Now that Twilight’s sentence had been spoken, both alicorns closed their eyes, their horns glowing brighter and brighter until, with another blinding flash of light, both of their horns dimmed as they gazed upon their work.

A rippling small purple blob, which waxed and waned repeatedly, hovered in front of them for a split-second before it shot towards Twilight.

Invading her body through her chest, Twilight immediately felt the invasive magic spread through her system, working itself into each and every cell of her body before a sudden stab of pain reared through her.

Starting at the edges of her wings, the spell slowly started to dissolve her appendages, which only now had begun to feel normal to her. And while there was surprisingly no pain involved, as Twilight would have expected, the sensation of loss still gnawed greatly at her.

Once the spell had nearly removed the entirety of each of her wings, in which they appeared to have fused back into her back and absorbed until they were gone completely, the magic changed. As it shifted, so did it change its primary target, and Twilight felt it as it suddenly began to work in somewhere very sensitive for her.

Being forced to watch as the magic of the spell spread out over her horn, as it tucked at her magic and started to drain it, Twilight’s tears started to run freely down her cheeks as she was not only drained of the magic she once had, but also from her pride and talent she had lived her whole life with.

As the magical suppression ring she wore fell uselessly to the ground, so did her gaze in silent acceptance.

Feeling devoid of her magic, suddenly cut off from all the subtle connections which had helped her over the years and which she had unconsciously accessed, her whole body felt cold and weak. The sensation was akin to the time she had spent without her magic when Tirek had stolen it, but now, there was no sensation of emptiness, as in there was something missing. No, now she simply felt weak, spent and exhausted. Would it not be for her chains, which had hugged her form and restrained her completely just moments ago, thudding limp to the ground and startling her out of her reverie, she would have almost missed her sudden loss of height as her body shrank down from her slightly larger posture to a weakened and muscle-less shadow of her former self.

Whimpering in silent sorrow and acceptance, Twilight didn’t even put up a fight as the guards who had brought her in before now grabbed her and subdued her quickly.

Powerless and unwilling to even fight, what was left of Twilight’s willpower directed her pleading gaze toward the princesses, as one last silent prayer for mercy, but with both alicorns sitting there and watching the scene unfold, their faces cold and stern, Twilight knew that she was a helpless cause.

As the guards forcefully shoved her towards the exit, Twilight closed her eyes, her silent whimpers suppressed as best as she could, and shuffled after them.

Once the giant throne room doors closed behind her, both Celestia and Luna, who had watched the dream up until this moment in shock, finally showed signs of life.

While Celestia only blinked and attempted to close her still open mouth, Luna on the other hoof was more verbal in her recuperation. Though, she was still as helpless as her sister as the only thing she could utter was an almost silent, “What?” which still echoed through the throne room as if somepony shouted at a funeral.

As to their repeated shock suddenly the throne room doors burst open anew as Twilight was brought in, restored, but in chains once more. Both sisters, in shock, were forced to watch as Twilight lived through the exact same dream as before again and again.

Once the throne room doors burst open a fifth time, Celestia, who was by now mentally revisiting each and every interaction she ever had with her former student and with which she was trying to determine when exactly Twilight might have started to believe she would ever do something like this, almost missed it as Luna’s horn suddenly started glowing and the dream uniformly slowed until it stopped.

Watching the frozen fright written in the eyes of her former student as she was brought to the dais once more finally managed to snap Celestia out of her stupor and caused her to turn her head towards her sister, her years of experience in dealing with emotions and when to show them completely disregarded as she stared at her sibling.

While both alicorns had seen much in their long lives, what they just saw went deeper than any nightmarish creature from the depth of Tartarus could ever hope to achieve.

As both alicorns stared at one another, neither of them had a word to say as they turned their heads back to the frozen scene.

Celestia, who never before had been so deep into a pony’s dreams and nightmares slowly reached out one of her hoofs and softly caressed one of Twilight’s cheeks, the scene still frozen in place and an almost silent, “Oh, Twilight,” echoed through the otherwise still room.

As a minute went by in which Celestia absently caressed Twilight, the elder alicorn closed her eyes, inhaled deeply and turned her head to her sibling. Her eyes faintly moist and her expression one of helplessness, her voice was almost too quiet for Luna to hear, “C-can you help her?”

