4

Twilight hadn’t been happy, leaving Ponyville behind in the morning light. The presence of newly stationed Royal Guard in the town had eased her mind as to its safety, and she knew Spike would be safer in the library… But she didn’t like it. Watching the hamlet grow ever smaller behind her, she couldn’t help but run over the events of the morning in her mind as Rarity and Fluttershy spoke quietly beside her.

The guards had come with two gold encrusted royal chariots, ready to fly the Elements to Canterlot swiftly. From these had come the seven royal guards who’d made short work of inspecting the town and beginning defensive preparations. A slightly bruised Applejack and an exhausted Rainbow had watched from the balcony as Twilight spoke to the captain of the Guard detachment assigned to defend Ponyville from the Nightmares. The captain, a white-colored Unicorn with a flaming red mane, had tried to be as plain and helpful as he could be, but in the end he had known very little about the overall situation in Canterlot, or Equestria at large. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but they had me in the lower markets all night long. I haven’t seen High Town or the Middle rings since before those things opened up. All I know is that the things are everywhere. Princess Luna’s master of arms, Night Rose, sent a full company of the Lunar guard to Manehattan: two flights of pegasi, thirty earth ponies, and five unicorn mages for support.”

Being a member of the Solar Guard, he’d known nothing about the inner workings or goings on with the Princess of the Moon’s soldiers beyond that. Twilight was frustrated, but in the end not surprised. It wasn’t as if she would’ve been very helpful in his place. In all the excitement of the night, she had lost bits and pieces of what had happened, and had little clue about some of it even now. It was all one huge dark blur of noise and magic now. She clearly remembered Rarity’s encounter with the dragon-Nightmare, and somepony screaming and a window breaking. She remembered that she had destroyed some of the creatures, but couldn’t remember actually having done so very clearly.

“…yes, dearest, but I don’t wish to talk about it. It was ghastly.”

As often happened, Twilight found her train of thought interrupted by somepony’s voice. She blinked, shook her head slightly, and looked down at the summery expanse of Equestria below. The chariots were flying far lower to the ground than was normal, hoping to avoid any of the Void-traps in the air, so she couldn’t see quite as far as she usually did, but the view was decent enough for her.

The Void hadn’t gone with the morning. The dark tendrils were present in all directions, though not as concentrated as they were in Ponyville. They crisscrossed the road occasionally, swallowing up land and tree in their progress. It hurt Twilight’s heart to see it.

It seemed to hurt Fluttershy’s as well, from what she said in the now still quiet. “Twilight, do you think the Princess will be able to fix this, really?” her voice was soft as always.

“I do,” the unicorn said back with much more conviction then she felt. “I don’t know how, but she will.”

Rarity, at this point, seemed to remember something and spoke up. “Twilight, last night, when those things… Well, you spoke as if you knew something about them. What exactly are they?”

Twilight paused, trying to remember the night she had read of them the best she could. It had been so long ago that it seemed a lifetime in the past. “It was when I was just a filly, a year or two after I had begun studying under the tutelage of Princess Celestia. I’d found a large volume of stories and such from all over the place, and from many different eras of Equestrian history. My assignment was simple, and I’m sure the princess had hoped it would be something much less stressful. You may not believe it, but I was… enthusiastic past my abilities back then.” She chuckled sheepishly before continuing on with her story.

“Well, I couldn’t decide. There were so many stories to choose from and write about! I just couldn’t narrow it down to one story that the Princess would like a report on the most. I did eventually find one that I could write about, but despite myself, I kept reading. I had become enthralled. I found the tale a few pages after the one I decided to write my report on. Everything but finding it is hard to remember, but that I remember clearly…”

The little filly was exhausted, but she simply had to continue. As much as any book of magic or history, Story pulled at her soul too strongly and sang in her blood too loudly for her to ignore it. As she grew up, she’d spend many nights like this, finishing a beautiful book despite exhaustion with tears in her eyes or a weary smile as she surrendered at last to sleep. Tonight would be different from all those nights.

The next page called her eyes to it, and she began reading. “Nightmares,” she whispered to herself, reading aloud for a moment. She inhaled the words on the page, reading the strange tale. Unlike the others, told like fairy tales or like drier biographical sketches of brave or clever ponies, this entry was a small story. It was about a filly named Gold Star who hadn’t gotten her cutie mark yet. The little filly, embarrassed at being the only Unicorn she knew in the castled city of Canterlot to be without one, had a nightmare where other fillies and colts laughed at her wherever she went.

