To Sleep, Perchance to Dream

by Georg


Chap. 8 - Epilogue Luna's Children

To Sleep, Perchance to Dream Epilogue
--Georg (Editing by AlicornPriest)


O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?
"A Dream Within A Dream" by Edgar Allan Poe


Dawn after the Grand Galloping Gala was supposed to be a time of peaceful contemplation, where the movers and shakers of Equestrian society considered their place in the upcoming year and the endless cycle of seasons. Mostly they just slept in, except those who were tiphooving out of strange bedrooms and going home.

The castle of Canterlot was no exception; the servants had all been given time off since they had mostly been up all night either cleaning up or engaged in wayward creature collecting, Princess Luna had been seen going into her bedroom just after dawn, and Princess Celestia made no secret of the fact that once the sun was properly up, she was going to sleep until noon and anypony who woke her up early would find themselves counting penguins for the rest of their lives. Just to be careful, and in the rare event he were to wake before noon, Prince Blueblood’s guards ‘accidentally’ lost the keys to his door. And wedged it shut.

And so in the hour after sunrise, the castle was a very quiet place indeed.

Too quiet.

In the Royal Tower, on the floor below the Royal Bedchambers, it was even quieter. And in the silence, the door to the stairwell silently opened, and Princess Celestia delicately stepped into the corridor, her hoofsteps silenced by a double-pair of white socks. A shadow moving down the hallway would have made more noise, and certainly would not have accumulated the number of bat-winged shadowy guardians that whispered silently along in her wake. She glided up to what appeared to be just another door in the Royal Storerooms and stopped to listen to the words that trickled out into the corridor interspaced with sobs.

“....was wrong...” “....needs you...” “.....home....again...” “...Please...” “...not queen...”

With a click that sounded like an explosion in the silent corridors, the door to the store room swung open.

“Hello, Laminia.”

The Night Pegasus huddled miserably on top of a crate twitched at the mention of her name but did not respond to the Princess.

“My sister is not in the bedroom above you this morning. One of our servants with an illusion spell has taken her place. Your words...fall upon deaf ears.”

Laminia flinched as if she had been stabbed. “You...knew?”

“Not until just now. I had hoped that you would trust me. Why did you not tell me?” Celestia’s eyes lowered with disappointment, every hour of sleeplessness she had suffered in the past month plainly written on her immortal face.

The bedraggled Night Pegasus drew herself up on her hooves, and crawled down to the floor from her crate. “I...wanted to. When I saw how much pain she was in after the fitting room, and at the Gala. I...never meant to hurt her!”

Fire seemed to fill the Night Pegasus mare as she straightened up and looked away to a vision only she could see. “I was raised all my life on the stories of the Tradition, about our Immortal Queen of the Night, who would one day return in glory and power to create a perfect world. A fable. A tale told to foals. A glorious dream every night, a defense against the hatred and bigotry of Canterlot ponies who despise us, even though none remember what our kind did to them! And then one glorious day, she returned!”

The mare crumpled onto the cold storeroom floor and her voice fell to a whisper. “She returned. As a powerless child, frightened of every shadow. A foal who made a mockery of every Tradition we held.”

“We must give her time to heal. She is my sister, and I love her very much. I will always be there for her.”

“Can’t you see!” As the Night Pegasus mare leapt to her hooves and advanced on Princess Celestia, the Night Guard came closer to protect their Princess. “She can’t accept you! You’re so perfect, it makes her feel so flawed! I know how she feels!” Laminia screamed as she walked, ending up within touching distance of Princess Celestia. “Why can’t you JUST...BE...ANGRY...AT HER!” Tears of despair streaming from the Night Pegasus mare blinded her as Celestia motioned to the Night Guard to stay back. “TELL ME!”

The Princess lowered her head, and Laminia was shocked as a tear from the Princess dropped to the floor to merge with hers. “I was angry with her, far more angry than you will ever know. For a time. But I realized that if I were to carry that anger with me, it would stain my soul with hatred and that would spill over to her children. To you.”


Princess Celestia looked up into the angry golden eyes of the Night Pegasus mare. “I...feared she was gone forever, but I always held out hope that someday, somehow, I would have my sister back. And when I did, I must have no regrets, no anger. I must be able to let her back into my heart, because she has always been a part of me, as I am a part of her. Without her I am...so alone.” The Princess sat down on the storeroom floor and lowered her head.

Something inside the Night Pegasus mare broke, and she collapsed weeping in front of Celestia, her head flat against the cold stone floor. “Forgive me, My Princess. I have no excuse for my actions, and I accept whatever punishment you shall impose.”

Laminia flinched as a shadow passed over her, and then a great warm white wing encircled her and wiped away her tears. “You are forgiven. I could never be angry at one of my sister’s children.”

