From afar, all that some curious onlookers could see were two ponies sitting beside each other. While the high towers of Canterlot Castle gave the two princesses enough space to talk freely and without concern of unwanted ears, right now, both of them preferred the welcoming silence of the night to actually discussing the pressing matter at hoof.

Having settled onto the balcony, both Celestia and Luna silently watched the stars.

For Celestia, looking at her sister’s stars had always been a source of loss and longing for her little sister ever since her banishment, but now, since Luna had been returned to her, the sorrowful feeling had changed to one of happiness. Now, watching her sister’s beautifully decorated nights never failed to make her smile, even now, when neither of them could truly relax due to the pressing matter which was currently unconscious on her bed behind her.

For Luna, her stars had always been a central point of her being. Ever since she’d learned that she was able to move the moon and stars, she had spent each and every night pouring her very soul into her celestial duties, never failing to amaze curious onlookers with the beauty she created for all the world to see. The pride and accomplishment she felt when somepony acknowledged her work always gave her strength and a sense of longing, but one thousand years ago, her source of sanity had been destroyed as all the ponies in Equestria started to fear her night more and more.

But now, a thousand years later, after she had learned that whole studies, tales, legends, and lives had been made based around her night sky, this source of security had strengthened a thousand-fold yet again.

Every time she felt down, sad, or alone whilst living in this strange new world, she had looked up to her stars and regained hope. Every time she had to think, she could now sit down under her skies, and lazily watch her stars drift in her night sky or redecorate them in order to clear her mind.

But right now, faced with the problem of helping her friend, not even her beautiful night sky could do any good of relieving her of the frustration she felt.

For the longest time of five years, she carried her burden alone. Now, after successfully pouring her heart out to her sister, Luna felt relieved.

Or at least, she would have.

Even though Celestia had promised she would support her, and the two of them had agreed that they should help Twilight, Luna was ultimately the only one truly capable of doing so.

And now, faced with the opportunity, she had no idea how.

The barrier which blocked her from Twilight’s dream had kept her away for more than five years now, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t tried to enter anyway. Luna had tried multiple nights to find anything that would give her a clue on how to go around, break or dispel the barrier which was keeping her away from a pony who she could clearly see was suffering under recurring nightmares.

Twilight had many nights in the last five years in which Luna wished she could have intervened, but now, faced with the possibility that the life of her friend was in danger due to it, it made it all the more frustrating for her that she still didn’t have even the faintest idea on how she could solve this problem.

For Luna, she had already failed when the barrier came to be, because she felt she was the very reason why said barrier was there in the first place. But now, knowing that Twilight was in danger and her sister was counting on her, she felt all the more pressured all of a sudden.

While Luna sat there and thought, Celestia recognized the telltale signs of her sister getting angry. Thinking for a moment and figuring that she knew the problem, she gently laid one of her big white wings around her sister and squeezed softly.

Feeling her sister’s wing around her, Luna relaxed slightly. Nuzzling under Celestia’s chin and cuddling into her side, she sighed. “We just can’t think of anything, sister.”

Hearing her sister but saying nothing, Celestia tightened her wing around her and kept looking into the night sky.

“We have watched over millions of our ponies each and every night, protected them from their own feelings, fears and doubts, but right now, we feel as if we have learned nothing from what we were doing all those years,” Luna said, her tone calm but quiet. “It isn’t that we are unwilling to help her, we just don’t know how, sister.”

Listening to her sister and thinking for a moment herself, Celestia pulled back slightly. Waiting until Luna had turned her head and looked into her eyes, she smiled, “A wise pony once said to me, that we don’t necessarily need to know what we are doing, we just need to trust ourselves to find the right solution.”

Thinking for a moment, Luna turned away. “But we are unable to trust ourselves right now,” she complained, a quiver evident in her voice.

“I trust you, Luna, and I know Twilight would as well, but I am afraid you are the only one able to act right now, sister.”

Nodding, Luna continued to cuddle into her sister’s wing, enjoying the images it brought back from when they were younger.

As a couple of minutes went by, with neither of them moving from their joined position on the balcony, Luna’s thoughts ran in circles. They always came back to the point in which she wished herself more familiar ground to work on, instead of the unknown on which she trotted on, all for the knowledge of how to overcome Twilight’s barrier.

Having lived more than two millennia already and having had a couple of the greatest teachers of the known and unknown history, Luna could proudly count herself as one of the most powerful mages in the world right now. But still, she never had faced such an obstacle as the one she was facing right now.

But then, she suddenly had an idea.

Her eyes widening, Luna’s thoughts almost jumped over each other as she frantically tried to get away from her sister.

As she finally broke free from her sister’s white wing, she all but dashed into the room, intent on finding a page on which she could scribble some notes.

Celestia almost felt sad as her sister suddenly tried to get away from her, but she crushed this rogue feeling directly as she watched her sibling all but jump at her drawers, frantically trying to find some paper. But seeing her sibling acting with purpose once more, she found a small smile tucking on her lips.

Standing up and following her sister into her chambers, Celestia settled beside her again as she watched her scribble something on her recently plundered piece of parchment.

After nearly a minute, Luna looked up, frantically in search for something. As her eyes landed on her sister right next to her, she all but jumped on her with an enthusiasm the white alicorn only knew from her neurotic student who was currently on her bed.

“We have it!” Luna all but shouted, nearly strangling her sister with the hug she gave her before jumping off again and rushing to Twilight. “We have a solution.”

Before Celestia could calm down and regain her bearing, Luna came back and all but shoved the piece of paper into her face, “We think we can help Twilight,” she said, drawing her hoof back before Celestia could even look at the text or pictures which had been made on Luna’s note, “All we need is your help though,” Luna said, thinking.

Shaking her head and smiling at her sister, Celestia finally managed to compose herself, “Well, I already said that I would help you, Lulu,” she said, smirking impishly. “Though I am afraid, you may have neglected telling me what I need to do as of yet.”

“We just have to take thee along with us into our dream realm to help us break the barrier with a combination of our ability to distort the dreamscape and thine skills of magic,” Luna explained without actually explaining anything.

Blinking once, Celestia’s smile didn’t vanish, but her tone subtly shifted a bit, “But, Luna, I don’t have any power there,” she tried to reason, remembering the last time she had joined her sister into the dream realm, she had not even been able to levitate something properly.

“This time though, we won’t bring thee into our realm with purely thine spirit following us, we shall transport thee completely into our realm, like when we join into it ourselves,” Luna continued.

Being at a loss of what her sister was talking about, Celestia raised an eyebrow, prompting Luna to explain further.

Rolling her eyes upon her sisters’ trademark expression, Luna obliged, “A normal pony dives into the dream realm when they fall asleep, but they don’t leave their physical body when doing so. The way we move in and out of the dreamscape is by transporting our very being over there, which reforms in a much stronger incarnation of our self, rather than doing it the other way around,” Luna explained. “A normal dreamer, due to not leaving their own mental plane when dipping into the dreamscape, does not lose their strength from leaving their body. But if we take a dreamer from their own dream and put them into another’s, they would only be connected to their own body by a small link between the two dreams. While normally the foreign dreamer would support the visitor automatically you had no such support. So, when we took thee along with us on a journey to our realms, thou could only draw power from thine weakened link.”

“But if we transport thine essence alongside ours to the dream realm, the two of us should be capable of standing up against Twilight’s barrier. When we then alter the reality around her sphere, we could multiply thine powers so thou would be able to break open the barrier which we could then safely enter and find out what ails her so much that she is refusing to wake up,” Luna explained happily.

Blinking once and drawing back a bit, Celestias brain slowly began to work through all what Luna just sprouted at her which she had never heard of, once she was fairly certain she got a basic idea of what Luna was talking about, she turned her focus back to her sister which waited eagerly on a response.

“Well, um… that sounds nice, Luna, but, uh… are you certain this is safe… for Twilight,” she added hastily, while silently thinking of her own safety too.

“Of course, there is nothing to fear,” Luna smiled, “While thou leave thine body thou will stay connected through thou dream’s link which will thus keep thine physical body alive, however, Twilight will not be fazed a bit, considering she is not leaving her body at all,” she explained.

“What do you mean keeping my physical body alive,” Celestia exclaimed, her face going pale.

“Thou will have the same connection we have in our dream to our own dreamscape, thine essence will be free to go, but thine body will stay here and wait in a sleep-like state,” Luna continued. “While thou leave thine body, thine spirit will always stay connected to thine body which will allow thou to find thine way back.”

“And what would happen if this connection should break,” Celestia asked, worried.

“Thou would be stuck in the dream until thou found thine body again,” Luna stated, as if she had done it thousands of times already, “When thou remember, when we didn’t rise from all but a week, we had lost our connection too, once, but because the two of us are going together, the chance of either of us losing our connection is minuscule, and even if so, I could surely assist thee in finding thine dreamscape again,” she explained, shrugging.

“And what if we both get, um… disconnected?”

“Rest assured, sister, we have done this often enough to make certain that there is barely any risk at all,” Luna said, laying her hoof onto her sisters’ shoulder. “It isn’t us you should be worried about, dear sister, so please, trust us.”

Regarding her sister for a moment, Celestia looked over to where Twilight was lying curled up in her bed, and after thinking for but a moment, she turned back to her sister and nodded. “If you are certain that this will help, then I’ll do it,” she said, smiling.

---

Once Luna had explained her plan to her sister, Celestia had settled gently onto one of her cushions and waited for Luna to work her magic. From what Celestia expected she thought that she would fall asleep and wake up in the realm of dreams, like the many times when she had accompanied her sister into her realm.

