//------------------------------// // As an Ancient Airship Flies // Story: What Once Was Lost // by SpaceName //------------------------------// “You believe the new emperor and the bat mare to be connected.” Luna doesn’t so much accuse as she states with a tone that makes it very clear she thinks this is something obvious. Which, to her, it was. Even a thousand years apart she still was able to read her older sibling like an open book. Celestia dipped at yet another cup of tea. Her fourth today if Luna remembered correctly. They were walking toward the airship docks now, almost there in fact, while royal guard walked or ran around them. Shift changes, messengers, and airship crewponies were all working hard today to make sure that when the princesses left, it would be with little hassle. Celestia has no doubt had to sweet talk and wrangle the nobles in and outside of the council to be able to get an entire week for the both of them like this. Luna was a no fool. The council liked to believe they held more power than they actually had and the only thing holding Celestia back from disbanding them all together at this rate were the few good ones in the mix. “And what makes you think that?” “We are going to fly in an airship when we could simply teleport to both locations. Just the fact that both of these things were made aware to us at the same time cannot be a coincidence, sister. You even brought up those dreams I was traveling and trying to piece together before I went mad!” “You do bring up good points.” The larger white alicorn neither confirmed nor denied any of that. “I must ask you though, when you finally see the inspiration for your guards, mm, aesthetic. The mare whose unfathomable dreamscape started you down that path of dream interpretation and the foundation for modern psychology as we understand it. What will you do?” Oh. So that’s what her game had been. To know what Luna would do with this first half of their trip? “Well, I-“ Luna started to say before she could really think, backpedaling when no plan formed in her mind, “I would talk to her.” Celestia nods her head and hums in this way like she knew this would be the kind of answer she’d receive. “Just talk?” “Well, what would you suggest then, sister? That we ask how she came to be the way that she is? That we ask where she plans to make her home?” Perhaps they should also ask if thestrals truly existed and if she was the only one of her kind before her ascension. That would go over really well, Luna thought to herself with a grumbling sarcastic tone. Celestia stopped in front of the door that would lead to the hanger which housed the airship they’d be taking for this trip, “That second question is a good one. I hadn’t thought of it.” Luna snorted, “Oh please.” “No, really. I hadn’t thought to ask as, by the letter, it appeared that this alicorn has been around for centuries and yet we’ve never seen or heard of her before your dreamwalking came across her. That she all but disappeared during those thousand years and that not one of these others she mentioned not even her relative, Rose, has shown up in that time either. No, I had thought that wherever she made her home, whether it be the griffin lands or elsewhere, it is quite remote and she doesn't wish to be disturbed.” “You’re worried.” “No.” She opens the door to reveal the hanger, finally, teleporting her now empty cup back to the kitchens, “Just cautious. Our homeland may be lost to us now, but that doesn’t mean it is lost to others or that we were the only ones to have left.” But Luna wasn’t focused on her sister’s words at that moment. “Okay. Okay, but consider that you are the best sister an alicorn could ever ask for?” Cue a raised eyebrow in her direction. “You created a replica of my Wandering Star!” Realization dawned on her face and Luna thinks she was about to go and explain before the white alicorn burst out laughing. Right there in front of the royal guard who paused for a brief moment to listen and wonder. Right there in front of Luna’s prized airship that had won her both many a race as well as many a battle. “I’m. I'm sorry Luna. No. This is hardly a replica. I wouldn’t know where to begin and blueprints were never found for it. No. This is the original.” “You preserves it.” Preservation magic wasn’t complicated, but the amount of magic it took to renew it over and over for near to a thousand years? That she did this spoke more than Celestia’s words could say. “Yes. Yes, we of course had to tweak a few things to keep it to code and regulations but I personally made sure that any changes made, as you weren’t aware, were only those ne- Luna. Luna. You’re kind of choking me.” Oops. “Do you want to go check the inside?” Luna was already trotting up the ramp and through the entrance. She barely registered the, “Guess I don’t have to ask twice.” No, Luna wasn't going to let that previous conversation just lie there where they had left it, but there were other matters that currently needed her attention. Such as seeing exactly what all has changed according to these new modern standards. From what she sees almost immediately upon entering, none of the pipework is exposed as some of it had been before. The steam when one of them broke had admittedly caused problems so Luna only paid it a passing thought. The exposed walkways on the outside had new guard rails. Luna could hear one of the crewponies inside arguing with somepony, likely a technician or designer for the updates, about hallway width, ceiling height for the pegasi that would be aboard, and emergency exits, but turned down another hall before she could draw too close and interrupt. There were the quarters for the crewponies, she marks off a checklist and mental map as she trots, and the small kitchen and cafe she'd be passing just up ahead. The engines were down below, more toward the back, but that's not where she was headed. No, Luna's destination was her personal