The Tower

by the7Saviors


Upright

Oneiromancy was a branch of magic that, while incredibly complex, could allow one who'd mastered it to almost limitlessly manipulate the mind via dreams. Most creatures often wound up slaves to the whims of their subconscious when asleep and to take advantage of those creatures in such a vulnerable state was nothing less than an unforgivable taboo in Luna's eyes. She had made that much clear to Twilight during their lessons; to be a dream walker meant more often than not that one was a silent observer, an unseen bystander, a guardian who hid within the shadows of one's subconscious making sure that one's sleep was unbroken by nightmares. It was only in that instance that interference was permitted, and even then interaction with the dreamer was often kept to a minimum unless absolutely required. Luna had, of course, made exceptions in the past Twilight knew, but those had been special circumstances.

This hadn't always been the case when it came to the Princess of the Night. There was a time when, in her madness, her influence had spilled forth from her lunar prison and into unwary sleeping minds, causing terrible nightmares to run rampant until the dreamer was forced awake in a cold sweat, their eyes wild and their expressions terrified. The would-be tyrant, imprisoned as she was, had no control over such a phenomenon, but when she'd learned of what she'd caused upon breaking free of the shackles of Nightmare Moon, Luna had been slow to forgive herself. To Twilight, it just went to show how seriously the mare took her duties, and it was for that reason that she could, under no circumstances, allow her to find out what she and her faithful student were conspiring to do.

The problem lay in Luna's mastery of dream manipulation; one could say that the Realm of Dreams was her domain, and while not technically true, the level of control she could wield while there would undoubtedly convince many of the notion. Still, as much power as Luna had, the fact remained that the Dream Realm was not Luna's domain and so was not entirely under her control. With that in mind, Twilight was convinced that there had to be a way around her admittedly vast influence. At the end of the day, the Dream Realm was a different reality of sorts—a separate plane of existence created and connected by the subconscious minds of every being with the ability to dream.

Naturally, it would stand to reason that one would need to be unconscious and dreaming if one were to connect one's self to the Dream Realm, but Luna herself was evidence against that assumption. Luna seemed to be fully conscious upon entering the Dream Realm, at least it seemed that way to Twilight before her lessons. In actuality, things were a bit more complicated than that; the thaumic mechanics of the spell were more nuanced, but essentially Luna used oneiromancy to create a 'dream self' within the Dream Realm—a kind of pseudo-consciousness that lurked beneath her subconscious mind. It was this 'dream self' she used to wander the Realm of Dreams and carry out her oneiric duties as the Princess of the Night. The spell was so horribly complex that it took even Twilight a little over two years to finally pin down to perfection—and that was just that particular spell alone.

It was still an impressive feat considering it took Luna, who'd had a talent for this sort of thing, roughly a year and a half herself. That said, how long it took Twilight to master didn't particularly matter to the mare; what mattered was that she now understood the mechanics behind how Luna was able to wander the Dream Realm freely while using her oneiromancy. At first, Twilight used that knowledge to discreetly find ways around Luna's nigh omnispective sight under the guise of helping her with her nightly patrol. She hadn't wanted to tip Luna off by asking suspicious questions, but she quickly realized that not only were her efforts fruitless but would cause far more suspicion given that though she'd finished her lessons she was far from experienced in the ways of oneiromancy.

So instead she chose to rely on her wit and Luna's romantic attachment to avoid suspicion and get the answers she sought. Once she'd chosen her approach, it was a simple matter of inquiring as to why such a complicated spell was necessary to travel the Dream Realm. For Twilight, to ask such a scholarly minded question wasn't out of place in the slightest and upon asking about the necessity of the 'dream self', Luna was happy to reply. Evidently, bringing one's consciousness into the Dream Realm through means such as lucid dreaming was horribly insufficient for the kind of work Luna did. Contrary to popular belief, lucid dreamers—while consciously aware of their dream—had little to no connection to or control of the 'world' around them. It was impossible for even those that had some modicum of control to maintain it for long before their entire dream collapsed and they awoke.

By creating a 'dream self', one could bypass those limitations and do as they pleased for as long as need be or until the caster of the spell was awoken from their surface-level slumber. At the same time, it was almost impossible for Luna to sense a lucid dreamer due to their almost non-existent connection to the Realm of Dreams. No connection meant no presence and that was exactly the information Twilight had been looking for. With that revelation, Twilight couldn't help but wonder what Luna's solution was to those who gained lucidity if she couldn't sense them. Luna's response couldn't have been more pleasing to the Princess to hear; in essence, Luna might stumble upon a lucid dream on rare occasions, but more often than not she left them to their own devices, for their dreams never lasted long enough for anything dire to happen.

