//------------------------------// // Sister's Guidance // Story: Little Keys // by Skijarama //------------------------------// Twilight’s breath was coming in heaving gasps as she sprinted through the darkened streets of Ponyville. The sky had gone dark, and what few stars there were filled her with nothing but dread. They were like eyes, haunting eyes, that watched and judged her every decision with cold, calculated contempt and disdain. The windows of the homes were dark and much the same. She could feel the eyes of their inhabitants on her, just waiting. She had to find her friends. She didn’t know what was endangering them, but she knew that something was coming for them, and she had to get to them first. If she didn’t… she dared not think about what she might do if she lost them to whatever was coming. She poured more strength into her legs and even gave her wings a few flaps to speed her along. “Girls!” She called out at the top of her lungs, raising her head to throw her voice as far as she could. “Applejack, Rarity! Pinkie, Fluttershy! Rainbow! Anypony! Where are you?!” She rounded a bend, and her eyes widened with relief. The Golden Oak Library lay just ahead and, unlike in the shadowy homes of the rest of the town, the windows were glowing with golden light; her beacon in this shadow-smothered world. She gave her wings one more mighty flap, covering the remaining distance and throwing her weight against the door. The wood splintered and buckled easily from the force, and she came to a sliding stop in the middle of the warm, lit interior. For a moment, she stopped, letting herself relax in a familiar environment. The soothing quiet, the smell of books, paper, and wood… She took a deep breath and opened her eyes. Her friends were all here, looking back at her with wide eyes from the far end of the room. Twilight heaved a massive sigh of relief and went to approach. “Oh, thank Celestia! Girls, you’re okay!” she said, cantering forward. She stopped in her tracks when Rainbow suddenly stepped forward and fanned out her wings in a defensive manner, her ears drooping. “S-stay back!” She barked out in warning, but the tell-tale tremble in her voice betrayed her fear. Twilight paused, tilting her head to one side. “Wha… Rainbow? It’s me, it’s Twilight,” she said gently, lifting a hoof and taking a few tentative steps forward. “Come on, it isn’t safe here. We need to go-” “I said STAY BACK!” Rainbow said more forcefully, scraping her hoof along the floor. “Just get away from my friends!” Twilight took a step back, her heart feeling as if it were about to shatter in her chest. “Wha… Dash?” she choked out. “What are you saying? It’s me… Why are you acting like this?” Rainbow’s hardened expression did not last long. Fear and grief began to creep into her eyes, and the strength in her posture and voice evaporated like a drop of water in a desert. “Please… j-just go away. You’ve done enough…” Twilight’s wings ruffled at her sides. “But… Rainbow… c-come on, you… you know me!” Twilight exclaimed, her eyes starting to mist over. “I’d never hurt you! Never! You’re all my friends! Rainbow, I love you! Why would I-” “I don’t think she can hear ya, sugarcube,” Applejack muttered solemnly, slowly taking her hat off her head. “The filly’s long gone…” Rainbow spun around to face the farmer, her coat bristling. “Don’t say that! She’s just-” A bolt of pale blue magic shot past Twilight from the door, moving faster than anypony could react. Rainbow’s words died in her throat, replaced by a harrowing scream as the bolt made contact. She was thrown against the wall, snapping the shelf leaning against it and sending books scattering to the floor. “Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy shrieked, quickly diving after the fallen pegasus and checking her over.  Applejack quickly put herself between them and where the spell had come from, ready to charge. “Alright, that does it!” she snapped. Twilight backpedaled, her confusion only growing worse. What in the world was happening?! Her eyes lingered on Rainbow’s still body, and the swiftly rising panic in Fluttershy’s face. “Rainbow isn’t breathing…” she realized in growing horror. She spun to face the attacker, only to come face to face with herself. Another Twilight stood in the door, wings wide, and her eyes glared into the room of frightened mares. But there was something else. Something wrong. This wasn’t Twilight, she soon realized. The wisps of blue magic coming from her eyes, the sharpness of her teeth… this was Midnight. Midnight smirked at her. “Well? What are you waiting for?” she taunted. Twilight’s pupils dilated. A swell of anger and hatred flooded her veins, causing her blood to boil. A sphere of unstable magic formed on the tip of her horn, and the image of Rainbow’s motionless body filled her mind. “You…!” she seethed, pouring more and more power into the blast. When she was through, there would be nothing left of that parasite! That monster! That demon!  “I’LL MAKE YOU PAY!” “Twilight, STOP!” Fluttershy’s panicked voice shrieked. Too late. Twilight unleashed the spell. There was a flash of light and a deafening boom. Twilight blinked involuntarily. When they opened, she was suddenly standing in the doorway, and her spell was flying into the center of the library. Right for her friends. Twilight’s heart felt as if it stopped in her chest. Panic overrode everything else, and she desperately tried to pull the spell back into her horn before it could reach its mark, but she was too slow. The spell was already loose. It struck the horsehead sculpture in the middle of the room, and everything went white. “GIRLS!” Twilight screamed, her throat going raw from the volume as the deafening roar of the explosion filled her ears. It was accompanied by the blood-chilling screams of her friends, the roar of fire, and the burning of an immense inferno. When at last she could see again, she realized she had been thrown onto her back from the force of the spell. She lifted her head slowly, not wanting to see what she had done, but forcing herself to regardless. She didn’t want to know. She had to know. She didn’t want to. She had to. The library was gone. All that remained was a hollowed husk, blackened and charred, and still burning with intensely hot flames that painted the world and the sky a sinister, sickening shade of orange. “No… No…” Twilight whispered, barely able to think through the haze of shock and horror that had filled her mind. She stiffly rose to her hooves, her jaw agape, her eyes distant and unfocused. “I didn’t… I wouldn’t… I couldn’t have…” “But you did.” Twilight gasped and turned around. Midnight stood before her, her body fully corrupted. Razor-thin pupils glared back at her with a cold, sadistic glee, while dagger-like teeth glistened in the firelight. Ghostly magic seeped out of her eyes like tears, and her darkened wings spread wide in a show of dominance. Twilight inhaled sharply. “No… no, you did this!” she retorted, channeling more magic into her horn. Midnight’s smile widened. “...You say that as if there is a difference.” Twilight screwed her eyes shut. “SHUT UP!” she bellowed, unleashing another beam of magic. She felt the heat against her skin and the wave of pressure rattle her bones, and her hearing cut out as the deafening blast entered her ears. She could smell the world burning, and she could taste the ashes left in her wake. She opened her eyes.  As quickly as everything had descended into madness, it had ended. Twilight gasped in shock as she realized that the fires were gone, and the entire town of Ponyville had seemingly vanished. All that remained were the stars overhead, still watching her. But somehow, she did not feel judged by them anymore. All she felt was… sympathy. It was as if they felt sorry for her. Slowly, the stars began to grow brighter, and Twilight’s eyes widened when she saw them travel across the sky. They spiraled in the heavens, slowly weaving together into one point overhead. All the while, they grew brighter, and brighter, until they were blinding. She shielded her eyes from the light with a hoof while still trying to get a look at what was happening. Finally, the light flared, then dimmed. Twilight lowered her hoof, her heart soaring in awe and relief when she saw the full moon staring back at her. Ponyville was gone, and indeed so was the whole world. Her hooves were now placed firmly upon an infinite ocean of perfectly still water that reflected the now-gorgeous night sky perfectly. “It’s a dream,” Twilight breathed out in relief as her senses fully came back to her. She gave off a weak laugh, placing a hoof against her temple. “So it is,” another, familiar voice said from behind her. Twilight turned to it. Princess Luna was there, standing a few yards away with a sympathetic smile. “And it seems I came not a moment too soon. Any longer and you might have plunged into the depths of