Within and Without

by Cloudy Skies

Chapter 20

The ancient ruins of Crepuscin surrounded them. The earth had swallowed the carcass of the metropolis whole, all its streets entombed in almost pristine condition. What Twilight had thought stone formations were in fact the crumbling houses of the street they walked. Low overhead, barely clearing the rooftops of the residences, the earth sagged down, pierced in places by the roots of great trees above. Luna's horn flared a little brighter, adding detail to the ghastly and timeless scene.

It was all too easy to believe that she was back in the memory. When Twilight closed her eyes, she could imagine the earthen roof above disappearing, giving way to the clear night sky. Yet here, the air did not move. The ground was covered in dust and spattered with dry soil - nothing stirred. Equestria had forgotten this place, and the Everfree was not about to remind anypony.

"There is a lesson to be learned here, one about power, Twilight," Luna said, surveying the caved-in houses that surrounded them in the claustrophobic streetscape. If Twilight saw in this place a reminder of what she remembered of a borrowed memory, she couldn't imagine what the princess felt right now. This had been her home for how long?

"This way," Luna suddenly added, as if she only just now noticed something. The princess set off down the road, kicking up dust as she galloped. Twilight, only half-way through formulating a reply, could do little but follow.

The pace Luna set was gruelling. She glanced back at Twilight every now and then to make sure that the unicorn was following, but she did not seem to notice or care how hard she was pushing the bookish mare. Twilight was in far better shape now than she had ever been before in her life, but she was still no athlete. Rows upon rows of houses in various states of decay rushed by in a blur. They passed by gardens of moss, fungi and other odd lightless plants that had seized entire quarters of the the city in their webs.

No words were said, but that was just fine. Twilight barely had the spare energy to think, much less speak. Their only company was their own rapid hoofbeats which triggered an odd susurrus echoing into infinity. It was almost too appropriate that Twilight worked herself into a lather dashing after the princess possessed, yet again without an explanation. The only difference was that this time it was rather more physical than the usual scene. Her legs hurt and her muscles burned.

It was impossible to tell for how long they thus galloped through the cobbled streets. Often, they were forced to go around whole city-blocks when they encountered a section that had collapsed. The underground forests barred passage twice as often as that again. Luna's horn glowed a silver-blue light as she led them through the twists and turns of the ruins, causing shadows to dance madly in her wake. Twilight could have sworn Luna continually upped her pace, forcing Twilight to do the same. She did not want to be left behind. Not here.

At long last, Luna slowed down, finally coming to a halt. A cracked and broken stone wall barred their way, stretching out to either side, followed by the road. The princess did not elect to go in either of the directions offered by the T-junction, pausing on the spot.

Twilight was heaving for breath and gradually slowed her pace, trotting in wide circles around the area. She remembered only parts of what she'd learned when she read up on exercise and long distance galloping theory in preparation of the running of the leaves; there was something about the muscles, but it just felt stupid. Nevertheless, she trusted what she'd read more than her own impulse to lay down and die on the spot.

"Here," Luna said as if the wall was their goal.

Twilight came to a stop near Luna, taking huge gulps of air still. "Here," she said. "It’s a really neat wall. I like it. Good stone."

Luna's horn glimmered briefly in response. The entire cave shuddered as a great crack sounded, followed by a terrible grating rumble. Twilight flattened her ears and winced at the painfully loud echo that reverberated for a long time afterwards. The wall had split down the middle before being pulled apart like a pair of curtains. Stone curtains. It was a wonder that the cave had not come crashing down upon them.

"Uh, we could've gone around?" Twilight commented, giving the wall a second look. She was surprised she didn't realize it before, but this was quite clearly the outer wall of the palace. If Luna's memory served her right, then...

"I mean, the gates should be around the corner, right?" she elaborated, glancing left, then right. It was hard to say which of the two was the right way, considering the low-hanging roof.