There had been nopony in existence aside from Luna and Starswirl who could take advantage of the phenomenon known as lucid dreaming—not even Discord himself, at least not entirely. And it was true, there hadn't been anypony who could do such a thing... save for the mare who now stood as the only other living user of oneiromancy to date. As things stood now, Luna's explanation had given Twilight a very simple solution to her problem and with it, she—along with Path Seeker—could finally move onto the experimental phase. Though, which each step closer to her goal, Twilight grew ever more paranoid about unforeseen obstacles, and so she'd taken great pains to account for as many as she could. One of those measures involved freeing up her schedule for the evening, something she'd accomplished several decades prior by holding Night Court every other night rather than each and every night.

The process had been far more of a hassle than Twilight realized, but the Princess had eventually managed to convince an upset Luna and a somewhat put off thestral population to agree, albeit with some initial bitterness that thankfully faded over time. That she had pushed for some time to herself every other evening was a perfectly understandable decision if you were to ask any pony on the street, but if somepony were to hear that the Princess liked to spend some of those evenings down in the crystal catacombs below Canterlot Castle, there would most definitely be a few questions raised—some eyebrows raised in suspicion or maybe a curious tilt of the head at the very least. But nopony knew what their wise and benevolent Princess got up to down there, or even that she made the occasional midnight trip to those catacombs in the first place, and that was exactly how Twilight planned to keep it.

She hadn't really taken that many trips in order to avoid those kinds of suspicions, and would've rather not taken any trips at all given some particularly bad memories, but like everything else she'd done in the pursuit of truth, she felt those trips had been necessary. That, of course, had been a few decades in the past, and with all preparations complete, it was time to put those dreadful catacombs to good use. Luna had left Canterlot a few days prior at the behest of her sister so there was no need to worry about the mare's physical presence. With everything taken into account, it was no difficult feat, even on such a quiet night within the castle, for the Princess to slip past the thestral guards and make her way to the hidden entrance to the catacombs, down the steep steps, and through the labyrinthine crystal caves to her intended destination.

Deep within the catacombs, Twilight had stumbled across a small naturally formed cavern in which she spent quite some time repurposing as her own personal lab, much like the one she'd had in the basement below the Golden Oaks Library. Not only would it suit her needs, but the creation of the lab brought back more than a few fond memories, though she couldn't help feeling a twinge of bitterness as well given the ultimate fate of her original home in Ponyville. It wasn't as grand as her previous lab and in fact, there was very little in the way of actual lab equipment; if anything, it was more a study than a laboratory, but that was fine for now. Aside from clearing the once empty space of excess rubble and other detritus that had gathered within the cave over many years, Twilight had moved a large bookshelf already filled end to end with tomes, a desk complete with a chair and several writing utensils and parchment, as well as a simple bed she'd placed in one corner.

Among a few other creature comforts and pieces of lab equipment, she'd also made sure to cast a few sanitation spells, put up several security wards, and enchanted some of the naturally formed crystals already embedded in the cavern walls to give off low but perfectly adequate light. In short, it was Twilight's own little private sanctuary, or that's what it felt like to the mare. It had been tricky getting everything situated without getting caught, but the effort and magic Twilight put in had been sufficient to get the task done without incident. All that remained was to have Path Seeker take his place upon the bed and for Twilight to cast the spells necessary to begin their dive into the depths of those dark waters Luna had warned the Princess about. Once her student was in place, Twilight began casting; one spell to induce sleep, one to lock the stallion's mind within the Dream Realm, and one to jolt him back to consciousness.

The timing was key and all spells had to be cast almost simultaneously to reduce the risk of Luna catching on. They'd begun the task earlier in the evening as a precaution, but Twilight refused to relax just yet. Once she was certain each spell had taken effect as they were meant to, she cast the final spell—one that would telepathically link her to her student. In essence, Path Seeker was fully conscious and effectively trapped inside his own dream and by extension, the Dream Realm. In order to keep her interference to a minimum and thus further lower her chance of being discovered, Twilight used a kind of telepathic link in which she couldn't see what the stallion saw, but she could hear his voice and vice versa; it was a bare-bones connection, but good enough for what Twilight needed.

