//------------------------------// // Chapter 39 // Story: Responsibilities // by Hiver //------------------------------// Leaning against Lunas side, I shifted my wings beneath hers as I turned the page in my book, “That wasn’t expected, was it?” I said after a moment. Luna shook her head, “Not even close.” “That’s what I thought,” I said with a frown, looking out the window, “I… really supposed we should have. I mean, alicorn mother, makes sense the foal would be alicorn. More often than not, the foal is the same subspecies as the mother even with mixed couples.” “It was simply unexpected,” Luna admitted, “It was so surprising that an alicorn had a foal that it didn’t even occur to me. But when you put it like that, My Page, it does make sense.” I nodded, “Still, very, very unexpected. I thought the alicorn thing came with… well? You know what I mean?” She nodded, “Indeed. We just have to wait and see I believe.” I hummed and agreed, turning to the next page in the book. The latest daring doo didn’t quite live up to the previous one I have to admit. Almost felt like she was rushing through it. That little filly is going to have some trouble growing up. All that expectations… Good thing she has good parents. Cadence did become an alicorn at a young age, younger than Twilight or myself. She knew what came with the territory. “…Damn it, still not sleepy,” I sighed and closed the book, “I think I’ll use the spell or it’ll be a pain to wake up tomorrow.” “I’ll stay up for a couple of more minutes, I need to finish this,” Luna said and nuzzled at my ear, “Sweet dreams, My Page. See you in a bit.” “Sweet dreams,” I answered and nuzzled before I floated the book over to the nightside table and relaxing against the bed, my horn lighting up before I found myself in the dream realm. Stretching my wings, I moved to filter through the active dreamers. No Nightmares, just bad dreams. Good, I really wasn’t in the mood to hunt today. The portal before me belonged to Clear Skies. She was having a bad dream. Again. I checked a couple of her dreams after getting Skitter to check up on her. No news from the changelings about her, but her dreams looked normal. Last bad dream she had was about completely messing up a state dinner. Can’t really blame her for being stressed out about dating Celestia, even if it was in secret so far. That have got to be a lot of pressure on her shoulders. A quick application of will and magic caused the dream portal before me to shift and still, going from dark and stormy silver to a smooth soft silvery blue. Luna taught me how to do that, affect dreams without being inside them. It was trickier and give you a bit less control, but for things like ending bad dreams it was perfect. Much more elegant than simply cancelling the dream and sending them off to dreamless sleep. Nodding to myself, I stretched my wings and took to the not-air, flying above the seemingly endless portals. If she made Sunshine happy, she deserved to sleep as well as I could let her. Hmm… find Sunny about the last alicorn and tell her the news or see her expression when she finally see the little filly? Hah! What stupid question is that! No way I’ll ruin that surprise! Maybe Skitter? …Better not, Changeling dreams are really, really confusing and strange. I tried to visit her once and bad, bad idea. Griffons were fine. Changelings? Rather not repeat that anytime soon. I suspected it was something with that semi hivemind carrier thing. Very confusing. Celestia should be asleep, let’s stop by her. Swooping down, I came to a stop by her shimmering dream. Silvery blue with a hint of pink to it. A rather nice dream then, but should be safe enough to enter. Then again, it’s on it’s way to a more romantic dream. Interrupting now would feel mean, it would stop it from happening and Celestia deserved as much happiness as possible. So that plan was out. I guess I’ll just want for Luna then or simply get some sleep. Hmm… Weaving a dreamworld of my own, I walked through my own silver dream portal into a blank white canvas of a world. Luna should be here soon, even with time moving differently here, I better hurry up with whatever I was going to do. Sitting down, I looked around with a frown. Something nice… Humming to myself I then slowly nodded and tapped my hoof against the not-floor and a circle of light radiated out from me. The white floor was replacing with smooth marble stone. The dream changed around me, replacing the empty white space with the throneroom like I remembered it from the Castle of the Two Sisters, but different. This place was intact, a mix of what I remembered and from what Celestia had shown me in her dreams. Not as pretty as the throneroom at Canterlot, but it was also a lot older, originally constructed some three thousand years ago. Canterlot was barely older than a thousand. Getting up, I looked around. An application of will caused sconces along the walls to burst into flame and the tapestries changed from the ones holding Celestias and Lunas marks. The old colors kind of flowed off them to be replaced with dark red background and a silver circle in the middle. A twitch of my head and some application of will caused the air to shimmer around me, reforming into a dark silver set of armour with a cloak. Jumping onto the throne, I settled down to wait. I didn’t need to wait long until the door to the throneroom opened and Luna stepped inside, looking around. She blinked at the surroundings, “Page? What is this?” “Welcome, Princess of the Stars,” I said, “Have you come and negotiate your surrender to the Lord of Dreams? Just give up, you will never unite the lands without me.” Luna looked at me in surprise and then she smirked and moved closer, her horn flashing and she shook her head, armour starting to cover her in an old style I once saw in Celestias dream, “And what would the terms be, Lord of Dreams?” “Negotiable.”