“Ugh, what is wrong with this accursed tome!?” Luna vented in frustration.
She had just opened “Seven days with Discord” with all excitement and yet the text quickly disappeared as she began to read it. The princess of the night continued to quickly flip through the countless blank pages in a fleeting hope that something would be still hidden within. After perhaps several dozen blank pages, she had stumbled upon a small bit of text.
It read:
“You see yourself absolute. To do so is to see farther and touch deeper. True belief becomes your true world. Such is your greatest power and greatest restraint. You just are.”
Luna stared at this message for some time after flipping through the whole book. What did it mean?
‘You just are’? Why did that phrase seem so strangely familiar although it never before had any important meaning in her life?
Luna continued to reread the message over and over for a few more minutes. Her concentration was building to a fever pitch. She just had to figure out what it meant, being on this page of the book made her fell uneasy.
“You… just …. Are…… what?” Luna thought out loud as she stared at the page.
Without any warning, everything around her briefly disappeared in a flash of white that lasted about one second. As everything quickly reappeared, Luna frantically looked around for any source to this disturbance. Was seen just hallucinating? Was she under attack?
She felt unharmed, but something about her still felt different from moments before.
She then tried to calm down and focus her mind on the feeling in her head. She raised her hoof and tapped the back of her upper neck, sensing for anything amiss.
<NOBLE MK III-A SYSTEM RESTORED>
<ALL MODULES NOMINAL>
<SYSTEM STANDBY>
She once again looked around the room, trying to figure out what had just happened.
Luna felt the message appear in her thoughts from out of nowhere. The ‘voice’ in her mind was speaking in a language unlike any she had heard but somehow she could interpret it in Equestrian. However, even if her mind apparently knew the language, the meaning of the message as a whole was unknown to her.
Perhaps she was just in need of some sleep after a hard nights work. Her research, and Crystal Clear could resume in the evening.
She placed ‘Seven Days with Discord' on her nightstand, removed her regalia and retired to her bed after a great night and strange morning.
Within a few minutes she was able to dive into a deep sleep.
………..
< EXODUS-TYPEMULTI-CLASS-2-ORDER-5983563 –SUBNODE-PHSYRUNEAE-FAMILIAR-PERONAFERYCIA: STATUS-TIER5-DORMANT-CONNECTION>
Luna found herself staring up at the ceiling. Had she not just fallen asleep? She tried to turn her body on its side to find a more comfortable position but she never ended up feeling the bed beneath her. When she contained her attempts to gain her bearings on the situation, she found that she could not feel her body either. With this thought, Luna briefly felt a wave of panic and willed herself to rise from the bed.
At first it seemed that all was somewhat normal. Luna was able to bring her stance level with the bed but something was appeared very wrong. None of her bed sheets had moved and she heard nothing . She looked down and saw her body still under the sheets as if she had never moved. She quickly spun her view around to find ‘herself’ still lying asleep with her head on the pillow.
Seeing this, Luna attempted to reach out a hoof to touch the likeness that was now before her but she soon found that she had no hooves.
Was she dead? No, It had to simply be some sort of dream. It always was just a dream right?
Luna, still feeling curious from her night of research, decided to explore her situation. She willed herself around her room, looking at various things from angles she was never able to before. She also noticed that she was able to ‘phase’ through walls and matter, the same of which were protected by powerful enchantments no less. She willed herself over to the doors to her chambers and peeked through them to look out into the main corridor of the castle. With this she spotted a lone maidservant running frantically down the corridor and decided to follow.
They maidservant eventually came to a halt outside of Celestia’s Chambers, joining a large crowd of other ponies that would include other servants, nobles and Celestia’s personal guards who stood in the way of the door.
As the disembodied Luna drew closer, she could hear the frantic, random conversing of the various ponies.
“So she just let out a loud scream during Court?”
“I must say that this is quiet saddening for Pony of her refinement.”
“Was she under attack by some sort of spell?”
Luna, after briefly piecing together a rough idea of what had happened, quickly phased her way through the doorway. She found her sister sulking briskly on the side of her bed.
“Sister?” Luna attempted to call out.
Celestia did not respond.
“SISTER!” Luna put more energy into her call, feeling slightly more annoyed that concerned. She would have prodded her sister briskly if she still had hooves
Finally, the Sun Princess began to rise and Luna locked all of her focus onto watching her sister.