But as Luna lit her horn, Celestia didn't fall asleep as she expected, instead, she felt as if she was falling down a great waterfall. Everything began to spin and blur, not even closing her eyes helped her as once she expected the normal black to greet her, she found herself staring at a nimbus of color as if she had fallen through the space in reality itself.

But then, suddenly, everything went black and a piercing headache stabbed through her forehead.

As the pain in her forehead persisted, and she felt as if she was laying on the dead cold marble floor outside of her castle, Celestia opened her eyes.

The vast black blue expanse that greeted her seemed like the night sky, but for it to be the night sky, there were no stars in it. Under further examination, the space around her which seemed black was not a space in its own right at all. It seemed like as if thousands upon thousands, if not millions of tiny pinpricks of light had been poured, into everything around her. Everywhere where she looked, Celestia could see more of said pinpricks of light, filling each possible visible spot and somehow, she knew, everything she could see, had an infinite background to it, all filled with these tiny pinpricks of light, as if the space around her consisted entirely out of it, with only the exception of her immediate vicinity.

Shaking her head and squeezing her eyes shut, Celestia calmed herself. Opening her eyes once more and looking at the ground, her eyes widened, as she didn’t find solid ground beneath herself like she felt, but a star littered expanse on which she could apparently find purchase.

Looking at the questionable surface on which she lay, Celestia wondered if or when the stars beneath her would move for her to fall through into the vast infinity beneath her.

As nothing moved under her though, Celestia carefully managed it to stand up and finally look around properly.

Behind her, the star littered floor continued to what seemed like a path and seeing that it was the only direction Celestia had right now, she decided to try and follow it.

Silently cursing that Luna had apparently lost her already, the sun princess began to march forward, expecting anything to jump at her at any given moment.

As she wandered along the path of stars, Celestia’s vision finally stabilized enough to discern what was around her. What had seemed so far away and out of her reach, revealed itself to be rows upon rows of small spheres, all shining, rippling or glowing a bit differently.

While she wondered along the road, Celestia deduced that what she was seeing were dreams of different ponies or other creatures, as she could swear, she could see tiny pictures or scenes play in each one of them. Some of them even seemed connected to each other through tiny fine ethereal threads, while others seemed pale and dull as if they were empty, or currently not in use.

Marveling at the sight around her, Celestia completely missed a small plaza which appeared in the distance.

As she drew nearer to the plaza, something began to stir and move to her direction as she continued walking ahead, marveling at the beautiful display around her.

“Greetings, sister, we see thou have arrived in our realm properly,” Luna said, once she had caught up to Celestia.

Having heard nothing, nor seen anything which could have given her sister away, Celestia jumped frightened into the air, her wings pushing her up even more while she whipped her head towards the sudden noise, her horn already charged with magic.

Seeing her sister jump was a rare thing to happen for Luna, and she couldn’t help but giggle while she watched her sister stare at her, “Thou seems a bit tense, dearest sister of mine,” Luna said, having to restrain herself to not topple over in laughter.

“LUNA! How, from where…” Celestia uttered surprised. Making a mental note to get back onto her for that, Celestia settled back onto the floor, dispelling the magic she had gathered in her horn and tucking her wings back in.

After successfully calming herself, Celestia frowned at her sister, “Well, hello, Luna…” she said, her mood anything but bright right now, “so kind of you to finally find me.”

“We saw no need in getting thee, thou would have ended up here anyway.” Luna said, shrugging, turning around and walking back to the plaza, “after all, we have prepared such a meeting for quite some time now.”

“Uh, and might I ask why that is?” Celestia asked, stepping beside her sister and following her to the opening she just now saw.

“Didst thou not see the road we have crafted for thee so long ago?” Luna asked, smirking, “Or didst thou think these passages would have come out of nowhere.”

“Well, I didn’t…” Celestia continued before catching herself, “Where are we anyway, Luna?”

“We are in the space between dreams,” her sibling answered.

“The space between dreams?” Celestia asked, unable to understand the meaning of Luna’s inquiry.

“Indeed,” gesturing around, Luna walked onto the plaza, “around us, thou can see the dreams of any pony and creature alike, all gathered here to create this realm.”

As the two sisters continued to walk into the plaza, Celestia noticed a couple of pillars standing around, each of them holding one of the many dream spheres that she had seen already. Though these seemed deliberately placed, all arranged in some sort of order as each had a small white gate behind them, which resembled a doorway or if she imagined it, something more like a portal.

One of the pillars though was different.

Not only was it larger than the other pillars Celestia had seen so far, but it also had a small staircase leading up to it, as well as four archways which were arranged around it, as if to support vines or other plants.

Though, the structure around the pillar was not the only thing odd, on its top, where normally a shallow depression had been made to hold one orb at a time, here two had been made, each of them holding one orb respectfully in place as if they were watching over everything they saw.

A dark blue one and a bright yellow one.

As Celestia stared at the yellow orb, she felt like as if she was watching herself in a mirror, as if the orb was staring back. Tearing her gaze away, she looked at the other. “Are these...?”

“Yes, they are,” Luna confirmed, “These are our dream spheres, thine placed alongside mine to keep us company while we watch over our subjects as they sleep.”

Marveling at the display in front of her, Celestia watched the two spheres lightly glow and pulse. As she looked away once more and her eyes found these of her sister, she said in awe, “This is beautiful, Luna.”

“Thank you,” Luna nodded, “It came with the centuries, as we have only crafted this place due to the long time we have spent here.”

“Which does not make it any less beautiful, sister,” Celestia said, stepping next to her and squeezing her with her wing.

Looking around once more, Celestia noticed a small constellation of pillars which had much in common with the one where her and Lunas dream spheres had been placed.

---

On top of a circular pedestal, Celestia could see 9 more pillars.

Three of them had been arranged next to a small crystalline heart, all of them placed close together and one nestled between the two others.

The other five, which had been arranged in a small circle, were placed around the sixth, which was slightly more elevated than the ones surrounding it.

Each of the slightly smaller ones glowed brightly. One slightly yellow, another slightly blue, white, orange and pink. The last one which had been placed in the center, glowed lavender, even though a faint transparent sheen surrounded it, which dulled its glowing color.

Looking at the last one, Celestia noticed that under the transparent sheen, the orb was rippling and milky, as if something was boiling beneath its surface.

“Thou have found her,” Luna said, nodding to the lavender orb.

“Twilight?”

“Yes, hers is the only one we have ever come across with a blockade around it.” Luna continued, “Once, when we could still access her dreams, we had visited her once or twice while she slept as she had troubling dreams, but now, since she had created this shield around it,” Luna motioned to the orb and gently levitated it away from its spot to hover in front of them, “we are forced to watch her suffer.” Luna said, her tone of voice betraying her and revealing her sadness.

Gently laying a hoof on her sisters’ shoulder, Celestia nuzzled her cheek once, “But we are here now to help her, aren’t we?”

Regarding Twilights dream a moment longer, Luna nodded and turned around, walking away from her sister, the orb gently levitating beside her, “but we aren’t even certain it will work,” Luna said, placing the orb on another pedestal which rose out of the ground as Luna stopped walking.

Settling in front of the orb, Luna stared at it.

Walking up and settling down next to her sister, Celestia nuzzled her once more.

Letting Celestia wrap her up in one of her wings and feeling her motherly aura washing over her, Luna looked away from Twilights orb and right at her sister. “What if it fails?” she asked.

“Then we try again, and again,” Celestia reassured.

“And what if-” Luna wanted to argue, but a gentle hoof pressed on her lips.

“It won’t, Luna. I believe in you.”

Looking at her sister over her hoof, Luna watched her for a moment. As Celestia drew her hoof away once she felt Luna would not doubt herself again, she watched as Luna gently struggled away from her.

Once successfully extracting herself from her sister’s wing and settling across from the orb down, Luna watched her sister smile gently at her.

Feeling her doubts slowly calm down, Luna’s resolve strengthened. Nodding to herself and looking at the sheet of paper that she brought out from under her wing, Luna silently muttered to herself in thought.

As a gentle silence settled around the two, Celestia watched as her sister’s horn lit up multiple times, each time flashing for just a moment as she apparently prepared. While Celestia waited for her sister to be ready, she noticed that the floor beneath her hooves had changed.

Where normally a star littered expense had been seen, now a solid and spotless white ring grew out of the pedestal on which Twilight’s dream sphere lay. As the circle stopped growing, fine black and blue lines appeared, all forming multiple symbols of arcane power which Celestia had never seen before, all dancing and turning around, as if a great mechanism was working beneath her.

Before Celestia could even decipher what one of the symbols could even mean, Luna's horn lit once more and the circle beneath her glowed brightly with her magic’s color.

“We are ready,” she announced, her horn still glowing as the circle beneath them began to spin faster.

“What should I do now?” Celestia asked, her attention now focused away from the display of magic beneath her and at her sister directly.

“As we have discussed before, thou have to destroy Twilights shield now, but be aware, thine power is now greatly increased, be careful to only destroy her shield and not the orb beneath it,” Luna explained.

“What would happen if I…” Celestia wanted to ask but wasn’t able to finish her question.

“Thou would shatter Twilight’s mind,” Luna explained.

Gulping once, Celestia looked at the orb in front of her. As Luna concentrated to keep the spell around the two of them active, Celestia closed her eyes and focused a tiny beam of magic at the sphere, probing for it.

