Chapter 3: Questions
(I do not own My Little Pony. Please support the original series.)
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Five full seconds passed in silence before everypony who was not royalty panicked simultaneously.
"Oh my gosh, Princess Celestia, I had no idea you were coming today! I'm usually--"
"My mane! I'm not even properly--"
"I didn't know you two were coming--"
"Shoot, I hope my supervisor doesn't get--"
"The birds! I haven't been able to get a chorus together!"
"Was Ah supposed ta dress all fancy fer this?"
Princess Celestia and Princess Luna simply looked at each other. They had not yet walked through the door and there was already pandemonium.
"--so organized; I don't know what happened!"
"--dressed for the occasion! This is THE. WORST. POSSIBLE. THING!"
"--today! You should have told me so I could plan a party!"
"--on my case for not having the clouds cleared out."
"Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh--"
"...'cuz I dun't 'av any new fancy dresses..."
"WE REQUEST THAT THOU LEND US THY EARS FOR A MOMENT," bellowed Princess Luna.
Silence reigned once again. Spike shifted in his place on the floor.
"...Ahem," Luna cleared her throat. She gave an uncertain look to her sister, who only smiled in return. "...Now that we have thy attention, may we enter?"
Another three seconds passed uncomfortably before Twilight Sparkle found her voice. "...Of course, your Majesties. My apologies, none of us realized--"
Princess Celestia spoke. "It's alright, Twilight; we're here unannounced."
The six friends all looked at each other. Rarity was the first to remember decorum and bow. Everypony else would have followed suit quickly if Luna had not spoken up. "Please, there is no need for formalities tonight; we are here about something important, but it is nothing formal."
Twilight hurriedly levitated more than enough cushions for everyone to the center of the floor. Spike finally woke up. "What's going on?" he asked.
"The Princesses are here," she whispered.
"Oh. OK, I guess I'll just... OH! Your majesties!" He bowed.
Celestia smiled. "No need for the formalities right now, Spike. Were you headed to bed for the night?"
"Yes."
"Go on, then."
"Thanks, Princess." He trudged up the stairs, obviously having eaten quite enough turquoise for one day.
"...So. What's up?" Rainbow Dash asked.
Her five friends looked back at her as if that was not a question that was to be asked of a Princess of Equestria, but Celestia simply laughed. "Actually, Twilight, if you don't mind, I have a small favor to ask of you."
"Anything, Princess!"
"Ever the faithful student," Celestia thought. "I need you to try to modify a spell for me. I suppose Luna or I could have tried, but we thought you might be interested in working with something like this."
"OK. What's the spell?"
Luna's horn glowed briefly and an obviously old piece of parchment appeared in front of Twilight Sparkle. "This is a summoning spell," Luna explained. "It is for a specific pony who we have been trying to contact for some time, now. The spell calls out to her mind, but there appears to be some... interference somewhere. We were wondering if thou might be capable of modifying this spell to call out to her spirit instead."
Twilight's eyes widened significantly. "...Wow. I'll certainly try. I don't know how long this will take, though. How quickly do you need it?"
Celestia's smile shrunk imperceptibly. "Soon would be nice, but don't rush yourself."
Twilight read over the parchment several times. "Uh-huh... uh-huh... hmm... AH! There it is. Pardon me for a moment, Princess."
"Of course."
Her five friends shifted uncomfortably as she trotted to her desk and began to work. An entire minute passed.
Finally, Rarity spoke. "Ahem," she cleared her throat delicately. "Your Majesty?"
"Yes?" asked Celestia.
"Oh, umm... my apologies. I was actually hoping to ask Princess Luna a question."
Luna looked up. "Yes?"
"I was just curious... some ponies say that one of your titles is the Guardian of Dreams. Is this true?"
"Yes."
"That must be fantastic!" Rarity gushed. "Do you ever see what other ponies dream of?"
"Occasionally, we do, but some ponies consider their dreams to be a matter of privacy. We have been trying to respect that."
"Ah." Rarity was slightly disappointed. Of course dreams were private; that's what made them all the more juicy! "Umm... what else does being the Guardian of Dreams mean?"
Luna smiled slightly. "The role changes with the ages. Lately, it has seemed to simply require me to monitor the natural flow of magic at night."
Rarity tilted her head. "Monitor?"
"Yes." She looked over at Twilight, who was using her magic to scribble furiously. "It has not been easy lately." She looked back at Rarity. "Something about the flow has been off. We-- I cannot quite place it, nor can I fix it. It disturbs me. If the flow is far enough out of order, ponies can have unnatural nightmares." She looked back over towards Twilight. "I wish I could prevent that, but it will eventually be beyond me if things do not change soon."
"...How long has this been happening?" Rarity inquired.