The next day, nervous noble ponies informed the King of Unicornia that mocking laughter had been heard in the streets the night before. That night, the filly dreamed that she had finally gotten her cutie mark, only for it to be taken away from her by an older colt who said it was stupid and who laughed at her. Outside of her house, conjured from her fitful magic, a young ghostly unicorn stallion appeared, his eyes blank with no cutie mark. He roamed the streets, and found ponies heading home or on business and attacked them, killing or hurting them and ripping off their cutie marks until at last it found again the place of its twisted birth and waited for weeks until at last the filly found her talent, painting-

And then it ripped the new, beautiful picture from her flank and killed her.

Twilight’s face flushed a darker shade of purple as she finished. “It was a short, terrifying story for a young filly. I found it silly when I grew up- there was no explanation for the appearance of the ‘Nightmare’ at all, except that somehow while sleeping the unicorn gave it shape unwittingly, and overall the writing was poor and simplistic. I ran all the way up to Celestia’s bedroom, crying the whole way. I still remember the bewildered guard bringing me to the Princess and how she sat with me in her private chamber while I had water and told her what had frightened me so.”

Fluttershy did smile a little at this. The story had obviously been unsettling for her. “ Oh, but Celestia was so nice to do that!”

Twilight smiled and looked down at her hooves. “Yes, yes she was. I’ve always been grateful for how kind she’s been to me all these years. She’s… not my mother. My mother has always loved me and been there for me- she taught me how to read herself, when I was a filly, you know that? Celestia will never replace my mother, but in a way, she became… Maybe it’s a lot like she’s my aunt, if that makes sense. One I’m really close to? I wouldn’t say Grandmother, she doesn’t seem quite that old when you talk to her!”

Rarity laughed at this. “Darling, I think we understand what you mean.”

The conversation died after a while and Twilight looked out over the passing landscape once more. This time, her mind was on other things. Specifically, her mind was on her teacher and mentor back in Canterlot. What she’d written had been strange and cryptic, as well as rather unhelpful. Why hadn’t she just come out and told Twilight what she knew?

Celestia obviously knew something. She simply had to! She was Princess-Goddess of Equestria, powerful and immortal and seemingly without end or beginning. As far as Twilight knew, there wasn’t anything that the Princess didn’t know.

“Without end or beginning…” she tasted those words, felt them roll over her tongue. Were they true? It was a strange thing to think of, now, but it was a thought she had considered several times of the years in Celestia’s tutelage. Where did the royal sisters come from? Every little filly and colt asked at some point how Celestia could be a unicorn and a Pegasus as well as an Earth Pony, and where she came from. Usually, the question was met with the polite sort of chuckles that adults gave when foals asked nonsense questions.

How much could she know?

Just because the chariots had landed down right in the courtyard of the royal palace didn’t mean that the devastation below in the city went unnoticed. Twilight had held back tears at the sight of her now scarred hometown only with great effort. But the sight before her was somehow worse, more wrong.

A wide swatch of the castle was gone, right down the middle, Void replacing the reception room and Main hall. Twilight tried to take it all in, her mouth gaping. This place should’ve been safe! Celestia’s home, the home of an immortal, all powerful Goddess should’ve been safe of all places on Earth, in all of Equestria.

An imposing, gray-coated guardspony beside her coughed, and she glanced over at him. He took this as his chance to speak, and began, “Miss Sparkle, I am Guard Captain Iron Hooves, and this is Guardpony Silver Corner.” He gestured to a unicorn mare with a wild, brown mane poking out from under her golden solar guard helmet. “The Princess has asked us to take you straight to her chambers.”

“Oh… I… Of course. Girls?” She looked around, knowing the others had heard. She didn’t want to stay here, looking at this.

They followed in silence as their two escorts led them inside, sidestepping the Void that had replaced much of the main section of the palace. The hole ended right in front of the grand staircase, and so with some initial difficulty, they found the way up to the dormitories and royal chambers were surprisingly intact. Twilight, having spent much of her childhood in this building, wandering its halls, noticed something that her friends didn’t. “Captain? This isn’t the way to Princess Celestia’s quarters.”

Confused, the Elements stopped. The guardponies stopped as well and turned around. “I apologize, miss Sparkle, to have misled you. No— I was instructed by Princess Luna to bring you to her quarters. Is this a problem?”

“I… no, I suppose it’s not. I’m just surprised. Please, continue. We shouldn’t keep the Princess waiting.” The Captain nodded and continued on silently. His companion seemed to want to speak, but decided against it. Twilight noticed this, and decided to be the one who initiated that conversation.