<Luna…?>
<Perhaps…. I should tell Luna….>
<Perhaps she could be the one I need as of now…>
<I know she seem upset at me but I may understand now…>
Once again, Luna was having subjective thoughts and messages appear in her mind. This time however, the messages were of a more familiar Equestrian format.
As Luna was thinking about this, her sister had quickly risen to her hooves and began briskly trotting out of her chambers. Luna, snapped back into focus and followed as Celestia almost plowed though the crowd of ponies as she made way through the Corridor.
Within very little time, Celestia was at her sister’s door and let out a sharp knock. This knocking actually felt like it echoed within Luna’s mind as she watched.
“Luna!” Celestia cried softly
This once again appeared to echo as Luna watched from her disembodied vantage point behind and above her sister.
“Luna!” Celestia called out again.
Luna could actually feel herself waking up, but at the same time, this out-of-body perspective was not fading away.
She found herself awake in her bed and yet still floating behind Celestia at the same time! It had to be the strangest thing she had ever experienced. Visuals from her view in the corridor were still coming into her mind with perfect clarity. She was able to move her alicorn body around just as she always had, but now she had some sort of other appendage that nopony else could see.
The first thing she did was phase her new ‘view’ back into her chamber to get a better look. Her ‘scrying’ view allowed for her so see herself in the third person, but from her body, Luna saw nothing in front of her.
“Luna? Are you Awake?” Then Luna remembered Celestia was still at her door and was still curious to what had broken down her once regal sister so badly. If Luna’s new ‘ability’ could hopefully wait.
Luna proceeded to open her door for her distraught sister just as a concerned crowd of random ponies converged on the scene. Seeing this, Luna quickly pushed her sister inside and locked her door.
“So what seems to be troubling you sister?” Luna said rather indifferently.
“Luna, everything turned to darkness during court! I could not feel any sort of spell. I could not feel anything! No matter how I willed myself…. I was powerless. I was in a dark void with no way out! I could feel strange thoughts and voices of nonsense enter my mind!” Celestia wasted no time bringing her sister into a tight embrace.
Luna raised an eyebrow in interest at her sister’s last sentence. This sounded somewhat similar to her own happenings.
“And what sort of… voices did you hear?”
“It do not know if I could begin to explain it. It was as if knowledge was being written into my mind. It was a language or format alien to me but I could still somehow extract meaning from it.”
“Well what was it speaking of sister?” Luna pressed.
“I heard something speaking of colors….. and…. executing…. none of it made any sense! Then I saw you.. . or perhaps a vision of you and I in some sort of conflict over the elements of harmony! You were transformed into some sort of black monstrosity. Before I could think of anything else, I found myself back in a void. After some time, I was thrust back into the vision but this time, our likenesses knew I was there. I found myself attacked by your new form and the pain was real.” At this point Luna’s sister was breaking into tears as her quickly exampled her situation.
Luna took a moment to ponder what Celestia had just told her, would she ever have the conflict with her sister escalate to the extremes described? Luna was still bitter with her sister but she genuinely did not want to see her like this. Perhaps some time ago she would have felt otherwise, but being able to talk to somepony like Crystal Clear had set her more at ease. Her stress had found a more peaceful release.
“So… what happened next?” Luna spoke in a much more sincere tone this time, hoping that perhaps Celestia would be more receptive to her own point of view given that she appear to have her high-and-mighty stance shattered.
This and that Luna felt she may be close to discovering something…..
“After being tortured for a short while, I was going mad, screaming for it to end….” Celestia accompanied her sentence by taking a deep breath.
“I heard more of those ‘voices’ begin to ramble… it all happened so quickly…. I found some sort of strange creature appear in front of me. It looking somewhat similar to a diamond dog but it had a more upright stance…..” Celestia paused again to breathe and regain composure.
Through all of her years she had never been traumatized to this degree. Despite a few minor skirmishes with various creatures and the occasional assassin, the rule of the two sisters had been a peaceful one.
“Could you describe this creature further?” Luna asked.
“It was silvery grey in color. It had spikes protruding from the back of its head and body. Its forarms were large and had holes where one would usually expect claws. It had light shining from its chest and head, perhaps eyes of some sort?” Celestia was beginning to calm down.
“ The vision ended with… that thing… first lashing out on our likenesses. It raised it’s arms with unheard of speed and cast bright beams of…. magic? Our two likenesses were the first to fall, nothing being left of them…”
Celestia paused once more to take a breath.
“Then it whipped around and cast a beam at me. It happened too fast for I to react. I found myself once again in a void.”
