//------------------------------// // Book 3 - Chapter LXIV // Story: The Sunset Trilogy // by ocalhoun //------------------------------// Book 3: Equestria Abides Chapter 30 Apollo Dawn opened his eyes slowly... he had been dreaming the most lovely dream, even if it did seem a bit strange now... something about him being the moon and sliding through a sea of stars... and somehow the stars were Twilight Sparkle... He giggled a little inside at how appropriate that metaphor was, given their fun last night. She was still there, right in front of him, and now her violet eyes were starting to drift open, too. He moved in close for a little nuzzle, but he was stopped prematurely... his head had bumped into something. That confused him enough to pay a bit more attention to his surroundings... oddly enough, this wasn't the red couch cushion he remembered falling asleep on... it was his own sky-blue sheets. Had he and Twilight done more than he remembered? But he remembered the library and the couch just fine... Just how many ciders did he have last night? Finally, he looked up, still trying to put the pieces together, and found a very impatient and irritated young yellow alicorn standing at the foot of his bed, her softly glowing hair providing pretty much the only illumination in the room, save for the moonlight from the window. Suddenly, he was glad he hadn't indulged in his earlier inclination to do more than nuzzle Twilight... it would have been more than a little embarrassing to go for a second round without even noticing somepony else in the room. While Twilight came to alertness and began to sit up next to him, Sunny Daze spoke up. “We tried to get you two into separate beds, but we just couldn't peel you apart! Are you two finally finished yet?” Apollo could feel his cheeks heating even though he was sure he had no rational reason to be embarrassed. “Um... yeah, I guess...” Sunny's attitude was beginning to strike him as a little odd though. “What's the rush?” “The rush is for you two to get your silly moon and stars out of the way so I can raise the sun!” Apollo just sat and blinked for a moment... there was no part of that sentence that made any sense. “Raise the sun? But it's still dark outside.” It was still early in the morning after all, and after a hard night of partying, drinking, and ... frolicking to put it gently... The gears in his head weren't exactly turning at maximum efficiency. “His moon and stars?” Twilight asked from next to him, apparently recovering a little more quickly, “How are they his?” Sunny Daze growled in frustration, “It's Dark outside because I can't raise the sun!” “But the night isn't even over yet...” Apollo said, still feeling more than a little bewildered. “That's right,” Sunny said, as if she was talking to a particularly dense school filly, “But it should have been!” She scowled at them. “It should have been three days, but instead, it's all been just one night.” Both he and Twilight seemed to get it at the same time, “Oh no!” they said together, Apollo adding a “Are ponies panicking?” while Twilight added a “Is it getting cold?” at the same time. “Yes and yes,” Sunny said icily. “Now get your sky stuff out of the way so I can fix it!” “But... our stuff? How is it ours... and how do we move it?” “Ugh, are you always this dumb in the morning, or is today just special?” Sunny threw her head up in exasperation, the shadows cast by her softly glowing mane jumping wildly. Her patience exhausted, she jumped up onto the bed with a single flap of her wings, thumping Apollo on his horn and lifting up Twilight's wings before either could protest. Their protests about the rude treatment died on their lips though, as they stared at each other, each really noticing the other's new accessories at the same time, eyes growing wide and jaws dropping. “There,” Sunny said, jumping back onto the floor, causing the bed to bounce. “Now that you two have finally figured it out can we please please please move on to the fixing things stage?” “But how are there two alicorns of the night?” Twilight asked confusedly. “There's only supposed to be one.” “When I was dreaming...” Apollo started, only to be interrupted by an ever-impatient Sunny. “How should I know? You two figure it out!” Shaking his head, Apollo tried again. “When I was dreaming... it seemed like I was the moon and I was swimming through the stars... and the stars were you... You think that...?” Twilight's face lit up. “Of course! You got the moon and I got the stars... but how, I mean, nothing like this has happened before, I've got to do some research on it!” Sunny Daze stopped Twilight before she could get out of bed and rush to the library. “No,” she said as simply and slowly as she could manage, “Make way for sun first, research later!” “Oh... right.” Twilight said a little sheepishly, folding her wings back down along with her ears. Apollo had seen her study habits himself, and he had to admit that they wouldn't have ever gotten anything done if they had let Twilight get into research mode. * * * Twilight concentrated on not concentrating, paradoxically enough, remembering her first lessons with Sunny daze in moving the sun. She was grateful to have the experience, actually, since it helped her know ahead of time just how to do this... She reached out, feeling the stars there as she never had before, like she was part of them... and they were part of her... it was amazing. She reached out to the moon as well... it seemed close and inviting... but it didn't seem like a part of her. She supposed, in the little corner of her mind still allocated to thought, that she had been right about who got the moon and who got the stars. As she remembered telling Sunny Daze to do, she focused on her connection with the stars... and then rolled herself down over the horizon. It was a very strange