Celestia let out a short, sharp cough and groaned at the ache spiking through her head. She kept her eyes closed for several moments as the pain subsided a bit before fluttering her eyes open. She was momentarily blinded by the light reflecting off a mirror on the wall, and she turned her head away until her eyes adjusted. Once they had she then slowly looked around the room she found herself in, a rather ramshackle bedroom. The walls, floor and ceiling appeared to be from carved rock, and she was laying on what seemed to be hay, mixed with and covered by a variety of leaves. Next to her stood a small ornate chest which held several bandages and other medical equipment.
An open door in the corner of the room admitted a flickering light. With some effort, Celestia weakly pushed herself off the ground. Her legs felt like they were made of jelly as she wobbled precariously. She tried to stand up on her two legs as usual, but found her anatomy didn’t agree with that, and she toppled over with a distinct lack of grace onto her rump and side.
"Oof! What happened to me?" she grunted, finding her synthesized voice replaced with a mellower, natural one. "Wait, why is my voice different?!" she said, startled at the change and not at all sure if she liked it. Bringing a hoof up, she ran it across her neck and found that she was definitely not hallucinating before; she had indeed a soft covering of fur across her whole body and a brand new mane of brilliantly sparkling rainbow atop her head.
Celestia reached up and pulled the mane into view, causing her eyes to widen upon seeing the sparkling, ethereal nature of the strands. Brushing a hoof through it felt strangely relaxing, but just as she started to relax, a sharp slam from outside knocked her out of her thoughts and caused her heart to thump hard in her chest. Celestia stared at the door for a few agonising seconds before she pulled herself up - this time emulating Twilight and staying on all fours - and experimentally walked towards the door. She stumbled like a newborn foal, but eventually reached the door, already out of breath.
It felt strange to actually be able to feel. Pressure on her hooves, the soft whistle of air as it brushed past her ears and how it felt to actually exert herself. Celestia didn't know how regular ponies could put up with it as it was so much to do at any single time. Yet, she felt like it was such a blessing; even pain was a privilege she could only imagine.
Reaching the door, she grabbed the handle to keep herself upright before pulling herself past and leaning against the wall. She found herself in a large cave, the room she awoke in being a small side chamber off of it. To the right, the walls of the room seemed to grow rougher, and there was what appeared to be a small entrance. It led to either outside or another chamber - she couldn’t be sure. But it was to her left that most of the cave lay.
Several tables were scattered about the room with items of various sizes strewn over them, including arrows, dried leather and long strips of parchment. A deep fire pit sat in the center, crackling with warmth and surrounded by a few drying racks and long lounging couches which seemed to have been dragged from someplace considerably nicer, despite their ragged appearance.
Next to the couches stood a broken wooden throne, painted black and covered with furs of different shades. Propped against the throne was a weapon like none Celestia had ever seen. A six foot pole of some kind of blackened metal was topped with a curved, single-edged spearhead. The edge of the weapon was considerably darker than the rest, dying down to a void that seemed to hungrily suck in all light around it, physically dimming the area around the throne.
Despite the dark metal, Celestia could clearly see the intricately etched drawing of a leaping alicorn, surmounting a crescent moon that covered the center of the spearhead’s surface.
Stepping closer, Celestia ran her hoof over the furs and smiled, finding their touch pleasant.
"So, you're awake," a feminine voice stated from behind and towards the entrance proper.
Celestia's eyes widened and she turned around to see an azure winged unicorn in battered war-gear watching her. Her eyes flitted across Celestia's body before shooting back to her eyes. "Three days you were unconscious. Never seen you sleep so long before," she joked, trotting over and levitating her helmet off and onto a table.
Celestia looked up, noting that she was roughly a hoof taller than the dark-furred mare now that the helmet was off. But it was her eyes that captured Celestia’s attention. She didn’t know why but she couldn’t look away from them."Well, that was unexpected, but a pleasant surprise," she chuckled quizzically. “Are you Luna?”
Then the other blinked, breaking the spell as all mirth seemed to fade from them due to that simple question. While she didn't seem sad, her expression was unreadable to Celestia, who simply shrank a little.
"I see... So she worked out that little part," Luna muttered, then pursed her lips. "Looks like I'll have to catch you up," she sighed, rolling her eyes dramatically at the seeming inconvenience her new guest was imposing on her. "Alright," the pony said, shaking her hoof to shoo Celestia away from the throne, then taking a seat on it. She gestured to the other seat opposite the throne. "Sit down."
Celestia backed up, almost stumbling over herself before she sat down.
"Yes, I am Luna,” she said, then adding a note of importance to her voice continued, “more specifically, Princess Luna of Equestria; Alicorn Sovereign of the Night!” She sat up proudly as she finished… then seemed to shrink back down in the oversized chair, her voice quieting and taking a sad note. “Or... I used to be. Now I am simply reduced to Luna."
The alicorn shuffled uneasy on the throne and closed her eyes. "Celestia. You don't know how much of a relief it is to see you once again. I feared you were dead."
Celestia returned the explanation with a look of confusion. "Princess?" she asked, looking down. "I don't understand."
"You will, in time," Luna stated, climbing down and bringing her hoof to Celestia’s cheek, looking closely at her as if searching for something. "My dear sister... What has Twilight done to you?" she whispered.
The gesture brought a warmth to Celestia. She couldn't help but smile as the pleasurable feeling flooded through her and she brought her hoof up to hold onto the mare’s own.
As familiar as Luna seemed, she still couldn't place her. How could Luna be her sister if she was just created days ago?
Luna's own smile turned serious suddenly. She pulled away and paced around the fire, searching for words, or maybe just not wanting to say the words. “You see, dear sister…” She turned to the fire and away from Celestia and finally spoke softly, her thoughts seeming far away.
“We are dead.”