Luna, whose horn was still aglow and who still stared at the scene blinked as she heard her sister’s voice through her own racing thoughts. Recoiling and shaking her head, Luna tried to look upwards to calm herself, only to notice that what she could see where not stars, but the cold marble ceiling of the throne room. Silently cursing and instead following her sisters’ example, she inhaled once before she turned her head to look at her sister once more, the question Celestia had asked only now starting to properly run through her head.

Her eyes turning to the ground in thought, Luna’s gaze absently wavered for a moment before she turned her head to the scene and closed her eyes, her concentration focused on her horn and her magic flaring brighter once more.

While Luna was casting, the dream slightly warped and bent but the scenery wasn’t changing.

Having created dream magic by herself, Luna had always been able to change any dream if she so desired, but because dreams sprung forth out of a pony’s mind, the factors of disbelief, willpower and magical strength could influence her abilities to tamper with them.

Panting and canceling her spell, Luna regarded the unchanged scenery once more before she exhaled in disappointment. “It appears we cannot, sister,” she said, Celestia’s falling expression disheartening her, “Her dream runs too deep through her for us to safely change it, if we forced it, we would risk hurting her… or worse,” she explained.

“B-but… there has to be something we… you… can do,” Celestia pleaded.

Inhaling, Luna glanced away in thought and without her turning her head or focusing at anything in particular she stared into the distance as if she would find all the answers they were looking for there. “Sometimes, when we ought to help a dreamer, we free them from their dream and make them aware of it. When we do that, we then can interact with them as if they were awake and show them that there is nothing to fear,” Luna explained, her expression falling. “But we are afraid that we cannot even use this method right now in order to help her, even without the potential problems we would cause when she found out that way that we broke into her dreams,” she said, turning to her sister, “Twilight seems to believe what happens here is just.”

“But it isn’t! We would never do something like this,” Celestia said, stomping one hoof onto the ground and gesturing to the dream clones of her and her sister.

“True, but it seems she thinks what she did today was not heroic, but criminal.”

“But she saved her family and managed to bring the responsible ponies to justice!”

“But she did so by force, dear sister, which goes against your teachings, does it not?” Luna asked. Her hoof motioned to Twilight, “She sees what she has done as unjust and cruel. If what we’ve heard from those imposters of us holds any truth,” Luna's voice dipped into a venomous contempt for their counterparts, “She appears to believe she may even have gone further than subduing them. It seems she outright fears to have killed them, sister, she seems to expect us to now be forced to punish her for that.”

“But she didn’t”, Celestia said, one hoof stomping onto the floor once more, “She did nothing of the sort! And even if she had done something like that, what I think the both of us would have resorted to in her place, even then, it would have been justified! They forced her hoof! I half expected her to do something like that, Luna, I expected her to lash out and potentially kill one of them.”

“Sister!” Celestia exclaimed, pointing at herself as if there was no way of truly explaining her thoughts.

“But she didn’t!” Celestia finally exclaimed, her chest heaving, and her eyes slowly watering more and more, “She not only saved the lives of her parents and those of Canterlot’s citizens, she also managed to save those of her oppressors as well, sister. No matter how detestable I consider those who wronged her, she nevertheless subdued them. She let them live, she let them face justice through court!” Celestia’s voice cracked, “Today, she has been a better pony than any of us could have ever hoped of being,” she said, turning her watering gaze away from Luna. “She deserves more than this for that,” she said, pointing at the scenery in front of her, “She has been a good pony, Luna. She is a hero. So… I… I can’t stand to see her like... like this!” Celestia almost shouted, her hoof crashing onto the marble floor once more, “She should be happy and merry, not afraid and sad. I can’t… I won’t…”

Turning to Luna once more, Celestia’s pleading eyes almost bored into her head, “C-can’t you… we… you… help her?”

Drawing her sister into a tight hug, Luna wrapped her wings around her bigger sister as far as she was able to, "That's what we are here to figure out, sister. It's no surprise to us that her dream is of the particularly harsh variety," she explained, drawing herself even closer to her sister, "But with all of our past experiences we've never seen somepony so imprisoned by such fear," she finished. One hoof carefully caressed her sister’s back as she let Celestia quietly sob into her mane, “But we are not here to give up now, we will not let this stand, sister,” Luna said, her voice growing thoughtful, “Though we fear thou will have to give us a moment to think of a way on how exactly we ought to approach this.”

Celestia, in one of the few circumstances where she was freely able to express herself, unabashedly sobbed into her sister's mane.