As her magic came in touch with those of Twilight, she analyzed the barrier. Even though the shield was tiny, it possessed great strength and Celestia nearly couldn’t sense it at all, as her magic apparently was used to strengthen it further.

Knowing that every spell could be broken, Celestia carefully increased the amount of magic channeling through the beam, watching and probing for any sign of Twilight’s shield failing.

As nothing happened, Celestia increased the amount of power once more. As again nothing happened, she repeated the process.

Over and over, Celestia increased the power with which she assaulted Twilight’s barrier.

As again and again, nothing happened, Celestia redoubled her efforts, sweat starting to form on her forehead.

Even though Celestia knew Twilight for her whole life now, Celestia had to admit that she was impressed by her former student once more.

Creating a magical barrier that could keep an army away was one thing, as with enough mages and enough time a sufficient barrier could be set up. But creating a magical barrier that could hold off the shepherd of the sun, was another thing entirely.

While Celestia had almost been at the point this afternoon where she would have disregarded all concern for safety and was ready to call down the might of the sun to tear apart the disruptive barrier, which had been used by the criminals to keep her away from Twilight, she had not needed it in the end.

Focusing her magic through a tiny beam to crack open the shield around Twilight’s dream, Celestia neither had to fear any consequences to the environment, as she could feel Luna’s magic altering the realm to endure her vast amount of power and shielding the other dream spheres, nor had she the need to fear for any other creature coming to harm from her normally contained might.

Calling now almost the whole force of the sun to aid her in her trial, Celestia finally felt Twilight’s barrier crack and give away beneath her assault.

Once the barrier began to crack, Celestia instantly cut out her magic and watched as Twilight’s barrier slowly broke and crumbled into pieces.

As the last remnants of the shield around Twilight’s dream dispersed into ethereal glitter and vanished, Celestia looked up at her sister.

Panting heavily and sweating as if she had dived into the sun itself, Luna smiled. The amount of relief she felt almost made her topple over as she grinned from ear to ear.

Finally realizing her own strain from her magic, Celestia wiped her brow and started to smile too.

“I assume this means success, right?” Celestia asked, looking concerned over Twilight’s dream sphere.

Looking up from Twilight’s now unblocked dream sphere, Luna nodded, “Indeed,” lighting her horn she focused her magic around Twilights orb as she regarded her sister, “We think it is time to help our friend, does thou not?”

“Indeed,” Celestia answered.

Hearing her sister’s confirmation, Luna concentrated her magic and focused harder on Twilight’s sphere as everything went black for both of them.

---

Silence, complete and utter silence, greeted Luna.

Normally, as Princess of the Night, Luna was able to freely walk in and out of dreams.

But now, she found herself collapsed on the ground as she had done in the years where she had first found her ability to dream walk.

Generally speaking, the more powerful her target’s dream was, the harder it was for Luna to enter it. While she normally could easily power through those minor hiccups, an especially frightened filly or colt was from time to time able to slow her advance down when their nightmare was particularly vivid.

While Luna would normally shrug it off and try and help the pony, a grown up, with their imagination rooted much deeper in reality had such kinds of dreams far more seldom and so Luna only rarely encountered such a dream.

But for Twilight, to outright stop her and disorient her, Luna now feared for what she may find in her friend’s mind all the more.

Shaking her head and opening her eyes, Luna saw something which she thought to never see again.

While she had not often been in this place, she remembered it quite well from her weekly visits to her friend as she taught her about the current customaries and trends of the modern world.

The home which Twilight had called her own since her return, and which she had lost since Tirek had destroyed it.

The Golden Oaks Library.

A sudden groan startled her enough to turn her head to her sister, who had appeared right next to her on the cold ground in front of Twilight’s giant tree.

As Celestia opened her eyes, Luna all but jumped up and rushed to her, “Sister, are thee well?”

While Twilight’s dream had so far only disrupted Luna, she could only imagine how Celestia would feel now, seeing that she never had any training in the machinations of dreams.

“Ugh,” the white alicorn groaned as she rubbed her forehead, “Where am I?” she asked, trying to orientate herself.

“We are in Twilight’s dream, sister,” Luna answered, trying to stabilize her wobbling sibling. “How art thou feeling?”

Closing her eyes and pressing a hoof to her forehead, Celestia mumbled something under her breath which even Luna was not able to catch. Shaking her head, Celestia's horn lit as her golden magical glow enveloped her forehead.

After a short moment, Celestia's magic died down and she opened her eyes once more, “I am fine, Luna.”

“It appears to be the contrary though, sister,” Luna said, generally worried.

“Ok, then let’s say I will be fine,” Celestia said, a smile playing over her lips as she looked around.

As she recognized the structure before her, her eyes went wide, and a silent gasp escaped her.

Seeing her sister’s reaction, Luna turned her head as well, “It appears this is Twilight’s mental focus point,” Luna started to explain, “The place where all her thoughts are centered and where we will be able to truly get insight into her consciousness.”

“It’s her library,” Celestia said, one of her hoofs gently touching the front door as if to proof that it was really there.

“Indeed, we had expected something like that.”

Stepping closer to her sister, Luna gently turned the doorknob of Twilight’s former home.

Opening the door and slowly stepping inside, the sisters both felt a wave of nostalgia breaking over them.

Celestia, who had hoof picked this place herself, remembered just how much she had gone out of her way to create a home outside of Canterlot for her dear little student, not knowing that it actually would become her home so quickly. And Luna, who had visited Twilight much more often than her sister had in the past remembered the many lessons and friendly chat’s she had with the former unicorn inside this tree.

Regarding this place, the both of them felt as if they should know it, familiar and unchanged, but, wherever they looked, everything had an air to it that made it feel different as well.

The smooth floor and the many shelves of books appeared to be the same, but where normally the library had been small, it now stretched out far wider than any of them could remember.

The main room which had held the majority of Twilight’s books back then had not only much bigger bookshelves now, but many tables and short cupboards on which trinkets and other reminders had been placed. On the walls and on any other available surface pictures and cards had been arranged, while all the tables were littered with letters and small figurines depicting Twilight’s friends.

As the door closed behind them, both of them felt strangely at home.

The gentle fire that crackled in the fireplace bathed the room in a welcoming orange light and the many personal effects added to the room made it seem truly Twilight’s.

While Celestia and Luna looked around, they could find many pictures in which Twilight was surrounded by her friends, all smiling, laughing or both. Some depicted her in other situations, where she was littered in party streamers from one of Pinkie’s get-togethers, somewhere she and Spike sat together, working hard on a book in front of them. Another depicted her standing next to her brother, both exhausted and holding a broken kite but still smiling, the crystal empire in the background.

Looking closer, Celestia found even more pictures littering or standing around the wall and tables.

In one, Twilight stood on a high balcony of Canterlot, wearing her crowning dress and speaking to the public. In another, she stood side by side with her sister, smiling into the camera, a wing draped over her sibling. Yet another again, she saw herself, sitting next to Twilight, both laughing.

Looking around, Celestia could find many pictures in which she either saw her sister, or herself. Some of them even had them both framed.

Celestia never remembered having posed for even half of the pictures littering the wall.

Though, she could see some which she knew guards or her family had taken, like the one where a much younger Twilight stood next to her, smiling from ear to ear with a certificate presented proudly to the camera.

While Celestia marveled at the many pictures she found, Luna was searching through the dream for anything that may give her a clue on why Twilight was hurt and refused to wake up.

As the minute's long search, in which she fought against the many scientific instruments she found and didn’t understand, turned out to be for naught, Luna turned to her sister, who had by now found one of the books that had been laying around and perused through it.

“Sister, we are not here to break into every aspect of Twilight’s mind,” she chided, taking the book away from her sister and gently settling it back to where it was mere moments ago.

“This place is fascinating, Luna, I never knew Twilight to keep so many pictures or mementos to herself,” she said, a sparkle in her eye. As a realization struck though, she lowered her ears and her good mood almost vanished instantly, “Though I have to admit, I never have seen Twilight’s old home that often to see some of them,” she lamented.

Shaking her head, Luna smiled and gestured around, “We are not in her old home, sister. We are in her mind, or rather in the meta-physical place in which her mind is shown to us,” she explained, “Everything thou can see here, is something Twilight treasures, remembers or is important to her.”

Walking to one of the depictions where she sat beside Twilight in front of a table littered with books, papers, and household utensils, she continued, “Thou see, this, for example. This is a memory where Twilight taught us about the inventions made in our absence that concerned cooking,” gesturing to another, “This, this had been made as the two of us traded stories of old and new between us.”

Turning to her sister, and gesturing around once more, Luna concluded, “This place is her mind sister, thou can see here everything thine former student chose to remember, everything organized or sorted in a way which is comfortable to her.”

Realizing that what she had read wasn’t a story book, but the description of a day Twilight had once with her friends, Celestia's eyes widened.

“Now thou see why we choose to not speak of anything we witness inside a dream,” Luna explained.

Nodding in understanding, Celestia looked around once more, now much more in thought than before, “Then, pray tell, what is it that I should keep an eye out for then?” she asked.

“Tis a good question,” Luna nodded, “Normally, we appear right inside the dream of the dreamer, and not in their mind, but seeing that apparently, Twilight is having an unprecedentedly terrible dream, we fear we’ll have to find the dreamer first before we can help her.”

“So then, where is she?” Celestia asked.

“Well, seeing that nothing down here appears to hold her essence right now, we ought to look in a different place,” Luna thought out loud.

“Hmmm, I have only seen the stairs leading up to her chambers, or the one leading down into the basement,” Celestia said.

