Sunrise
Chapter IV - Below the Surface
The sisters looked at each other in confusion. “Research assistants?” Luna whispered, raising one brow.
Celestia just shrugged in bewilderment.
Clover stopped in front of the door to a private room. “Well, here we are.” A brief glow of magic flared from her horn, and the lock clicked and released. “My apartment. After you.” She opened the door and motioned the two sisters inside.
They found themselves in what was clearly the den of a wizard: a cluttered workspace of crystals, thaumosensors, tools, and stacks of books and scrolls scrawled all over with notes and diagrams. Celestia looked around at the scene and took in a sense of sheer organized chaos, everything on tables and shelves in haphazard groups with no common theme.
Most of the open space was in the center of the room, where Celestia and Luna stood. Clover walked past some of the assorted bric-a-brac, weaving between shelves toward a far corner. She grabbed a sheet of cloth covering something there and pulled it away, sending a thin cloud of dust into the air and unveiling a stack of parts: flat, curved steel segments, a few disassembled support arms, and an assortment of large crystals.
“You’ll have to excuse that it’s in pieces right now.” Clover tossed aside the sheet. “I haven’t had a reason to use it in a while. It may take a minute to throw together.”
She carefully levitated the collection of parts toward the middle of the room, gently ushering Celestia and Luna off to one side while she started working. The steel segments fit together to form a large ring, wide enough for several ponies to stand in. It had numerous threaded holes that the support arms screwed into, and those in turn held up arrays of crystals in the air, forming a ring overhead that mirrored the steel ring on the ground below. Even in their inactive state, Celestia sensed a peculiar ebb and flow to the way magic interplayed through those crystals. She could tell it was a resonant loop of some kind, but it was complicated and its exact purpose was beyond her.
Luna also seemed to feel it, watching Clover with fascination while she worked on the device.
“It’s ready,” Clover announced after a short time, looking over her machine. “Celestia, if you’re up for going first, I think that’d be best. Your dream was just last night, so it’ll be the easier one to find while I reacquire the hang of operating this contraption.”
“And you’re sure this won’t scramble anypony’s brains?” Luna asked.
Clover gave her an annoyed scowl with one eye half-closed.
“Okay, okay!” Luna ducked her head and shrank back under Clover’s withering glare. “You’re the one who mentioned it,” she mumbled defensively.
“Hmmm. I guess I did.” Clover’s face softened. “Fine, it’s a fair question. No, it won’t scramble your brains. It can’t, doesn’t work that way. The worst it can do is show us frightening images, if either of you has been having particularly terrifying nightmares lately. Have you?”
“No, nothing comes to mind.” Celestia shook her head.
“Me neither,” Luna said.
“Well, then we’re good,” Clover said. “So, Celestia, how about it?”
“Alright.” Celestia nodded. “I admit I’m nervous, but I doubt I can get any more ready, so I suppose we might as well go ahead.”
“Then step into the circle, both of you. Easiest if we all do this together.” Clover entered and motioned for the sisters to join her. They did, Celestia a little more quickly than Luna.
“Now, keep in mind, nothing you see in here is real,” Clover said. “It may seem convincing, but it’s all just a replay of something that’s only in your head, and already in the past. Just stay calm. This might feel… weird.”
Clover’s horn started glowing. The crystals overhead responded, lighting up in random bursts of rainbow colors. They pulsed slowly at first, then sped up, the colors overlapping until they merged together into a soft white glow. The light flooded around Celestia, forming a curtain that screened out the rest of the room and grew in intensity until there was nothing but a blank white field all around her. The floor felt like it dropped away under her hooves, leaving her floating in an endless, directionless void of pure light.
Then the light faded, but there was no darkness to replace it. For a fraction of second she wondered how this was possible, then her thoughts started flickering out, one by one, until there was nothing left.
☙ ☀ ❧
Is this what it’s like to be dead?
Everything was gone. Time didn’t exist. There was no dark or light. Sight was a lost concept, along with any other form of sense perception. There were no directions, and no gravity, but that felt natural, since there was no space anyway.
But there was… something…
No. No, it can’t be. If I was dead, I wouldn’t be able to think, so—
A field of dancing lights, endlessly repeated in intricate ever-shifting kaleidoscopic patterns, bloomed in front of her, or at least where she assumed ‘front’ was.
She could see again. The realization broke over her in a wave, followed by similar reacquisitions of tactile sense, and hearing.
There was ground under her hooves. It felt soft. It smelled like… grass. She could smell grass.
She remembered that smell. It was wonderful. She took a deep, slow breath and savored it.