rooms. They held papers, information she'd written down about the weird dreams and notes on the pony dreamscape before her fall. The night alicorn also, once she reached a lift to bring her up a level, reached out to teleport some of her more recent notes to her side. Ones that she'd written down as soon as she could think to, that pertain to the dreams of those she'd wandered whilst slumbering on the moon. Celestia catches up to her as soon as she trots through the door, having also teleported a chocolate doughnut to her from the castle kitchens in the meantime. No use in studying over an empty stomach. The larger alicorn closes the door behind her, taking her time to look around while Luna beelined for her desk where rolled up scrolls and half-filled parchment littered it and the floor around it. Mere seconds later, the solar diarch found several of the filled scrolls bumping into her muzzle. "Luna," She takes the papers into her telekinetic grasp and opened them up, "What's all these..." It takes her a minute to process what's on the first one her eyes fall on, "May I send them over to Dr. Code?" Luna was already bobbing her head by the end of her sister's question, "Yes, yes, you may do just that. Wait... Isn't Dr. Code the one that evaluated me when I first got back?" She'd liked her. All wit, that one. "The very same." With a blink of amber gold light, the scrolls were gone, presumably now on the pegasi's desk. She'd know what to do with them when she arrives sometime in the next few hours. "Good, good. Wouldn't trust anyone else to do it, to be honest with you." Celestia rolled her eyes and huffs. "She's the only one you know of in her field, currently." "My statement still stands." And with that, Luna was back to focusing on the papers that were left and the ones she'd brought in with her. She shoved aside clutter and removed other documents that had been pinned to a corkboard to make room for these some odd dozen. By the end of it, it looked as if a conspiracy theorist had taken to it. Celestia debated in her mind whether or not she should teleport some coffee in here to complete the image before dismissing it. Luna has already had enough for the morn- oh. Well. Maybe not enough, actually, if Luna was bringing in here boxes her favorite flavor and a kirineg to make more. "Okay, so." She gets herself settled on a large cushion and listens because the likelihood of the lunar alicorn going on a full ramble was nearing its peak. Maybe she shouldn't have encouraged her and Twilight to bond and interact more? No, no that was a silly thought. The jargon, whatever that came up that she didn't know, she'd simply have to summon a dictionary for if she didn't understand it. "So," She repeats after a beat where Luna is just standing there skimming over the board that's organized in a way Twilight would definitely have a fit over. "So we have fourteen different... outliars in the dream realm. One of which," Here she points to one of the papers that was only halfway filled, "is the one we are going to go see now in- when are we leaving?" Celestia waves her to continue as she replies, "In an hour. The crew still needs to make final preparations and get the engine ready." "Right. Right. She's the one that we will be seeing within the day. The other thirteen are still, regretfully, unknowns. I do not remember everything that I had done in that realm while on the moon. It all mostly felt like one of my own dreams, but I do remember some things." There was a pause as she turns around to slump down onto a second cushion, "Not all of them were good, Tia." Oh. "Are you at liberty to share what you know?" It was an important question to ask here, seeing as personal information could be contained in any of them. Or all of them, really. Luna took her doctor-patient confidentiality very seriously. "Some of it? Maybe? The most I remember are faces, not names, unfortunately. I don't all know what I could tell you, but some of those dreams were nightmares like the first that the bat mare had." She pauses again to think for a second before adding, "And some that were worse." "Is there anything that isn't a heavy subject that you could tell me, for now?" Celestia would rather the guards, should they come looking within the hour, not find them both bawling like foals before they even get airborne. Thank you very much. “There is..” Luna is silent for what feels like minutes, thinking hard with her face scrunched up and her tongue half sticking out, “There is one thing, although I will say now it is but a minor detail, sister. Wait. Did I or did I not tell you what Rose said in the first dream?” She was forgetting in the moment and, due to the confidentiality she normally kept, as nervous to think that she may have broken it in the state she’d been so long ago. Not to mention the state she’d been in upon her return. Celestia had to think on it too, but eventually shook her head. It was a relief to know, and with that knowledge Luna continued on. “Two of the alicorns had traits of a crystal pony.” All Celestia gave was a raised eyebrow, “First a bat pony alicorn mare. And now two crystal pony alicorns?” Luna nodded her head, “Must be a fun herd.” “Tia!” “What? Did I say something wrong?” “There’s. There was more than one stallion in those dreams and. And the dreamers I’m fairly certain were, are, all still colts and fillies!” “No.” Oh now Celestia was laughing again. Great. What was it this time? “No, no.” Her sister repeated, “I meant as a family. Herds. They aren’t like they were a thousand years ago, Lulu.” More giggling, “I’m sorry I gave you the wrong impression.” Luna just grumbled instead of replying. Once the solar diarch calmed down though she asked, “How long now until we depart?” She was all too willing to put this behind her it seemed. Celestia smiled even though Luna was too busy not looking at her to see it, “Exactly three minutes ago by the time I’m done saying this sentence.”