Thinking for a moment and looking into the small kitchen where the two of them stood in front of, Luna nodded, “maybe we’ll have luck closer to her center, which very well may be her old chambers,” she deduced.

“You tell me,” Celestia said, smiling, “You are the dream expert.”

“Oh, har har”, Luna scoffed, “Get thine posterior into motion.”

Giggling lightly, Celestia turned around and swatted her sister with her tail.

As the two of them walked up the stairs to Twilight’s bed chambers, the room around them changed.

From the normal warm orange light which illuminated the library mere moments ago, the two found themselves now in a rather dark and depressing hallway.

While the theme of the pictures littering the wall hadn’t changed, they still showed a smiling Twilight with or without her friends, the light and the shrinking space of the hallway made it all but welcoming.

Humming to herself, Luna looked around, “We don’t like where this is going.”

“Well, it seems rather dark all of the sudden, right?” Celestia asked, wondering if it was just a trick of her own mind.

“Indeed, we also feel that we have come closer to her, much to our dismay at finding her at such a dark place in her mind,” Luna said, carefully walking further into the hallway, “Usually, if a place in the mind of a pony darkens, there are only two reasons to cause this. Either, we may have found a repressed part of her mind or we have found her fears,” Luna added grimly.

Walking alongside her sister through the seemingly endless hallway, Celestia felt cold, even though the sun normally kept her protected against such mortal problems. Despite walking by several lit candles, or other sources of light, Celestia had to strain her eyes hard to even know where she was going, not even thinking of identifying the pictures around her.

Envious about her sister’s ability to see through the darkness, Celestia wondered what may be so dark that it would cloud Twilight’s mind. The normally happy pony never appeared her to be one to have many dark thoughts, but she had to admit that she may have lost contact with her a little since she had moved to Ponyville.

As Luna suddenly stopped, Celestia all but bumped into her.

“Maybe even both,” Luna said, her tone grim, but determined.

Closing her eyes and lighting her horn, Luna concentrated in banishing the darkness around them.

The worry her sister radiated only caught fire and exploded thousand-fold as Celestia noticed her surroundings.

While Celestia had walked along side Luna, she had all but neglected to watch where they were going. As she found herself now in an all but black expense, the formally cold feeling she had threatened to freeze her heart now.

Slowly, but steadily, Luna's magic began to show its effect. The black expanse Celestia saw around her began to lighten up and starting from her sisters’ hoof, the room slowly turned back into its original orange colored glow, revealing five doors in the process.

As the last signs of darkness vanished, Luna cut her magic and opened her eyes again, “She is close, we can sense her essence nearby,” regarding the door to their left, Luna continued, “maybe behind one of these doors.”

“Which one, though?” Celestia asked, noticing that all these doors appeared to be locked.

“We can’t tell, we can’t bring us further without actually looking through the dream now,” Luna explained, examining the doors.

“So, what we are about to do then?” Celestia asked, “open these doors and look for her?”

“Indeed, we fear we have to do so,” Luna said, turning away from the doors and facing straight at Celestia, “But sister, remember, what we are about to see is all in Twilight’s mind, it is just a figment of imagination and is not actually harmful, not for us.”

“Harmful?”

Sighing and nodding, Luna gestured with one of her forehooves at one of the doors, “It appears that these are repressed or partly repressed memories, fears, or wishes. Whatever thou can see behind those doors, is not necessarily Twilight. It may be a figment of her own imagination, doing something she would never do, or doing something of what she is most afraid of. It may appear silly sometimes of what a pony is afraid of, but this does not lessen the fear, the only thing we can do when we find her is help her through those fears, repress them further and help her forget, or in case of anxieties to utter wishes or dreams, sometimes it is good to help them to fulfill these, but we can’t just alleviate them from her.”

As her sister nodded in understanding, Luna gulped and regarded the doors with caution once more. “Even though whatever we may see is not harmful to us, for Twilight, these things are all too real. If we do something wrong here, her very mental health is at risk, so please, be careful,” Luna said, stepping closer to the first door.

With her hoof nearly at the door handle, Luna stopped and thought for a moment. Perking up once more and turning to her sister, Luna continued, “And before we forget, whatever we may see down here in the depths of her mind, we ask thee, don’t hold it against her afterward, these things are down here not without good reason.”

Chuckling and nodding, Celestia gently bumped flanks with her sister, “So, when I see her marrying a book here, I can finally say that I have managed to chase that childhood dream away from her,” she said, trying to lighten the mood.

Raising an eyebrow at her sister, Luna cocked her head, “She tried to marry a book?”

“Well, not directly, but I feared she would want to do it at one point in her life,” Celestia said, shaking her head, “And after she started hoarding more and more books in her room, I may have tried setting her up with a stallion once or twice.”

As Luna's eyebrow raised even further, Celestia smiled, “Ok, maybe I asked Cadance to do it, but, well, you see how that turned out, every attempt we had to let her make friends ended in her locking herself in her room or staying in the library for days.”

“And then thou sent her to live in a library?” Luna asked.

Rubbing her neck sheepishly, Celestia averted her gaze.

Shaking her head and turning back to the door in front of her, Luna gently pressed down on the handle.

Even though the door was held in place by many different locks, chains and metal bars placed all over the door, Luna still pressed down on the handle, causing every lock to swing open and a faint gleam of light and distant sounds sprung forth through the door.

Opening the door fully, Celestia and Luna carefully stepped in.

Inside, there was a huge black expanse. Everything seemed as if there was nothing but black, everything except a small cone of light in what may have been the center of the room.

There, placed right in the middle of the cone of light, stood an image of Twilight, her face determined, but clearly afraid.

Not recognizing it as an image like Luna did, Celestia wanted to get closer to comfort her former student immediately, but a raised hoof and a shaking head from Luna stopped her advance.

“This is not her,” Luna explained simply.

Before Celestia could ask how her sister knew, the dream shook as a giant silvery hoof stepped into the light, one which alone dwarfed Twilight at least thrice.

Twilight, who by now was trying to hide her fear better, was slowly but carefully walking backward while she looked at the giant hoof in front of her.

As a throaty chuckle shook the ground once more, the cone of light slowly expanded over the creature whose hoof was only visible.

“It appears we are on an impasse, Princess,” Tirek said, his body strong and filled with magic.

Twilight, who by now had stopped drawing back glared at him. The might of all the alicorns in the land rippled through her body and even though she appeared to have fought against him already over a longer period of time, her breathing remained careful as she waited for her adversary to do his next move.

Chuckling once more, Tirek snapped his fingers, “But I think, I may as well end it here and now,” he said, levitating a sphere of magic from behind him in front of Twilight.

The sphere was milky, yet still, inside of it, Celestia and Luna could see two ponies.

Themselves.

As the sisters watched on, Tirek showed the sphere to Twilight, who had gasped in shock and was shaking her head slowly while her eyes teared up.

“You see, all I want is the magic you hold in side of you, all the magic which would make me the most powerful being on this planet, and which would help me to reform the world after my image,” he explained, making a show of letting the weakened Celestia and Luna out of the bubble and placing them in front of him.

Sighing, he continued, “I didn’t want to have to make use of such drastic acts, but I am afraid, if you don’t surrender now and give me what I want, I may have to start… hurting… ponies, up to the point where you finally decide to come to your senses and give me what I ask for… willingly,” he said, gesturing to the weakened alicorns below him, “and I think I will start with those two.”

While Twilight teared up further, she stared at Tirek, the centaur slowly lifting one of his hooves to hover over the two ponies placed in front of him. “So, what is your answer?” he asked, his tone booming.

Gathering magic in her horn and fixing Tirek with the most withering stare Twilight could muster, the purple alicorn flared her wings, “Get away from them!” Twilight shouted, releasing her magic and pushing Tirek away slightly.

Having expected the barrage already, Tirek pushed against Twilights magic with his own, “Very well, if this is your last word, then so be it,” he said, rearing back to bring his hoofs down upon Celestia and Luna.

As Twilight saw this, her attack shifted to form a protective bubble around the two ponies on the ground. “NO! You, I won’t let you!” she shouted, her face full of tears, “Princesses, please, move!”

While he stood on the forcefield around the two Princesses, Tirek wasn’t using his magic and so formed a small ball of pure flames and aimed it at Twilight, “Give up Princess! You can’t save them and yourself! Give me what I want, and I let them go. I promise,” he said, a wicked smile playing over his lips.

“You won’t! And I will not fall for it!” Twilight shouted back, her tears streaming freely down, “You are a monster, Tirek!” she shouted once more, trying to split her unfamiliar magic to push him away from the Princesses.

Chuckling from Twilights attempt, he let go of the fireball he was holding and let it hurl towards the young Princess.

As Twilight saw the ball coming closer and closer, her instincts cut her magic shielding the Princesses to wrap herself into a shield of protective magic.

Once the shielding magic around Celestia and Luna had fully vanished, the blockade for Tirek’s hooves was finally gone and as the flames around Twilight dissipated, she was forced to watch as Tirek’s hooves ultimately struck the limp figures beneath them.

Having been forced to watch the princesses disappear under Tirek’s hooves, Twilight all but toppled over on the spot, her lips mouthing a silent plea for mercy as she stared all but dazed at the spot where Celestia and Luna had lain mere moments ago.

Snapping his fingers, Tirek summoned two more ponies before he presented them to the young Princess.

Twilight though, didn’t pay him, her sister in law or her brother any mind, as her eyes teared up further.

“I ask you once more,” he continued, “Will you give me what I ask of you?” he said, placing Shining Armor and Cadance next to where Celestia and Luna had laid just a moment ago.

