Your gift: a conduit. Time intertwines with dream, and the Oracle sees what has been.
Luna's eyes were drawn down as a faint glow began to emanate all at once from the weapons in her hold, and her mouth opened to awe as she held them higher. Brighter and brighter they shone until they were casting warm glow on her face, then the world around her began to change.
When she changed her dreams around, it felt right. It felt natural, and easy. Simply melding her environment to the picture in her mind. She always fit directly in, because the mold had been constructed with a Luna-shaped hole in mind.
When they changed things, it made her feel a little sick.
Mild vertigo crawled up her neck as the world seemed to turn and twist uncomfortably. The pastel green of the field and the blank white of the sky meshed and ran together messily as the ground fell away in palettes, until she was left floating in a dizzying mix of brown, undulating color swirls.
Luna shut her eyes, because she could. She didn't need to see the new world come to focus, she was just fine to sit silently along for the ride.
Long moments passed in short breaths, and Luna felt in her breast the moment that the world around her had settled. Her eyes peeled open cautiously for the first frightened moment of quiet, but only before they flew wide open as her mouth followed suit.
Where Luna stood now... it seemed like something out of a fairytale.
Everywhere her searching eyes and whipping head looked, she could see nothing but endless clouds. White... glorious white, everywhere. But not the normal, average, formless clouds she'd become accustomed to from her wild fantasies, no- it was sculpted! Crafted! Built!
Clouds built up and standing sturdily at corners and parallels to yet more; walls formed to create large, inherently imposing structures. Buildings- made out of clouds! Assumedly stretching out to form whole rooms beyond the solid edges of what she could see from this odd corner!
Oh, but that wasn't every building. Buildings made so apparently solid that things had been stuck to them. Varying sizes of parchment on their sides, mostly, and what perhaps seemed to be a comically defaced picture of a stern faced pony on one side wall- the point was that they had been affixed to clouds!
The other buildings she could see were open-faced. Only determined as buildings to her eyes by the large fluted columns standing at even intervals around distinct, cloudy foundations that eventually held up some sorts of cloudy roofs. Whatever rooms within were beyond little steps of stairs or tiny ramps; some kind of warm light crackling out from the dark depths.
She'd certainly never seen buildings like that, but she'd never seen a city of clouds, before.
So much to take in... So much to immediately gawk at- oh, that open building had a large, colorful rug on its steps! How grand!
Oh, that, too! There weren't just clouds everywhere, there were things! Physical objects- wooden stalls and untended carts along the curving main street, signs affixed to walls too far away to read, and carpets and rugs and drapes and flowers and little bits of miniscule, inexplicable life, wherever she looked!
All on clouds. Standing on clouds, like she'd been told only pegasi could.
Luna turned- saw- walked to stand just under what looked to be a large gate. Because it was by-and-large the least interesting thing for her to focus on. Her hoof raised to explore the extremely large column that well dwarfed her, but she started suddenly as she realized her hooves were still... full.
Luna looked down in surprise at her hoof-held weapons, which she had somehow forgotten in the whimsy. She blinked, and focused, and suddenly there was a tightness and an itch around her hip. She tilted her head around to see the extremely shaggy brown cloth belt she'd dreamt up, and the two affixed buckles on either side of her haunches that she comfortably slid her weapons into.
Bumping a little scarily against her legs- but feelings were phantom here, anyway. Oh, the silver looked so good against her fur. So complementary. She could stare at that pretty sight for- no, wait- the column.
Her now-freed hooves reached to explore the snubbed architecture: fluted and white- because it was a cloud- and standing broadly away from its twin to hold aloft an even larger, triangular slab of cloud that ponies assumedly walked under.
Everything was solid. It looked- felt like ordinary material. If it wasn't all just slightly noticeably fluffy, she would have assumed it to be some kind of polished stone. Only slightly off-color as she was so close to it.
Architecture like she'd never seen it.
She'd seen castles, villages, ruins and plains- all in her dreams, of course- but this topped it all! If this was what the pegasi had to offer... she felt sorry for how awed she'd felt exploring the unicorns' so-said 'great' castle.
Walking around in big, empty halls; looking up in awe at the lavish displays of wealth and opulence. Paintings in color and sculptures of white and empty suits of polished armor on heavy stilts. Pretty enough and exciting to extreme degrees at the time, but it had all seemed a little hollow in hindsight.
