• Published 25th Feb 2012
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Star Gazing - Konseiga

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Potential

Twilight was dreaming. She was sure of that. I mean, she thought to herself, I really don’t have wings back in real life.


Lazily, Twilight stretched her wings out; reaching a wingspan that rivaled Princess Celestia’s. The Element of Magic tiara was nestled inside her mane, right in front of her horn, and she was dressed in gold slippers that covered her four hooves, with a golden necklace that had her cutie mark emblazoned on it wrapped around her neck.



Most of all, though, Twilight felt powerful.



Knowledge and raw magical energy coursed through her every vein, every fiber of her being. Her entire lavender coat glowed softly with all the energy, as if Twilight’s body was insufficient to hold all of it at once.



“That tiara looks wonderful on you,” a strange voice melded its way into Twilight’s thoughts. Twilight would have purred if she had been able; the voice was like a black silk, winding through Twilight’s ears. Nevertheless, Twilight was wary. She straightened up, taking in her surroundings for the first time. She observed the cast golden throne she was sitting upon, the various priceless pieces of art around her, the glass chandeliers that lined the ceiling, and the red velvet carpet that led right up to her throne. So, I’m in a royal reception hall.



“Not just any royal reception hall,” the voice purred, wrapping Twilight in its soft embrace, “YOUR royal reception hall.”


My hall? Twilight wondered. But I’m not royalty. I’m nopony special. The only ones deserving of a hall of this grandeur are the Princesses Celestia and Luna.


“They call themselves royal,” the voice continued to purr, yet there was an underlying sense of coldness, "and yet your power easily dwarfs theirs.”



Not a chance, Twilight thought, drawing her wings in tight against her side. They’d crush me soon as look at me if I even voiced that opinion.



“And yet, here you are. Twilight, my dear, you have yet to realize your full potential. The raw power at your hoovetips is immense, much more so than Celestia or Luna.”


Briefly noting the lack of the “Princess” title, Twilight just shrugged a little. After glancing around, she had noticed nopony in the room with her, so she relaxed again, spreading her wings out to a more comfortable position. And who are you, to say such treasonous things? Twilight wondered.



“Treason? Me? Twilight, you wound me with your callous words,” the voice said smoothly. “I’m only attempting to allow you to realize your potential. Just think of me as a guide.”


A guide? A guide to what? Twilight wondered. As she wondered, the fabric of her dream world began to fade to black at the edges. The last thing she heard before her dream vanished into oblivion was the silky voice laughing quietly.

~*~*~*~*~

“Twilight?”



Twilight grunted, wishing for Celestia to banish the annoying hoof prodding her side to the moon. She was still exhausted.



“Twilight…”



She groaned, refusing to open here eyes. This pony was persistant!



“TWILIGHT SPARKLE!”



OhmyCelestiawhatinhernamewasthatohjeezthatissoloud!


Twilight fell out of her bed in a heap, sheets tangled in her legs. Glaring at the offending pony, she came face to face with none other than Princess Luna herself. Twilight squeaked a little.



Luna just looked at her with a worried expression on her face. “You were muttering and thrashing in your sleep,” she said with concern. “Where you having a night- a bad dream?” Twilight faintly established Luna shying away from the word nightmare.



“Err,” Twilight untangled herself from her bed sheets, trying to recollect the dream she just had. It was like trying to hold water in her cupped hooves; it trickled away almost completely. Twilight just shrugged helplessly. “Sorry, Princess, I don’t remember. But beyond that, at the risk of sounding rude, why are you still here?”

Luna just levitated the sheets back onto Twilight’s bed, nimbly making it with a brow slightly furrowed in concentration. “Please, Twilight, just call me Luna,” she said kindly. “After all, you insisted that we be on more…familiar terms, yes?”



“O-of course, Pr- Luna,” Twilight felt a small blush creep on her face.



“As to my continued presence,” Luna gave Twilight a half smile, “My sister insisted that I stay here until she and I were convinced of your good health and speedy recovery. Since she will not take “she’s fine” as an answer for at least another week, I’m going to remain here and oversee your recovery.”



