinated, Twilight couldn’t resist asking, “So, you can literally walk into a pony’s dream and see what they are dreaming?”

“Quite so, yes. We could also wander around in their mind and find information, like secrets, fears or feelings, but we do not do so, not unless we absolutely have to. Not even in times of war. The mental plane is sacred, and we vowed to ourselves that we would never abuse those powers if we can help it. Nor would we tell any other living creature what we have seen in one’s mind. Not even our sister.”

Twilight's eyes went wide at the revelation.

Secrets and feelings.

Did the Lunar Princess already know of her feelings towards her sister or herself?

Since Twilight became Celestia's personal student, she looked up to her mentor and adored her. At first, this adoration was only between student and teacher for the prospect of knowledge. But as the years went by and her body changed so did her feelings. The thought of being with somepony was always met with the thought of Celestia, since she saw the princess once sleeping on one of her cushions, after falling asleep in her lecture after a long day of court. At that time Twilight did not understand what the sensation in her heart was. She shrugged it off at the prospect of her ruler, mentor, and friend laying sleeping in front of her, shivering.

Spurred to help, Twilight had brought her a blanket and laid it gently over Celestia’s immaculate body. The soft smile finding itself on Celestia's muzzle made it clear to Twilight that she would never want to disappoint the alicorn, simply for never having to see that entrancing smile vanish.

But as the weeks went by, the thought of Celestia never left her mind once. She imagined herself being held by her strong embrace over the night, protected from her petty insecurities like she sometimes used to when she was still a filly. She imagined herself to nuzzle into her soft fur like she did whenever they hugged. She imagined that the white alicorn would love her as much as she loved her, but she never dared to voice her feelings. Not even once. The fear of being rejected or sent away was too great.

And so, Twilight held this crush for many years. At first, she thought those feelings would eventually vanish, but they didn’t. The longing for her mentor’s body grew from day to day and would she not have been sent to Ponyville, Twilight was sure she would have either gone insane by now or would have done something she would regret later.

Being sent to Ponyville was her own doing and as much as it stung, she needed the distance. But after freeing her sister, she started to also translate her feelings to the younger monarch. Seeing Luna once so small and powerless made her almost approachable for her. Celestia, the literal god of ponykind, had a sister. A sister that for all intents and purposes was the same as Celestia in power, majesty, and kindness. But she seemed approachable for her somehow, having freed her made her imperfect in Twilight's eyes. Celestia was perfect, untouchable and unreachable. But Luna was not so far away.

So, her feelings for the pony across from her blossomed over the 6 months she had returned from the moon, but her feelings for Celestia did not wane in the process. Not in the slightest.

Twilight felt that it was pure selfishness from her own part, but she wanted them both. She wanted her mentor and her sister. She wanted the two rulers of the very nation she lived in. She wanted two of the three Goddesses pony kind had to offer. And she wanted them for her alone.

But she couldn’t. Twilight felt unworthy to confess to even one of her coveted princesses, not mentioning both.

She was only a unicorn after all. The student of the princess, true. But she saw herself as nothing but an ordinary unicorn. She thought of nothing special about herself and could not think of any reason why one, or for that matter two, of the beings so high above her would want to have anything to do with her.

And so, Twilight tried to bury herself in her work, in her studies, and in her friends. But the feeling of longing never left her.

And now, one of those beings she so admired sat in front of her and casually said that she could, if she so desired, find out her greatest secret.

The prospect of being found out ran ice cold down her spine as if someone had tossed her into one of the snow piles outside and left her there for an hour. The shudder rippling over her body did tell Luna of her distress though.

“Aren’t thou feeling well, Friend Twilight?” Luna asked, her voice filled with concern.

Snapping away from her musings and back into reality, Twilight briefly looked at Luna before quickly lowering her gaze to the floor. “No, no everything is fine, just… cold… I am just a bit cold,” she lied, trying to justify her sudden stiffening.

Taking Twilight's word at face value Luna smiled, shuffled over to the purple unicorn and gently laid a downy wing over her back.

“Tis quite late now. If thee wishes, we could leave and come back next week for another of thine lessons. We quite enjoy these,” the Lunar princess reassured.

Nodding softly, Twilight glanced at the princess next to her. The smooth and soft fur over the princess’s body did not help her in any way with keeping her thoughts proper or at bay, but she didn’t want Luna to go away either. Though she did not dare voice her desire, and so kept to herself.

“Then we thank thee for thy hospitality and knowledge. We hope to see thee very soon.” Luna said, without moving an inch. The voice of the princess gently tickled Twilight's ears along with the gentle vibrations she felt coming from the monarch’s chest while they touched.

Gathering every last resort of willpower she had left in her body, Twilight looked at the Alicorn and nodded. The following squeeze that came from the princess made her revel in the feeling of downy soft feathers against her body. But much too soon for Twilight's liking, her source of comfort rose from her spot next to her and the cold of winter reached her coat once again, and with it, the ache in her chest returned.

After her farewells with the princess, Twilight frantically searched through her library for any book she could use to create a ward for the princess, to never enter her mind.

She feared that if Luna would ever see what she held in her heart, the princess would be disgusted and would never want to see her again.

And so, Twilight worked late into the night to create a spell Equestria had never seen before or needed for that matter. A spell to keep Princess Luna's power out of her head. The thought stung, but she told herself that she had to do it.

Hey folk, this is my first story ever published on the internet, or at all. So ... feel free to leave a comment here!

This chapter is now proof written: 28 December 2018, if you are still finding errors, please contact me or my proofreader personally.