That castle had been so big and filled with so much, but she'd never been able to shake the feeling that there was something lacking in every grand, glimmering hall. Something sterile.
This dream was better. Way better. This place felt alive!
From where she stood at what seemed to be the grand entrance to the yet-unnamed city, judging by the large gate and the surprisingly defined cloud street leading away from it, she could unfortunately see little of the city proper.
The tall buildings standing on platform sides of the cloud street that gradually rose off and curved to the unseen distance, two extra roads that split before the main branch that lead in opposite directions to the sides unknown, as well as many more single clouds dotting the sky above and beyond.
Many of which seemed to support buildings of their own. Standing like little islands in odd places that she couldn't immediately put a pattern to, and most too far away to properly examine. A few, to her merry wonder, even seemed to sport small falls off of their edges. Liquid mist speckling down in a sheet to shower down in places she couldn't see.
That 'sun' shining overhead as well. Making all the pristine whites and greys positively glow in the dapple. Catching on anything it could to bounce and reflect and get into every little crack of space where dark might've lurked.
It was all so fantastical! Nothing like boring browns and greens, and everything she loved about dreams!
It hurt her eyes a little.
Do you wish to know?
Their voice rung out, and all the cloud buildings shook just slightly. She was sure her heart would have seized at the possible danger of collapse, had she not been in a dream. As it was, she only wobbled slightly along with the false reality; easily recovering her balance and looking off into the sky.
She would like to know. She'd like to know everything there was to tell.
Very well.
You stand at the hoof of the Great Carved Arch. A monument to the ordinate crafts the pegasi would fashion from the very clouds themselves. Where clouds may be fleeting and known for ephemeral states: this gate to the grand city of the pegasi stood impermeable for years untold.
Their ancient and time-tested method for mixing clouds into solidity was a kept secret: long-lost to the annals. It was often thought that their grand constructions towered above the usual crafts of the other races: both figuratively and literally.
Luna turned from her inspection of the padded road she stood upon as their voice rung through her head, to stare again at the towering structure as context filled her.
The Great Carved Arch, huh? She could certainly see that the cloud columns that held the arch itself were carved, though not so intricately. Simply fluted, with a large, square base. The carvings that gave it moniker must have been on the great cloudy brick above.
Might as well see while she was here.
Luna's wings furled open, and she returned to four hooves so she could crouch low for a powerful takeoff. She kept her eyes firmly on the sight of the great arch as she leapt into the air, and the two pillars fell alongside. If she caught sight of the city from above, she'd never give the carvings a second glance.
And she did want to see them. History was why she was here, wasn't it? She liked learning.
She rose and rose: blades bumping against her legs with each flap. The distance was even greater than it'd seemed from below; only after what felt like lines did she come up to the side of the weighted triangle of cloud.
And as her eyes came it rest upon it, her jaw dropped, and her hooves flew to cover her now-gaping mouth.
It certainly was carved. Along the great, worn space of its largely edge-marked center lay no less than an entire mosaic of deeply cut tiny scenes and pictures and little ponies and strange creatures and... words.
In a language she... didn't understand. So, she was just assuming they were words.
It is a dialect forgotten in even the time which you stand. Only their highly learned could read what lay on this slab.
Yeah, okay, she could believe that.
Luna's one hoof creeped away from her mouth to cautiously approach one of the little cloud pictures on the large embedded mosaic, but she stopped just short with a flinch and a grimace.
Was it okay to touch?
This is a memory within a dream within your mind. You may touch anything you please.
Yes, of course. That was right. She wasn't actually... there.
Luna breathed a quiet breath of shuddering anticipation as she quickly glanced to her sides, and it was only when she was absolutely sure nopony was looking that she crept her hoof forward to rest gently on the surprisingly hard surface.
Reckless courage blossomed in her heart as she swept her hoof to the side; shamelessly besmirching ancient history as she squinted closer at the cloudy carving immediately in front of her from where she hovered at the slab's very end.
Some kind of... large creature, with wings? Sharp and spiky: hewn with rough, jagged lines, and standing on bent hind legs while brandishing big, pointy claws. Some kind of... was that fire coming out of its mouth in little pointy 'v's'?!
The flames had a little depth to them; it was a nice effect.