She realized her eyes were closed. When she opened them, a clear blue sky greeted her, stretching away to the horizon over endless verdant meadows. The air was warm with a fragrant, gentle breeze. The sun was shining, soaking into her. Celestia recognized the setting and smiled. Being here again filled her with happiness.
“Nice place you’ve got here.” Clover’s impressed voice came from Celestia’s left. She turned and looked to see Clover standing next to her.
“I certainly thought so,” Celestia agreed.
“As did I,” Luna said from Celestia’s right. “This is exactly as I remember it.”
Clover walked around a little bit. Celestia could see a faint, silvery-white thread, like a thin gossamer filament made of light, coming out of Clover’s forehead just below the base of her horn. It stretched upward toward the sky for a few meters until it faded away. She turned to look at Luna, and saw another one attached to her sister.
Luna stared back, eyes momentarily going wide. “Oh! Do I have a…?” She pointed a hoof at her forehead and crossed her eyes, trying to see it.
“Yes, you do,” Celestia said. “What about me?” She also tried to look, but couldn’t quite see if anything was there.
“You too.” Luna nodded.
“It must be where the link comes in,” Celestia noted. “I was wondering how this would work.”
“We’re linked together?” Luna asked. “Is this something like a telepathy spell?”
“Only a very superficial form of one,” Clover answered her, walking back over to the sisters. “It’s not a direct connection. We can’t share thoughts or anything, if you’re wondering. All it does is dig out memories formed during REM sleep, amplify them in the crystal loop, then recreate the setting and hook us into the sensory perceptions associated with it. Simple, right?”
“Maybe, if you’re a genius mage,” Luna said.
“I’ve been accused of it.” Clover giggled, as if the thought was amusing. “But, really, I didn’t build this on my own. I had a lot of help, so I hardly think it’d be fair for me to take the credit.”
The three of them stood around looking at the landscape.
“This place doesn't remind me of anywhere near Quartz City,” Clover said. “Have you ever been somewhere like this in your waking life?”
“No, it…” Celestia looked up into the sky. The sun was where she remembered it being in her dream, much farther overhead than she ever normally saw it. “Never. There’s no time I’ve ever been as far from Quartz City as this would have to be. We could only be somewhere much farther south. Look where the sun is.”
“I suppose so.” Clover nodded. “You said there was something calling you here, when you had this dream.”
“Yes,” Celestia said. “But I don’t know what it was.”
“Was it a voice?”
“No.” Celestia shook her head. “It was something inside my own mind, but not articulate like a voice. Not exactly words, more like… just a need that I felt, like nothing else could be more important.”
“That’s also how I felt,” Luna said.
“Do you think it was some other mind?” Clover asked. “Someone else sending the thought?”
“I couldn’t say.” Celestia shook her head. “But it didn’t feel like another person was present. I was alone, I’m sure of it. Besides, it didn’t seem like anything structured, just a primal urge from inside.”
“Whatever it was, it wasn’t merely sensory, in any case,” Clover said, thinking. “If it was, we’d all be perceiving it clearly, but it’s not here in the reconstruction. And it probably wasn’t any individual intelligence like a pony trying to send a message. Aside from invasive telepathy being rare, I doubt they’d try to use a dream.”
“So, what, then?”
“I have no idea.” Clover shrugged. “This mountain you both saw: did that feel significant also?”
“Yes.” Celestia nodded. “Very much so. It was the same kind of attraction. It was almost like I was a piece of metal being pulled to a magnet. It was quite exciting, actually.”
“Hmm. Let’s move forward to that, then.”
Clover focused and her horn glowed. Everything around them became indistinct, feeling blurry and impossible to focus on. Celestia was surrounded by a sense of motion, but she wasn’t moving; the world was like water flowing around her perceptions, washing by with a force that could be felt but a substance that evaded being grasped. After a few seconds, it stopped and coalesced back into solidarity.
When it did, the mountain was there in front of them. They were standing in its foothills, from which it abruptly towered up at a seemingly impossible angle, an almost vertical face of stern, gray rock.
All three ponies craned their necks back and stared. Celestia felt a familiar vertigo coming on, spinning in her head and twisting in her stomach. As before, the mountain defied her sense of scale. It seemed unreal with its sheer enormity and the way it disappeared into a misty haze of low-hanging clouds shrouding its upper peaks.
“Whoa.” Clover’s face was blank. “I see why it left an impression.”
“I’ve never seen anything like it, not in my entire life,” Celestia said.
“I believe you.” Clover nodded. “Because neither have I.”