“I screamed… Despite all of my efforts prior…. I felt that I could very well be trapped forever…. I cannot speak of how happy I am to be here with you Luna.” Celestia hugged her sister tighter.
“Please Luna, do not ever turn your back on me….. Even if it does not appear so, I need you more than anypony else. I know you are not the type to be very social but you have more inner strength than I could ever hope to attain. ”
“Then why do you enjoy in belittling me sister? You keep pressuring me with not only handling the things that you cannot do yourself but also that my social problems are my fault alone.”
“I was never belittling you!”
“Could YOU by honest with me for once? What. Is. Wrong?.”
“I….I…fine…. I just want to help ponies. I have always wanted to give everypony hope. It has always been what I have dreamed for myself.... to be a beacon and a mother to the land that welcomed us with open arms." Celestia paused
"...and now I very much am the embodiment of everyponies' hopes. Everypony looks up to me... They would be crushed... I would be crushed if I could not at least appear to be able to help them somehow. " Luna could see her sister begin to tear up.
"All of their smiling face... All of their happiness... It just feels so... right to me, ever since we found this place. I wish for it to never change.... I want to always be able to care for them.. to comfort them,,, to glow with hope."
" I do not wish for them to go away. I never wanted anything to change. But it seems that I can no longer hold together such a living fantasy on my own... and that very thought.... I cannot stand it."
"As much as the truth hurts to me,as much as I wish I could tend to equestria on my own, I need you. Luna... there are things I need now that you can do much better than I. You give me the hope I need to keep going. " More tears welling up.
Celestia in her melocoly, hugs tighter. "Please do not go Luna! You are the only pony that I can look to. You face adversity that would drive me mad!"
“I am trapped sister….. I have truly in my heart wanted to see life from your eyes....But I just cannot just leave. I would not know where else to go...” Celestia continued.
....
“Tia! Stop this nonsense! If you had told me sooner you would never have to worry about some ponies ridiculous expectations of you!” Luna replied.
“It hurts Luna…. If I try to run away from what has become my destiny…. It is not my feelings. I actually feel real pain, enormous pain, within my body and mind if I try too hard to escape it.” Celestia continued.
“What exactly are you speaking of sister?”
“Every time I would try to act for my own sake…. I would feel a terrible pain rising from my neck or head.”
It took a moment of pause, but Luna was able to recall her recent episodes of pain similar to her sister.
“Tia, how long has this been happening? Why did you only tell me now?”
“Even thinking about such things would trigger it. But I do not care about the pain right now… I just wanted to be with you. I wanted to understand .”
“Oh sister! Are you in pain now?”
“N-no…. I…. do not seem to be.” Celestia seemed zoned out at this point.
There was then a knock at the doors to the hallway.
“Your majesty Celestia? Are you well?” It the voice of one of Celestia’s stewards
“Yes… Yes I…We are well..” Celestia called back.
“With all due respect your majesty, we need a princess present to compete our proceeding for today and to quell the panic from todays’….. episode. If you are…. Ahem…. Finished addressing your sister, may we please return to court?” The steward continued
“ You should just depart with your royal duties for a day.” Luna suggested in a low tone.
“But what if the pain returns? Who would preside over Equestria in my stead?”
“Your little crowd of ponies can wait a day or two, sister! You should rest!”
Celestia pondered her sisters suggestion for a moment. It would be nice to have some additional time to rest from her demanding duties.
However, Celestia had never did something for herself in a long time, the thought was now alien to her. Nothing could come to her mind. The only thing she was able to live for now was presiding over her ponies.
“ I cannot begin to think of anything worthwhile to do with my time. I.. I…. um…..suppose I will simply return to court now. ”
Celestia slowly walked back toward the waiting crowd of servants and nobles.
This could be her only chance to take back her sister. Luna’s thoughts stumbled for a moment she needed something, anything to distract her sister from royalty. She quickly looked around for ideas and noticed ‘Seven Days with Discord’ was still lying on her nightstand.
Why did she want to read that book again? She began to retrace her steps as Celestia opened the door of her chambers.
That book was said to have forbidden knowledge
She was looking for clues to the strange incidents of her past….
She wanted to sneak out of the Castle unnoticed….. Everything clicked together in her mind.
“Wait Tia!” Luna’s voice rang with a hint of genuine emotion.
Celestia noticed this and quickly spun around.
“Luna?”
“Perhaps we could take the day for me to introduce you to my new assistant.”