It seemed to be quite angry with the many little pegasus carvings that were trying to stab at it with little spears from behind their even smaller shields. Some kind of fight, to be sure; important enough to be memorialized in what she gathered was one of their most important landmarks. The text engraved just above it probably shed some light, for all the good it did her.
This etching and those on the far end depict and immortalize the bloody struggles between the pegasi and those they would oft war with.
This depicts their conflict with they who were first drawn from the earth: the dragons.
Luna shot a glance to the corner of her eye, before she returned to scrutinizing the relative depth of each little line. The soldiers had a lot of tiny nuance to them; she could almost actually see the slight tilt to their helmets with the way some of the lines were and weren't overlaid.
The pegasi fought with- the dragons? Weren't they the scaly things that were really big and really dangerous?
The timeless dragons feel age only as their weight, and there are as many young as there are few old. The guileless young feel the flame abreast and anew, and seek conflict as much as the pegasi. Those elder enough to grow weary of the earth and its conceit would have eclipsed this city.
Luna blinked, and leered at the dragon carving again. It was certainly much bigger than the little pegasi, but owing to the size of the wall, it was only about half as big as her. To eclipse the entire city? Well that was- oh, but she didn't have a good reference, maybe she should-
No- Luna stopped herself. Hoof laid firmly on the head of the dragon, and taking a solid breath. Once she turned around to see the city there would be no going back. She did want to see this history while she was interested, and that wouldn't happen if she got all excited about the sights.
She had a lot of dreaming to do; no need to rush it.
Luna's eye wandered to the side, to see what came next as her wings shifted her over slightly. The next freeform carving- as there were no lines denoting where one ended and the next began- seemed to be rather simple. It was a large amount of strangely defined pegasi wearing armor gathered around... a shield and a spear.
She could almost see the reverence painted into the dots of their eyes.
The great treasures of the pegasi used in their wars against the dragons. They became known though their lands and feared in another for the absolute dominance they levied 'gainst their foes.
Great weapons... A spear and a shield... Luna cocked her head, though she didn't take her eyes off the picture.
What were they called?
The fireproof shield: Netitus, and the scale-shattering spear: Stakbreh. One was crafted by necessity in the fires of war, while the other was a foreign gift made as symbol of mutual allegiance.
Netitus and 'Stakbreh?' One of those definitely sounded and felt a bit more foreign, to her. She wasn't even sure she'd be able to say that.
"Stag- Stagghk- b- brregh?" She tried, screwing her mouth in odd shapes, but it still sounded funny. She pursed her lips, and resolved to try again later.
Though it scarcely saw combat, it was named with earnest meaning in honest gift. The meaning was perhaps lost.
...She probably would have called it 'Scale Sever' or something. Maybe 'Wyrmrender.'
Luna rested her hoof over the small picture of the spear; the broad shield with its curved edges standing so stout next to it. Then, she shifted her hoof over the shield, as she stared at the long shaft of the very wide-tipped weapon. So weighted at the extremely long head's triangular top, to taper to its very fine point at the end.
They were heralded dragon slaying weapons...
Throwing the flames to one side across the scorchless expanse of the shield, to guide the spear 'twixt steel scales to pierce a heart borne of flame. With the strength and will to wield them, a pegasus might as well be an unerring arrow.
That was pretty cool.
Move to the other end.
Luna looked up from her inspection and befuddlement over why the ponies in this picture seemed to have distinctions, to gaze with surprise at the sky. They almost sounded... impatient.
Was she holding them up? Why did they want her to move on so fast?
She was surprised even further, and her hoof fell away from the wall as she was not immediately answered. Instead, the world around her seemed to... hum with... indecision?
...You must see the other side, then gaze upon the center.
This was... unprecedented...
Luna frowned, as she sent a forlorn glance at the picture she'd been fawning over. More little bits to the scene carved around it that she hadn't looked at yet... But she'd never heard them so hesitant before, and the absence of the constant reminder of infallibility was kind of freaking her out a little.
Was everything okay?
...No answer.
Best to do as they said. It wasn't as though she didn't trust them.
She let her wings carry her further: past many tinier carvings and a large, central carving that she barely gave a sidling glance to; eventually arriving at the other end of the surprisingly long cloud.
She gave another furrowed glance at the sky before she set to a steady hover next to the farthest picture on this side, and focused on it.