Seeing this again stirred something else inside of Celestia. It wasn’t the same compelling urge whispering in her thoughts the way it had before, but it brought back some of the tangible sensations: the ghost of a tingle in her skin, her coat standing on end, excited tightness in her limbs. The phantom of an urge to whinny fluttered in her chest. Her muscles twitched.
“I feel that,” Clover said. Celestia looked at her just in time to notice a small shudder run down her back. “Something got you worked up about this place enough for the excitement to translate into a visceral experience, obviously.”
“It was a very intense dream,” Celestia said.
“Must have been,” Clover said. “Was there anything more?”
“No. I woke up after this.”
Clover stood quietly, observing the mountain for a few more moments.
“Alright, let’s move on to Luna’s dream,” she finally said. “I’ll need to compare the two to be sure.”
“Sure of what?”
“Of whether or not this is what I think it might be.”
Before Celestia could ask any further, Clover’s horn glowed while she focused magic in a bright aura. The world drowned in white light, surging until everything faded away into nothingness again.
☙ ☀ ❧
When Celestia next opened her eyes, it was dark. She was somewhere lit only by a small night-light crystal glowing the silvery color of the moon. The surface under her hooves wasn’t grass or soil. It was hard: a smooth, flat stone floor, she discovered by lightly tapping one hoof.
She looked around while her eyes adjusted and everything came into focus. The scene was familiar, but unexpected. It was nighttime, and they were back at home. In the dim light, she could see that the three of them were standing close together, packed into the small confines of Luna’s bedroom.
“Are we still in the dreamwalking machine?” Celestia felt confused. “What are we doing here?”
“Yes, we’re still in the machine. We’re in one of Luna’s dreams, I think I just have the wrong—” Clover was interrupted by motion suddenly stirring under the deep midnight blue covers on Luna’s bed.
A hoof reached out from underneath the blankets, hooking over the top edge and pushing them down to reveal the head and upper torso of a beautiful unicorn mare. She had a cream-colored coat with a pink cast, and a long, gorgeous, red and orange mane that flowed like silk and shined like fire, even in the low light. A warm smile came over her face while she pushed the covers down further and stared at Luna with inviting emerald green eyes.
Luna turned to look at Clover, tight-lipped and blank-faced. Clover and Celestia looked back at Luna, equally expressionless.
“Why are we seeing this?” Luna asked tensely.
“Sorry, sorry, I have the wrong blasted time index,” Clover said hastily. “I’m not sure if I’m too far forward or back, though. I haven’t practiced with the machine in a while and it’s tricky. I’m going to need to…” Clover trailed off, mumbling indistinctly and half-squinting, half-rolling her eyes in thought. While she worked, a subtle, rhythmic pulsing glow formed in her horn.
The beautiful mare pushed off the covers and stood up, rolling off the bed with a delicate, graceful motion. Her body was flawless, trim and fit with perfectly toned muscles in all the right places. She walked toward Luna, who seemed to be frozen.
Celestia watched, feeling uneasy. A few seconds went by and she became aware of a growing conflict inside herself. Anxiety mixed with bewilderment washed through her, but it was counterweighted by a pleasant, light fluttery sensation that gave her an enjoyable warmth… the beginnings of arousal, she was surprised and embarrassed to discover. It caught her off-guard and her conscious mind recoiled, telling her it was something she shouldn’t be feeling. Why would she be? Why here, why now? After a moment’s thought, however, she realized that it wasn’t actually her: it was just the machine replaying the sense experiences present during the dream into their minds. Whatever Luna had felt at the time was what they all felt.
This sudden understanding that she was getting a very unwanted and inappropriate front row view of her sister having one of those dreams made Celestia flush, her face burning like it was on fire. She stared at the floor, carefully avoiding meeting the eyes of anypony else.
The faint hint of a musky scent starting to seep into the air wasn’t helping, either. She winced as it hit her nostrils.
The mare took another step closer to Luna, walking with a slow, sensuous hip-swaying motion.
“I’d prefer if we moved on sooner rather than later,” Luna said, her voice rising a desperate octave. “…Anywhere, please…”
“Ah hah! I’ve got it! …I think.” Clover suddenly flared her horn into a bright glow. The distinctness of the surroundings blurred away in a flash, imparting a stronger sense of urgency to their motion than before. Everything rushed around them with a force like standing chest-deep in a fast-flowing river, washing away the world.
None of them wanted to look at each other. Seconds dragged on in an oppressive blanket of awkward silence until reality coalesced again.
