//------------------------------// // Luna versus The Dreamlands // Story: Progress // by Andrew Joshua Talon //------------------------------// Progress: Luna versus The Dreamlands By Andrew J. Talon - - - - - - - In the northern window of the room, Luna could see the faint light of the North Star shining in the night. She trotted up to the sill and stared out at it, retracing the star patterns as she remembered them. They blinked into existence, twinkling beautifully in formations that were highlighted by countless more distant orbs. Luna arranged them, a river system in the sky coming to life as the water of starlight flowed through them. Luna frowned and wrinkled her nose. The magnetic fields of the Earth were extended, shifted just enough... And following the trails of stars in the sky came the aurora, shifting and pulsing in the night like rainbows appearing in the cracks between storm clouds. All of this lit up the dark, flat plateau below, no longer dark and formless but the perfect contrast for the color above. Luna smiled and let out a little laugh, before she turned to the rest of the chamber. "Hmm..." She moved to the western window, which had been shut tight with ugly rusty nails and bars. With an extension of her willpower the bars and nails came out, the wood creaking loudly in protest. Wooden boards fell, and Luna beheld twin shutters, colored pink and blue. She reached forth with her hooves this time, gripped them both and pulled them open. The sunlight shown in. Luna winced for a moment, but her eyes adjusted. She looked out at the land outside this window, and grimaced. It was a desert wasteland, stretching as far as her eyes could see. Dunes were piled up high as the wind sluggishly moved them. The sun peeked out over the dunes, painting them all blood red. "I like this," she decided, "but it needs more." She tweaked the magnetic fields again, adjusting the filtration of the sunlight. The dull red gave way to a multitude of deep, sensuous colors, moving from blood red to night blue to a silky indigo. Luna cleared out the sand next, a wave of her hoof and her horn sending the desert back into more manageable paths. Out of the dunes, some of which had towered hundreds of feet high, came forth stone monoliths. Geometry was one of the simplest kinds of mathematics, but in that simplicity came a kind of natural beauty. Great domes towered over the sand that once buried it, as pillars holding up great stone roofs composed of triangles, rectangles, circles and arches grew out from them. Obelisks sprouted like grass, reaching up towards the heavens and casting long shadows. In a desert where the mountains were buried under the sands, this city was their voice above the shifting ground. Smoothed to perfection, the city of Dreams stood shining in the sun as a beacon to travelers. The warm sandstone and smooth marble and rough granite was combined in such a way that, despite the great monuments and buildings, it was clear this was a home for ponies. They were not to be cowed by the great structures, but to feel welcome and part of something greater. Luna nodded. That was enough work for the moment on that part. She moved to the southern window, which had been blocked up by a cave-in. A flash of her power annihilated the rocks, sending out a boom that was almost deafening in the small room but Luna endured it. She trotted forward into the sudden darkness, and frowned. Here she looked upon a forest. A dark, dangerous forest, overgrown with thorny vines and deadly trap flowers. They were enticing, dark as mightnight and smooth as silk... But she knew all too well that to sniff of one of them would lead to bad choices... Wrong decisions... So many mistakes... The sun shone through the western door, and Luna started. She almost had her nose in one of the flowers. She recoiled, and took a few deep breaths. "Get out," she said flatly. The flowers withered and died, the thorns fell away. With another thought the moon shone brightly through the treetops, and paths once barred or made difficult were now clear. The shadows no longer spoke of menace, and the sounds of the creatures in the forest were not ominous. Luna had to tap her hoof to get the rhythm correct, rewriting the songs of the night, but they came together for just the right mood. She smiled as she looked at the revived forest. The shadows held only the fear of mystery, and the thrill that came with that. The paths were winding, some more challenging than others, but none more arduous than what you perceived. And as a final touch, Luna brought forth fireflies to dance in the dark forest, always moving and mirroring the stars above. "No thorns aside from what you bring in yourself," Luna declared. She turned to the eastern door, and frowned