"They would be, yes," Luna agreed, dismissing Twilight's words entirely. The princess disappeared inside the hole in the wall that she had made, bringing her light with her. Twilight did not even think to simply create a light of her own, instead scurrying to follow.

It was not just a hole, Twilight soon realized, but a tunnel. Luna had pierced the outer wall and whatever lay behind it, landing them in the interior of a building. The dusty and faded stone that made up the walls in here was not the marble Twilight had come to expect of architecture where royalty was concerned. Every surface was a dark, almost pitch-black stone that retained an odd lustre, shining despite the layers of dust.

A spiral staircase nearby was the only surviving element in the room save for a large stone desk by the entrance and a set of great stone doors, presumably leading to the courtyard. Everything else had long since turned to nothing and been scattered about the room as dust.

"My tower," Luna commented, tentatively approaching the staircase that pierced the room going both up and down.

"You're heading for the Star Hammer?" Twilight guessed. "You said it was... part of you?"

"We are, and it is," Luna said, beginning her descent, Twilight right behind her. "It is calling out to me."

"You mean you are calling out to you," Twilight commented, suppressing a snort at the absurdity of the situation, even as curiosity drove her on. "How does that even work, anyway? Being in two places at once? Or, with the memory, three?"

Luna chuckled. Though the mirth was tinged with the obvious nervousness, it was the first non-gloomy noise Twilight had heard since they had entered this forsaken place. "I will be happy to explain another time, but this is really not the place for debates on simulacra and related concepts, Twilight. Suffice it to say the memory contained a me, and the Star Hammer is the same, but, hm. Separate? Disjointed, perhaps."

Twilight nodded at this, though she took precious little home from the answer except the promise. The staircase shortly terminated in a dark hallway made from the same dark stone that glittered in the glow of Luna's horn. It was like walking in a tunnel made of millions of little stars.

When she managed to tear her eyes off the almost hypnotic sight, Twilight noticed that the dust here was disturbed. It didn't take a very skilled tracker to see that somepony had walked down this hall before them. Trixie had come here.

They passed by multiple sets of doors, each in the ubiquitous stone type that Twilight had never before seen. Every single one of the doors were closed, and to a one, passed by with complete disinterest by the princess. Before long, they stood at the end of the hallway, facing a set of double doors. Yet again with the star-speckled stone, but this time, painted with stylized images of Luna herself. On each of the two doors, an angular and majestic Luna reared up, wings spread and horn aglow. Yellow runes were plastered all over the door, clashing rather catastrophically with the artwork.

"Solid wardwork," Luna muttered appreciatively before a quick pulse of her horn tore the doors open with a loud grating of stone on stone. The runes winked out without a sound, admitting the two ponies to Luna's study.

"You really had a gloomy taste in decór," Twilight said, channeling Rarity as she surveyed the room. She wasn't exactly one to spend much time contemplating interior decoration, and sure, the library had pretty much come fully furnished, but this was absurd. "What happened here? Is this Trixie's fault?"

Aside from the piles of pulp she presumed had once been bookcases, the room was a mess of shelves, tables and workbenches spread about seemingly at random. More than half of them were toppled or broken, stone furniture simply torn apart. Odd objects were scattered about the room. Here, sheets of some odd metal. Over there, a trio of vials with oddly colored liquids that had somehow not shattered. Was that an abacus propped up on a pillow?

"No. Touch nothing, Twilight Sparkle," Luna said, jaw set and voice grim. "These are the final hours of my madness. I do not think even I can tell you what half of this is, any more."

Twilight nodded mutely, staying very close to Luna as she picked her way through the detritus in the room. Her goal quickly became apparent. Hovering over a pedestal against the far wall, an eerily familiar orb rested. Waited. Twilight could feel it pull on the edges of her mind even as she looked at it. The purple unicorn was only vaguely aware that the princess had halted, but she kept walking.

Something shattered under her hoof. She kept walking still. A voice called out to her, but she ignored it. In the inky blackness of the orb, deep within the Star Hammer, something familiar drew her closer. It was no siren song with malicious intent, Twilight knew. It was an earnest and pure call.

