//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: Dreams and Streams // Story: The Dark Side of the Sun // by Ice Star //------------------------------// "Tia, when can We pick out the campsite?" Luna asked for about the third time this week. Now We had to think a little harder to come up with a reply that would please her. A couple of minutes passed before We came up with one that satisfied Us. "When We get our first set of flight feathers, you can pick out our campsite," We piped, imagining the excitement on her face. Luna thought about this and nodded eagerly as she laid out her blanket. The sunset behind us both was slowly turning into the night, with sickly orange hues that bled crookedly into dark hues, a cold distant darkness. Sunset used to have beauty. Night used to awe Us, and sweep Luna off her hooves. How long ago was it that day and night felt natural and inspiring, like something more than a lantern being lit and blown out by the slowest breath in the world? As We lay down, We could not help but wonder: When had the sky become so sick? Our eyelids closed softly and the uncertain realm of dreams took Us. Nopony could protect Us there. Recent events flashed by the darkness like vanishing ripples: Luna and 'I' home in the castle in the woods. That was back before we both took to always speaking as each of us was told Our kind did. We were saying goodbye. Mommy and Daddy stood over us, glowing with power. Luna begged for them to come back. I stood aloofly next to a window and offered a farewell that was almost curt. We were now in charge! Besides, they would come home anyway. Then was the great game Luna and Us were playing: hide and seek, which she was fond of. Mommy and Daddy had been gone for quite a while, but we were okay. There were always good things to eat, animals to play with, fires in the hearths, medicine for when we were sick, and more. That was until We figured it out. What if our parents were just playing a game of hide and seek? They had never had a reason to leave the both of us for so long before, and never did they leave the two of us without our cousins as foalsitters. Luna and 'I' would find them! We had to go find them and I could be a hero! The dream changes to show when we were packing knick-knacks for our trip, which has now become more of an exploring-adventure, like in the bedtime stories Mommy used to tell. Again, the image clouded over and a new one took its place. We saw ourselves Meeting our new friend Discord, who also wants to find his parents. Lastly, there was just Us. We were telling Luna a story that We made up about stars and clouds. Things like that stuck in Our head like the weight of acorns on a tree before they fell off. The next morning after another breakfast of dried clover, Luna and yours truly went to a small mountain brook to wash up. We tried out a new spell that we had been working on that is meant to warm up the water. We even made up a rhyme for it. "Water as cold as ice, change your temperature to something warm and nice." After our manes dried Luna and I — it only mattered if I made the mistake of talking about myself as one outside of my head — went back over to the brook to look at our reflections. Luna was not as into this as We are. Our Mother used to have a big crystal mirror that we loved to look in, and she told us stories about it. She said that there were worlds behind the glass, but I think only Luna truly believed her. Before our parents left us both, she locked it away somewhere in the castle for it to collect dust. No more worlds for Luna. We always preferred to wear Our best dresses and stand in front of it, thinking of the stallion We would one day marry. We looked over at Luna's reflection. She has a blue-ish coat and shiny turquoise eyes that like to look everywhere but at whoever is talking to her. Other times, she looks at them too much. Her mane and tail are the color of cornflowers, which are Mommy's favorite. But unlike Our mane, hers is less... 'magical' and could be mistaken for a normal pony's mane. We haven't seen one of those — the normal ponies — in ages, just like how we have not seen another Alicorn since our parents left. We are also what our parents called 'Alicorns' which are really special, and look a lot like ponies from what I can guess. We have wings, horns, and more, yet are different from just any old pony in many other ways that Mommy and Daddy layered on us like blankets at bedtime. All of us are extremely magical, so very magical you have to see us to believe it. Oh! Our manes! Our manes are not at all like most ponies. Even at first if they look like a regular mane, they are far from it. They can become shimmery and move. They need special magic to be held, styled, and scrubbed clean when they get like this. We had all of those special shampoos and soaps back home at the castle. We also grow taller than any pony could ever want to be, every last one of our kind. Even though We have never met a pony before — there were none in the castle — We have seen pictures of them, and they are so cute and tiny! It is a bit hard to describe kind of like the last part that our parents told us both: 'immortal'. Mommy says Alicorns are 'immortal' but I haven't figured out what that meant yet. Now, We glanced over at Our reflection and watched in awe as High Princess Celestia Galaxia stared back. That was my full name. Luna's full name was High Princess Luna Galaxia, but she was not big enough to know or have such a fine, royal name like We were. We do not think Mommy and Daddy even told her of the name 'Galaxia' in the first place, so I shall not do that either. We have a white coat and wings, with the exception of my last remaining pre-flight down feathers, which are tinged with pink. We think Our eyes are Our best feature. They are like a perfect blend of magenta-pinkish-gray from Our old paint sets and remind Us of the glorious sunrise hinting at the coming dawn. Next are Our mane and tail, which are the palest pink and have just started to develop into their later stage. We like to grow Our mane and tail really long so now it drags on the ground. Luna prefers to keep hers short, for the time being. She is the one who trips over things less, but We do not want to say that in front of her! I would be beautiful forever. ... "I really like adventuring like this," Discord said while munching on dinner, having caught up with Luna and me after bumbling about in the meadows and rising late. He never woke up at the times We told him to! An apple and some corn were all he had to eat right now. These were from the provisions, which were running kind of low. Discord had an odd manner of speaking. He says 'I' instead of 'We' out loud, and all these other choppy little phrases that were mushed together and simply not right. I don't know why, but he seems just as baffled when we say these things. You are not supposed to say 'I' when 'We' is clearly the proper term. We are much sneakier about which one We use inside of Our own head, but We are also doing Our best to make sure that Luna does not stop speaking like how Mommy and Daddy taught us both to. Hmph. 'Tis not our fault that Mommy taught us how to speak correctly. "We like the adventure too, and all the stars an' nature. Especially at night... it has so much depth," Luna poked her tongue out and looked all dreamy-like, which is when her mind stays all stirred up inward. She poked her tongue out like the word 'depth' was big and could be tasted, like wind. We frowned slightly. "Luna do not talk with your mouth full." Manners were paramount in a place like this — there, that was a word too big for my little sister, hee-hee! If somepony found all of us, being polite is super-duper urgent, otherwise they might not want to be friends. She sulked slightly and mumbled, "Yes, Tia." We always slept at night. It was dark then and monsters could be out, and even if it 'awed' us once, it was only barely. We think if night were a pony, they would not be a nice pony and they would be filled with monsters. It is unsafe, so dark, and cold. Bedtime had to be early, and that is what Mommy would do anyway. Luna was sleeping at this time and Discord was examining tomorrow's route. From what I can tell, his mom and dad taught him about using stars, as Daddy did with me. When he started telling Luna about stars, she did stranger things and made up her own tales. She gave them her own imagination-names like 'Gemini' and 'Orion' while Daddy said a little of his star-beasts to us both. He was the king of them, and most of them were the ones that lived in our forest. Smaller ones lived in the castle. However, Daddy said that there were special ones that lived elsewhere, and only came to heed his command. Discord also knows some maths and geography, which Luna and I know too. Unlike Luna and I, Discord is not an Alicorn or pony of any kind. He says he is a 'draconequus' which is not a type of animal that either of us know. They look nothing like Alicorns but can use magic more like our own than a pony's. Maybe they are immortal, but We are not quite sure since We do not talk about Our family with others. Discord's parents taught him many things but not as many as Ours did. Both of us can read. Discord cannot. The map we obtained from the library is nothing more than pictures to him.