//------------------------------//
// Act 1, Chapter 6 - Ancient Dreams 
// Story: Adventures in Magic 
// by Urist McWriter 
//------------------------------//

Tonight was too much like that night. Heavy rainclouds haunt Canterlot, casting the city in shadow and memory and loss. Celestia could almost see the castle around her bending and fading into other shapes and forms, the marble hallways becoming strong, old brickwork and open windows replaced with arrow slits. A brief breeze through the windows of the hallway would have carried the smell of ancient pines, old moss, and antediscordian magic.

The passing open-air windows were welcome, although Celestia was too lost in her own mind to appreciate any of her carvings or the spectacular view offered. A pair of guards and a maid trail her, the maid quietly protesting, "But Princess, you'll -"

Celestia shook her head, closing her eyes to help drown out the sensations of a time long gone, "I will be fine, Feather. I'll have you know I am quite immune to the cold."

That seemed to bring the maid up short. They were always fussing about something, especially the new ones. A set of hooves stops following her, leaving the pair of guards that always trail her.

Celestia takes a sharp turn, eyes still closed, and descends down a small set of steps and into the chilling rain. 'It wasn't cold,' she reminds herself, 'It wasn't cold.' She allows her eyes to open now, shadows and ghosts banished as she takes in her garden. The mallorn begins creaking out a greeting, wood groaning and leaves swaying in familiar patterns. Her pond laps at its edges, the carefully trimmed bushes shaking in a steady stream of rain allowed to fall past the enchantments.

'There isn't a mallorn in the old castle. You didn't have a garden, either. Focus.' An old routine, one that helped Celestia begin shaking off the desire to curl up and sleep. The shadows of the Mallorn begin to morph, the twisting grass and flowers appearing like charred corpses. A double-edged sword, sleep. One she had gone without for nine-hundred-and-eighty-eight years.

"Corporals, go ensure I closed my office door."

A moment's hesitation between the two then they turn and leave, allowing Celestia to be alone alone. A replacement pair would arrive soon, and she does not begrudge them that. But on nights like this, a moment alone with her repressed nightmares was welcome. She steps forward, managing to pick up her suddenly leaden hooves and meander along the gravel path, the small rocks crunching under her steel-clad hooves.

The pond stills before her, presenting the mirror her gaze could never resist. 

She traces the smooth lines of her face and the depth in her eyes. The visage behind deforms and the branches of the mallorn tree twist into bouts of flame and death. The leaves coalesce into the shadow of a screaming face, eyes alight with rage, hurt and loathing. Celestia's own mutated reflection stares back with its slitted eyes and smug smile, then bursting alight into flames. The background groaning of the tree distorting into a screech of pain, the shadowed face in the leaves pleading for mercy.

Morbidly enthralled, Celestia watched, feeling her breath hitch and mind recoil from the waking nightmare. A ripple passes over the reflection, shifting to a dark figure laying facedown on castle stone. Armored in once immaculate silver, but now charred black, the figure drags herself to her hooves. A flash of starlight strikes and brings her screaming back down to the glowing slag remains of stonework. The trees groaning-no, the haunting laughter of Celestia played soundtrack to the scene.

Celestia tears her gaze away from the horror, closing her eyes and focusing back into the waking realm. As she focuses and the garden begins returning to normal, the screams and laughter fading. Celestia can feel the satisfaction of her observer.

"I won't kill her," Celestia whispers after a moment, eyes still closed as the realm of sleep distances further from her mind.

The following silence is interrupted as small breeze whispers "I know."

A shuddering breath fills Celestia's lungs, the bite of the cool air helping her focus. When she opens her eyes again, the garden is once again quiet and peaceful. The mallorn creaking and groaning the last syllables of 'hello' in treeish.

"I will not kill her," Celestia tells herself again. The remaining visions of her fears fade as she rises and makes way for the exit. With any luck, they will not return for a few nights more.

Celestia's hooves carry her through the palace at a sedate pace, almost of their own accord. She allows her eyes to trace the statues and paintings that line the halls along a familiar, often trodden path. The castle was unusually quiet at night. Not even the passing guard patrols in nearby halls made more than a few whispers thanks to their training and enchantments, and she was too far from the exterior windows to hear a breeze. It was a welcome reprieve on nights like this, one she had embraced with worrying frequency the closer to The Night she neared.

Her horn briefly glows on her head to open a double door in front of her. The cavernous throne room was long, tall, and deathly quiet. Her steel shoes clink quietly with every step, shouting her presence in the silence. Celestia ascends the stairs leading up to the thrones, considering the pair. Her own was marble and bright, inlays of gold tracing out the image of a sun. Its partner was long unused, so long that even her own servants were considering it old-fashioned and unhealthy to keep around.