Luna, meanwhile, took the moment to think up a solution.

Having to hide her emotions throughout her entire life had made Celestia quite good at suppressing them as well, but seeing her former students’ feelings, fears and now nightmares brought to life in front of her was simply too much for her. Luna, who only kept her cool because she was used to such dreams, therefore was the perfect pony for her to finally let her guard down and succumb to her earthly feelings.

Pressing herself against her sister’s chest, the stored-up worries gathered from their trip finally broke loose as droplets of water ran down her cheeks. Her death grip which would have crippled a lesser pony only made Luna cringe a bit, and her mane, which normally gently flew in an ethereal wind now hung almost limp from her head.

Luna, who felt more and more like a giant teddy bear to her sister gently patted the larger pony on the back, the feelings and emotions she knew her sister was experiencing were all too familiar to her, so she too felt her own composure wavering.

While her head raced through the many possibilities on how they could approach this task, her grip on the dream slowly started to waver as the scene gradually started playing again, its tempo greatly reduced, and the sounds muffled.

Realizing her error and focusing her magic back onto the dream to halt it, Luna’s eyes fell on those of Twilight.

Twilight, who by now had passed the threshold of the throne room was glancing up, her expression to Luna’s surprise one of hope instead of sorrow as she seemed to look to her princesses for help.

Gasping and squeezing her sister with a sudden idea, Luna gently tried to peal her clingy sister away from her, “Sister, sister we think we have it.” Trying her best but ultimately failing to even move Celestia an inch away from her, the mental image of being stuck with her sister forever attached to her side quickly flashed through her mind as she regarded the still sobbing lump curled up and pressed as best as she could against her chest. Luna, though, had to admit, that for being the bigger pony, Celestia could make herself quite small if she wanted.

Her expression turning into a quiet smile, Luna kept away her enthusiasm this time as she attempted to communicate with Celestia once more, “Hey, we think we may be able to help her, sister” she gently said, carefully tilting Celestia’s muzzle up to look at her.

“B-but she fears us,” Celestia sobbed, her head quickly pressed against her sister’s chest once more.

Blinking and shaking her head, Luna attempted to communicate with her sister again, “No she does not, we are certain Twilight could never truly fear thee,” she said, carefully petting her sister on the head.

“Why is she then…”

Before Celestia could finish her sentence, Luna gently silenced her and looked her into the eyes, “We have said it before we entered the dream and we will repeat it once more, sister, thou canst not make her accountable for what we may find here. We are in her head after all, and it is not our place to understand it. Nothing we may have seen or heard can be taken at face value. We may just be the cause for her to see us on these thrones and judging her because we entered the dream and therefore slightly disturbed it. It may also be the case that this is just a fleeting thought for her, we will never know, nor will she ever know if asked directly. The reasons of the mind are more complex than any of us could ever imagine,” Luna explained, Celestia attentively listening. “But we came here with a goal, sister, we came here to ease her mind and we are still intending on doing so,” Luna said, her expression hardening. “So, art thou able to pull thyself together and help us, or art thou willing to wake up and leave us to our work, because we think we may have a solution.”

Looking ashamed away from her sister, Celestia nodded meekly. Wiping away the rest of her tears with one of her forehooves, she drew herself up and motioned through the calming methods she had used throughout many years now.

Finishing and turning to her sister, Celestia nodded with newfound confidence, “Okay, what do I have to do?”

Smiling at her sister and nodding in satisfaction, Luna turned back to the slightly altered scene, “Thou can see her glancing at us there, correct?” she asked, waiting for her sister to nod in confirmation before she continued. “Then thou can also see that she is still filled with a bit of hope here. We have to amplify that, sister.”

“But how? Next I remember is that she is brought before us and judged for, her crimes,” she said, her disdain for the situation palpable.

“Indeed, but right now, we think she still has a semblance of hope that everything might turn out well,” Luna said, a wicked smile playing on her lips, “So, we just have to make it so.”

Celestia, whose trademark raised eyebrow made it apparent for her sister that she wasn’t up for wordplay right now cocked her head slightly, “And how exactly are we going to do this?” she asked.

“Easy,” Luna smiled, “We just replace these here,” she pointed at their dream counterparts, “With these here,” she pointed at her sister and herself. “Then we can easily influence the dream without magic at all,” she said, her enthusiasm returning in full force.

“But I thought you said you were unable to change the dream, Luna?” Celestia asked, tilting her head even further.