Then Luna glanced around and sighed. “Truth to be told, Twilight, I’m not really keen to return to the palace.” Twilight’s ears twitched slightly as a questioning look came over her face.

“Ever since ‘rebirthing’, so to speak, at the hands of the Elements of Harmony,” Luna spoke softly, which compelled Twilight to scoot closer to her, “I haven’t felt like I am ready to take up the mantle of night again.” She laughed softly, and without mirth. “Imagine that, a pony who is the very embodiment of night, not prepared to take her place,”



“I understand, Luna,” Twilight said softly. Luna turned a doubting look upon the lavender unicorn.



“Do you, Twilight?”



Twilight just nodded slowly. “I’ve been Princess Celestia’s protégé for quite a few years, now,” she said softly, scooting closer to Luna again. “Something that hasn’t happened for the better part of 200 years. I was the talk of Canterlot. People expected me to be everywhere, to be seen next to the Princess at all times. I was hounded for interviews, pictures, anything the paparazzi could get out of the “Promising Young Twilight Sparkle”,” Twilight said the name with soft undertones of disgust. “A jealous pony tried to poison me once, too. Concentrated Poison Joke, of all things.” Twilight frowned. “I never did find out what happened to her after the Princess found out.”



Luna shivered, imagining the kind of harsh punishment that her sister would deal to those trying to harm her pride and joy.



Twilight continued, “I was only a filly at that time, but I remember it clearly. I shut myself off from the rest of the world. I locked myself in the royal study, and only let my instructors and Princess Celestia in. I refused all contact with the outside world, and eventually, well, as the saying goes: “out of sight, out of mind”. Ponies forgot about me, which I wanted. I wasn’t ready to take on the mantle of being Princess Celestia’s prize student.”



Luna nodded. It’s a good analogy, she thought, but she doesn’t feel it calling to her every night, and doesn’t have to doubt the very essence of her being.


“I know it’s a meager analogy,” Twilight started. Luna flinched a little; could the lavender unicorn read minds, too? “But I can empathize, at least a little.”



“I’m grateful, Twilight,” Luna said, and was slightly surprised to realize that she meant it. In the palace, there weren’t many she could talk to about this. Her sister, yes, but that was about it. And yet, here she was now, pouring her heart out to some pony she had barely known, and whose first encounter wasn’t the most pleasant.



“How did you do it, Twilight?” Luna asked after a few minutes of silence.



“Do what, Pr-Luna?”



“How did you find it within yourself to act as kindly as you did to me?” Luna asked quietly. “When I arrived in Ponyville for Nightmare Night, I had an awful history of repression, rebellion, and imprisonment behind me. I stormed in demanding the affection of my subjects, yelling at them with tremendous amounts of volume. And,” Luna shrugged sheepishly, “I demanded that the weather corps schedule a lightning storm for more dramatic effect. Call it royal pride or perhaps even arrogance…” she trailed off, looking extremely sad. Twilight frowned slightly, opening her mouth to speak, but Luna continued. “All the residents of Ponyville ran from me, including your esteemed mayor.”



“Well, in all fairness, our mayor isn’t the best executive we could ask for,” Twilight muttered, remembering how Twilight herself had to take control of Winter Wrap Up.



Luna just shook her head. “It matters not. I had not made adoring subjects like I wished, and instead created fear. And not,” she added, smiling briefly, “the type of fear that makes ponies laugh and feel exhilarated.” The smile fled from her face as she continued, “I felt as hated and feared as I was under the influence of Nightmare Moon. So, in a bout of distinctly un-royal self pity, I broke down near a statue of the very thing that caused ponies to hate me in the first place.



“And then, out of nowhere, a compassionate unicorn showed up to ‘save the day’, as they say,” Luna looked the lavender unicorn right in the eyes, and Twilight felt herself blush. “Why, Twilight? How did you do it?”



“Oh, well, I…” Twilight trailed off, thinking. “I guess I know how difficult it is to be without friends,” she eventually said. “In all honesty, I couldn’t even begin to imagine life without the friends I’ve made since I arrived in Ponyville. We’ve only known each other for a comparatively short time, but Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Applejack have all been the best friends a pony could ask for. And I thought nopony deserved to be without that kind of friendship,” she concluded, blushing again.