Another step. An insistent and fearful call that was blocked out. The Star Hammer soundlessly screamed for her to seize it. Wailed and begged for her attention. Urged for her to touch it. Contrary to what she had thought, it did not offer her power. It offered only itself. This wasn't some irrational urge. She was in control, was she not?

Yet another step. She almost stumbled against something, but caught herself before she fell. The voice was louder, but it was mere sound; Twilight was far removed from whatever realm sound existed on, now. Just as she recognized exactly what it was that waited for her at the core of that blackened orb, just as she was about to reach out with her magic, she was snapped back to reality when the world literally turned up-side down.

Twilight Sparkle dangled by one of her hindhooves in Luna's telekinetic grip. The princess regarded her with a combination of sympathy and disappointment. "I had thought you strong enough to resist the lure that comes with objects of power. I suppose we should have taken precautions after all. Do you understand my words? Are you quite yourself?"

Twilight nodded, an awkward motion given the way she hung. The princess instantly righted her and gently put her down on the ground again, though she put herself between Twilight and the Star Hammer, attention absorbed by the orb, now.

The Star Hammer was Luna, and she was it, she had said. At least on some level, that terrible weapon was the princess. Perhaps Trixie had been snared by what she thought she could do with the orb. Perhaps the unlucky and ambitious unicorn mare had stumbled in here and seen in the orb a way to elevate herself above others. A path to power.

That was not the tale the orb told Twilight.

"You didn't lie," Twilight muttered.

"I rarely do," Luna said absentmindedly. Her horn shimmered as the orb floated from its home above the pedestal to hover at her side. The Star Hammer seemed a lot less threatening all of a sudden, an almost inconsequential little ball of darkness where it before throbbed with potency.

Twilight had felt the pull inside the orb, the desire that the princess felt. A burning urge to be with her. To be close. If the Star Hammer was Luna as surely as the princess before her, then that washed away any doubt Twilight had. The princess' affection was genuine. What was missing? Did it come down to that one item of the past that Twilight had promised she would leave alone? Would it end like this, with another stupid little secret?

The light level in the room increased. It took a moment before Twilight recognized this wasn't because Luna had brightened the glow of her horn, but simply because a source of darkness had disappeared. The orb was gone.

"Where-" Twilight blinked. "The Star Hammer? Where did it go?"

Luna looked like she'd swallowed a bug. She worked her lips and frowned before answering. "It is with me, safe, no longer made manifest. You never asked where Celestia keeps the Sun Spear, did you?"

Was it just her imagination, or did Luna look a little taller? Her eyes must be playing tricks on her, she decided. Luna made for the door, and Twilight followed, a little uneasy now. "I just assumed she kept it safe. You mean to say she has it inside of her?"

"It is not even an 'it' at all when it has no form, considering it is part of her, just like with me," Luna explained, waiting for Twilight outside the room. Twilight hesitated at the threshold.

“But, wait. The Sun Spear is part of Celestia, too?” Twilight protested, thinking back to that one part of the memory that, above all, she wished to forget. “I... don’t understand, there’s nothing of that in her. I don’t see it.”

Luna pursed her lips in thought, furrowing her brow. The statement gave the princess pause. Had Twilight implied something she did not fully understand herself? She had no idea what was going on in the goddess’ mind. It became obvious that she would get no answer, though.

"Um, what are you going to do with the rest of the stuff in here?" Twilight asked, changing the subject and glancing behind her as she left the room. "It can't all be horrible mind-shattering secrets and pain, right? Are you going to destroy it all?"

"Purge it," Luna muttered, making it sound like a disagreement. As if the words "purge" and "destroy" were qualitatively different. The second Twilight had exited, she slammed the doors shut with a burst of telekinesis.

"Right, deal with your study, check," Twilight said, crossing that item out. Her imaginary checklist only had two items on it, but it was the principle of the thing. The next item was a little vague, though. Closure.