despair.” Twilight sighed and shook her head. “You could have come sooner…” “Time in the dream realm is unpredictable, Twilight,” Luna said, walking slowly toward her. “Until I enter a dream, I cannot know how far it has progressed. The blink of an eye in one dream could measure a century in another. Rest assured, I came as soon as I could.” Twilight nodded slowly, then turned to look up at the moon again. She remembered now. Rainbow had sent Luna a letter via Spike before they went to bed, just as she had said she would. Now, here Twilight was, ready to continue her own dream therapy. “Now… let us discuss what you have just experienced,” Luna said, her horn lighting up. The still ocean around them became disturbed with gentle ripples. The waters contorted and shifted, bending and taking solid form. Grass faded into existence, and rivers in the air twisted together to become beautiful trees. In a matter of moments, the endless ocean had been replaced with the serene grotto from their first meeting. Twilight could already feel her lingering tension fading away at the familiar locale, and the fresh air helped to soothe her thoughts. She took a long, deep breath before turning to face the princess again. “Well… where do I start?” she asked weakly, rubbing her hoof against her shoulder.  Luna gave her a reassuring smile. “You may begin by telling me of this incident that has served to frustrate you so, and of Midnight’s thoughts on it.” Twilight nodded. That was simple enough, she knew. She turned and began to walk toward the island in the center of the pond. As she approached the water, she willed her hooves to cross the surface, and to her delight, they did just that. As she walked across the pond, she began to speak. “Well, recently, Pinkie’s big sister, Maud, came to Ponyville to check in on her and make sure she was alright before she went to get her rocktorate.” Luna paused, raising an eyebrow. “...Forgive me, but her what?” Twilight giggled and turned back to Luna. “Her doctorate in rockology. It’s a field of science that sprung up a few centuries ago.” Luna blinked. “It sounds absurd.” “It kind of is,” Twilight replied. Her hooves crossed from the water to the grass. “But that’s beside the point. Maud was worried about Pinkie because of… well… Midnight.” Luna nodded in understanding. “I see. Word of your actions as a fallen alicorn has no doubt spread far and wide by now. ‘Tis only natural that your friend’s elder sibling would be concerned for her well-being after such a tale.” “Right, and Pinkie wanted to show Maud, without question, that she was in good hooves with us. And to do that, she wanted us all to become friends with Maud… me, especially,” Twilight explained, finding a comfy spot under the large tree in the center and sitting down. “But it didn’t really pan out that way. My friends and I tried, we really did, but we just couldn’t connect with her. We just didn’t click.” “An unfortunate outcome,” Luna said apologetically, taking a seat by Twilight’s side. “But not unreasonable. Ponies across Equestria are cut from a wide range of cloths, and much as your friend Rarity would insist, not all fabrics match with one another.” “Insist is a word to use,” Twilight grumbled. She shook her head before she carried on. “After a few attempts, we decided it would be better to be honest with Pinkie about it instead of faking it. And besides, even if we didn’t tell her… Maud would. And then Pinkie would be even more upset because we lied to her. But she was upset anyway… so much that I guess she just stopped thinking. “See, the morning after we told her that it just wasn’t going to work, Pinkie got the idea into her head to try and make this big obstacle course... thing, with all of our favorite things in it. The idea was for us all to run it at once, and it would bring us all closer together.” Luna’s eyebrow flew up once more. “That is perhaps the most socially oblivious plan I have ever heard,” she said slowly. “And I have heard of a few… The things foals can think of…” “Well, Pinkie can be like a foal sometimes,” Twilight noted with an exasperated roll of her eyes. “But… anyway. She went ahead and began to go through it to show us, and it just… It collapsed while she was in the tallest tower. It all happened so fast… none of us had a chance to stop it from falling apart. Pinkie was caught in the middle. She was badly hurt, and it could have been so much worse… she was incredibly lucky. “We got her to the