Twilight was also intrigued and slightly amused to discover that, when used in this manner, the telepathic link caused a sort of uncontrollable somniloquy to occur at the same time. That oddity aside, everything else was set. Path Seeker was right where he needed to be, Twilight hadn't sensed Luna's presence within the Dream Realm so far, and she'd taken her place at the nearby desk, ready to document each and every one of their findings. The magical light had been turned down low, and all was quiet save for Path Seeker's soft and slightly sleep-slurred voice echoing throughout the cavern and the gentle scratch of Twilight's quill as it magically danced across the parchment atop the desk. It was half an hour or so before Twilight was satisfied enough to call the initial tests a success, but now came the real experiment. It was also around that time that Path Seeker fell quiet, both vocally and over the mental link.

For Twilight, it was a tense silence full of anxiety and impatience, and in her opinion lasted far too long, but she chose not to break it. She instead turned to face her sleeping student, her quill at the ready, her brow furrowed, and her mouth drawn into a thin line of worry. Five minutes passed by, then ten, then fifteen. In the prolonged interim of silence, there was only the sound of Path Seeker's deep, steady breaths, the nervous tapping of a quill on the desk and the increasingly loud beating of Twilight's own heart. Another half-hour had come and gone before Twilight began to think that something may have gone wrong, but just as she was about to call out to Path Seeker over the link, he finally spoke again, his previously peaceful features scrunching up in what appeared to be confusion and his quiet voice bewildered and questioning.

"Something's changed, Princess... not quite sure what yet, but I... I feel different. Everything feels so... sluggish? No... that's not it... what is this...? Princess... how long has it been since I last spoke to you? Time... doesn't seem to be working as it should. Could've sworn we'd talked only a moment ago, but somehow I get the feeling it's been longer... but I'm not sure..."

The stallion spoke in a voice untainted by the slurring and mumbling of a pony talking in their sleep, and the odd clarity made Twilight frown, though she couldn't quite guess as to why. As far as Twilight could tell, his eyes were still closed and he was still asleep. Path Seeker's words also troubled her; one's perception of time in a dream was oftentimes roughly equivalent to the time that passed by outside of it, and that was doubly true for a lucid dreamer. That Path Seeker's perception of time was fluctuating so drastically couldn't possibly mean anything good from Twilight's perspective. Her tone wary, the Princess began to ask of her student's whereabouts, what he saw the and the like. This time she'd just barely begun uttering the first word when her student cut in, answering as though he'd known exactly what she was about to ask.

"A... park of some kind... I think it's the one I used to visit with my brother.... the one our parents brought us to play when we were both colts, but... yes... yes, it is! It's Buckington Park just east of Trottingham town square... but it's too quiet... There's nopony here... something feels off, but I can't put my hoof on... wait... Princess, I can see somepony approaching from a distance... he looks so familiar... is that... is that you, Way Finder...?"

An inexplicable chill passed through Twilight's spine and made her frown all the deeper. The repurposed chamber fell silent once again as Twilight watched her student, watched closely for any sudden changes. Luna never mentioned exactly what would happen if one were to stray into those dark waters, only that she'd know beforehoof. Perhaps this was what she meant, Twilight thought. Perhaps it was this strange sense of foreboding welling up within her chest. If that were the case, that would mean they were getting close to something. The Princess could vaguely feel Luna wandering the Dream Realm in the back of her mind, but she was nowhere close to them and didn't seem to be closing in. If anything she was moving further away, so Twilight continued as she was. She didn't stop. She couldn't now that there was a chance they were closing in on their goal.

It was just as she reasserted her convictions that she noticed a severe change in her protègè's expression. His brow had furrowed and his mouth was twisted in a deep frown of concern. What caught Twilight's eyes was the bright sheen of sweat she could see against his dark blue fur and the sudden paleness of the skin beneath. When he next spoke, Twilight could hear an odd strain in his outwardly calm but questioning voice.

"Princess... my brother, he... he spoke to me just now... but I don't think it was really him... his eyes were... odd. They were... there was nothing there... or m-maybe it was just my imagination...? He was so... his words... they were empty... hollow... like he was s-some kind of automaton... he's gone now... I don't quite know how to explain it, but... I got the strange impression... that he wasn't... part of my dream... he didn't feel real... or no, that's not right either..."

The stallion visibly shuddered, and while Twilight made note of that, she chose mostly to ignore it and press on. She pushed her student for more details, asking what his brother had said even as she frantically documented his every word. It took another moment for Path Seeker to reply, but in the end, he did so, albeit with that same oddly strained voice.