Nodding and looking smug, Luna continued, “We did say that we can’t change it, we never said we can’t replace minor details, like, the pony sitting on the throne for a while,” she said, shooting a magical beam at her dream counterpart and destroying it in a glass shattering explosion. “If we let the dream continue now, she would just return because Twilight’s mind would smooth out the hiccup easily, but once we reveal ourselves,” Luna explained and started to walk towards the thrones, all the while sending a magical wave over her body to enter the dream properly, “And replace them with us, the real us, her mind should not find anything odd at it and therefore not conjure up another replica.”

As Luna sat herself onto the now empty spot, she turned to her sister, who still stood down the dais, “Once we let the dream continue then, we will be able to communicate with her and interact with what the dream conjures, within reason of course. While we cannot change the scenery, we can change what happens this way and guide the dream onto a better path.”

Understanding her sister’s intent, Celestia slowly climbed up the dais and stopped in front of her dream counterpart, as she attempted to destroy the figment like Luna did simply with her magic, she found nothing to focus on and quickly glanced to her sister who only chuckled and lit her horn.

Forming a spell and aiming it at her sister, Luna smiled as a magical wave pulsed all over Celestia’s coat, “Thou have now entered the dream properly and not just as a visitor, sister, please would thou do us the honor and remove this fraud from our thrones,” she motioned.

Celestia, who jumped slightly as she suddenly felt solid ground under her hooves carefully prodded around for a moment. Once the initial shock was over, she looked up and at her sister again while Luna smiled at her and motioned with her eyes towards her dream counterpart.

Lighting her horn and aiming a small ball of fire at her impersonator, Celestia suddenly had a better idea on how to handle this and let her spell die down.

Drawing back her hoof, Celestia utilized her anger at the figment and smashed her hoof through its head in a satisfying cracking sound similar to breaking glass. Watching the dream figment breaking up and dispersing into tiny magical fragments before those simply vanished into the dream's background, Celestia smiled as she turned around and satisfyingly plopped onto the throne next to her sister.

“Uhh, I think I needed that more than I should have,” she said, a large smile on her lips and gently shaking her hoof to clean it of the figment’s remains.

Chuckling and nodding, Luna smiled at her sister, “Remind me of it and we shall create thee a dream in which thou can smash as many things as thou might like.”

“That would be great Luna, especially after a stressful day with the Canterlot nobility,” she said, rolling her eyes even when she only started to think of some of those ponies.

Chuckling and nodding Luna turned to face the room, ready to kick the dream back into motion. Before she could lift her spell which held the dream in place though, Celestia quickly stopped her sister, “Luna, wait! We haven’t discussed on how we proceed from here,” she said, a little bit of panic rising in her voice.

Raising an eyebrow and regarding her sister for a moment, Luna had a mischievous smile playing over her lips, “Oh, we think thou can think of something, sister dearest. And we can assure thee we will not stand in thy way,” she said, her mischievous smile turning predatory. “Just remember, it must not be an act what thou ought to do, thou can let loose as much as thine heart desires, after all, we are in a dream, or are we not.”

“Well, yes but…”

“Then we will be fine,” Luna said, her smile still on her lips and her horns magic quickly sizzling and dimming away.

Celestia, whose usual modus operandi was to think first, then plan and at last take action was suddenly confronted with her sister’s carefree and headfirst attitude once more.

As the dream around them started moving again, Celestia inwardly cursed her sister and her enthusiasm. Had it have been any pony other than her, she was sure she would have scolded them right away. But it being her sister, she knew that Luna would have not thrust something onto her if she had even the faintest doubt that she couldn’t handle it.

And so, after a quick mental exercise as well as a deep breath, she quickly straightened out and looked ahead as if nothing was wrong.

Her many, many years of daily held court sessions and other royal duties had given her more than enough experience for such things to come naturally and for it to be so subtle that only a scarce few ponies could read her, but her loss in what to do still clung heavily on her mind as she looked out of the corner of her eyes at her still smirking sister.

Before she could do any more though, Luna’s face straightened out and Celestia was reminded by a clattering of chains that her time had come to act.

Turning her attention away from her traitorous sister and towards the matter at hoof, Celestia watched as five ponies entered into the throne room.