hospital, of course, and we learned that she’d be fine. The doctors had her well taken care of. But then…” she trailed off, her mind returning to that moment when Midnight had first started goading her into examining the wreckage. Luna hummed. “...Midnight spoke to you, didn’t she?” Twilight nodded. “Yeah… she did. She made me think that there was something more to the collapse than met the eye. She convinced me to go and study it, to look it over. And the more she talked, the more I felt she was right. I got scared of what I might find, and… I just…” “You poured yourself into it,” Luna finished for her with a slow nod of understanding. “You devoted yourself to the task of ascertaining the truth of the matter, and it consumed you.” Twilight closed her eyes, her ears lowering. “...Yes. I was so absorbed in it that I shut the rest of the world out… and then… when Rainbow, Spike, and Maud came to check on me, they… I...” “I know,” Luna cut her off gently. “This part Rainbow explained in detail in her letter. I know. Say no more.” Twilight nodded, her chest starting to tremble from the guilt of the whole incident. She expected Luna to chastise her for heeding Midnight’s words as she had. While she wasn’t supposed to ignore Midnight outright, she knew better than to take her advice. Midnight was a parasite. An unwanted remnant of her greatest mistake. No good could come from playing along with her, no matter what she said. But to Twilight’s surprise, Luna merely draped a wing over her back and pulled her against the larger alicorn’s side in a soft side-hug. “Oh, Twilight Sparkle… I am so sorry you must bear this weight as you do,” she said softly. Twilight looked up at Luna, sniffling. “What do I do?” She asked in a meek whimper. “I almost killed them, Luna. I don’t want to hurt them… What do I do?!” Luna gave a gentle shushing noise, silencing Twilight’s rising voice. Once the calm and quiet had been restored, Luna leaned back and smiled at her. “First, you must put the ruins out of your mind. Even if Midnight was correct, and there was somepony else present who wished your friend harm, you may be sure that they have long since departed. And, knowing you, if you have yet to find any evidence, then there is none to find. To pursue this matter any further would be folly.” Twilight opened her mouth to object, to protest, but Luna lifted a hoof, silencing her. A moment passed before Luna went on. “Lest you worry that the threat remains, however, you may take comfort in this. Rainbow Dash trusts you, and I trust my niece. Though I doubt the presence of such a villain, I shall take no chances. I will have some of my finest Lunar Guards sent to Ponyville to watch over you and your friends from the shadows the moment I awake. If there is a threat, they will never be able to get close enough to make another attempt on your or your friends' lives.” With that promise given, a weight was lifted from Twilight’s shoulders. She breathed a long, heaving sigh of relief before leaning into Luna’s side. “Thank you… that actually makes me feel a lot better,” she said quietly. “As I knew it would,” Luna said with a slow nod. “Midnight may be the darkest part of your thoughts given a voice of its own, but she yet speaks with your voice and your fears. If she fears there is a threat, then you fear there is a threat, however irrationally.” Twilight nodded, but she did not offer any response. The two sat in silence for several minutes, the sound of the water gently lapping at the shore filling their ears. Twilight closed her eyes, doing her best to relax. With her anxieties so softened by Luna’s pledge of protection, she began to feel herself drifting off… “Hold, now, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said, nudging her with a hoof and drawing her back. “This dream is not yet ready to end. There is more I would yet say to you.” “Then why didn’t you?” “I was allowing you to relax,” Luna replied simply. “To find your peace.” Twilight blinked. “Oh. Right… thanks,” she said before sitting upright and shaking herself to chase away the drowsiness. Luna giggled under her breath in amusement before her expression became more serious. “Now, the matter of how to handle the fallout of your outburst remains… From Rainbow’s account, Maud told you in no uncertain terms to stay away from her sister. Is that not so?” Twilight’s ears drooped, her bad mood coming back in full force. She shifted uneasily on her haunches. “...It is. I can’t