Luna just nodded thoughtfully. “That makes sense, in a roundabout sort of way.”



“I-I, well…” Twilight stammered. Luna just giggled and stretched her legs.



“Would you accompany me to your balcony?” Luna asked, turning toward the door of Twilight’s room.



“I-I’d be honored,” Twilight said with a nervous stiffness. Luna just smiled and swished her tail, walking out the door. Twilight anxiously followed. “Oh, I almost forgot. Do you have a couple of light blankets? Or perhaps just one, like a picnic blanket?”



“Oh, yes, of course I do,” Twilight spoke so fast that she tumbled over her words. Regaining her composure, she levitated a black blanket out of her linen closet a floor below, casually floating it up the stairs to come by her side.



Luna raised her eyebrows, and when she spoke, it was in an appreciative tone. “You know, not many ponies can levitate something on an entire other floor without looking at it. And you had to open the door telekinetically too, didn’t you?”



Twilight just shrugged. “I’ve lived here long enough that I know the layout. It wasn’t really hard. I just assumed that a bunch of ponies can do it. Can’t they?”



“I only know of three,” Luna said, mischievous undertones lining her voice.



“Who?”



“My sister, myself, and you.”



Twilight squeaked. Luna laughed at the sound, sending the church bells in Twilight’s ears ringing. Luna opened the door to the balcony quietly, gently taking telekinetic control of the blanket and spreading it out on the balcony floor, and settling herself on one of the sides.



Twilight just stood there, drinking in the sight of Luna at night. Her tail and mane seemed to glow even brighter in the light of Her moon than Celestia’s sun, even though the latter was definitely brighter, and her cutie mark, both on her flank and on her necklace, positively shone.



“Twilight?” Luna didn’t turn around, but her voice was inquisitive. “You can come join me, if you’d like.”



Twilight’s legs seemed to move by their own accord. She plodded up and settled next to the Princess, keeping a respectful distance between them.



“Twilight, you can lie on the blanket, too. There’s plenty of room.”



“Oh, r-right.”



As she gingerly scooted closer to the Princess of the Night, Twilight felt herself begin to relax. How many times had she lain on a blanket, looking up at the night sky? She was in familiar territory.



As Luna stretched her wings (up, not out), Twilight gazed up at the night sky. “I still can’t believe it sometimes,” she muttered quietly.



“What was that?” Luna said in equally quiet terms. “What can’t you believe?”



“That you made all of this,” Twilight whispered. “It seems…unfathomable. How long did it take you? How did you design all of these stars?”



Luna chuckled quietly. “The stars were a manifestation of my imagination. You’re looking at a sky that formed itself to my raw thoughts, and once I had the canvas up, so to speak, I tweaked the details a bit.”



“Like making Sirius the brightest star in the sky?” Twilight mused.



“Yes, kind of like that,” Luna replied.



They sat in silence, gazing at the Night Princess’s handiwork, for a few minutes. Twilight finally broke the silence, “Luna, what were you doing while I was asleep?”



Luna looked at Twilight curiously. “I read a few of your books. I hope you don’t mind.”



“Well, it is a library. I expect ponies to come and take something to read, as long as they bring them back.”



“True enough,” Luna said with another smile. She was surprised, really, to find how many times this small lavender unicorn could make her smile. “I also saved the book you were reading from certain binding destruction.”



“Oh!” Twilight squeaked. She had forgotten about leaving The Wonders and Mysteries of Luna’s Sky open on her lap. “How bad of me, a librarian treating a book like that.”



Luna just smiled. “Why do you ask, Twilight?”



“Well, judging by the travel time it takes for a speedy pegasus to fly from Ponyville to Canterlot, and vice versa, I’d have to say that Princess Celestia’s response to my letter,” Twilight went red from embarrassment at the pleading letter, “was rather immediate. And you’re wide awake now, showing almost no signs of fatigue, and you were awake this morning, conscious enough to make the trip from there to here, AND you stayed awake all while I was sleeping.”