"I don't know what he said exactly, Princess... it didn't sound like any Ponish I've ever heard... but I... I understood the meaning behind the words... Princess... I think i-it was a... a kind of warning... I think maybe he's saying I should turn back, or that I shouldn't be here... but... but I haven't really gone anywhere... have I? P-Princess, I don't think..."

At that moment, Path Seeker's words trailed off and his expression suddenly slackened back into that of a pony lost in a peaceful dream. His serene visage did nothing to comfort Twilight, for at the same time the mental link they shared was severed, her connection to her student cut off entirely. The Princess' immediate thought was that they'd been found by Luna and she felt her heart skip a beat at the notion, but upon reaching out her oneiric senses in a panic, she found that the mare had paid them no more attention than when she'd last checked. Bewildered, Twilight returned her attention to Path Seeker and attempted to re-establish their connection, only for her efforts to be rebuffed. It was as though she was trying to pass an impenetrable wall only to bounce off of its immutable surface.

She tried cutting the dream short, but much like the wall that had denied her telepathy, the lock she'd placed upon Path Seeker's mind refused to yield even an inch. Desperate to bring her protègè back, she resorted to physically shaking the stallion awake as she called out his name over and over again with growing distress... to no avail. There was no change in Path Seeker's gentle expression or deep, steady breathing; he looked just as serene—just as lost to the world as ever. After a moment the mare backed away from the bed, slowly shaking her head in disbelief. With mounting horror, Twilight realized that—for all her planning, all her precautions, the years of work she put into making her wish a reality—she had wholly lost control of the situation. Something else had seized Path Seeker's mind, trapping him within the Realm of Dreams, something that had nothing at all to do with Luna's overwhelming presence.

It was as if a dark cloud that had been hanging over the mare for years suddenly vanished at the sight of her unresponsive protègè, and the realization of what Twilight had done finally sank in. A simmering terror of what the near future held due to her own actions mixed with the abject shock and horror she'd already been feeling; it manifested as a deep fear for her student's safety, for Luna's discovery, and for the loss of the one truth that would've made this growing nightmare worth anything. Her mind was a whirlwind, her thoughts alive and swirling with all manner of unpleasant consequences. Twilight clenched her eyes shut against the onslaught but that only brought the thoughts into greater focus. She tried to ignore the subtle tremble in her hooves and rising nausea assaulting her stomach but she couldn't.

She couldn't rid herself of the feeling that somepony or something was watching her with cold accusing eyes. The air had grown thick and heavy, the weight of it crushing her down and making it harder and harder to breathe. Some foul, cloying stench that couldn't be placed permeated the air around her and combined with her pounding heart and sudden vertigo, it was all Twilight could do to stand on her hooves. Then, just when she felt she could take no more, Path Seeker's gasped words echoed throughout the chamber, her student calling out to his Princess in a voice hoarse with raw emotion. Startled, Twilight turned to the supine stallion and gasped at what she saw, all prior panic swept away in the blink of an eye. His eyes had flown open wide and his glassy golden irises were trained on the ceiling above him—no, that wasn't quite right, Twilight thought. Those eyes were fixed not on the rocky ceiling above, but rather at something far beyond that, something only he could see.

"P-Princess! Princess, can you hear me? I... I think I've made it! I... I'm not sure how I got here... the answer escapes me when I try to remember, but... yes I'm positive this is it! This place, it's... it's exactly as you described! An endless void of ethereal blue with... with countless motes of light stretching as far as the eye can see! It's... a magnificent sight... truly stunning! So this... this is where it happened then? This is where you met Princess Celestia and ascended to alicornhood? This is the Realm of Ascension..."

At his words, Twilight should have been thrilled. She should have been ecstatic that they'd come this far, but all she could feel at that moment was a sickening sense of dread. She couldn't shake the idea that she'd made a terrible mistake and that it was too late to stop what would come next. This was all wrong, she thought. Twilight was told by her friends after her ascension that she'd completely disappeared, leaving only a burnt patch of land in her wake; they'd even been afraid that she'd died somehow, and there'd been times when Twilight wondered if that had actually been the case—that, perhaps she'd gone through a death and rebirth rather than an ascension. Was that an alicorn's true nature, she had wondered. Were she and the rest of her fellow alicorns in a sense more phoenix than pony?