Dark steel inlays flow along the marble like rivers of water, all stemming from the silver moon stamped into the high back, constantly shining with its own inner light. Luna had been proud of this, and Celestia had been somewhat jealous at the time - and lost a bet. Admittedly, she had known she would lose it. 'T'would seem our rump will be comfier, sister, thy enchanting is plebian,' is what Luna had said to her upon seeing it. She was right. The Celestial Throne was opulent, perhaps a bit too gaudy when sat next to one of Luna's masterworks and was most uncomfortable without the cushion.

The betting games ended at the castle's defences. Luna's expertise and handiwork were everywhere here, although it made her melancholic to dwell on it. When the time came, it would serve Luna well as a seat of power.

She places a hoof on the arm of her throne. "You'll get the boot, I think," commenting quietly to the Celestial Throne, the words carrying through the empty throne room. "She barely tolerated the poor chisel strokes when we both ruled, I doubt she will let you stay when I am gone."

The Celestial Throne did not deign to reply, the room lapsing back into complete silence. Then the side door opens, the sound of its well-oiled hinges carrying like whispers. A hoof step and a small squeak followed. Ah, Twilight.

"Midnight wanderings, my student?" Celestia raises her voice out of the quiet tone she had used with the throne, the words having just enough weight to carry through the room without echoing. That had taken some practice.

There are a few, shy steps before the door clicks closed. Celestia's soft expression turns to her small purple student. The likeness to Luna threatens to pull Celeatia back into memory at the sight as she was all-too-much like a young Luna. Shy and reserved, dedicated and brave, quiet and studious. Well, as studious as one could be when they were illiterate. 

Celestia offers a smile to the shuffling filly approaching the dais. Head lowered, ears drooping.

Twilight reaches the bottom step and glances up. Her eyes wide with worry and curiosity in equal measure, a familiar expression that often haunted a face so young over the last month of lessons. Questions ever brewing behind those eyes. Twilight opens her mouth, ready to prove the notion again, quietly stuttering out, "S-sorry p-C-celestia. I ... I h-had a n-nightmare."

Ah, of course. "Don't be ashamed, Twilight." The tension releases a bit. "I'll let you in on a secret." With a whisper, she continues, "I had one as well."

Twilight's shame absolves to surprise. "Y-you? Y-you have n-nightmares?"

Celestia nods after a moment, turning her head back toward the Lunar Throne, mind straying back to the dark and terrible vision in the garden. "A nightmare. The same one, I'm afraid. Something of a recurring haunt, although I do not sleep as you do."

There is a shuffling of hooves, and Celestia has to hold back a soft smile. She can almost hear Twilight holding herself back from asking the obvious question, not that Celestia would wish to answer it. Instead, "Come up here." Celestia turns her head to peer down the steps and motions the filly over. "Twilight, Do you know when these thrones were made?"

Twilight hesitantly begins ascending the steps, nodding, "W-when the c-castle w-was b-being designed, the b-books say y-you and P-Princess L-Luna crafted t-them y-yourselves."

'The books say.' She is learning. With a nod Celestia confirms, "They are correct, my sister and I made these ourselves in something of a bet. I knew I would lose, but my sister was ever the competitive one." A smile adorns her face as she recalls the moment. "She said she'd level the Canterhorn before she let me enchant the castle's defences, 'Mayhaps if we wished to repel a swarm of bees, we would call upon thee, sister.'"

The light, easy, expression on Luna's face and her eyebrow arched in accusation, the dinner they had eaten together. Memories threatening to steal this moment with Twilight. The visible shock on the fillies face drags her back the present.  

Her student's brows furrow a moment and her eyes soften into sympathy. The bright, purple eyes of Twilight Sparkle turn and regard Celestia. That observant gaze, one that Celestia turns her eyes from to regard the Lunar Throne once again. "Y-you ... H-how c-can you d-deal w-with -"

"Would you like to sit on it?"

That seems to shock Twilight out of her thoughts. Celestia turns her head just in time to catch her student's mouth opening and her eyes glancing at the throne. "M-me? I c-couldn't, P-princess ... I ..."

Celestia smiles and shakes her head, "You can, I am sure she wouldn't mind you sitting there for a bit, Twilight. She would have adored you, and wouldn't begrudge you this. Go on."