The mood which Luna's lightheartedness provided soured as Twilight was brought forth in a manner she had no right to deserve. Celestia's determination wilted at the sight of her student bound in chain. It was bad enough seeing it, but knowing they were caused by nothing other than Twilight's own mind left little more than a desire to never see this again and a hope that Twilight would as well.

While Celestia almost never displayed anything less than her motherly calm in public, there had been a few times when she truly lost it.

One such event occurred several years ago, as the Canterlot nobility almost entirely complained against her taking Twilight under her wing and not one of their more noble, blue-blooded or higher standing foals.

Once she had restored order and showed them their place, she had then seen to it that Twilight would never find out what had happened that day.

But now, even though Celestia knew this to be a dream, her eternal calm suddenly come to an end as she glared at the offending ponies in front of her.

“What is the meaning of this?” she growled, her voice echoing through the throne room and even creeping herself out as she heard it rebound from one of the walls.

Glancing at each other, the nameless guards apparently held a silent conversation before they looked at Celestia once more. One of them clearing his voice, the guardsman straightened up to speak but was interrupted by Celestia.

“Why is there a Princess of Equestria clad in chains?” she asked, standing up and flaring her wings, “Why is the hero of our very nation brought to us in court, chained up like a criminal, and not resting in her private chambers and treated like her station deserves?” she said, her tone growing angrier by the second as she glared at the guardsman.

Smiling wryly, Luna stood up next to her sister and lit her horn.

With a bright flash of blue light, all of what the guards were holding in their hooves was the end of a chain with nothing attached to it, and to their sudden confusion, said ends quickly wrapped themselves around their own hooves.

Twilight, who was still shocked from the sudden turn of events was even more startled as she was suddenly, gently lifted away by a golden aura surrounding her and neatly placed in a space before the princesses.

Shaking her head, the still confused, but now free mare quickly rushed forward and pressed herself against her former mentor’s chest in a desperate attempt to get as far away as possible from her captors. All while tearing up and shuddering like a leaf, Twilight felt a wave of relief washing over her as she felt Celestia’s wings closing behind her and enveloping her into a protective, warm and first and foremost sight obscuring cocoon of feathers allowing her an escape from the world.

Looking down at the still shuddering and sobbing mare within her wings, Celestia nodded in silent approval before turning back to the ponies in front of them.

Regarding them for scarcely a moment, Celestia’s gaze turned to Luna, who nodded grimly and stepped forth, her well known royal Canterlot voice ready.

“GUARDS”, Luna boomed, calling for her very own guard detail, her night guard, to reveal themselves. “Seize these traitors!”

Just as her real guards would often tend to do, six bat-winged thestrals suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and would it have been in reality, Luna knew they would have come out of their hiding spots in the shadows, but it being a dream, with a simple flick of her horn said guards appeared and followed their mistress’s command.

Letting Luna handle the situation further, Celestia turned her attention toward the still shaken pony in her grasp. While she would have normally teleported away with her and into the safety of her own chambers, Celestia assumed that if she would want to teleport the two of them anywhere, Twilight’s mind would have no time to dream this place up before they would land there. While dreamers themselves could usually teleport anywhere without problem, as they would already have the destination in mind, letting Twilight cast a teleport spell right now was out of question as Celestia figured it would even potentially disturb the coherence of the dream and risk her catching on that she was not alone in her dream and was in fact interacting with the real Celestia and Luna.

So, bound to the limitations of being unable to teleport, she gently tried to lift Twilight on to her back, the young alicorn almost desperately trying to stay attached to her flailed helplessly as she was lifted into the air for even the briefest of moments. “Shhh, Twilight, everything will be all right,” Celestia said, in an attempt to calm the still frightened pony.

Desperately clinging to her mentor, Twilight’s sobs were briefly interrupted in her attempt to speak, “I-I k-killed them… I-I‘m a c-criminal… W-why are y-you helping me?” she asked, her voice barely clear enough to discern.

Nuzzling the young mare on her back as she walked out of the throne room, Celestia shook her head, “You have done no such thing, Twilight,” she explained, her tone soft and loving as she carried her away from whatever her sister was doing to those dream figments.

“B-but I-I lost control and I-I…”

“You rescued your family, Twilight, you brought the culprits to justice and you possibly saved half of Canterlot by doing so,” Celestia said, walking along a corridor which looked strangely familiar as she approached her chambers.

“I-I hurt ponies, a-and y-you should be furious with me,” Twilight said, her sobs slowly dying down but her fear still evident in her voice.