When it did, they were back in open meadows under the bright sun and blue sky. The sensations in her body had shifted along with the surroundings, and Celestia was keenly aware that her involuntary tingles of anticipatory pleasure were gone. Their absence, she couldn’t help but notice with a touch of irony, was a great relief. She let out a breath she hadn’t even realized she’d been holding, feeling her chest loosen and relax as the tension ratcheted down a few notches.
Luna said nothing. She just turned away from the other two ponies and wouldn’t face them, nervously scuffing at the ground with one hoof.
Clover walked around, examining the scene. “Yes, here we are. It, uh…” She cleared her throat. “It certainly looks the same as your dream, Celestia.” She lowered her nose to the grass and inhaled in a long, slow breath. “And smells the same,” she concluded.
Celestia investigated for herself, using the opportunity to open some much-needed distance from other two ponies. She took a couple minutes to calm down and carefully take in the surroundings long enough to be sure. “There’s no differences as far as I can tell,” she said. “It’s the same place. Same grass, same sky, same sun overhead. Everything.”
“I agree,” Luna mumbled.
Clover nodded. “Then let’s move ahead to the mountain.”
Her horn glowed and once more the world rushed around them.
They were at the mountain again, in the foothills. It was also exactly as before, towering over them, as impressive as ever. If she hadn’t been told that this was Luna’s dream, Celestia would have sworn without hesitation they were still in her own. The examination they performed was quick and cursory, but not a lot was needed.
“It seems to confirm you really did have the same dream,” Clover commented.
“What does that mean?” Celestia asked.
“We’ll get to that,” Clover said. “But let’s discuss it somewhere outside of Luna’s head. I imagine this has been a little uncomfortable for us all.”
“Yes, please,” Luna said.
Clover’s horn glowed, and everything suddenly dissolved and faded yet again.
☙ ☀ ❧
Exiting dreamwalking was a much faster process than entering. There was only a fraction of a second of disorienting nothingness before Celestia opened her eyes and they were back in Clover’s apartment. As she did, the lights in the machine’s crystals were already slowly fading, powering down until they went completely dark.
“Well. That was an adventure, wasn’t it?” Clover stepped out of the steel ring.
“It was, uh—” Celestia coughed. “—It was something.”
Luna looked mortified. She shrank from the other two, stepping backwards out of the machine and timidly hiding her face behind a veil of cornflower mane.
“About what happened in there.” Clover turned to look at Luna. “I’m sorry. It’s my fault. I asked if either of you had had any nightmares, but I didn’t consider other kinds of… things… that might have been preferable to keep private. I apologize to both of you, for my oversight and the… my… navigation error.”
“It was a risk we had to take,” Luna mumbled. “The dreamwalking had to be done.”
“Sure, but… not like that,” Clover said, grimacing. “These are the kinds of things I should be more careful about. But, alas, they call me Clover the Clever, not Clover the Wise, and I’m afraid sometimes it becomes painfully clear just how different those two things are. I had no intention of embarrassing you two.”
“It’s alright,” Luna said quietly. She was still partly turned away from them, half-hiding.
It didn’t sound alright to Celestia. What she heard was the voice of a pony who was humiliated and hurt. She walked over to Luna and gently brushed her mane back from her face. Luna tried to turn away again, but Celestia stopped her, forcing her to make eye contact.
She looked in Luna’s teal eyes and she saw the fear and shame there, the question she knew Luna was too terrified to ask out loud. A tide of protective urges sprang up and gripped her heart. There was nothing she wanted more than to make those fears vanish.
“My sister does not embarrass me,” she said softly, nuzzling Luna on the cheek. “You never have, and you never will.”
Luna finally lifted her head and looked at Celestia gratefully. Celestia closed in and wrapped her in a hug.
“Thank you,” Luna whispered. “I’m sorry.”
“It was only a dream.” Celestia shook her head. “There’s nothing to be sorry for. You didn’t choose for it to happen. I think we should move on and try not to think about it.”
“Indeed,” Clover chimed in. “We still have other things to discuss.”
She led them into the kitchen. They stood around a small table, where Clover served them cups of tea made with water that she instantly brought to a boil using her magic.
“So, we have established that your dreams were identical,” Clover began. “The implication of which, under the circumstances, is that this very likely wasn’t merely a dream.”
“Then what was it?” Celestia asked.
“A vision,” Clover answered her. “An important one. I mean, they usually are important, but this one may be especially so.”
“I thought ‘visions’ were just an old mare’s tale.”
“Sometimes old mares know what they’re talking about,” Clover said. “Starswirl the Bearded certainly did. Although.” She rubbed her chin. “He’s not a mare, and he wasn’t particularly old when— you know what? Bad example. Nevermind. The point is, he wouldn’t have ignored these things.”