All that the pony in question was doing was staring at the spot Celestia and Luna had laid a moment ago. Nothing gave away that she was still alive, as her breathing had stopped and even the very wind around her seemed to have stopped gently playing with the edges of her mane.

As Twilight finally collapsed to the ground in a motionless pile, Tirek stopped what he was doing and regarded her once more, “So, what is your answer?” he asked, his hoof already hovering over Cadance and her brother.

“You killed them,” Twilight said, her voice sounding far more distant than was natural and completely ignoring his last question, “I never… not even… was able t-to say… t-that I…”

Chuckling once more and ignoring the changes in her voice, Tirek leaned forward, thinking that he had already won, “And I will kill many more if you don’t give me what I ask!” he said, trying to siphon Twilights magic forcefully. “You are weak. You can’t even control the gift you hold inside of you right now,” he mocked, “But you don’t have to worry about that. I promise, you won’t have to try for much… “

Before the red giant could end his sentence, Twilight had gripped his mouth and slammed it shut, without any sign that she had even used her magic at all.

Even though Twilight hadn’t moved an inch, nor used her magic, Tirek found that he couldn’t move at all and that his gaze was focused on the small pony in front of him.

As Twilight slowly but steadily stood up once more, the tears starting to dry on her face, the gentle purple of her fur slowly changed and darkened while runic symbols wrapped all around her body, engraving itself on her fur and forming magical circles and patterns more complex than Luna or Celestia had ever seen before.

Forced to watch as Twilight steadily regained her bearings, Tirek became even more angry that his plan had not worked as well as he had hoped and tried to break free from the invisible grip.

“You killed them,” a voice echoed through the dream, a voice so distant from emotions that it turned Celestia’s and Luna's stomach upon hearing it, “And I was too weak to stop you,” it spoke again.

Glaring at the small pony in front of him, Tirek strained to speak, “And you will be next. Once I am free, I will end your life!” he hissed.

But Twilight, whose fur had by now changed to a much darker purple and who was currently conjuring more and more magical armor which she wrapped around her body, stood still in front of him. Her normally gentle atmosphere around her had vanished and even a simple glance from Celestia or Luna made them feel cold and hollow.

As Tirek fought harder and harder against his restraints, Twilight uttered one simple phrase before he was released and flung back as he were a mere foal’s toy. “Try it!”

Once Tirek was free, the two ponies he had conjured up mere moments ago all but forgotten, he charged between his horns a flaming magical power and flung a great ball of yellow and red flames at Twilight.

Without moving an inch, Twilight simply let the magical ball explode in front of her, her horn still dim as the last pieces of her armor clicked in place and the remnants of Tirek’s spell rained down around her.

“You have brought much suffering to this world,” Twilight spoke, her voice cold and hollow, “And it will be both my punishment and my duty to end your reign of terror, Tirek,” she said, her horn lighting up and a beam of magic striking Tirek, pushing him backward.

Grunting under the sudden magical pressure, Tirek tried to work against it, only to find that the beam only became stronger and stronger as he struggled.

Finally, he was pushed back and flew towards the next mountain, Twilight flapping her wings and flying after him let loose a torrent of magical explosions, all bruising and hurting Tirek while he was unable to defend himself.

As Twilights magic finally flung him back, she flapped her wings once and shot into the air, flying after him and letting loose one spell after the next. As the torrent of magical spells hit Tirek, all exploding, burning, slashing or ripping at him, Tirek was unable to protect himself entirely as wound after wound was inflicted over his body.

As he finally crashed into the mountain, Twilight landed on top of his chest, her horseshoes sizzling his flesh on where she stepped.

“You have ended the lives of the two most important, gracious and wisest ponies today,” she said, her voice just above a whisper but still audible all over the planes in which they fought, “so I will punish you accordingly,” she said, a somewhat cruel smile ghosting over her lips.

Lighting her horn once more, Twilight formed a magical ball and chain which slowly dragged on over the floor. Yanking on her magic and swinging it above her, she whacked Tirek multiple times with it before she hit him with another blast of magic in the side, throwing him away once more.

As Twilight was following him slowly and with measured steps, Celestia, who had watched the scene quietly so far, gasped in horror, “This, this is terrible.”

“Indeed, it is, it appears due to our untimely demise...” Luna stopped, glancing at where the cone of light had been and where their dream counter parts had been crushed under Tirek’s hooves. “We think that Twilight fears what could have happened if she had… lost… that day. We presume she thinks of it as a possibility to fall as we did, if events hadn’t played out like they did in reality,” Luna explained.

As another crash could be heard as Twilight further attacked Tirek, letting loose her restraints more and more.

Shaking her head and closing her eyes, Celestia turned away from the scene unwilling to see Twilight in that state and beginning to walk to the door, leading out of the dream room, “But what does this mean?”

Following her sister and shaking her head, Luna had it in her to look back once more, “We cannot say for sure, but we think she is fearing that something like that might happen one day.”

“What? That we are…”

“No, but that something happens so that she loses herself in the nightmare like we did once.”

“But that is impossible,” Celestia said.

“Indeed, it is not, not here. No matter what she is afraid of, in her dreams, everything can be, even her having fallen.” Regarding Twilight once more, Luna raised an eyebrow, “Besides, we have fallen once, and we know for certain that you were not far from it at a certain point. Even thine niece has her dark moments. So, why do you think she could not fall as we did one thousand years ago?”

“Because Twilight is so pure of heart, she could never succumb to something like that,” Celestia explained.

“Couldn’t she?” Luna asked, “Does thou forget that everyone has a darker side, sister?”

“But Twilight?” Celestia whined.

“We are afraid so,” looking back into the room once more, Luna closed the door right when Twilight began to conjure a sword of pure magic, “But seeing the kind of things she has been afraid of so far, we wonder what terrible nightmare we will find here next.”

“Honestly, I would rather find her and help her wake up than see any more of such things plaguing her mind,” Celestia said, her ears lowering.

“Indeed, we also wish to find her to help her,” looking back at the now closed door, Luna continued, “But such is the nature of dreams and the mind, even dark things can be found in the most shining of hearts.”

“When this is all over, I think I may have to talk to her about that,” Celestia said, concerned.

“Indeed, we think that would be most wise of thee,” Luna nodded.

Stepping towards the next door, Luna glanced at her sister, “Art thou ready?”

Sighing and looking her sister in the eyes, Celestia’s fear and doubt was plainly visible for Luna, “No, and I think I will never be,” she said gravely before lowering her eyes once more, “I never want to see something like that ever again. I truly can’t understand how you can stand something like that every night, sister.”

“Normally, we don’t have to, besides, we are all but digging into her mind right now, we don’t want to imagine what we ought to find in thine,” Luna explained.

“That does not make it any better,” Celestia said, “I am sorry, but I feel responsible for what we have seen just mere moments ago, it should have been me who fought against Tirek, not her, she had done so much already, and what did I do? Send her against something that now gives her nightmares.”

Seeing her sister’s downtrodden expression, Luna slightly bumped into her, “Fear not, sister, one out of five doors are done, and maybe we’ll find her in one not so,” she thought for a moment, “Depressing.”

Nodding and smiling at Luna for the optimism, Celestia visibly straightened, “After all, we are here to help her, and when I can find out about such anxieties this way, maybe I can even help her get rid of them,” she said.

Nodding once more, Luna turned back to the door, “Hopefully.”

As she pushed down the door handle, much like the door before, all the locks and security measures holding the door closed flung open and another cone of light filled the library once more.

Behind the door’s threshold spanned a huge expense of clouds. All fluffy and white. They all but created a sea of clouds as far as the eye could see, and in the few gaps between them was the ground only as a distant backdrop. The sky above them was a spotless blue and the evening sun hung gently over the horizon, bathing the scene in a warm reddish hue, while some of the stars already started to become visible.

Stepping onto the first cloud and looking around, Celestia raised an eyebrow, “Well, I don’t want to call for it, but this doesn’t appear to be a horrible dream at all,” she said, the relief washing over her.

“Then we should be all the more careful, sister,” Luna warned.

“Indeed, who knows what lurks behind this façade.”

“It could also just be a dream which gives her great pain or sorrow, even though it’s a good memory,” Luna said, gently flapping her wings to get a better look over the area.

Carefully trotting through the watery vapor to look for Twilight, Celestia wasn’t prepared for what she found behind a small hill.

There, curled up and nuzzled into each other, lay Twilight. But what was the oddest thing about it was, that she found herself and her sister curled around her former student, all sleeping, wings and hooves gently draped over each other.

“Uhm, Luna?” Celestia gently called, instinctively careful not to wake anyone.

“What is it, sister?” Luna shot back, her head popping out of the cloud next to her.

“I think I found her… and us…”

Looking at the direction Celestia was pointing with her hooves, Luna's eyes widened for a moment. “Well, this was unexpected,” she said out loud, not caring for the sleeping ponies not far away from them, “We had expected some sort of flight anxieties, or fear of falling.”

As Twilight gently stirred in her sleep, Celestia glared at her sister, “Not so loud, or do you want to wake them?” she hissed.

Waving her sister off, Luna rolled her eyes, “As if we could disturb them,” she said, lighting her horn, “Not expediently, at least.”

Before Celestia could say anything, Twilight carefully pulled herself out of the two other ponies embrace, only to turn around and all but flop back onto the both of them, her head nuzzling into Celestia’s chest fur, while she reached out with her wing to effortlessly draw Luna closer and draping her forehooves around her neck, holding on to her like a teddy bear.