"Yes," Luna said, unmoving.

"You don't want to go through the courtyard," Twilight said.

"No," the princess confirmed, sighing.

"Which probably means it's exactly what we should do," the unicorn replied. It was only logical, and it seemed they both knew it. Their path was rapidly narrowing, and everything seemed to point in one direction.

Luna looked over at her, and Twilight could swear the princess was wordlessly begging her for succor. The goddess so burdened with the past pleaded Twilight to let her go, like a foal who did not want to eat her broccoli. When she spoke, her voice was strained.

"Lead the way."

Without hesitation, Twilight nodded and did just that. She walked in front and started moving, simple as that. If that little gesture was what the princess needed for strength now, she would of course provide. She heard Luna follow, and it was both humbling and terrifying.

Twilight desperately wanted to fill the air with small talk, but she had no idea what to say. She almost started laughing just at the thought of commenting on the weather. When nothing had been said by either of them by the time they ascended the stairs and returned to the main room of Luna's old tower, there was little hope left for either of them starting anything remotely like a casual conversation.

Casting her eyes around the unsurprisingly unchanged room, Twilight trotted up to the massive set of stone doors that dominated one of the walls. If her understanding of the area was even remotely correct, they would open into the main plaza of the palace courtyard. Her horn lit as she gripped them with her telekinesis.

The courtyard. Where hundreds of ponies had stood silent vigil over Luna's madness. The courtyard where the most loyal of subjects had waited in mute protest. The courtyard where the last citizens of Crepuscin had come despite knowing they walked to their deaths.

Suddenly, the task felt too big for Twilight. She let her magic fade. She had stood atop that tower and watched the city crumble. Twilight had bore witness to the resolve and bravery of these ponies. As it stood, their fate was unknown. Twilight could fool herself into thinking that as long as she didn't know, it was okay. The smoke and ash that hid whatever transpired down here could just as easily have covered their escape, right?

Twilight peered over her shoulder. She had half expected that when she faltered, Luna would pick up where she left off. Not this time. The princess didn't break open the doors and boldly stride out into the open to face whatever lay beyond. She did not direct the full power of a goddess against her obstacles when Twilight hesitated.

Princess Luna stood entirely still and mute. Her eyes were clenched shut, and she shook. Twilight knew then that if she did not do this now, it would never be done. Feeling more like an executioner than a saviour, Twilight once again gripped the doors with her mind, surrounding them with a purple glow before she gave them a yank. The doors barely moved, shrieking and groaning as they resisted her efforts. She tugged at them, her horn brightening as she intensified her efforts. The doors moved by a hoof or two with a deafening and reluctant rumble.

Twilight gritted her teeth. The entire room lit up as she tore at the doors with all her might, and for a precious few seconds, the intense light from her horn made the chamber come alive. For a fleeting moment, Luna's tower lived again, stonework brightly illuminated and twinkling with innumerable stars in an enchantingly beautiful scene.

The effect was quickly broken when the doors both fell inwards. Twilight gave a startled yell and jumped back as the two massive slabs of dark stone toppled to the ground, their hinges warped and undone. When the dust kicked up by their fall finally settled, Twilight saw that neither of the doors showed so much as a single crack.

Twilight did not wait to see if Luna would begin moving of her own accord. The unicorn walked around the fallen doors and slipped outside, hoping against hope for something, though she didn't know what.

Whatever it was she had been hoping for, she was pretty sure this wasn't it. Of course the loyal ponies hadn't escaped. It did not matter if they could have gotten away. She had seen their determination as she passed them by. They did not even try to run; they had died as they stood. Twilight felt her breath leave her as she exited the building and stepped into the eerily familiar courtyard.

The cave ceiling was a little higher here, but the earth still greedily hugged the ruins. In places, the spires were toppled, but other buildings simply stabbed upwards, towers disappearing into the earth - Luna's own tower among them. These were mere afterthoughts compared to the scene before her. Twilight almost hated herself and her innate curiosity as she brightened the area bit by bit, revealing more of the plaza.