She'd never gotten an answer to that question and seeing Path Seeker now, she wasn't sure if she wanted to know anymore. Seeing him now, she was all but certain that this was wrong on a fundamental level. It felt like she and Path Seeker were committing some kind of blasphemy against the natural order. She should've tried once again to intervene; she should've called for Luna to put a stop to this madness, nevermind the consequences, but all she could do now was watch. All she could do was look on with a mix of mortal dread and morbid curiosity at the student she'd abandoned in those dark depths. His brilliant golden eyes, so bright and full of youthful energy before, were now dull and glazed, not at all matching the unrestrained awe and bewilderment in his tone.

"Princess... there in the distance... I can see something. I-It's not... I don't believe it's a pony... No, it's some structure, a... a tower I think... yes, a tower judging by the shape of it. A tall tower stretching endlessly into the sky—well, not the sky exactly but... but was that there before? Princess, you never told me about seeing any towers... a-and I don't recall seeing it a moment ago... I'm going to get a closer look... maybe it's... part of a trial of some kind? Perhaps I need to physically ascend the tower to become an alicorn? Yes, that makes sense... though I do wonder what awaits me at the top... maybe I'll see you there, Princess, just as you saw Celestia all those years ago. Maybe that's why I haven't been able to hear your voice..."

No, this definitely wasn't how things were supposed to go. An excited grin split Path Seeker's face, but that only served to fill Twilight's veins with ice. There was no tower. There was never any tower. Celestia had never mentioned anything about a tower and Twilight was convinced that there was no Princess waiting at the top. Twilight herself certainly wasn't waiting to greet her student for a job well done, so what would he find? What in the world was this tower he spoke of? Knowing nothing good would come of this development, Twilight broke free of her hesitation and tried once again to reach out to Path Seeker. She tried to call his name, tried to shake him from his stupor, but nothing she did got through to her entranced student. He showed no signs that he'd heard her. His body, to Twilight's further horror, had gone rigid. The skin beneath his fur had turned deathly pale, and he was terribly, terribly cold.

It was like trying to wake the literal dead—like looking into the eyes of an actual corpse. And all the while Path Seeker continued to talk as if he weren't already completely lost to the world outside, never to return to the reality in which Twilight resided.

"I've reached the structure, Princess, and yes, it is most certainly a tower. That said, it's... i-it's unlike anything I've ever seen... I want to tell you—I need to tell you what stands before me, but I haven't the words... the thing defies perception! The shape, the angles, the color—i-it's all wrong! It appeared to be a simple—albeit impossibly tall—tower at a distance, but from here... as I look up, the tower seems to twist and warp in strange ways the higher it goes...

"The walls... they appear to be made of solid stone, but I get a sense that there's something... organic for lack of a better word, lurking just below the surface... I can't really explain it, but it's... quite eerie if I'm being honest... I fear I have a rather daunting task ahead of me, Princess... there doesn't seem to be an entrance of any kind, but—ah, I do see... there's a winding staircase on the outside... I don't know what lies at the top and having seen this tower for myself I find myself more than a bit nervous, but I've resolved to make the ascent... I'm going up... wish me luck, Princess..."

And with those words, Path Seeker took one final breath, what little light he had left in his eyes vanished, and he fell silent. His pale visage, animated only a moment ago, was now frozen in a mask of determination. He'd been ready to face whatever fate awaited him head-on and what he would find, Twilight couldn't say. The Princess, numbed by shock and disbelief all the way down to the tips of her hooves, stared down at her student, mouth agape and searching for something to say, but words failed her. What could she say? She felt for a heartbeat but found none. There was nothing more she could say—nothing more she wanted to say, not aloud. The only truth she'd gained for all her efforts was the truth staring her in the face, mocking her for daring to step into realms which no pony was meant to tread.

Path Seeker was dead, and that was a truth she couldn't escape from.

Twilight whispered the stallion's name, she whimpered it, shouted it, screamed herself hoarse, but as before, her student would not stir. She all but threw herself into the Realm of Dreams, desperately seeking his, but Path Seeker's was nowhere to be found among the countless other dreams made manifest by countless other subconscious minds. Her frantic and futile attempts to locate her lost protègè naturally made ripples across the Dream Realm, attracting the attention of a certain mare who, up until then, had been wondering why she hadn't sensed the Princess' presence. Drawn by the sudden spike in emotion, Luna hurried to its source, only to find the object of her affection lost in despair and completely inconsolable.