A small blush rushed over the muzzle of the sisters as they witnessed how the small purple pony curled up on top of them, the blissful smile even visible from their hiding spot.

Stepping out of the cloud and averting her sisters gaze, Luna all but stared at Twilight and how she cuddled with her dream counterpart, “Um, maybe we should go, sister,”

Nodding but unable to draw her eyes away from the pile of sleeping ponies, and specifically how Twilight all but rubbed herself into her own fur, Celestia wasn’t moving an inch towards the exit of the dream, and neither was Luna.

As the moment drew by and once more the three sleeping ponies moved, Lunas blush once more as she watched her dream counterpart pressing herself against Twilight, while said pony kicked slightly with her hoof in her sleep.

The image of Celestia, which was by now all most completely buried under her sister and Twilight, also began to move as her forehooves and wings protectively curled around the two ponies on top of her, effectively shielding Twilight from view completely.

Ripping her gaze away from the display, Celestia nudged her sister to get her attention, “Um, I think we should go now,” she said, this time actually beginning to move towards the exit.

“Indeed, that would be most wise, we presume,” Luna said, following her sister.

Carefully trotting through the clouds towards the exit, Celestia glanced at Luna, “Any idea on why Twilight is having such thoughts about, um… us?” she asked, suddenly sounding as if she’d been replaced with a frightened teenager and not like the proud ruler of a country.

While Luna could think of many reasons why something like could be found inside the mind of a pony, she shook her head before looking up, “We truly do not know, sister, it could simply be that she once imagined something like this, or that she truly desires that,” Luna tried to explain. “The ways of the mind are complex and while the other dream we saw could come from the fight against Tirek and her usual anxieties, this one could root from a hidden desire inside her, or maybe she just wishes to do that with their special somepony’s one day and our presence altered the picture to be in their places, …”

“In other words,” Celestia cut in, “It could have simply been random what we just saw?” she asked.

“It could very well be a random thought, but that would not explain why we would find it here of all places,” Luna gestured around.

Closing the door and trotting towards the next Luna continued, “The only thing certain was, that the pony we saw was merely a ghost of Twilight and not she herself.”

“How will we be able to identify her anyway, sister?” Celestia asked, remembering that aside from the changes the first dream Twilight went through, both of them looked exactly the same in the beginning.

“Thou will just know sister, thou will not be able to mistake it if she is standing in front of thee,” Luna said, stopping in front of the third door. “Well, this is odd.”

While both doors Celestia and Luna had visited so far looked exactly the same, with their locked exterior, this one though was different. It not only had more visible locks, but it also appeared to be partly hidden behind a metal grating to keep it shut.

Upon Luna trying to open the door, the night princess frowned once more, “Sister, we may have a problem here,” she said, the tone of her voice telling her sister that the problem must be severe.

Inspecting the door herself, Celestia soon saw that Luna, even though she had tried like the other two doors, where upon her touch the locks flung open, this one, seemed genuinely closed and didn’t budge an inch when Luna tried to open it.

“While the other doors may have been brought here by her unconscious, this one is here because Twilight is trying to forget, or trying to banish the thought from her mind,” Luna said, letting her hoof fall back to the ground, “If we ought to enter it, we could very well release its content into her mind and only make matters worse.”

“Could she be inside of that too?” Celestia asked, understanding that a free-roaming nightmare would only make matters worse.

Nodding her head and turning to her sister, Luna sat down, “She could, these kinds of dreams which she is actively trying to forget could be the very reason why we are here,” she explained, “Remember, the pink one said something about her being hurt.” She nodded to the door, “This might be it, the things we are willing to forget are always the things which haunt us the most, if not dealt with.”

Settling beside her sister, Celestia thought for a bit, “And what if she is not there and we open the door?” she finally asked, worried what her sisters might answer.

“We could worsen her nightmare if we are unable to seal it quick enough,” Luna said. Over her many years of dream walking, Luna had found herself sometimes in situations similar to this. While usually the ponies in question directly came to her to ask her about troubled sleeping, repeating nightmares or other symptoms, Luna could sometimes help them by breaking open these kinds of things inside their minds, to help them resolve the problem, or simply to make them aware of them once more.

While dreams usually had nearly no influence on the waking world, strong nightmares, suppressed memories or guilty feelings could have an effect on the pony in question, and considering that Twilight had created a spell especially to block Luna from accessing her dreams, Luna figured that Twilight had something she wished her never to find out.

Even though Luna never held what she saw in ponies’ minds against them, she had to admit that some revelations were better left unseen, else they influenced her actions towards said ponies.

But for Luna, the question was already answered.

She had to find out.

She had to find out why Twilight created a shield around her dreams, why she wished of her to never see what she thought of her or else she was sure she would go mad.

The constantly nagging thought which sprung up every time she saw the young princess, which reminded her of her guarded self against her and which let her all but hallucinate one of many reasons why Twilight might have done so ate at Luna. For every sense of concern for privacy Luna had, she just had to find out and so turned to her sister, her determination shown on her face.

“You are willing to risk it,” Celestia stated, able to read her sisters face. “Do you think this is why she created the shield around her dream?”

Nodding towards her sister, Luna hung her head slightly, “We have to know, sister, it hurts us as much as Twilight must be hurt right now.”

Inhaling once and closing her eyes, Celestia thought for a moment. As she opened her eyes once more and exhaled audibly, she nodded. “Fine, then we go and take a look, but if this goes bad, you promise me you help her through anything that may come, and later explain to her what we have done.”

Looking at the closed door once more, Lunas face hardened, “We will, we would have done so anyway, and we plan on doing this even if everything will go over smoothly, just, maybe not the next time we see her.”

Nodding her head in understanding, Celestia gently placed a wing over her sister, “I understand, let's hope Twilight will also be as understanding when she finds out.”

Nodding her head, Luna nuzzled into her sister’s side once more. “Thank you,” she said, the hope of possibly finding out and finally resolving the matter which had haunted her in the last five years making her smile.

As Luna enjoyed the company of her sister for a moment longer, Celestia’s concerned glance lay on the door which they would soon enter. “So, how are we going to do this,” she asked, wondering if they would have to break open this dream like they did with the barrier around Twilight dream.

“Going in is rather simple,” Luna explained, trying to nudge away from her sister, “We can create a hole in the dream through which we can slip in. Though coming out, without taking anything with us will be harder.”

“Anything I have to know or keep in mind to make it easier?” Celestia asked, opening her wing and letting her sister go.

“Not really, thou canst use dream magic and so, if thou would notice anything, it would already be too late,” Luna explained, her horn starting to glow.

“So, we just go in there and hope we don’t take anything out with us?”

Wearily shaking her head Luna continued, her horn still glowing, “We said thou cannot do much. We though... we think we can handle it if we are quick enough,” she explained, her horn suddenly flashing brighter causing the dream around them to begin distorting.

The door which blocking them from entering Twilight’s dream warped further and further, appearing to only get thinner by the second.

Then, only slowly growing, a small spec of light could be seen. The door, which had blocked them just a second ago now had a small, but steadily growing hole in it through which the scene inside could be seen partly.

Their entrance point appeared to be somewhere in a stonewalled but carpeted hallway. As the hole grew wider, Celestia recognized it as one of the many hallways of Canterlot Castle. The red carpet and the rather elongated room weren’t anything she remembered having in her home and as both Celestia and Luna had stepped in, they looked around.

“Where are we?” Celestia asked, the hallway giving off a sense of familiarity.

“We are not certain, but look,” Luna motioned ahead, “this appears to be the doors to thine chambers,” she said before frowning, “and oddly enough, mine as well.”

Stepping closer to the closed double door which had a crescent moon and a shining sun engraved on each of the door sides, the two princesses could make out faint noises coming from the other side.

Quizzically and without thinking much about it, Luna grabbed the door handle with her magic and gently clicked it open.

As they looked inside the room, they could see three ponies, one, which was Twilight standing in the middle of the room, and the other two appeared to be themselves, again.

While the dream counter parts that they had seen so far all could have been a cutout out from a mirror, these two looked more… radiant.

The dream Celestia, who sat on one of her many cushions in the room and had a book floating in front of her, had not only her usual white fur and her billowing rainbow mane, but she also seemed to glow faintly.

The aura around her wasn’t just light or anything like it, this Celestia actually seemed to be radiant. Each hair of her fur and each feather in her wings seemed perfectly groomed, not that they weren’t in reality, but here, they seemed somehow more so. They seemed as if Celestia hadn’t aimed to look her best, but as if she had straight on hit perfection. Even her wingtips seemed to have changed slightly, a feint hue of red and orange only helped to accentuate her already shining beauty.

The crackling fire in the fireplace behind her only helped to accentuate the mare sitting in front of it, but she wasn’t the only one.

Luna, while having apparently received the same treatment as her sister, stood next to the balcony doors, a couple of books and astronomy gear strewn around her. The light of her moon bathed her in its light and made Luna look like a perfect cut out of the night sky, with her mane not only displaying many more stars, which were apparently all structured after the constellations of the night sky, but her coat and her wingtips also seemed to have darkened a little bit. Her primary feathers faded from color slightly and appeared to be completely white on the edges, while parts of her mane had turned white like the moon she wielded, and which was resembled in her cutie mark.

The appearance the two mares were wearing was, both Celestia and Luna knew, from one of the many depictions of them out of one or another book Twilight must have read over the years.

While both had changed their looks to their now normal seen appearance, from which they only kept their flowing mane, they could very well remember looking like that once.