Bones. Shattered bones where pieces of crumbling towers had come raining down on them. Pulverized bones where boulder-sized chunks of the palace had hit. Charred and blackened bone that defied explanation, and perhaps most terrifying of all, full skeletons that showed no signs of damage. It was as if some of them had simply lay down and died on the spot.

Twilight sat down heavily. It was getting hard to feel anything at this point, but she had room for a portion of "tired". She was utterly unable to tear her eyes off the tens of thousands of bones scattered around the sunken plaza.

"I always wondered," came a voice at her side. It was Luna, of course, the princess having sidled up to her silent as a spectre. When she spoke, it was a haunted whisper. "I wondered, and now I know. Am I supposed to feel better?"

Having no answer for that, and indeed asking herself the very same question, Twilight remained quiet. The princess moved past her and entered the knee-high forest of bones. Twilight got up and made to follow, but something caught her attention at the corner of her vision. Something of metal shone back at her in the glow of her horn.

Twilight gently seized the object with her magic and levitated it over to look at it. It was a bent and worn star insignia like the ones used by the royal guard. The hoof-sized piece of flat metal did not resemble any of the disciplines of the current guard, though. She idly turned it around, entranced by how it still shone despite having waited here for a millennium. Her joy was short-lived, though. A frustrated sigh pierced the silence.

At first, Luna had been careful, respectfully avoiding stepping on any of the remnants that littered the square. When Twilight looked up, she saw Luna's hoof had caught between two bones. The princess sighed and tried reversing her step, but the bones, brittle with age, snapped. Luna's eyes widened in terror.

"No," she mouthed, jaw slack. Twilight began making her way over to her, but even as she did so, Luna's astonishment melted away and reformed as a vicious anger.

"You idiots," Luna hissed, bringing her hoof down with force, scattering the bones of the offending skeleton. "You stubborn-" another stomp. A small shock wave scattered a half-dozen skeletons. "Loathsome-" both hooves now. There was magic in the impact. Bones flew everywhere. "Idiots!" Luna concluded with a roar and a leap into the air. When she landed, it was with a tremendous boom that cleared a good portion of the plaza, knocking Twilight flat on her back.

Bones rained back down to the ground in a morbid shower that seemed to go on forever. When the last of the bones had settled, all was quiet. Twilight collected the guard insignia she'd dropped and tried to get up on her hooves, but her left hindleg stung when she attempted to move it. Twilight groaned and strained to see what was wrong. Pain shot through her side.

"Oh you must be joking," Luna muttered from somewhere nearby, her voice quickly rising. "Twilight, lay still!"

Uncomprehending, Twilight tried again to get up, finding that she absolutely could not. She yelped in pain and obliged the princess, feeling the beginnings of fear take root. "Luna, what's wrong with me?"

"You fell-" Luna began, immediately correcting herself. "I tossed you onto something, it seems. You have a rib bone sticking out of your leg. There is... quite a bit of blood."

"Oh," Twilight said, trying to keep her breathing steady. That would explain a lot, including the slickness of the ground where she lay. And the pain. And the immobility. "Is that all?" she chuckled nervously, grinning. "Here I thought it was something bad."

The princess did not seem similarly amused. Twilight was seized by Luna's magic for the second time in what she assumed was the same day, summarily lifted up in the air. She gritted her teeth and sucked in breath as her hurt leg shifted. The pitter-patter of the blood dripping freely onto the ground made her a little uneasy.

"That was dumb," Luna muttered, trotting back towards the tower from where they had come, levitating the unicorn close by her side all the while. For her part, Twilight was gripping the guard insignia in her psychic grip as tight as she could.

"Coming here?" Twilight asked, feeling a little odd being carried around like this. "And where are we going? Is this going to be a thing, me asking where we are going?"