“How should we respond to a vision like this one?” Luna asked.
“That’s just it.” Clover shook her head. “I’m not sure yet.”
“There seems to be an intention that we go south, as I pointed out before.”
“Yes, I see that now, but why?” Clover asked. “What’s the bigger purpose?” She started pacing in place. “There is one, you can be sure of that. Two sisters who are both very talented at magic have the same vision, right when one of them is put on a project that would bring us all to ruin? It’s not merely random. It can’t be.”
“Maybe we won’t know what’s in the south until we go there,” Celestia suggested.
“But that’s the rub, we don’t even know where ‘there’ is, exactly,” Clover said. “It’s not a good idea to just run off and hope to stumble into it by blind luck. I don’t see that being very productive, not to mention it would raise a lot of questions I’m not ready to answer yet.”
“I don’t know what else we can do, then.”
“Just try to get more information, I suppose.” Clover shrugged.
“How?” Celestia asked.
“Well, I’m glad you asked,” Clover said. “To get started on that process, you two are mine now.”
“…Yours?”
“Yes.” Clover nodded. “After a very compelling interview, I’m certain you’ll both make fine research assistants suited to my needs in a matter urgently required to support the interests of the Unicorn Kingdom. That’s what the paperwork will say. Transfers will be processed in the Thaumosciences offices before the day is out. By tomorrow, you’ll be reassigned, reporting to me.”
“But… how can you just…”
“Royal Cardinal Mage.” Clover winked. “When you reach Cardinal and you’re chosen to work directly for the crown, you’ll find you have a long leash to do what you want with and not a lot of ponies to rein you in.”
“Star Fire’s going to throw a conniption about one of her thaumites being taken away from her,” Celestia said. “Didn’t you want her not to know you’d visited us?”
“Ahh, well. I’d hoped not to ruffle any feathers unnecessarily, in case this didn’t pan out to anything.” Clover shrugged. “But it looks like I can’t get around it now. Yes, she’ll be upset, but you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, can you? And not that I go out of my way to do it, of course, but truth be told, it’s always a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine if the eggs getting broken are Star Fire’s.”
“To be honest, I can’t say I disagree,” Celestia admitted. “Sometimes I’d like to see her get a swift kick to the ovaries myself.”
Luna put one hoof over her mouth, trying to suppress a fit of giggles. “I just hope she doesn’t kick back.”
“Don’t you worry about her,” Clover said. “The paperwork will be in order. She’ll whine, but she won’t be able to do anything about it. Although, Luna, I don’t suppose your over-instructor is going to be too thrilled, either. Who am I stealing an apprentice from, again?”
“Night Veil,” Luna said.
“Hmm. That’s too bad, I actually like her.” Clover sighed. “Well, she wouldn’t have had you for too much longer, at least. You’ve already taken the qualification exams. That’s the important thing. You’re just filling required apprenticeship hours at this point to become a full-fledged lunarite, aren’t you?”
“Yes.” Luna nodded. “I should have enough in three months or so, assuming I keep working on them.”
“I’ll make sure you get credited for the time you’re with me. If anything, it’ll look better anyway, being personally selected as a cardinal’s assistant.”
The three of them stood around the table quietly. The conversation died off while Clover finished her tea. Celestia and Luna glanced back and forth to each other.
“So, what happens now?” Celestia finally asked.
“Now? I need some time to think.” Clover rubbed her chin. “I have to figure out a next move. Besides, this was supposed to be a day off for you two. Sorry I’ve already taken up so much of your morning. You’re free to go for the rest of the day.”
“Do we report to you tomorrow?”
“Yes.” Clover nodded. “Celestia, don’t go into the office or the field like you normally would, and Luna, don’t go to the lunar thaumocontroller. I’ll come to you. I know the way to your house. Just wait there. I should arrive a little after dawn tomorrow.”
“You don’t want us to come back to the palace?” Celestia asked. “Isn’t this where you work?”
“No, I’d just have to come out to meet you anyway.” Clover shook her head. “I can’t get you cleared through security for unescorted palace access that quickly, and it’ll draw too much attention if I keep dragging you two in and out with me repeatedly. My ability to speed things through in Thaumosciences still doesn’t mean all that much to the Royal Guard, I’m afraid. Speaking of which, I’ll escort you out.”
Clover collected their empty teacups and left them in the sink before leading the sisters to the door. “Enjoy your time off,” she told them. “Relax while you can. Tomorrow we’ll have work to do.”