While the flowing mane and tainted wingtips had not served any more purpose than their flowing manes did now, it had alienated them from their subjects and so they had chosen to loosen it up slightly over 1500 years ago.

The magical power an alicorn produced was great and what fueled it largely unknown, but it was also the reason why they had to uphold two kinds of spells nearly all the time, one, which Twilight and Cadance had to already use was the one which helped against their hunger and feeds the user constantly with a magical created substance. Even though Celestia and Luna knew that they would be fine without it, the constant feeling of hunger was greatly distracting. The other, once the sisters became more and more powerful, their magic seemed to easily get out of control from time to time, especially when angered or otherwise distracted, so they had created this spell to safely dispatch any excess energy which would lead towards them destroying the cup they held or the door knob they tried to turn.

While the spell itself wasn’t that complicated, it tapped always into the magical reservoir of the caster and worked like an overflow. When a normal ponies magic reached their limits, they simply had a full reservoir, but the magical pool of an alicorn was endless. They simply gathered more and more energy and much alike a strong pony they had their problems fulfilling delicate tasks, the amount of stored up power grew more and more unwieldy to use and caused further problems. So after having created enough messes when they were young, Luna came up with the idea of simply venting any excess energy out of their systems to create an artificial limit of their own.

By expelling the energy which they overproduced, the venting areas on which they let their magic leak out controlled had then always fumed vaporized magic. With the problem of quickly steaming up a room, Celestia then had the idea of using up this magic to maintain different kinds of spells to get rid of their vapor and due to them finding it appropriate in their youth to show up a bit, they maintained an alteration spell which transformed their manes into ethereal mist and colored their wingtips alike.

While the second spell was not necessary for Twilight so far, because she was still growing in her power. Cadance though had opted to color her wings instead of having billowy hair once she had shown the same kind of problems.

While both Celestia and Luna knew that Twilight never had seen them wearing the full spell even once, they both were impressed on the amount of detail which they could see on their dream counter parts.

Twilight though, despite being the dreamer herself, wasn’t looking any different, and if Celestia and Luna had to bet on it, they would both say that she even looked smaller, and duller than her normal fur color would be.

While both of the dream figures of Celestia and Luna looked at her, it seemed as if they were not paying her full attention and looked rather distracted by what they were apparently doing earlier.

An almost timid clearing of Twilight’s voice made them focus their attention on her though.

“Um, what I was going to ask was,” she said, one forehoof absently pawing the ground, “That I, um… well… I wanted to…” she stammered, her tone of voice only accentuating her nervousness.

“Well, um you see, um, I know that I am the youngest princess, and, well, yeah, I know that I can’t even hold a candle to you and your knowledge and power, and probably never will, but I, well, um, I… I wanted to ask if you, well, and I mean the two of you, um…”

“Twilight, dear, please, get to the point,” Celestia interrupted and asked, gently rolling her eyes upon her former students’ antics, “I am afraid if you don’t get to the point on why you disrupted our evening, we will find us here even tomorrow morning.”

Shaking her head and drawing back slightly under the inquisitive but bored expression of her former mentor and her sister, Twilight inhaled sharply and quickly wiped her forehead, trying to remove nonexistent sweat, “Well, I um, I wanted to ask you, um if you, well you know, maybe, would want to be my marefriends,” she finally asked, her eyes pressed shut.

As the question hung in the air, four ponies stared at her. Two of which had their mouths nearly falling through the floor and two which quickly glanced at each other before breaking out in roaring laughter.

Hearing Celestia and Luna beginning to laugh, Twilight laid back her ears on her head and drew back even more and while she frantically stared at Celestia and Luna in vain hope that she wasn’t the reason why they laughed, her eyes began to tear up, her hind hooves began to shake and her wings started to droop slightly to the floor.

Once catching herself and wiping a small tear from her eyes, Luna regarded the now all but cowering mare in front of her, “Thou wish to court us, Twilight Sparkle,” she said, visibly fighting against another set of laughter, “then thou should have stood up much earlier, maybe something around 2000 years earlier,” she said, finally giving up and falling back, laughing.

Even Celestia, who had daintily laughed behind one of her gold gladden hooves shook her head, “Oh Twilight, that was a good one, you nearly had me there for a second,” she said waving her hooves, “Can you believe it, Luna? Twilight Sparkle? The one who nearly brain washed a whole town is willing to date us?” she said, also falling back in laughter.

“But I… I thought I…” now almost laying on the floor, Twilight had to fight hard to not break out in tears right away and was doing a more than poor job at hiding it, “I thought now that I… I could… maybe…”

Waving her hoof and leaning forward, Celestia pointed at Twilight, the laughter still evident in her voice, “Well, … I make you a deal, if you get out of here and never come back with such audacity, then I may be persuaded to not throw you out of the kingdom,” she said, her shoulders already trembling with laughter again.

Her tears now only barely kept in, Twilight nodded and turned around, all but sprinting towards the exit, which seemed to not come closer even though being in full sprint.

The scenery around her grew out of focus and only the laughter of the princesses echoed around her, the image of them laughing at her playing around her head like an illusion which was following her as she ran.

Dropping a line of tears the entire way, Twilight only stopped once she ran into Cadance, who was holding and reading a scroll in her magic. As soon as she saw Twilight, she all but burst out in laughter herself as she regarded the now much smaller pony in front of her, “Oh Twilight, what has gotten into you to do something like that,” she said.

Turning around and running once more, she passed her friends, all with similar scrolls in their hooves, wings or magic, all beginning to tear up in laughter as soon as they saw the by now young pony sprinting past them.

Even her brother, who was only shaking his head seemed disappointed in her as he suddenly appeared next to her path.

All the ponies Twilight knew, all she trusted, all of them suddenly shunned her, the very idea of her having an affair with their other rulers so outright outrageous that they all had either began laughing or turned on her and started shouting.

While Twilight ran, her hoofsteps became smaller and smaller and everything else became bigger and bigger. She went past her teen years and was all but becoming a foal again, her wings lost somewhere in the process, her horn growing smaller by the second as she found herself surrounded by trees.

Both Celestia and Luna instantly identified the place as the Everfree Forest, but Twilight, who had by now all but become a filly, rushed through the thick undergrowth anyway.

Once the young pony had reached a small little cave under one of the bigger trees, she curled up under one of its roots and cried.

Seeing the form of her former student, even smaller than she had been when she had joined her tutorage, crying and curled up under the tree, Celestia, having completely forgotten that this was a dream, was about to rush and comfort the young mare but was stopped by her sister with one of her hooves.

While Luna too had tears in the corners of her eyes, she shook her head firmly, “Sister! We can’t! Not here, not now!” she said, her efforts at holding back her sister only minuscule.

Even though Luna wanted to help the sobbing filly in front of them, she knew that neither of them came here because of this, they were here for an even more pressing matter. Making a mental note to, hopefully, come back and alleviate Twilight from this nightmare, she had to harden her resolve as Celestia turned to her, her face showing that she was on the brink of tears herself.

“We laughed at her, Luna,” she said, her voice quivering and distant, “she… she had poured her heart out in front of us, and we… we…”

Settling down and wrapping a wing around her sister, Luna gently rocked Celestia back and forth, the normally composed mare who would not even flinch upon a blade held to her throat was now on the verge of a breakdown, the emotions of Twilight’s dream getting to her more than Luna could have imagined. “We have laughed, we know, we have seen it, sister. But this is just a dream, thou know we would… act differently,” she said.

“But how?”

Upon hearing the question, Luna was about to answer it simply with more soothing words, but upon her brain catching up to what Celestia had asked, she stopped and blinked.

Mentally revisiting what they had seen mere moments ago, she shook her head, “We don’t know, but… differently.”

“She, she loves us, Luna,” Celestia said, her hooves squeezing her and almost making her unable to breathe, “But she is… was… my student.”

“We know. But we have to get out of here, sister, our presence could make it only worse for her,” she said, looking once more at the sobbing filly who had somehow acquired two feathers, a white one and a blue one, and was clutching them towards her chest.

“But she-” Celestia tried to say but was interrupted by her sister.

“We will talk later, sister, but now we have to fulfill the duty wherefore we came here,” she said, squeezing her sister herself once more. “Does thou wish to wake up and we shall continue on our own?” she asked, concerned that dream walking was all too much for her sister. A small part of her though mentally pleaded that her sister would deny in hope to not have to do this all alone.

Even though Luna had much experience dealing with dreams, she was suddenly unsure if she would be able to handle what they would eventually encounter when they finally found Twilight for real.

After a moment of thought in which Celesta was about to say yes, she squeezed her sister once more and composed herself, “No! We started this together so we will see it to the end, together.”

Breathing out a breath she wasn’t aware she was holding, Luna smiled to her sister, “Thank you,” she said, before nuzzling herself into her sister’s chest once.

As neither of them moved apart and the moment went by, Celestia looked at the sobbing form of the filly Twilight once more. “Whatever happens now, sister, we definitely have to talk about this,” she nodded towards Twilight, “Later,” she said, her voice filled with a newfound determination.

“Yes, we will have to,” Luna said, “But before we can do this, we have to get out of here and find her, sister.”

“Then we will do so now,” Celestia said, gently pushing Luna away and standing up.

Turning around and forcing herself to not look back, Celestia walked towards the hole through which they had come in, Luna quietly following her.

Once the two had stepped out of the dream and back into the Library, Luna's horn lit up and she let the dream snap back into its original form where the door was barred shut. Checking that nothing had escaped with them, she made sure that Twilight would not have to worry about this dream for the next couple of days as she sealed it further with her magic.