Twilight hesitates a second then steps forward, clambering onto the Lunar Throne with a helping hoof from Celestia. She sits down, minuscule in the midst of the alicorn-sized chair. She turns her eyes to the rest of the throne room, staring right past Celestia and into the dark, empty hall of power.

'Very much like you, sister.' Celestia's mind strays to the scalding tea, then to Twilight's magical flare at the school. She takes advantage of her student's quiet awe to think, watching the small smile and wide eyes. 'And perhaps a bit too much like me as well.'





Click, clack, 'Iron, with a density,' click, click, 'of normally 7.87-' "C-celestia?"

Silence, chalk gripped in telekinesis halted mid stroke. Celestia turns her head toward Twilight Sparkle, who was enveloped in a bean-bag chair four times her size. "Yes, Twilight?" Celestia may have given into Twilight's initial complaints, but sinking into it as if it were a marshmallow with notebooks and quills gripped in auras offered a useful lesson in control, one the student already had great proficiency in.

"How h-heavy is t-the S-sun?" Twilight asks without hesitation. A blessing in these last few weeks, as it had taken days to get her to speak up at all during the lessons.

"Ah," said Celestia, not bothering to hold back the smile, eyes crinkling in delight. Every student asked, but normally not so soon. "Well Twilight, if you wish to be exact, it has a mass of 1.9 octillion tons. Give or take a few tons."

Unsurprised at that, Twilight's next question could be predicted given the subject matter today had been advanced telekinesis, "H-how do y-you m-move s-something that h-heavy?"

Celestia considers her response for a moment. With a deep breath, she turns full attention to the impressionable student. "Moving a solar body is ... difficult. In ways different than you may expect." With a small shake of her head, she adds the seldom spoken fact, "In truth, moving the moon is more difficult than the Sun. Surprising, no?"

"H-how?" Twilight's face scrunches up at that, eyebrows knitting together in thought, and she asks, "The s-sun is t-tens of m-millions t-times h-heavier than t-the M-moon!"

'How bold.' Celestia nods, giving her student a few more moments to ponder the statement before continuing, "True, very true. The answer is actually quite simple. What is magic, Twilight?"

Twilight's maw hangs open, her response halted as the theory of magic was called to question. A theory normally introduced in High School, however Twilight was far beyond it even before she came to Celestia. Finally, "M-magic/Energy R-relativity ... E-energy is m-magic ..."

Celestia nods slowly, waiting for Twilight to continue. "B-but ... B-but the o-output ... I-it ..." Her eyes flit, seeing something in her minds eye.

"It is quite devastating," Celestia finishes for her, "if used for such purposes. I am connected to the Sun, Twilight. I call upon its energy at will and use its own might to tug it across the sky as I see fit. A normal pony would most certainly be reduced to vapour should they try."

'Although I am quite certain you would survive the process. It is in your blood, as such is the moon,' she added to herself, waiting for Twilight to continue.

"W-when did y-you first r-raise the s-sun?" Celestia's breath hitches. "D-did y-you h-have any p-pra ..." A faint buzzing fills Celestia's ears. Her breathing quickens, sucking for air. 'Why did the air get so thin?' 

The world heaved as she was slammed into the past at her minds whim.

"-estia! Celestia! The Sun! Now is our chance!" Her eyes refocus. The world before her is drowned in shadow, ground quaking and ears full of thunderous laughter. The clouds painted pink with the blood of a thousand sacrifices hang in the sky. 

Celestia takes a step back, breath quickening in panic. The cries of soldiers, screams of agony and terror, the rallying cry continues, "Equestria! Equestria!"

The world swims into focus, senses struggling to come together. The blurry figures come into focus. "Luna." The lunar goddess stands beside her, mallorn-wood armour torn and shredded, revealing the deep, rich blue coat of fur that she had not seen in a millennium. Her face was taught with concentrated rage, jaw set in stone, eyes glinting in the eternal twilight like the sheen of steel. Atop her sister's head sat a radiant crown, set in it were three softly glowing stones, their very presence attempting to keep the horrors around them at bay.

Around them, Tartarus.

Discord's imagination was given life. Horrible breeds of cat, bird and lion, malformed dragons twisted into humanoid form, ponies writhing with living chitin. The very deformed land seeming to shift and move against the last of the rear guard. The land was not Discord's doing however. The grass long buried under remains was long forgotten as the Vanguard pushed, inch my malformed inch.

Leading the charge against a god was a helmet-less earth pony. 'Moonlit Heart' Celestia's traitorous mind remembers. His rough voice carrying over the din of laughing horrors, "Equestria! Equestria!" Every time a hoof lashed out, Celestia's alicorn ears could hear the crunches. Every time a claw rends flesh and metal, screams. Each voice, gurgling, searing their last moments into her ageless mind.