"I was referring to me going on a foalish rampage, actually," Luna said with a smile that did not reach her eyes. "And to answer your other question, we are going to my bedchambers."

Twilight did not believe her ears for even one moment, even as Luna wound past the fallen doors and made for the staircase of her old tower. "Uh-huh, and after that, we're going to stop by the Moon for hayfries, yes?"

"If you want. It is the least I could do," Luna agreed.

Of all the moments for Luna to grow a sense of humor, Twilight thought with no small amount of frustration. The princess had to levitate her at a bit of an angle to get her up the stairs, and Twilight found herself facing the princess in the process.

"That was incredibly stupid," Luna repeated, grimacing. Their snouts were not even two hoofbreadths apart.

"Yeah, well, it happens," Twilight said, trying to shrug and succeeding in doing very little except shifting her leg again. She winced. "Make it a double portion of hayfries and we're even."

Luna puffed out her cheeks and closed her eyes for a second. It did not seem to impact her ability to maneuver as she got off the stairs at the next landing. They were apparently heading towards a large door at the end of a short hallway that had survived the destruction relatively intact.

"You weren't even joking," Twilight said, staring. "Your bedroom."

"You are hurt, long distance teleportation in your state is inadvisable at best, and just about every object in my bedchambers was so heavily ensorcelled thanks to my paranoia that it is most likely entirely intact," Luna rattled off. "So no, I was not joking."

"It just seems a little forward, is all," Twilight giggled. The pain wasn't quite so bad any more, really. "Rarity always said that you should wait until at least the second date."

Luna upped her pace, stealing a quick glance at the crimson trail that they were leaving behind. "Okay, you are getting delirious. This is not good. Healing was never my forté." It sounded like she was talking to herself more than Twilight. "If this gets any worse, I am going to take you straight to Celly."

The door at the end of the hallway opened, and Luna took them both inside. She had not been wrong when she suggested it might be "intact." The large bedroom could have been part of any castle or mansion in Canterlot if not for the fact that where it could once have been described as "airy", it was now more "earthy". The considerable amount of windows the room had once sported were all shattered, soil and stone having poured in. A good portion of the room was still serviceable, though. Twilight was gently laid down on a huge bed covered in dark silks.

Twilight coughed, twice, each time sending a dull pain through her body, originating from that damnable hindleg. She could see now that a large bone was sticking out from it, just below her cutie mark.

"I am going to remove the bone and then close the wound," Luna said, her horn softly glowing as she locked eyes with Twilight. "This might hurt a bit. Are you ready?"

"Hey, if you do a bad job, it's not like you can't just bring me back, right?" Twilight chuckled, grinning hugely.

"Do not even joke about that," Luna growled, yanking the bone out with sudden ferocity.

Twilight's eyes bulged as the world around her exploded in a barrage of blinding lights. The pain was too intense to even begin to voice, and she lay gasping for breath, only vaguely aware that the princess was still working. With painstaking slowness, everything calmed down and crept back into focus. The shattering pain became a sting, which in turn simmered down to being a throb. Twilight lay unmoving on her side still. She was tired. So very tired.

At some point, Luna's face filled her vision. That beautiful face, that lovely blue mane, those bright blue eyes, all marred by a frown. Why couldn't she simply smile more often? She was so pretty when she smiled. Twilight sniffled. Her nose was running, but she couldn't even be bothered to bring a hoof up to her snout.

"Yet still you do not hate me. Why is that?" Luna asked. "I still hurt you in so many ways. You have done all you said you would do and more besides. I have rewarded you with pain, yet here you are, smiling."

Twilight had not noticed the smile creep up on her face. It surprised herself, in fact. She had never before felt quite so lucid. Perhaps it took severe blood loss and pain to see the truth sometimes. "Because it's what you want," Twilight said. "You want me to hate you. It's the easy way out.

"But you're trying to do it with the truth," Twilight muttered, shaking her head. It was an awkward movement that rubbed her face uncomfortably against the dusty covers of the bed. "You're trying to drive me away by showing me who you really are, but you know, it's all quite silly."