The former Princess' heart ached to see Twilight in this state, but Twilight, wracked by guilt and shame and confusion and a host of other unpleasant emotions, was unfit to answer any of Luna's many questions. Realizing this, Luna abandoned her nightly duties and chose instead to remain by her side for however long it took; that was all she felt she could do for now. But time passed as time does even in the Realm of Dreams, and eventually—when the Princess had regained a sliver of her composure—Luna asked of her whereabouts. Twilight, unwilling and unable to hide her folly any longer, gave up her location and bade Luna tell Celestia to come as well. She had something to tell both of them, and Luna was suddenly very sure she didn't want to know what her recent student and potential lover had gotten up to while she was away.

Nevertheless, Luna contacted her sister and together they made for the Equestria capital with all haste and worrying thoughts plaguing both their minds about what may have happened. They made the best time they could, but even so, it took them the better part of three days to arrive in Canterlot, and upon their arrival, they found the city and castle staff in a panic. Evidently the Princess hadn't been seen at all the last couple of days. The current captain of the Royal Guard had formed a search party but had no luck in finding the wayward Princess. Aware of the situation and of Twilight's location, the two former rulers of Equestria set the minds of the staff and the citizens at ease before making their way to where Twilight had told them she was.

The sight that greeted them below the castle and deep within the crystal caverns confirmed their worst fears. Inside the study was a disheveled and forlorn Twilight clinging to the bedside of what initially appeared from a distance to be a sleeping stallion. It was clear the mare had refused to leave his side for even a moment, and as the two sisters moved closer it was easy to see why. At the sight of the stallion whom they identified as Twilight's student, Path Seeker, both mares reeled back in shock—an involuntary reaction to the stallion's twisted visage. Path Seeker was indeed dead, of that there was no doubt, but the body...

The stallion looked as if he'd been writhing about in pain up until only moments ago, his legs bent at odd angles and his body twisted unnaturally. What disturbed the two sisters and drew the brunt of their attention, however, was Path Seeker's face; his features bore an expression so hideously warped by horror and agony that it was hard to even call it equine. The two sisters could almost hear the gut-wrenching, blood-curdling screams the stallion must've loosed in his death throes and just the thought of that grotesque cacophony of snapping of bones made them both sick to their stomach. Unbidden, Twilight spoke, explaining in a voice entirely devoid of life all of what she'd done and how she'd dragged her own student into her schemes. She explained the end result, how he'd died chasing after something that Twilight realized only now could never be.

She explained how mere hours ago, the stallion's corpse—or what she thought had been a corpse—had stirred violently and begun shrieking in terror, uttering half-formed, incoherent words before contorting himself into what they all saw before them. She told them everything, left nothing out, and in the end, turned to her predecessors with eyes empty of all but the question of what it was she'd actually done. In the end, Path Seeker had reached the top of that tower, but what had he found? What unfathomable horror had he seen? What had caused such a nightmarish reaction? What was it all for? All this and Twilight still hadn't found the answers she sought. Faced with such a lost and piteous expression, any anger or betrayal Luna might've felt was swept away.

Luna, blinded by the love she felt for the mare, could only sympathize and lament the fact that she hadn't told Twilight the truth sooner and potentially avoided this tragedy. Celestia had no such romantic feelings to get in the way, but she needed none. Looking at Twilight now, she saw not her centuries-old successor to the throne, but the intelligent yet woefully naive little filly she'd practically raised as her own daughter. Both mares were hurt by Twilight's actions, but neither could deny that the one hurting the most at that moment was Twilight herself, and that made it all the harder when they finally revealed that they themselves knew very little about the Realm of Ascension—really not much more than Twilight did.

The two sisters had indeed come from a faraway land, but not as alicorns as they'd told Twilight. They had both ascended in their foalhood years while under the care of Starswirl the Bearded, and what little Celestia and Luna did know, they learned from their then teacher. Starswirl never revealed where he'd gotten the information he knew, but he warned the mares never to look into the matter, for such forces weren't meant to be trifled with. In his words, to become an alicorn was a blessing bestowed upon mortal ponies by powers that existed outside the realms of equine understanding, and that blessing could only ever be given, never taken. That Celestia had walked alongside Twilight in that place all those years ago didn't surprise or upset the snow-white mare in the least, for that was as it should've been and she was proud that her student had been able to ascend to alicornhood.

Seeing her former protègè as she was now, however, Celestia could only feel a gnawing sense of guilt and a strange sort of unease leftover from years long since past as she revealed to the confused and despondent mare that who or whatever she'd seen during that fateful day—whatever had guided her through her ascension in that place, Celestia had never been there to see it happen.