Beneath Celestia’s wing, the Night Pegasus mare trembled. “I cannot truly be one of her children. Although I bear the touch of your sister, I am...not.” Slowly she unfurled her leathery wings from under her white blanket of feathers and Princess Celestia sighed.

“Child. Is this what caused you to act as you did? Have you never...” One white sock-clad hoof traced the extended dark wing. From the wing joint to the elbow it was thick and leathery like the rest of the Night Pegasi, but from there it was twisted and abnormal, half-feathered and obviously unable to bear her weight, deformed before birth. “The spell my sister used to create your kind was not perfect; no spell ever has been. Is there no reference in your Tradition to the fact that my sister and I are equals in our power?” Celestia lowered her horn to the outstretched wing and a white light enveloped it. One at a time, the feathers vanished, and in moments, the wing was whole and undamaged. Laminia flexed it briefly and gave it a trial shake, the unflawed membrane shimmering in the darkness. “It..does not hurt any more? My Princess, I....”

“Hush. You may express your gratitude when Luna returns from her...trip. Your punishment shall be to explain to her exactly what it is you have confessed to me. I shall also encourage my sister to place you somewhere you can be carefully observed, someplace close at hoof. She has been in need of a personal servant for some time. Perhaps she will accept you in that position, once she has accepted the fact that your kind …”

In the distance, she could hear voices.

“...kind are abominations, should be put to...”
“...just dump it in the woods...”
“...how could anybody do this to little....”
“...put down the spear. I’m not killing children...”
“...you ask her...”

“Your Highness? Princess?”

Celestia turned her tear-streaked eyes from the Elements of Harmony, now just simple stones scattered around the ruined Hall of the Royal Pony Sisters. It had been only an hour since she had used them to defeat Nightmare Moon and seal her away forever on the moon, but it felt like a thousand years had marched across her soul. The long-delayed morning sun felt as hot as fire on her shoulders, and illuminated the feathers of the hovering Royal Guard with a glow that failed to hide her worried expression.

“What is it?”

The pegasus guard nervously landed and bowed. “My Princess. The rebels. We’ve...captured several of them.”

The Princess looked up with alarm and glanced about the battlefield. Death and destruction surrounded her. Most of Luna’s supporters had died so horribly not even parts of their bodies were visible, only twisted black bones and shattered hooves scattered among the fallen stones. “How...could anypony have survived? My sister drew upon their life forces when fighting the Elements. She...I killed them all.”

“Not all of them.” A large cloud with several score of twisted pegasus fillies and colts was being pushed down to the ruins by two rather nauseated-looking pegasi guards. “We caught one of their kind trying to get away with the...creatures.” She watched in secret horror as one of the tiny twisted pony-like creatures walked to the edge of the cloud and hissed at her, glaring with squinting golden eyes. “The creature pushing the cloud fought and died bravely. Half of its body must have been caught in that last spell Nightmare Moon cast. It was dying already, I think.”

“What have you done with my brother! He was trying to save us!” One of the bat-winged creatures leapt off the cloud at Princess Celestia, its tiny wings fluttering ineffectually as it plunged to the ground. She levitated it quickly before it splattered on the stones and held it.

“Your brother is...gone. I’m...sorry.”

The tiny fanged face screwed up in a horrible grimace, then burst into heart-rending tears. “He’s...all I had left. Mother and dad are gone too!”

Princess Celestia brought the little creature to her and cradled him close. “I understand.”

She sternly looked at the guardpony while holding the child under one wing. “You are to take the children back to Canterlot. They are Luna’s last surviving children, and we will not see the last vestige of my sister go uncared for. You will find good homes for them, and they will be raised by loving parents, and they will *all* be able to join the guard when they are old enough. This I do swear.”

Doubts still clung to the guard’s face, but she properly bowed to Princess Celestia and turned to give orders to her troops.

“Tell me, little one. What is thy name? And the name of thy brother who gave his life to save you?”

The big golden eyes of the creature...no, Luna’s child, blinked in the bright sun and looked up at her. “I’m Rye, and my brother was Pumpernickel.”



“Princess? Princess, wake up?” Celestia opened her eyes to meet the same golden gaze of the dozens of concerned Night Guard who had followed her to the tower room. They all looked so young and frightened to her immortal sight, that it seemed the cloud of foals so long ago had merely shifted forward in time a thousand years.

She chuckled, “My apologies, my little ponies. I was lost in thought, and I need to sleep.”

Princess Celestia started to get up, then changed her mind and sat back down again, wrapping her wing around the shivering Night Pegasus mare. “First allow me to tell you about your ancestors, and about the night you were created.”





(ties in with Two Unicorns Walk Into a Village )