Oh, this one had many subjects. Another kind of winged creature, but these- and there were many- had little triangle beaks. They also had little claws, and were wearing distinctly different armor than the pegasi wore. They held little swords and spears of their own to match the ponies set obviously across from them. Some in the back had bows, too.
There were also many... dead creatures lying around wherever there was empty space. Odd detail, when there weren't any dead pegasi to match.
While the dragons were easy to imagine as simply 'ponies fighting monsters,' this side seemed to depict a more traditional battle. Ponies fighting... things that were almost like ponies.
Her hoof traced around and found one in particular near the head of the army. They were a bit larger than the other of their kind, and stylized in different, flashier armor. They also happened to be wielding an equally large greatsword over their shoulder with one hefty claw.
Probably their leader.
The pegasi sought opposition as a way of life, and the tribe of the gnarled griffons often came under fire as a result.
That... made it sound like the pegasi were attacking the... griffons? She'd never heard of griffons, before...
The pegasi fought with the marauding dragons as a matter of survival. They kept the far eastern border with pride and honor, to protect even those they wished harm. It was a duty. Yet they fought with the griffons from the north for merely petty, worldly needs. Such paltry reasonings: it can only be assumed that they sought the conflict for pleasure.
'Assumed?' Was that last bit... partial? Had they just admitted both that they weren't sure, and that they had... a bias?
We recite inexact words by the very generals that lead their battles. Bias exists inexorably, and there can be no account told without it.
She tilted her head up, and cast a leery glance at the sky.
...That response almost came a bit too quickly.
Luna decided to shrug off the oddities, as she returned to exploring the disconcertingly smooth surface. They had seen their share of strange behaviors in the past, so an escalation of it wasn't completely shocking.
The pictures, though. This one had far more text above it all; hanging in the sky while the armies clashed below. Blood spilled on tired earth, and an epic spun for it.
What did it say?
There is no need to know.
Luna nodded absently as she idly touched the slab, before what had been said actually occurred, and she frowned.
There was no need to know? Alright... what if she wanted to know?
You do not want to know what is scribed here.
Something sparked and alighted in her breast; her mouth fell agape and her brow creased and bent. She glared openly at the innocent etching as though it had wronged her, but she knew the gesture was conveying to its proper recipient.
Well, this was something, wasn't it? They were nearly outright refusing to tell her something she'd asked. Somewhat politely, but still.
Luna took a deep breath in an attempt to calm the twitching anger rising on her face. The words were there, and they piqued her interest. They described something about this battle or the griffons in general, and she wanted to know.
Make it an order- tell her what had been scribed. This was nothing of great importance, it was just words on what was probably a long-since crumbled cloud wall! What could possibly be written here that would apparently rock her world so?
They were silent, but Luna knew how it would end. She'd not forgotten this time: her dreams were hers, and they had made themselves subject. They could not back out and be so abject at the same time; they would have to either renege on their haughty fealty, or just tell her.
Luna puffed a heated breath through her nose, as her hooves crossed. Her weapons' exposed flesh felt hot against her fur, though she knew she couldn't slash at a disembodied voice.
She was waiting.
...Very well. It is the duty of the Oracle to witness.
Luna smiled, with a hard edge. That was more like it. Now, what had been scribed about the griffons? What was the history, here?
This etching depicts the end of the Slaving War, so named by the pegasi. The conflict began as rumors spread of the griffons having part in the disappearance of several known pegasus maidens, all of which were steadily denied by the accused. Stern inquiries made at tense borders turned to thrown accusations, and personal grudges soon escalated to organized combat, as it oft did.
The so-called slaves were never found, but captives were taken on both sides after each and every skirmish. It was considered a sort of balance by one, and an act of spite by the other. Such conduct made peace talks impossible, as neither the griffons nor the pegasi would concede their wrongs and consider their release.
Until the griffons suffered their last loss of the war, and five living regiments of forty griffons each were taken prisoner.
Forty each? Two hundred griffons taken alive? That was impressive. She was assuming the pegasi used them as leverage to end the war?
In the long-awaited talks that followed, a meeting was arranged. Two celebrated leaders of kinds long aggrieved would meet on even terms, and each accounted prisoner of war would be graciously released to their homes. It would have struck a staggering blow for lasting peace between the races, had it gone as dreamed.
'Had it gone as dreamed?' It... didn't?
