“Shhh,” said the elder filly. The sun had set and the stars were beginning to show themselves from behind the pink veil of sky now drifting into the horizon. One by one, they glittered into being, tiny diamonds floating in an inky black sea. The younger filly was asleep, her head lying in the elder’s lap. She whimpered, her hooves kicking against the air. “Shhh,” said the older filly again. She brought her hoof down to her sister’s forehead and began to stroke her mane. Even now, the light blue of her hair was fading, becoming black and translucent, stars fading into view reflecting the night sky above. “Oh, Luna.”
There was no moon tonight, at least none that the two fillies could see. Instead, a black circle began to cut its way through the sky, the new moon, invisible save for the way it blocked out the stars behind it. Celestia looked at the low hill around them, grass black-green under the darkened sky, then up at the moon. Resting in her elder sister’s forelegs, Luna muttered inaudibly.
The field was empty as far as Celestia could see. Behind them was the Forest, black and impenetrable with no moon to light it. Before them, grass stretched out like a blanket, the earth a slumbering beast that rolled and pitched, low hills jutting up to the north before becoming mountains, smooth plains to the south, and a sparkling river running the middle of it, twinkling slivers of reflected starlight. Every new moon, Celestia took her sister to this very place. It was safe, and far from the prying eyes of the other ponies. She loved them all, and they cared for her and Luna, but this was not for them. Luna needed her.
“The night,” Luna whispered. Celestia strained to hear her, bending her long white neck til her ear was at the filly’s mouth, Celestia’s pink curls stroking the blue filly’s cheeks. The moon had risen fully, now, and Luna’s hair was like staring into space. “It is so beautiful.”
Celestia nodded, and shhhed again. Luna’s eyes, so light blue they might have been white, were staring past her sister, at something Celestia could not see. “I see them,” Luna said. “They are beautiful. I have never seen anything so magnificent.” Celestia cradled her sister’s head and gently rocked back and forth, humming as the moon traced its path across the heavens.
An hour went by, then another. Clouds were drifting silently above them, soft and blue in the dark. Somewhere in the Forest, an owl hooted, and another answered. “Oh, oh,” Luna said softly, her voice floating to the ground. Above them, the moon had reached its zenith. “The night, the longest day’s night, the night of the day of the Sun and the Heavens.” Luna squirmed in her sister’s grip, twisting until she was on her back, staring directly upwards. She lifted her hooves towards the sky, but they caught in Celestia’s mane. The filly teased them loose, then folded them back down over her sister’s chest. “The night is mine, and I see all the moonlight touches.”
Luna did not always see. Sometimes the new moon passed without a word from her sister. Other times, Luna would recite poems, or memories of the past. Once, she had sung a lullaby so exquisite the stars themselves seemed to twinkle in unison with her. In this dream-like state, Luna had done many wondrous things, and Celestia remembered them all. But tonight was different. Tonight, Luna saw. Celestia said nothing, now, not wanting to disturb her.
“The stars, the stars guide me. I look out onto them and they show me the way.” Luna’s voice was moving faster, the words flowing out of her mouth like water running over rocks. “They shine for me and I take the path into the night, the ever-lasting night.”
A chill moved up Celestia’s spine, the word ‘ever-lasting’ uncomfortable in her ears. But Luna continued.
“They see me, and I see them, and we look into each other and I am free.” Luna twisted, her head rocking back and forth. “The colors! So bright!” She gasped, and then went still. Her mouth began to move, words coming out so soft that Celestia, even when she put her ear right next to Luna’s face, could hardly hear them.
The filly muttered long into the night, saying and repeating words and phrases that Celestia committed to memory. Whether Luna would remember them tomorrow, Celestia did not know, and so the elder sister would remember them for her. The moon passed overhead, continuing its unerring trek until it reached the rim of the world, and began to sink behind it. Somewhere, back in the home the sisters knew, a dozen unicorns were concentrating on bringing about the dawn, their horns glowing in unison as they strained to push the sun into place.
But it did not affect the two fillies here, on a hill by the side of the Forest. One overlooked the land that would one day become the most important place in the world, the center of a dangerous, whirling force of power. One day, houses would spring up, there, and there, a market, a school, a hospice, and in the center of it all, a tree. One day, ponies would live on this ground, ponies who would decide the course of the world. One day.
The other filly drifted, her mane slowly regaining its dusky blue tone. And just before the moon disappeared, Luna spoke once more. Celestia listened, and then Luna closed her eyes and slept, her breathing deep and even. Celestia placed Luna gently on the ground, then lay down herself. She stared at the land before her, thinking over the strange and amazing things Luna had told her. Celestia let her eyes close as she sunk into the ground, feeling the rough grass tickle her chin and neck. Before she joined her sister in slumber, Celestia repeated Luna’s final words of the night.
“They step into the river and the current rises, and we will all be swept away.”
***
A/N: This is the prologue, and should be before Chapter 1. I just wrote it afterwards, so now it shows up later.