sensation, to say the least... yet it also felt somehow comforting, like she had been doing it all her life. With a startled realization, she realized that part of her had been doing that for more than just her life... for millennia. The stars were part of her now... and that part of her was comfortable with the routine of raising and lowering. She looked over at Sunny Daze again, wondering how much of Celestia the sun had brought with it... and did Sunny know? * * * “Um... well, I think I might kind of feel it now.” Apollo gave a shiver as he tried again to get this 'connection' with the moon Twilight kept telling him about. He had never really liked unicorn magic much, and now he was stuck with a magic horn on his very own head... worse yet, he had to try and use it, or the whole world would freeze! “Okay, what's it feel like?” Twilight pressed. “It... ah... I don't know!” Apollo sighed in frustration. He had nothing to compare this to! How should he know what it felt like or didn't feel like? “I think I can sense it up there... but I just don't know. ... I don't think I can do it.” “Well...” Twilight mumbled off... “There is one other way.” “There is?” Apollo asked eagerly, “What?” Twilight looked away, looking a little shy for some reason, “I could help... but I'd need to be, um, inside you in a way.” “Inside me?” “Well, turnabout is fair play, right?” Twilight commented with a suggestive look, causing Sunny Daze to roll her eyes. It was Apollo's turn to look embarrassed. “Not in front of Sunny,” he whispered. Grown up or not, alicorn or not, he found it hard not to think of her as the happy yellow foal she was when they first met. Sunny's eyes just rolled again at his protectiveness. He looked back at Twilight, “But... okay... we have to do this.” “Don't worry, it won't be bad,” Twilight said, leaning closer, “I'll just be there with you, showing you how... Now, touch your horn to mine.” He did... with more force than he had intended, making a loud clack and hurting a little. He still wasn't used to having the thing there... and he had rather miscalculated just where it was. Before he knew it, he felt Twilight there... more than just contact on his horn, it was contact in his horn, in his mind. He thought they had been together in the most intimate way last night... but this, this was a whole new level... everything he realized was open to her... she could go anywhere in his mind she wanted... :A little much, isn't it?: A voice, sounding a lot like Twilight's, resounded in his head. He looked over to Sunny, but she didn't seem to hear it. :No, I'm talking inside your mind: Twilight's voice came again, :Don't worry, it's perfectly normal.: He wasn't so sure about that... he knew unicorn magic could be weird... but this... :Oh, wow... you've felt that way about magic this whole time and I never knew? You're being braver than I thought: Apollo kicked himself. She knew what he was thinking, of course! Now his biggest secret was right there in the open! :Don't worry, I won't tell!: the voice came again, :Pinkie promise!: A what promise? This was starting to make less and less sense now... Without warning, the full sense of the meaning behind the words 'Pinkie promise' came flooding into his head all at once. It wasn't words, or even pictures... it was memories and knowledge in their purest form, flowing right into his head. :Convenient, isn't it?: the voice commented, :Now, let's get focused on our little problem, okay?: The voice took on a more serious tone, :I'll pretty much do it myself, but you need to watch and pay close attention so you can do it yourself next time.: Without even an ounce of his own will this time, his horn began to glow again, a smooth, steady glow, not the spurts and sparks he had been producing earlier. He watched carefully as Twilight pooled together a little energy, and then sought out his connection with the moon, and suddenly he felt it, really felt it. Suddenly the moon felt like a part of him, just like a part of his body, just like it had always been there. It was all very strange, but he kept paying attention to Twilight's actions as she focused on that bond and then did some kind of strange internal twist. With that, he could feel the moon going down quickly to the horizon. He braced himself for feeling the loss as it disappeared, but he felt nothing actually... it was still there even though he couldn't see it. Not surprising, actually, once he thought about it... after all, he hadn't been seeing it this whole time. :There, did you get it?: He thought so, and was about to say so, but the voice had already caught his thought, and didn't need his words, :Good. Hopefully next time you can do it all by yourself.: With a rush, Twilight's presence vanished from his mind and their horns separated. “Can... can any unicorn do that?” Apollo asked, a little note of fear in his voice. Having unicorn powers seemed even scarier now. “The more talented ones, yes.” Twilight said, but she laid a hoof on his shoulder. “But don't worry, it's easy to block, and I'll teach you how... on one condition.” He winced... there was always a catch, wasn't there? “I want you to teach me how to fly!” She said with a smile. Oh, was that it? It didn't sound so bad after all... between magic practice and flying practice they would be spending a lot of time together... and after last night, that didn't seem like a bad prospect at all. The concept kept growing on him as Sunny Daze finally raised the sun, sending it beaming in through the window brightly as if in revenge. No, the more he thought about it, the better an idea a little mutual training seemed. He was a great flier to teach Twilight how to use her new wings, and she was a really great magician to teach him how to use his new horn... and with this night to remember, he was sure they would get along really well! * * *