“Guardspony… Corner, was it? How faired Canterlot in the night? Was it able to prepare for the Nightmares?”

The mare seemed nervous, and lowered her ears. “We were, but it was still bad. So many frightened ponies…” her voice trailed off, but before Twilight could say anything else she began again. “It wasn’t that they were hard to defeat, because that was the easy part. The hard part was that they outnumbered us four to one even at the best times. The city is just so large… I’m worried about my older brother, Poets Corner.” Silver glanced over at the Captain, who continued to look ahead silently. Taking this as tacit acceptance, she continued.

“He runs a book store on the middle ring— it’s what our whole family does at some point. I helped out for a while, but it was too boring for me. I had duties defending the innocent ponies holed up in the top ring, so I’m worried about him.”

Applejack, who hadn’t said anything since they’d touched down, smiled softly. “Aw, sugarcube, I betcha he’s fit as a fiddle. Your fellow guardsponies were there too, weren’t they?”

“Yes,” Silver Corner admitted, slowing down to come alongside Applejack.

“Didn’t you work your hardest to protect those good ponies? I’d bet mah farm your brothers an’ sisters in the guard were doin’ the same. Your big brother is fine, Ah am sure of it.”

“Thank you,” the young mare said, her voice soft. “It means a lot, ma’am. When this is all over, I think I’ll go and visit him again. I… I’d forgotten how much I missed a cup of tea with him and his wife Star Singer in the book storage. I’ve been so worried about him.”

The Earth Pony shook her head. “No need for thanks, Miss Corner. I’m just as worried about mah own brother and sister.”

Twilight smiled for the first time since she’d been able to see Canterlot well enough to realize the extent of the damage. Fluttershy might be the Element of Kindness and Rainbow Dash the Element of Loyalty, but no pony she had ever met was quite as attached and loyal to their family as Applejack.

Finally, they arrived before the ornate door that led in to the Princess of the Moon’s private suite of rooms. The two guardsponies took up positions on either side and the Captain spoke. “She was waiting inside when we left, but the situation in Canterlot’s lower rings is fragile right now. A lot of ponies are frightened or hurt. If she’s not there to meet you, simply wait.”

Twilight lit her magic to open the door, and the six friends trotted inside. Behind them, Silver Corner the Guardspony closed the door quietly.

Inside, it was dark, the walls and ceiling painted like the night sky in rich blues and blacks and purples and encrusted with jewels. It was absolutely, breathtakingly beautiful— and minus one moon controlling princess.

Rainbow couldn’t take it anymore. “What the hay is goin’ on around here, Twilight? I mean, Princess Luna is great and all, but why her?”

Applejack nodded. “Ain’t Celestia still in charge and all?”

Twilight, not entirely sure herself, had no good answers. “I don’t know. Perhaps Celestia is too tired, she’s been healing ponies left and right and driving away the dark by all accounts. Or maybe she’s down in the city right now and left Luna to fill us in while she was busy…?” They were weak excuses and she knew it.

Pinkie offered a theory. “Maybe Luna knows more about it! She’s all dark princess of the night and stuff and nightmares are dreams and dreams come at night, so you know…”

Rambling as it was, there was a good kernel of logic at the heart of Pinkie’s idea. It made sense, and Twilight said so, which pleased the pink party pony. What she didn’t say aloud was how this explanation troubled her. She’d so relied on talking to Princess Celestia, and now to hear that perhaps the younger sister trumped the older in this… She needed answers. Lots of clear, non-confusing, simple answers. The nasty part of Twilight commented that she’d prefer they not be delivered in an archaic way pattern of speech.

Twilight grimaced. That was hardly fair to the Princess. Luna had really improved a lot and done her best to adapt to the changed Equ—

“I am sorry, Rainbow Dash and Applejack, that you do not seem pleased to see us again.” Luna came in through the wide window and landed softly. Her face betrayed little emotion, but Twilight heard some hurt in her voice.

“Aw, Princess, it ain’t like that, now—“ Applejack began hastily, but Luna cut her off.

“I understand thine confusion, Element of Honesty. It is a simple matter to relate, and perhaps it will in time convince you that talking with us was the best of choices: Celestia is asleep.”

The six ponies looked at her blankly for a moment, and then looked at each other. The way in which the Princess had delivered this news seemed to suggest that it was more important than simply being a strange time to be sleeping. When Luna didn’t go on, obviously waiting for the meaning behind her strange statement to sink in, Twilight spoke for them and said, “Princess? What do you mean?”

