Celestia sighed a bit as she looked ponderously over the spell a bit, contemplating if it were the right thing to do. It was a fairly complicated spell; it would set up a simulation in her mind, for her to occupy while she was dreaming. What concerned her, however, was the timeframe: In one night’s sleep in the real world, a thousand years would pass within the simulation. A thousand years seemed like a long time to the alicorn; even though she had lived such a long time herself, she wondered how it would feel to do it again. A part of her wasn’t ready for that sort of commitment, but then again, she’d run a real kingdom for a thousand years. How hard could a simulated version of Equestria be? Perhaps she’d even learn some useful things, in a place where she was less concerned about getting everything right to an exacting level.
Celestia set the book open on her bedside table and yawned a bit as she crawled into bed. She hoped the simulation spell would let her get a decent rest. Settling herself under her covers, her horn illuminated so she could get a clean look at the incantation, deciding that she’d commit to it. “Worst case scenario, it will be just another strange, unproductive dream,” She thought to herself with a small shrug, beginning to read the spell, her horn lighting up. It was oddly intensive, pulling in a lot of magic. She supposed it made sense, and continued, letting her eyes close. She thought about when she’d want to start over from. The first century after Luna’s banishment was… Messy, and she didn’t feel like reliving the events before it, either. She settled on a hundred years after Luna was banished, to the day. Just long enough that all the shouting about the kingdom’s future would have quelled to a dull roar.
In the flashes of light beneath her eyelids, she swore she could see the land being built layer by layer; stone, then dirt, then grass, then sky, before being populated with all sorts of different components. A single axiom came to her mind as she drifted off, one she swore to rule this simulated kingdom by: It must feel real to those inside the simulation. That was a lie she had to preserve, for their sakes. Perhaps even for hers.