The venerable leader of the griffons came with few armed numbers and many prisoners as had been agreed, as seemingly did the leader of pegasi. First was brashly called that the pegasi would be released, and, perhaps in a moment of rare empathy, the griffon leader accepted.
Luna was... beginning to get a bad feeling, as she stared uneasily at the little picture of the big griffon at the front.
What... happened?
The freed pegasi took joyfully to the skies, and as they fled home, the griffon leader called for the according release of the captured griffons.
The response of the pegasi was to reveal an army in wait. What seemed to be their entire standing force: shielding behind them the slaves they had promised in good faith to release. The leader arrived to the meeting was indeed a high general, but not their Grand Imperior.
The last battle of the war had been in the capture of the griffons. What followed in those moments was a slaughter.
The griffon leader was known and respected for their near-unconquerable strength, but even they could not stand against such a vast many. The few griffon soldiers offered as escort fell within moments, and even for as many casualties it took: soon was the griffon leader brought low.
And forced to watch, in their final moments, as the many captured griffon slaves were individually brought before their broken leader, and dishonorably slain. Hours passed, and as no more remained to bring forth: the leader was left, bound with rope, to bleed on the field amidst the piles of the fallen.
So ended what the griffons would come to call The Bittering, as they lost their leader and many of their own. Thus: the pegasi would not see conflict from the battered tribe for many years. In this way, it was believed that the planned betrayal had its effect.
For breaking their spirits had been the intent.
Luna felt sick, which she hadn't been sure was possible in her dreams. Her eyes had long since squeezed shut, and her hooves laid over them to block the horrible images that her mind conjured as they spoke; shaking her head to dislodge the thoughts, but she could still see-
The bodies. The trampled. The poor, and the sick: their throats presented and slashed like animals. The grounds of peace sinfully sanctified with the blood of belief.
What must it have been like? To have the earnest promise of honor and trust, only to die like a worm: laying among the dead who had put their trust in their leader, whose own trust had been so unexpectedly misplaced?
How could this have happened? How could... this be the grand Pegasi Legion? Was it- Was it just a long history of blood and betrayal? Was it all like this?! Horrible acts of murder and mayhem immortalized as glory and greatness?!
Was this her legacy?
Her hip felt heavier, and she shivered behind her hooves.
She... didn't know if she wanted them, anymore...
We had believed it necessary to spare you this horror. It was reasoned that you would not immediately see this specific history for the lesson it came to be known for.
Her eyes felt wet as she let her hooves fall to her sides, and her throat clenched as she took a shuddering breath. All she could look at was the little picture of the unnamed griffon at the head of the 'army.'
Some army. Some battle. All glorified lies.
What lesson could this possibly teach?! That the Pegasi Legion were big, murderous jerks?! Telling pretty lies about glory on their big, fancy cloud pictures?!
They'd pictured this as a fight.
Something burned in her throat.
In the time of its etching, this carving was indeed seen as a great triumph. Something to hold as a glory, yes. But in time, eminently within the time which you stand, it came to be known as a tragedy. A black stain to mar the long fabric of their history.
These events were reviled, yet still repeated; for the belief that history must be known to be avoided.
Luna sniffled, though the clenching pain in her stomach did little to abate. Like she had something to throw up, but... well, she was dreaming.
It was all so horrible. Even if she believed all of that, it wouldn't erase what she knew. It would not save those lives cut short. It would not spare her the pity.
Such a pretty city. Such an ugly face.
Look upon the corner. The very farthest part of the corner.
Luna blinked, and sniffed again as her eye traveled sideways: to the corner.
She looked away. Back to the griffons. What did she care about history, anymore? It was probably all rotten. Who knew what grave injustices the Legion had delivered to even the dragons? How did she know they weren't victims, too?
What things must her grandmare have done?
We beseech, in plain terms: look upon the corner.
Her eye slid slowly back.
Fine. She would look upon the corner, and then she'd... wake up or something. She just... she didn't want to know more about history, right now. Her stomach seemed very intent on doing backflips, and the thought of any more view-shattering reveals was...
Ugh.
Luna listlessly dragged herself over to where the slab ended in a point, and stared broadly at the space there.
There was nothing there. What was she looking for, besides the admittedly excellent craftsponyship?
It is a small passage written in the cleft. Peer.
'Peer.' Sure, she'd peer.
Luna flapped an inch closer, and peered as she'd been directed. What was she looking for? In the cleft..? Where was she supposed to-
Luna's eyes widened, and her breath stalled as her hooves flew to her mouth. Felt like her wings might, too.