“Yes, you have, Twilight, but you were forced to do so, no one will ever hold that against you, not Luna, and neither will I,” Celestia explained, having reached her chambers and opening the door.

Stepping into her room, Celestia immediately noticed that what she just entered wasn’t her room, not like it was in reality. The chambers which she beheld now was the chamber she and her sister had visited in the last two dreams. A shared room with her sister, but still individual in its own right. While opulent enough, the room seemed almost humble but dignified. For the briefest of moments Celestia wondered if she had stepped out of the dream and into another of Twilight’s mind, but disregarding the thought as implausible, due to her dream counterparts and those of Twilight missing, Celestia turned her head and quickly glanced at the pony on her back, confirming that she found nothing odd about this. Having assured herself that Twilight hadn’t caught onto the fact that she had just been carried away by the real Celestia, and therefore found out about them breaching into her mind, Celestia cautiously stepped closer to a large bed that had her colors and cutie mark on its blanket. Making sure that Twilight would not catch onto her slight hesitation, Celestia lit her horn and carefully lifted Twilight off of her back and gently placed the clingy alicorn onto the sheets.

Climbing onto the soft mattress herself, Celestia sat down next to Twilight who was examining the cuffs still clad around her hooves.

Letting her eyes sweep over the room once more, Celestia shook her head and turned her attention towards Twilight. “Mind telling me how you managed to end up in chains like that anyway?” she asked, letting her magic flow over one of the cuffs and snapping it in half.

Looking at her now free hoof, Twilight hastily tucked it under her as she looked up and at her former mentor, “I-I don’t know… when I woke up, I-I was in the dungeons,” she said, a slight shiver running over her body.

Normally, such a minor detail was easily overseen, but Celestia noticed and carefully placed one of her wings protectively around the young pony, effectively calming her agitations.

“I can’t really remember anything well, b-but what I know is that there was a guard, he told me that you and Luna were… you were mad at me and that I… that I have…”

Nuzzling Twilight once more, Celestia tightened the wing around her and removed another of her bonds with her magic, “Everything is fine, Twilight, just calm down,” she said, as she tossed the remains of the cuffs behind her.

Before they could even reach the ground, Twilight had apparently already forgotten them as they simply dispersed into nothing as Celestia watched them fly. Smiling a bit and going for the next cuff remaining on Twilight’s hoof, Celestia felt her charge crawling closer to her and pressing herself against her chest once more.

“… I thought I would have disappointed you,” Twilight finally said, “That you would hate me. I thought I… I would lose you, that you would have to banish me for what I did, or worse…”

Successfully removing the last two of Twilight’s cuffs, Celestia tossed them away once more and wrapped one of her hooves around the small pony, “I will do no such thing, Twilight, as I said before they had forced your hoof, and while I would have had no mind for tolerance of those criminals, you managed to not only save the lives of your parents but also brought those responsible into the dungeons, where they will be ready for trial and judgment in court, alive,” Celestia said.

“I could not be prouder of you even if I wanted,” she continued but paused for a brief moment as she saw a blue flash of light on the balcony.

As Luna opened the glass door leading from the balcony inside, carefully and without making any sound, Celestia tossed her a questioning glance at why it had taken her so long to come here. As Luna daintily rolled her eyes and ignored her sister’s unspoken inquiry, Celestia raised an eyebrow.

While Celestia had directly tended to Twilight, Luna, after she had left the now vacant throne room which grew more destabilized by the second, had instead of immediately returning to her sister, tried to check up on something.

More specifically, she had tried to find out what was wrong with Twilight’s magic.

Normally when she visited a pony’s dream, the place, the figments, everything, even the air around them would be saturated with the dreamer’s innate magic. But when she’d entered Twilight’s dream for the first time in almost five years now, she immediately noticed that something was off from what she knew had been fine in the past.

She had expected to almost feel dizzy when she entered the dream, she had expected to feel an immense saturation of very potent power.

But what she had found instead greatly disturbed her.

Where normally a decent amount of magical energy shifted through the dream of a dreamer, earthpony, pegasi and unicorn alike. Here, inside Twilight’s dream, inside the dream of the element of magic, the most powerful unicorn in her era and since her ascension a growing alicorn, here, where Luna had expected vast amounts of magic to be at work like those of Celestia and Cadance, the place felt almost devoid of it.