when she saw it was unlocked. Curious, she reached forth and opened it. She was surrounded by water in an instant, and flailed around instinctively as panic took hold of her. Her eyes burned from salt water and there was no light to be found. No, no! Where am I? What happened? I-! Realization struck her, and she shot up as fast as she could. The water above her vaporized from the force of her passage, a bubble of water vapor appeared around her as she went faster and faster- The bubble burst, and her ears were filled with the roar of the ocean and the thunderclap of storms. She was blown this way and that above the perilous sea, and below her saw the form of great waves beneath the water. She stiffened in fear when she saw that they resembled a long, flowing mane of stars. "E-Enough... Enough... ENOUGH!" She roared, sending out a blast of power that radiated in a rainbow across sea and sky alike. Her eyes had closed from the exertion of that power, and slowly opened. The seas were placid, and she heard the waves crash upon a distant shore. The sky held clouds, but they moved with a lazy grace and not the anger of a typhoon. The sun peeked out, no longer hidden but not dominant-It warmed the sea and set the clouds in motion, ever supportive. Luna hovered for a long, long time, allowing the scents of the ocean to fill her nostrils, the feel of the wind to rippled through her fur and feathers. She smiled and turned around, flying entirely by feeling until her hooves struck sand. She opened her eyes when the scrishsounds of her steps were replaced with clops, and the city surrounded her. She walked past the great tower in the center, through the gardens which were slowly coming back to life, and down the grand boulevard. She stopped for a moment in front of a familiar statue, and frowned. This stone Earth pony sculpture was cracked and weathered, his eyes worn sightless by the sand and wind. He looked up at the sky, but whether it was out of fear or out of defiance Luna could not tell. In between his front hooves was a stone pail, long since empty of water. Shakily, she pressed her snout to the statue's, and nuzzled him. "I'm sorry," she said softly. "I'm sorry I was gone for so long..." She sat back on her haunches and sighed. "You... I had the thought of a mighty statue for you, when everything was gone, when everypony was under my hooves..." Luna laughed sadly. "I was such a foal back then..." She raised her eyes to the silent statue. "I think... I think I know why I avoided this place, for so long," she confessed. "Every time I came here, and saw you here... I was tempted to bring you to life. To make you as I remembered you, alive, speaking..." Luna licked her lips. "Even before I... I made the final transformation, here I was, ready to do it." She sighed. "I couldn't... I still can't. I think, somehow... I knew it wouldn't be you. It would just be me... Me dragging along a doll I stitched together out of grief and memory." Luna slowly, so slowly, lifted her hoof up and rested it on the colt statue's shoulder. "You deserve so much more," she said softly, "than to be somepony's security blanket... Even mine." Luna leaned forward and kissed the statue chastely, before pulling back. She sniffled, and a single tear rolled down her cheek. "Goodbye, my hero," she whispered. "Thank you..." She looked down at the stone pail... And couldn't help a whimper. It was full of water now, and reflected in the still water was her moon against a pure black night. She looked up and smiled, tears still rolling off her cheeks. "Thank you..." "Luna? Luna... Luna?" Luna started, and sat up in her bed. She looked over at Sundance, who was stroking her mane comfortingly. "Are you all right?" She asked softly. Luna sniffled again, and looked out the window. She smiled at the sight of the setting sun, and for a moment she could see the city and the sea standing beneath them. "I'm all right," she said softly. "I just had to do some... Spring cleaning..." - - - - - - - - That night, every pony in Equestria had good dreams, whether in a dark forest or a sunlit city or vast plains underneath a brilliant sky. And Celestia herself, snoozing away, smiled as a friendly moon guided her way through her own dreams. It had taken Luna a thousand years to remember that night was the domain of dreams. But she decided, in the end, it was worth it. She was her sister, was she not? - - - - - - - - "Slumber, watcher, till the spheres Six and twenty thousand years Have revolv'd, and I return To the spot where now I burn. Other stars anon shall rise To the axis of the skies; Stars that soothe and stars that bless With a sweet forgetfulness: Only when my round is o'er Shall the past disturb thy door." ~"Polaris" by H. P. Lovecraft - - - - - - - -