In tiny, almost ineligible script: written so closely to the meeting edges that it was nearly impossible to notice.
'We rise above'
Plain, readable Ponish.
Defacing this monument such was tantamount to high treason. Not even the deplorable and vain would have considered making but a mark upon the structure. It is unthinkable to lay hoof upon this surface without sanction.
This was written by a Grand Imperator in her early youth, and it was never discovered in any lifetime.
Another shock wore through her system, and this actually did lock her wings for a moment. She'd turned over in the air and begun a freefall before they started again, and she turned over in a flip as she righted as roughly as her dreams allowed.
Luna hovered, still staring unblinkingly ahead as her haunches curled close to her stomach.
She didn't know what a Grand Imperator was. She... had an inkling, but...
Go to the center.
Luna's eyes, still wide with unthinking shock, moved immediately to the center of the slab that was now a fair bit above her. Her wings carried her there without her wanting it, and she nearly stopped several times before she eventually got there.
Grand pegasus heroes fighting the vain and vile dragons on one side, and fallen figures stabbing the backs of griffons on the other: here stood the carving that bridged them.
A very tall chair with an even taller ornate back, upon which sat a faceless figure. On either side of it stood ten smaller, but equally sized chairs; twenty in all with their own faceless ponies sitting atop.
The figure in the middle was known as the Grand Imperator, surrounded by the high Counseled Imperium.
Her father had mentioned them. They were... must've been the rulers.
That is correct in one definition, yet lacking. Look closely upon the carving, as a whole. Therein lies a distinction to be noticed.
What was- There wasn't anything noticeably different... The... Grand Imperator had a bigger chair?
Luna squinted, and sighed. She was tired. She wished she could nap in her dreams... Was it... oh, she didn't know. The Grand Imperator looked a little... darker than the Imperium around them?
The carving of the Grand Imperator is all that remains of what once was carved here, as there had once only been they.
In the time of the Slaving War and the many years before and after, the Grand Imperator stood as the only ruling force in the Legion. The highest authority. All decisions were made of them alone. Every tactic flew from their mind, and every action lay upon their shoulders. There could be no conscience for they who stood above the many, for it had been designed that none could deign to rebuke.
And yet, time passed. Hearts grew softer. Clearer eyes eventually showed the Slaving War to be The Bittering it truly was, and a young, reckless Grand Imperator made a decision that would irrevocably change the Legion for what time it had left.
Luna squinted closer at the picture of the faceless pony atop the largest throne. The other members... their faces looked blank, but the Grand Imperator's looked kind of... worn. As though it had been... altered.
That was notable-
Luna's back seized and she threw her head up in a silent scream as sudden pain tore through across her face like hot claws. The world around her fizzed and popped, and sucked itself away. There was no longer air under her wings, or metal at her waist.
Luna was gone.
This day was one she'd earned.
Her hoof raised to touch on the picture of the Grand Imperator for the second time in her life. Eyes made out of tiny, sparkling jewels, and a thin line of a frown. Surrounded on all sides by pegasi lying flat on their stomachs in worship.
Sitting so high above the entire city, even just here on the Grand Curved Arch. Untouchable, under high penalty. Infallible, by design. Only ever to impart, and never to be questioned or rebuked. Flawless.
Her hoof swept down to take the tiny chisel off her belt.
The tiny jewels came out into her waiting hoof with satisfying force, and she smiled at the hollow recesses left behind. Little rubies may have said some crap about 'fiery eyes,' but the symbolism was still pretty disgusting.
The tiny chisel was put back into her toolbelt, the rubies into her pouch, and her hooves found an even tinier needle-head pick and a nubby square of blue cloth.
She took a deep breath, full of the beginning scents of evening feasts for the celebration, and set herself to work.
Seconds of picking and sweeping turned to minutes turned to an hour, though her hard edged squint never once left her face. Not even as she took a moment to swipe a bead of sweat from her face: accidently smearing a dab of construction cloud onto her blue cheek.
She simply kept working, even as the intrinsically charged material stung her cheek. Picking and smoothing and smearing cast off cloud onto her hooves. Toil.
She'd been told, repeatedly, to let one of the faceless worker bees do this. That the hard part was over, and she should just sit back and reap what she'd worked so hard to sow. The paperwork and the yelling and the endless, endless lobbying all over and done with; now it was time to rest, and focus on starting some new war effort.