Everything around them had the hint of belonging to Twilight, yes, but where normally even a weak earthpony had a clear and strong magical field, the magic Luna now felt was almost nonexistent.

Thinking back to the diagnosis from doctor Heart Petal, Luna wondered if Twilight’s magical strength had just been drained, and so she had attempted to find Twilight’s source of magic to check if everything was ok, but being limited by time, Luna was unable to pinpoint exactly where that would be and instead had to return to her sister to potentially discuss the matter further.

Upon Luna entering the room in which she had sensed Twilight and her sister’s presence, Luna had to admit that Twilight looked worse than she had imagined. Slightly cringing at the thought that her absence could have only made it harder for her sister, Luna smiled apologetically at Celestia before quietly stepping to the two of them.

Shaking her head and not letting her sister’s late arrival disturb her any more than it already had, Celestia turned her attention back to Twilight to resume where she had left off, “And I am sure that I can speak for my sister too, that disappointment is the last thing the two of us would ever feel of you,” she said, quickly nuzzling her once more.

“To the contrary,” Luna said, her voice making Twilight jump slightly as she still had her back turned to the balcony and hadn’t notice Luna as she arrived, “The opposite would be the case young Twilight, thine actions have greatly impressed us this day,” Luna said as she stepped to the bed and kneeled down. “Thou hast displayed great magical feats of the sort even we were unable to perform,” she said, quickly nuzzling the young pony over the head.

“But why would the guards do something like that to me then,” Twilight asked, her voice still cracked but growing more and more stable.

Surprised by the question, Celestia glanced at Luna and gently shook her head to tell her that she had no idea how to answer the question while trying to hide it from Twilight.

Luna, who had been as surprised as her sister by the question caught Celestia’s silent plea for help and while she herself had no idea how to answer, she forced her derailing expression quickly into a soft smile and looked at Twilight.

Thinking for a moment in which she watched Twilight peal her face away from her sister’s chest to properly look at them, Luna hoped that Twilight’s awareness of the situation was still somewhat tainted by the dream to accept almost anything that she could tell her now.

Due to the lack of ideas she had, Luna quickly blurted the first thing she could think of, “Because it turned out that they were rogue changelings who were trying to defeat us with our own bureaucracy,” she answered, her breath held in fear that Twilight would question the answer.

But to both sister’s relief, Twilight’s head nodded in satisfaction and plopped down to the bed, her eyes closed and her shoulders sagging in relief.

Both sisters exhaled as they watched Twilight relax and accept what Luna had just told her, but Celestia, whose awareness obviously wasn’t tainted by the dream raised a questioning eyebrow at Luna and her answer. As Luna mouthed the word ‘dream’, she nodded in acceptance and made a mental note to later tease her about that.

Wanting to leave this dream as soon as possible so they wouldn’t have to answer any more of such questions, Luna motioned to the clock of the room to tell Celestia it was time to go.

Celestia though, shook her head and motioned to Twilight’s horn, on which the magical suppression ring from before was still fixed.

Turning her head down and nuzzling Twilights cheek once more, Celestia lit her horn and wrapped her magic around the ring, “You should rest now, Twilight, I imagine that this all had been very taxing of you,” she said, her tone gentle.

Nodding absently and relaxing into the bedding under her, Twilight hummed. “C-can you stay here, please?” she asked tired and halfway gone to sleep.

“Of course, we can, but please try to rest now,” Celestia answered, removing the ring from Twilight’s horn.

Once the ring was removed completely, Luna’s eyes widened in surprise as the dream changed.

Or more specifically, the magic of the dream started to change.

The emptiness that Luna had felt since they arrived suddenly filled itself and what she had felt weak and absent in the dream before, suddenly grew stronger and stronger. Starting from the bed, then the floor, the walls and even the air and the sky, everything suddenly started to glow with lavender energy of the sort Luna had never seen before.

Straining to move, Luna looked at the source of the magic, and oddly enough, she saw that Twilight herself seemed to emit wave upon wave of magic.

While Luna watched the magic seep into the dream, permeating everything and coating it with the familiar magical signature of her friend she suddenly had to strain herself to stay fixed to the dream and felt the magic starting to push them out.

While Luna knew that this was not necessarily Twilight’s own doing, but her magic trying to spread out, she had to quickly think and light her horn to conjure up two dream figments of herself and her sister in the hope that they would be able to stay before everything went black.

Opening her eyes and gasping for air, Luna suddenly found herself back in Celestia’s chambers, inside her body and no longer in Twilight’s dream.