Looking back to the doors through which they had gone before, Luna stopped for a second, “Maybe those other dreams are related towards this,” she thought before continuing towards the next door where her sister was already waiting.

Seeing her sister’s thoughtful gaze, Celestia brushed one of her wings gently up Luna’s side, “Come now, there are only two places left where she could be,” she said, hopeful.

“Yes, thou art right,” Luna said, nodding and turning away from the other doors towards the one they were now standing in front of.

Examining the door, it turned out that they could walk through this one like they had through the first two and so Luna gently pressed down the handle with one of her hooves and opened it all the way.

Behind the door’s threshold, they could see the inside of Celestia’s chambers once more. The scene which they had witnessed mere moments ago exactly replicated, with Celestia laying in front of the fireplace, Luna standing on the balcony and Twilight standing in the middle of the room, anxiously pawing at the ground.

“Um, what I was going to ask was, that I, um… well… I wanted to…” she said, her tone of voice again giving her true nervousness away, “Well, um you see, um, I know that I am the youngest princess, and, well, yeah, I know that I can’t even hold a candle to you and your knowledge and power, and probably never will, but I, well um, I… I wanted to ask if you, well, and I mean the two of you, um…”

“Twilight, dear, what are you talking about,” Celestia interrupted gently.

Standing up and walking towards the young mare in front of them, she quickly picked Twilight up with her wings and nuzzled her comfortingly. “You are a wonderful mare and princess,” she said soothingly. “Come now, what is it that has riled you up this time?” Celestia asked, her reaction this time completely different from the reaction they had witnessed moments ago.

Twilight, who all but pressed herself into the white mare holding her, carefully looked up, “I, um, I wanted to ask you, and, well I mean the two of you, if you would maybe want to be my m… marefriends,” she asked carefully.

Having witnessed Twilight’s nervousness, Luna had come and was now standing next to Celestia and Twilight. Upon hearing Twilight’s question, she glanced first at her sister and then at the pony pressing herself into her sister’s chest for dear life. “Well, that is a good question, and we understand thine hesitation to ask it,” she said, her voice gentle. “But we are probably the last pony thou would have to worry about, thou are our savior after all,” she said, a slight smile playing upon her lips, “and thou know how a princess’s heart always belongs to their savior,” she said, before gently slipping under Celestia’s wing and embracing the pony beneath it.

As Luna nuzzled into Twilight’s mane, a soft chuckle could be heard from Celestia, “Well, I can see where this comes from, I guess,” she said, gently squeezing her sister and Twilight to her chest once more. “And I have to admit, you apparently were quicker than I in this regard, but I am afraid I wanted to ask this question too for a couple of years now, but I couldn’t find my courage to do so,” she said, nuzzling gently over Twilights head. “But now, even though I wanted you all to myself, I think I have to live with the consequences,” she said, winking at her sister, “But I won’t let my little sister have all the fun on her own now, would I?”

Observing the display in front of them, both Celestia and Luna stared at the pile of cuddling ponies. Shaking her head and letting a gentle smile pass over her lips, Luna closed the door, “She is not in there too,” she said, turning to the last door which was placed conveniently at the end of the hallway.

Staring at the wooden door in front of her, Celestia almost missed that Luna had turned around and was walking to the last door. Once realization dawned though, she quickly jumped up and hurried after her sister.

Neither of them spoke a word and both sisters appeared to be deep in thought.

Reaching the last door, both sisters stopped in front of it.

“So, she has to be here?” Celestia asked, her worry’s upon seeing the faded color on the door only increasing.

While all the other doors had looked somewhat normal in comparison, this door, looked all but grey. Even the locks and barrages holding it shut seemed rusty and worn down, as if they would not do it for much longer.

“It has to be, otherwise we don’t know where she would be then. We can sense that her essence is somewhere close by, and we have checked the other places, so, she simply has to be here,” Luna answered.

“Well then, let’s go and help her.”

“Indeed,” Luna said. As she tried to open the door though, the lock held shut and she couldn’t move it an inch. “It appears that we have the same problem as before, sister,” Luna said, her horn already lighting up.

“So, can you get us through then?”

“We think so.”

As Luna laid more power into her spell, both sisters watched the dream warping around the door once more. The wood of the door which barred them from entering grew thinner and thinner and after a short moment, a small spec of light could be seen in the center of the door.

While the space through which they could look through grew in size, a wide and open room came into view.

As the hole in the door became big enough, Celestia and Luna stepped through, their resolve hardening as they recognized the place.

Canterlot Castle’s Courtroom.

The normally light and brightly colored room through which both Celestia and Luna ruled on a daily basis was now dark and dull. Even the many stained-glass windows which normally depicted the heroic acts of Twilight and her friends, or other historical events like the first raising and lowering of the sun and moon after Discord’s reign were dark and blank.

The red carpet which led from the doors all the way up to the thrones was deep red and gave off a dangerous air and the many torches that were placed all over the room seemed to not expend as much light as they normally should.

The room as a whole felt airy and cold instead of welcoming and warm like it was intended to be.

High up on the dais, which looked higher than normal, both Celestia and Luna found copies of themselves. Both had a grim and determined look on their faces and both looked at the great double doors in front of them with something akin to disdain.

But Twilight was nowhere to be seen and when Celestia wanted to ask Luna about it, the doors to the throne room suddenly swung open.

In the middle of the hallway stood a group of four guards, each of them holding a spear and one end of a chain. In between them, wrapped in chains, with a magical suppression ring placed on her horn and multiple ropes around her wings, keeping them shut, stood Twilight.

Her expression looked sad and the chains attached to her hooves made it hard for her to even walk alongside the guards.

While she was slowly brought closer to the princesses, Twilight’s mind ran in circles. She had just tried to defend her family, she had just tried to rescue her mother and her father and now, she found herself in court.

Once she had managed to free her parents, she lost her temper and… and she had lashed out, at everyone. As the shield around her had dropped, she hadn’t even noticed, and when she did, she turned around, and what she had seen was horrible.

The guards, no, all the ponies, all of them stared at her, all pointed their weapons at her, all suddenly saw her as the enemy. But to top it all off, in the midst of all these staring ponies, stood Celestia and Luna.

The expression on their faces wasn’t much different from anypony else, but Twilight could swear she saw something that seemed like fear inside their eyes.

They were afraid of her and due to the frowns they were wearing, they clearly were disappointed as well.

All these stares, and the knowledge of having disappointed the princesses, as well as being a socially awkward filly her whole life adding to this, it simply grew too much for her and she collapsed.

As she woke up again, she found herself in the dungeons, though her questions on why she’d be sent there remained unanswered.

Now, as she was led up to the princesses, it finally dawned on her.

She had wronged them.

She had given in into her impulses and all but ran headfirst into battle against these criminals. And how could she not?

But she was a Princess, or had been, and so she should have been better. But she wasn’t.

Now, she was brought to the Princesses, to face them once more, in order to receive their judgement, to receive her punishment.

“In the name of Equestria, we present Twilight Sparkle, former Princess of Friendship and Student of Princess Celestia of Equestria, today here in court, to answer for her crimes against Canterlot and its inhabitants!” the Guard on her right spoke loud and clear, the chain he had held now safely secured on the ground.

As all the others of her escort had finished securing their chains on the ground too, they all stepped away in unison, vanishing out of the room and closing the door behind them.

Now she was alone, well, as alone as she could be with the princesses and the guards posted around them.

Looking up from the ground in front of her hooves, she hoped against hope to see only a glimmer of pity, mercy or understanding on either of the princesses faces. But all she could find was their disappointment written on their faces once again. It was as if they were looking right through her, to her very being, her core, her soul. As if they could judge her by merely looking at who she truly was, only to discover that all the good they had once seen in her had vanished, that she was flawed, scared and broken.

Letting her head fall back to the floor, Twilight just wanted to disappear. She wished she had never woken up today.

“Twilight Sparkle!” Celestia’s voice suddenly hailed through the hall. “You are here today because you have committed heinous crimes against the equestrian nation. You have ended the lives of more than ten ponies today, and endangered half of Canterlot with your outburst.”

“Not only this, but thou have destroyed private property and placed the diarchy in a bad light in front of all our subjects,” Princess Lunas spoke. “Has thou anything to say to defend thyself?” she asked, all but daring Twilight to speak.

But all that Twilight could do was shake her head. Her emotions rendering her almost immovable.

“I had thought so, Twilight,” Celestia said, just from her voice Twilight could tell that she was shaking her head.

“We are more than disappointed in thine actions, Twilight, we had great hopes in the likes of thee, but now we are forced to react.” Luna finished.

A short break in pace let Twilight catch a glimpse of what was going on in front of her, and she saw Celestia and Luna raising to their full height.

After a brief second of nonverbal communication between the Princesses, Celestia cleared her voice. “Twilight Sparkle! For the crimes you have bestowed upon our Kingdom, and with the powers of our station, we sentence you to live out the rest of your life, in the dungeon.”

“The powers with which thee were gifted from thine ascension are not yours to keep for any longer, Ms. Sparkle, we will strip thee from thy royal titles and make sure thou are no longer a threat to Equestria and the ponies within!”

Celestia and Luna both lit their horns in unison, “Thou will live out the rest of thine days as an earthpony in the darkest cell Canterlot has to offer for thee,” they spoke in unison. “You will be nothing and we will make sure that not even thine name will be remembered in history for the weight of the crime thou have committed this day.”

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