Sitting back and watching was, as they'd said: 'befitting her station.'
She'd told all those hoof-lickers very kindly to bite her. She'd grown up living day to day, taking every hard-labor job that would have her, and then she'd made her name serving those Tartarus-damned fools in battle. Now they wanted her to sit around looking pretty for the soldiers just because she'd been given some bigwig title?!
Fat freakin' chance. Hurricane didn't get to where she was by sitting on her hooves, or by listening to anypony without a uniform and a scar. Especially not spineless cloud-kissers that had only seen easy nights on a border patrol, and cushy Seat-side jobs whispering into bent ears.
And now, she didn't have to listen to anyone.
She smiled as she worked, her face blotted with messy grey and white.
Nopony was infallible, and there would never be another Bittering.
She couldn't wait to tell all those worthless, egghead 'advisors' who she was putting on her new Counsel.
Luna was back.
Her back curled with waking shock as she sat suddenly up; a long gasp on her lips as instincts screamed that she must've been falling.
She sprung up with a powerful beat of her wings to make a last-ditch effort to save herself from falling and splatting, but... oh.
She was sitting on a cloud. Had been.
Luna hovered on unsteady flaps above the simple little cloud she'd been sat on; staring widely at the conveniently placed surface that... hadn't been there.
We provided.
Her chest fluttered with unsteady little breaths as she cautiously alighted on the cloud; putting one hoof down followed by all the rest, and then her butt.
Okay, she was sitting. Sitting, and not falling. Not falling, or dreaming. Within her dream.
What... How had...? Who was...?
She shook her head, and shut her eyes.
No, she knew that last one. She... she knew.
That had been Hurricane. Sheer Hurricane: the Grand Imperior of the Pegasi Legion.
She'd been... Luna had been... her.
Seen through her eyes. Not even just- she'd been... she had been her. Thought her thoughts. Acted as she'd acted. Lived in that scene as her. Made threats against annoying snobs as she had, and- and she'd shared those thoughts of violence.
Shared the feelings. Annoyance, indignance, exasperation, and a very old flame that said tie their wings and throw the misers off the roof of the Hall.
Luna seethed, and her hoof flew to her head as the off-color voice hurt. Like a piece that didn't fit in her head.
This was all... very new.
It is the duty of the Oracle to witness.
Luna looked up with one squinted eye, and tilted her head questioningly.
They'd said that earlier. They'd called her... the Oracle?
A new title. What had happened to calling her 'the Champion?' Not to say that she missed it, but... she could hardly keep up with all the visions and whatnot if they kept changing everything around...
You are our Champion. You act as the Oracle.
Her other eye opened as the stinging head pain dissipated, but she couldn't get the uneasy look off her face. She leaned back on her haunches as her hooves met to grind against each other restlessly, and she noticed belatedly that her weapons were no longer strapped to her belt. Which she also no longer had.
She probably wasn't in Cumulanum anymore- oh, she'd taken that from Hurricane's memory, too. How nice.
Well... if she was getting this right, and she was pretty sure she wasn't... she was their Champion, but... her- what to even call it- duty? It was her duty to act as... an Oracle? For... ponies?
Oracle... That was... somepony who saw things, right? What did all of this have to do with- ugh, she could barely even remember, anymore...
We shine Heavenly Light through you as a lens, and the past becomes clear. You will walk as They have before, and know of that which is lost. Our Champion walks the earth acting as the Oracle to all those in need, and all those in ignorance.
She is the legacy of the past. She will guide the future.
She... This was all... They meant to say...
No.
No. She... she couldn't do this right now. Not after... which did she even pick?!
Luna sighed, and fell fully to her back. The fluffy material hugged her sides and cushioned her head, as she stared lethargically up at the fake sun above her. Not another cloud in the sky, besides.
She wanted to wake up. She wanted to go home, and go to bed, and just... not dream.
She didn't want any more grand expectations to be let down with guilt and betrayal. She didn't want any other ponies taking and talking over her mind. She didn't want... she just didn't want any of this.
Wake up. Let her wake up. Just- just let her wake up.
She wanted to wake up.
We heed your every call, and it shall be so.
Wake, Oracle, and think no more of that which troubles you.
We are patient.
And you will return.