"Tia! Celestia, Look at me!" Luna's face fills Celestias sight. "Sister! Raise the sun! He is taunting us with laughter!"

"B-but ... The Crusaders ... They ... I've seen this before ... I can't ..." Celestia feels an icy grip on her heart. She can remember, impossible to forget.

Luna's hoof points to the warring soldiers. "You must! Do not let their sacrifice be for naught! THEY brought us to Discord! THEY paid the price for victory. We must succeed," she pleaded.

The faces of the fallen flash in her mind. The countless families faces she personally would speak to over the next year. Celestia reaches out for the Sun, the waking nightmare dragging her along events long-settled. A heat swelling in her, the dark fire growing within her breast. She grips at the celestial body and the laughing turns sinister. A sickly feeling fills her mind, washing over her Sun. An attempt to hold it in place but it is too late.

"The Sun! The Sun!" The earth pony's voice calls, voice raising for a final cry, "For Equestria!"

The world is blinded with the First Sunrise. Then deafened by the wave of brilliant sunfire barreling down through the atmosphere.


Silence. No screams. No growls. No metal grinding.

No cheers.





"Oh nononononono!" Twilight shouts. The clatter of notebooks and quills against the ground accompanies her own hooves as she leaps from her 'marshmellow'.

Twilight couldn't move, staring in horror at what she had done with her stupid question! Her teacher stood silent, motionless, eyes looking through Twilight and her shoulders drooping as if suddenly tired.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Twilight cried, but the Princess stood still. Twilight began to hop from hoof-tip to hoof-tip. 'Should I get someone? Does the Princess need help? Did Celestia fall asleep, is that how bad of a student I am?'

The Princess shakily exhales, shaking her head sharply, her wings fluttering suddenly at her side. Her eyes refocus onto the now frozen Twilight.

The Princess takes a few deep breaths, wings stilling, closing her eyes tightly and reaching a hoof out to run along the nearby chalkboard. Twilight's mind races through possibilities, narrowing toward one thought; the Princess has nightmares. She doesn't sleep. Waking Nightmares. 

Twilight's mind races through all the books she read on sleep deprivation. The effects night terrors can have, coping methods and what happens if left unchecked. The realization hits and it takes all she can muster to lift her leaden hooves from the ground. Each step took her closer to the Princess that had faced away from her.

She takes a breath, knowing what had made her feel better every morning, no matter what had happened. She sits and hugs one of the Princess' legs.

The towering Alicorn stops running her hoof along the chalkboard and opens her eyes, and Twilight feels the muscles tense at her touch. 'Should I have asked? Oh no. Why didn't I ask? So stu-'

The Princess gently pulls her leg free and lowers herself into her haunches. Twilight barely has time to imagine the scolding she is going to get before the Princess pulls her against her chest and she is surrounded by warm, alabaster fur.

Twilight is sure it is her imagination, but as the quiet embrace continues, Celestia's form stills slowly.

Twilight swallows thickly, feeling the slight tremors come to a slow halt. "P-princess?" She manages to get out after a moment longer, "A-are you o-ok? I'm s-sorry."

"No, there is no need to apologize, little Twilight. It is not your fault," Celestia's hoof rubs along her back with slow, deliberate movements. The Princess takes a deep breath, continuing, "It is mine."

Twilight doesn't try to lift her head out of the alabaster fur and look up, opting to bury her face deeper and asks - part of her hoping her voice will be muffled, "W-why d-does this h-happen?"

"Fear," The Princess' voice is quiet and forlorn, the words coming slowly. "I am afraid of sleep. The realm of dreams is not a safe place for me. P-please, ask no more."

Twilight nods slowly, but her mind is already whirring. Unable to sleep because dreams are unsafe? The conundrum twists in her head even as the Princess breaks away and lets out a shaky breath. "We will have to continue our lesson on materials in telekinesis at a later date. I am in need of a good cup of tea, I think. Would you keep me company?"

If this were a few minutes before, Twilight would have eagerly accepted. Instead, she slowly shakes her head. Her mind examines the problem again, her senses only taking the barest analytical notes of the Princess' brief surprise.

The Princess turns and almost retreats from the room, but Twilight's mind is far away from analyzing Celestia's behaviour. What could make the realm of dreams unsafe for Celestia?

Whatever it was, Twilight would figure it out - and she would save her mentor from it. She nods to her self, mind focused to a razor's edge, intent on a singular goal; protect the Princess from nightmares.