“And the point is…?”



“Do alicorns need sleep?” Twilight cringed at the categorical term for what the two Princesses were. Open mouth, insert hoof.



“A genuine question,” Luna mused. “No, Celestia and I do not need sleep as most ponies do. Occasionally, we’ll rest our bodies the old fashioned way, and sleep for a few minutes…”



A few MINUTES? Twilight’s mind screamed, but kept listening attentively.



“…but usually we can keep ourselves invigorated off of our magical energy alone.” Luna concluded.”



“So, you don’t need to sleep,” Twilight repeated. Luna shook her head. “Wow,” the unicorn got a funny look in her eye. “Think of all the time I could save…”



Luna poked Twilight’s side with her horn, not hard enough to hurt, but drawing a squeak from the smaller unicorn. “If my sister knew you were thinking of that now, with your health being less than satisfactory, she’d be fraught with worry.”



“Well, some things don’t always make their way into my letters, you know,” Twilight said impishly.



“Oh, really?” Luna said, an equally impish look finding it’s way to her face. “Like what?”



And so Twilight launched into a recount of almost all of her friendship lessons, starting immediately after she moved to Ponyville. She left nothing out, including everything from Pinkie Pie’s mental shock to her own crazy antics.



“And then I said, ‘She’ll put you in a dungeon! Or banish you! Or put you in a dungeon in the place she banished you to!’”



Luna laughed merrily. “You really thought that my sister would be that harsh over good intentions?”



Twilight just shrugged, a joyous expression gracing her face. “I wasn’t really thinking straight at the time. I always want to make a good impression on her, you know?”



“Well, you’ve certainly made a good impression on one princess,” Luna remarked casually, sending butterflies that would put Fluttershy’s cutie mark to shame flying through Twilight’s stomach.



“Th-thank you,” she mumbled. After recounting all her (mis)adventures with her friends, she was suddenly hit by a wall of exhaustion, and Twilight yawned hugely.



Absently, Luna draped a wing over Twilight, and it was only then Twilight realized that she was shivering. Murmuring her thanks, Twilight nestled herself against Luna’s side, closing her eyes and sinking into a blissful oblivion, leaving Luna to gaze at her creation in the sky, the moon reflecting her calmness.

~*~*~*~*~

“Well, this is certainly unexpected,” the dark voice muttered to itself. It had grown in strength, the shadow stretching over a decently sized corner. Now that it had grown, it could see that it was contained in a room. There was only one door, and it was of an imposing size.



“This shouldn’t be as much of a problem as it’s making itself,” the shadow mused, all the raspy intonations gone. Experimentally, the shadow flowed like pitch black water towards the door, looking for a crack to slip through. The barrier was solid, though, and no tendril of the shadow could escape.



Growling in frustration, the shadow looked at the door again.



“The only way to open this, it seems, is to get past these locks,” the shadow growled dancing around the door. There were five of them total. One was in the shape of an impressive thundercloud, with a single bolt of lightning extending its way out of the base. The four other locks were arranged in a square around the thundercloud, one in the shape of an apple, one in the shape of a diamond, one in the shape of a butterfly, and one in the shape of a balloon.



“And what type of key would fit in these?” the shadow mulled over the obstacle. “Obviously, physical keys are out of the question. So what do I know about my unwitting host?”


The shadow swirled for a moment, thinking.



“Oh, of course. The Elements of Harmony are, once again, blocking my path. Magic is missing, naturally, because of who I’m residing in.



“It seems we have Loyalty,” the shadow hovered over the thundercloud, “Laughter, Honesty, Generosity, and Kindness…” the shadow hovered over the balloon, the apple, the diamond, and the butterfly in turn.



“Perhaps if I can sever the bond that ties the Elements together…” sifting through the few memories of Twilight Sparkle that the shadow had access to, she came across a familiar face.



“Oh, dearest Discord,” the shadow laughed triumphantly. “It seems you were no match for the magic contained within this small unicorn. But your idea…” as the shadow observed the memories of Twilight’s closest friends becoming the antithesis of their Element, it began to cackle, and a plot started to form.