Quickly wondering how she got here, one of her first thoughts was if her sister was okay.

Lifting her head and looking around, Luna noticed that she had apparently rolled off of the cushion on which she had laid herself, but dismissing the thought, her still blurry eyes scanned the room for her sister.

Celestia, too, had apparently moved from the place she had fallen asleep, but before Luna could dwell more on that thought, her sister started to move. Hearing a tired grown coming from Celestia, who had flopped to the side of where she laid and seemingly suffered from the same disorientation she felt, Luna exhaled in relief that she hadn’t lost her sister somewhere in the dream.

Relaxing further and thanking fate for not having to search Celestia in the dreamscape, Luna was about to lay her head back down to wake up properly and think over what happened when a painful groan, coming from her sister’s bed, quickly outranked everything else in her mental priority list.

Her eyes shooting open, Luna jumped up and ran to the bed, watching Twilight twisting and turning, her eyes closed and sweat starting to run down her coat.

Celestia, who had jumped up after her sister had rushed away, immediately changed her course from following her sister to the bed and instead ran to the doors of her chambers, “GUARDS!” she screamed, bursting through the doors and startling the half-asleep guards on the other side, “Wake Doctor Heart Petal immediately!”

~ later that night ~

Lowering her stethoscope and sighing in relief, Heart Petal turned away from the now sleeping form of Twilight, “She will be okay, it seems.”

Both Celestia and Luna sighed in relief.

“I don’t know what the two of you did, but,” she touched her horn to Twilight’s once more, “It seems to have helped with her condition.”

After two very startled guards had burst into her office chambers and had woken Heart Petal who had fallen asleep in front of many books splayed out on her desk, the young practitioner had been escorted to the royal chambers once more where she had found Princess Twilight half delirious and holding her head in what looked like pain.

Throughout the examination in which she had tried to find out what now ailed Twilight, the young princess had fallen asleep multiple times up to the point in which Princess Luna decided to cast a spell on her that would keep her asleep while the examination continued.

Nodding with satisfaction and turning away from her patient, Heart Petal turned to the two Princesses who anxiously awaited her judgment. “Well, it seems that aside from her having a serious headache and having to recover from multiple forms of sleep deprivation, I can’t say that anything more is wrong with Princess Twilight.” She glanced back at the now calmly sleeping pony, “I would suggest that she continues to catch up on the sleep she needs and to keep it low for the next couple of days. Also, I would ask that she come see me once she is fully awakened,” she finished, levitating her stethoscope back into her bag.

“Is there anything we can do for her in the meantime?” Celestia asked, her relief palpable in her voice.

“Well… from what I can tell, no, not right now, but I would ask of you to keep her away from stress.”

Nodding and looking at Twilight once more, Celestia turned around and started to walk to the windows of her chambers.

Looking after her sister for a moment, Luna turned her head to Heart Petal, “We thank thee for thine assistance this night,” she said, her expression turning into a sheepish smile, “And we hope to excuse our guards for waking thee so abruptly.”

Waving her hoof and closing her bag, Heart Petal turned her head and looked at Luna, “You don’t have to worry about that, Your Highness, after all, it is part of my job,” she said, a bright smile spreading over her lips. “Besides if you see it my way, I am the privileged one here. I am allowed to tend to the royal family to which I swore an oath to care for to the best of my abilities.”

Raising an eyebrow, Luna turned her head, “Thou love thine job very much, does thou not?” Luna asked.

“Of course, Princess,” Heart Petal said, bowing to Luna. “But as much as I love my job, I fear I have to excuse myself, otherwise I fear that I will imitate Princess Twilight and fall asleep on the spot.”

Nodding and following her to Celestia’s chamber doors, Luna gave the young pony a slight smile, “Please, do so, we know that thou have been up since yesterday morning, considering that it is almost time to raise the sun now.”

“Thank you, Your Highness, and have a good night,” Heart Petal said, before turning to the door and stepping out.

“Yes, and we shall make sure thou will have a pleasant night too,” Luna said, waving after her and closing the door.

Turning around and walking back to the bed once more, Luna gently laid a hoof on Twilight’s cheek as she watched her sleep. Looking up and to the windows, Luna’s eyes went wide as she regarded an otherwise empty room, “Where did sister go?”

part 2 of 3 of the journey through the mind of our awkward book wormy little mare ^^