Luna's face lost all expression, her mouth half open. It was not the practiced neutrality of the mask that she so often donned. The princess seemed at a loss for words, but she was listening. That was a start.

"I used to be afraid of you. I told myself I left that behind long ago, but I think that was a lie, I don't know," Twilight croaked. It was finally making sense. "I'd be stupid to not be afraid of you. You're terrifying, sometimes, but that's not going to scare me off. I think you are afraid of me, sometimes, too."

"I never really answered the question, you know. What we are. What I want," Twilight said, blinking to try to clear the fog that was covering her eyes. "You know the real answer, but I never told you. We sort of never got back to the subject, huh?"

"Don't," Luna whispered, but she did not move from her spot. She sat perfectly still, staring back at Twilight.

Twilight giggled. She must look patently ridiculous. She was pretty sure he had snot hanging from her nose, she was bleeding, dishevelled and covered in dust besides. "I think, Princess Luna, that I may in fact love you too, and there's not a thing you can do about that."

Luna shut her eyes and flinched. It was as if the words hurt her.

This would be the part where Luna kissed her, but the princess sat still. Twilight did not have the energy left to mount an appropriately disappointed reaction to it all. She aimed for a shrug, but nothing really moved. "Oh well," she said, closing her eyes. "Oh- I also found this," she began to say, but her words were lost even to herself.

---

The bed was soft, but unruly. The only praise Twilight could give was that it moved in a consistent and predictable fashion. The world smelled of dust, and her leg hurt. She wondered if her friends were okay. She thought of Luna, and it hurt worse than her leg. She fell asleep again.

Twilight was flying. She had no idea how or why but her entire body was floating in the air, and it felt wonderful. Her leg still hurt and it still smelled of dust. Something was making an annoying rhythmic noise. Hooves on metal? She was flying. Her hooves couldn't make noise when she was flying. It didn’t make sense, so she went to sleep.

It was cold. Twilight thought she sneezed, but was hard to tell because her body felt so numb. Despite this, something warm moved under her, and it was the most pleasurable feeling in the world. It reminded her of something else that had happened recently, or at least, she thought it had been recently. It smelled cold, and her leg still hurt.

The bed was still, warm and soft. Something brushed against her lips, leaving behind a pleasant taste that Twilight could not describe. Her entire body tingled and a familiar smell lingered, but it was not enough. She didn’t care about her leg any more. On some level, she was aware that she was asleep and trying to wake. She was dreaming, but the dream responded and yielded, even if it felt like swimming through syrup. She could touch upon it. She could wake up-

---

Twilight opened her eyes. She had no idea what time it was. She had no idea what day it was. What she knew was that she was in her own bed. That alone was enough to make her want to tear up; the realization that she lay under her own covers in her bed back at the Ponyville library. The safe familiarity of every single little detail was defeat, everything from her many bookcases all the way down to the texture of the fabric of her duvet.

Her head, her brain, her very thoughts felt raw and tender. What little scrap of rational thinking she was able to scavenge told her she was supposed to be asleep, resting and recovering. She turned her head at a noise just in time to see a shadow depart from the balcony. The door was still open, and a gust of wind gifted her bedroom with a few dry leaves.

Voices from below. A commotion in the main room downstairs.

"She's hurtin'? And Luna just dumped her here?" Applejack's familiar twang reported over the sound of hooves against the wooden floor. Twilight heard Spike make a reply, but she couldn't quite make out his words.

Noises, shapes, movement, but little else. Twilight's head felt strangely empty. Clear. She knew it wouldn't last. Taking care not to move more than she absolutely had to, she called upon her magic to levitate over a quill and parchment from her bedstand. Multiple sets of hoofsteps thundered up the stairs even as she began writing. She did not know for how much longer she could hold in all that which welled up inside her.

Dear Princess Celestia.

Comments

[Dark0592]

...uh oh, clicking the next chapter with much ferocity