Confusion reigned in Luna’s features. The regal queen of the night seemed much closer to the way she’d been in Ponyville on Nightmare Night. “But… she’s asleep, dreaming.”

“Princess Luna, do you not normally dream, then?” Fluttershy spoke this time. She was trying to understand, wanting Luna to feel a little more at ease.

Happily, it seemed to work. “We…I forget, as I often do nowadays. It is an unfortunate legacy of my long exile. It was less of a secret, though we still did not talk of it much when Celestia and I were younger. We, the royal sisters, only sleep one night in the week, and we never dream. Neither of us has dreamed in over a thousand years.”

“Never… dream?” Rainbow asked, bewildered.

“Why, Princess Luna, that sounds simply awful. No dreams, ever, not even good ones?”

“No, never,” the Princess affirmed. “That Celestia is now dreaming is both a sign of the dire nature of our situation, and of her own condition. My sister is exhausted, and not just from healing more than a hundred ponies in a matter of hours. No, there is much more that weighs on my sister’s strength, sapping her of power and will. Twilight, I’m afraid that we live and die on the outcomes of dreams today.”

Nopony said a word. They simply stared in shock. Twilight, most of all, knew she was gaping. She’d never heard any of this, and she said so. “Why hasn’t something that wasn’t a secret of this magnitude been found in some book somewhere? I’ve never heard of anything like this and I’ve read a significant portion of the royal library’s collection of historical writings.”

“We never spoke of it, my sister and I, and nopony else ever did. At least, they did not speak it aloud to us or to each other in our presence. It was something nopony wished to discuss at length. It brought up unpleasant things. We have much to explain to thee, Twilight Sparkle, and very little time to explain it. We-I must ‘catch you up’ on your history before Celestia awakes so that when she does you are ready to say what must be said and do what must be done.”

“I don’t unde-“

“And that will not change, not until it is seen. If I told you, it would never be real for thee, not as it should. So I will show thee through means of a recitative memory spell. It is familiar?” At Twilight’s confused, almost frightened nod, she continued. “Then we will begin, thou and myself.” She looked away from Twilight to her friends, her authoritative voice suddenly seeming less powerful when talking to more than one pony. “We-I wish you to remain here, Elements… and friends. We wish you to be here for us. This spell is tiring and requires us, Twilight and I, to be asleep while she is in my memory.”

“Anything! You’ll be safe in our hands, Princess!” This was something Rainbow could hold onto, and she seemed relieved to have a tangible responsibility at last. “We’ll make sure no one disturbs you!”

“Princess, how long will this be? I admit, I’m no unicorn of great magics…” Rarity said, suddenly curious, “ but will you have plenty of time before Princess Celestia awakes, or should we wake you up early if she rises?”

Luna had no quick answer. “We are unsure, Element o- Rarity. If you must, wake Twilight first. We, Twilight and I, must speak to her before she leaves to do anything in the city.” Rarity nodded, accepting this as Twilight stepped forward. Unicron prodigy and alicorn princess separated themselves from the others in the room, who formed a semi-circle around the two, watching. Both Luna and Twilight seemed unsure and ill at ease.

“Twilight… what you see may… disturb you. My sister is a good pony, a wise, powerful, loving pony who has done only the smallest modicum of wrong in her long, long life. The drops of… wrongness in her life are swallowe- Twilight, just… We are unsure of what to say to thee.” The Princess ended her statement lamely, jaw working to no avail.

“Princess, Luna— if I need to see these things to help Equestria and help my teacher, then it doesn’t matter. I have to see it, and see it all.”

“I am glad that you feel ready, Element of Magic. It will serve you well, and you will need all of your will and conviction for what will come. Thou and I can restore our fair land, Twilight Sparkle, but it will mean much pain for my sister, myself, and perhaps even you. Are you ready?” They were close now, sitting face to face, and Twilight gulped.

“Yes.”

Songs: The Going Price for Home, The Fight of Moses Early & Sir Arthur McCloud, Our Darling Daughter You Are, Little Cecilia Marie, A Death in the Family, The Margetville Dance, “Run, Gunner Recall, Run! The Town Wants You Dead!”, Who Watches the Watchmen?, My Brother’s Blood Machine, ~ Prize Fighter Inferno

A/N- Ignore if you wish. At the risk of seeming indulgent, this is what I listened to while writing. If you’re one of those people who like to read or write with music, I suggest the songs in this list as you read the story. :) I don’t normally do this, but I think I may do this occasionally in EV.

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