blame her. I almost turned her into ashes… If she didn’t think I was dangerous to Pinkie before, she sure does now.” “Perhaps she does,” Luna acknowledged with a slow nod of her head. “...But I would not discount Pinkie Pie’s influence over her. For just as surely as the elder sister commands and looks after the younger, so too does the younger sister restrain and redirect the elder when they become too overbearing for their own good.” Twilight slowly smiled, looking back up at Luna. “Heh. I guess you would know, wouldn’t you?” Luna nodded. “Indeed. When Tia and I were very little, I was scared of everything. I was small, weak, shy, and sickly. She was large, strong, passionate, and beyond protective of me. I remember, in some of our darker days, when Discord disrupted the peace of Equestria and the throne sat empty, before we found the Elements and faced him… she was almost a different pony. She became hostile towards others, protecting me to a fault. At first, I did not question her actions nor her commands, for I felt she knew better. “But in time, I grew. I learned. And I saw that her own fearful desire to defend me was doing us both more harm than good. Her own actions in trying to keep me safe were sowing the very seeds of Discord’s namesake that had torn our land apart, to begin with. And so I challenged her behavior and her actions. And we argued. And we fought. But in time, she began to see her mistakes, and I was forced to grow out of my shell of fear to make her see.” “I see…” Twilight whispered, her eyes wide, trying to imagine Celestia as being so overbearing. She couldn’t even begin to imagine the serene princess of the sun acting in such a manner… until she remembered how Celestia had acted when she had seen how horribly Rainbow had been brutalized by Chrysalis’ hooves. “Pinkie Pie is your friend, and I know she holds you in high regard,” Luna said with a soft smile. “So do not discount her in making Maud recognize her own overprotectiveness. If Maud trusts her sister, as I am fortunate mine did, and if Pinkie truly sees you as her friend, she will help her see. “But this cannot fall on her shoulders alone,” Luna went on, her smile fading. “For though your actions were aggravated by Midnight’s words and influence, the fact remains it was yet your conscious decision to heed them and fire off that blast in retaliation. You did allow your serenity to slip, and what has come now is only the natural fallout of your loss of control. While it falls to Pinkie to ease Maud’s anger, and it falls to Maud to recognize her own overreach, it likewise falls to you to prove her wrong about you.” Twilight looked down, her ears drooping. “But… how? I almost killed her, Rainbow, and Spike. How can I prove her wrong about me when that was the note we parted on?” A moment later, Luna’s hoof came into view from the side. Twilight’s eyes widened when she saw the cupcake Pinkie had made for her, undamaged and whole, held in the princess’s grasp. She took it in her hooves and looked up to see Luna smiling back down at her. “...By being there for her sister when she needs you,” she said softly. “And making up for the time you missed.” Twilight had forgotten to go to Pinkie’s get together, hadn’t she? She had been so absorbed in her investigation that it had completely slipped her mind. She turned to look up at Luna, her eyes narrowing with resolve. “How do I begin?” “It is simple,” Luna said, leaning down to meet Twilight’s gaze. “Bring to her what she has always brought to you.” Twilight stared at her for several long moments. An idea then slowly began to come to her, and hope lit up in her breast. She gave a sharp nod and held the cupcake closer to her chest. “I think I have an idea…” Luna nodded and leaned back with a sage nod. “Very good. Then, if there is nothing else, I do believe it is time I left you to your slumber. The night is yet young, and there are many more dreams that yet cry for my attention. Sleep well, Twilight Sparkle. And if you have need of me again and I am not there, have your dragon reach out to me. I will answer the call.” Twilight nodded and watched as Luna then lifted up from the ground. The moon in the sky was already glowing brighter, and the dream around her starting to dissolve. “I will, Luna. And thank you again for your help.” Luna nodded down at her, smiling. “Of course, Twilight Sparkle. Sleep well.” And with that, the dream ended, and Twilight fell, oblivious, into the next.