"I first noticed it earlier this week," Luna stated. A few moments passed, then Luna suddenly snapped her head back towards Rarity. Her expression was suddenly intense. Rarity, on the other hoof, was looking down at the floor. "Why?" Luna asked.
Rarity shuffled her hooves a bit. "...I... I started having nightmares earlier this week. There was no explanation, and they have only increased in intensity."
Luna's eyes grew wide. Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie PIe, and Rainbow Dash had all been listening, so she simply addressed them. "Have any of you experienced anything similar?" All four shifted very uncomfortably. There were enough nods to pass for a yes. "Does anypony know about Twilight's experience?"
"Yes, your majesty. She's been having them, too. I talked with her this morning over tea."
Luna looked unhappy.
"...uhh... yer majesty?" Applejack tried. "Do the nightmares've anything t' do with mah head 'n' sides complainin'?"
This time, Celestia snapped to attention. "Complaining? How do you mean?"
"Well, the last two weeks've been kinda hard out on the farm. We've been workin' more 'n usual, and that might've explained mah sides, but Ah dunno why mah head hurts. I 'aven't run into anything..."
Celestia and Luna looked at each other again, then back at everypony else. "Has anyone else experienced something similar?"
Pinkie Pie unleashed a torrent of words that was typical for her. "Oh! Oh! Earlier this week when I started having those nasty dreams, I woke up the next morning and I had a terrible headache, but I thought that was simply because I hadn't had my coffee yet, and everypony knows what it's like before you have your coffee, particularly when your normal daily coffee is a triple mocha latte with a quintuple shot of espresso and eight sugar cubes with three pumps of cherry-hazelnut creamer. Oh! That reminds me! I still haven't decided if it's Chimy-Cherry or Cherry-Changa! What do you think, Princess? Chimy-Cherry? Or Cherry-Changa? Both are really fun to say; I could keep saying them alllllll day! Anyway, I had an achy-wakey head because I hadn't had my coffee yet and my sides kind of hurt, too, but I thought that was because of all the parties I had to get ready for earlier this week, and I had a lot of parties to get ready for! So many birthdays! Oh! When's your birthday, Princess? I should totally throw a party for you! It would be the best party ever!"
Celestia blinked twice. "...I actually had my birthday recently."
"Aww," Pinkie pouted.
"Ehh... what Ah think what she meant to say, yer majesty, is yes. Yes, she has had similar problems," Applejack tried.
Celestia smiled at her and turned to the Pegasi. "How about you two?"
Fluttershy eeped and hid behind her hair. Rainbow Dash spoke up. "Well... yeah, my dreams haven't been too great, I guess... not that they scared me. I don't get scared. I mean, how totally uncool would that be? ...My head has kind of been hurting, though. What about you, Fluttershy?" She turned towards the yellow Pegasus, who simply nodded. Rainbow Dash turned back towards Celestia. "Yeah... both of us."
"What about your sides?" Celestia inquired. Both Pegasi shook their heads. "Rarity, has it been that your sides have been sore but you haven't had a headache?"
Rarity looked surprised. "Is it really that obvious? I know the massage didn't help as much as I thought it would, but I didn't think this would have affected my posture-"
"It hasn't," Celestia said quickly. "Has Twilight had the same problem?"
"Yes, your majesty." "What could be going on that they aren't telling us?" Rarity wondered.
Celestia looked at Luna. Luna was wearing an expression of concentration. Then she opened her eyes. "It's getting worse, 'Tia. We... I do not know how much time we may have left before--"
"Got it!" Twilight exclaimed happily. "It was just a simple matter of--"
"Cast it! Now!" Luna interrupted.
Twilight was startled, but did as she was told. Her horn began to glow brightly. A field of light began forming in the air. It was dull red and flat at first, but then it became brighter. A golden sun appeared on the left and a brilliant blue crescent moon appeared on the right. A deep green shield appeared in the middle, and it was soon crossed over by two white, flaming swords. Over the swords appeared a gleaming, purple hour glass through which flowed iridescent sand.
Celestia and Luna looked hopeful.
The image flashed three times. Suddenly, many columns of light in every color of the visible spectrum erupted forth from the image and temporarily blinded everypony present.
Celestia was the first to recover. She saw everypony else holding their hooves over their eyes to block out the excessive amounts of light.
Twilight dared to lower a hoof and peek. "...Did it work?" she asked.
"..." Celestia paused. "Luna, do you feel anything different?"
Luna had to think before answering. "It is much weaker than I remember. I would not pick it up if I had not been looking for it."
Everypony was silent for a moment.
"Who..."
This voice was new. Everypony present looked around for the source. The voice had been that of a female, albeit deep, but it sounded weak and pained, as if it had seen and experienced a great number pf terrible things. It might have been a rich, powerful voice in the past, but times had changed.
"Who summoned me?"
(To Be Continued...)
Author's Notes: Chapter 3! Enjoy! Comments??? vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv