The three ponies sat before the elder stallion, spellbound by his tale. “There was a secret religion that became very popular for a brief time,” he whispered in awe. “In their holy book, they prophesized the return of an alicorn mare, a goddess that would set the world on fire,” the stallion gestured grandiosely. “Celestion was her name, and according to this religion, she used to reign over Nightmare Moon.”
“This sounds like nonsense to me,” Persei muttered.
“Shut up,” Cepheus hissed.
“Celestion,” the stallion said, “was the benevolent ruler of Equestria, and Nightmare Moon was her subordinate. The religion was devoted to the worship of Celestion, and rumors began… speaking of Celestion’s rebirth and how she would strike down Nightmare Moon and set the world ablaze once again.”
How can someone that was so benevolent set the world on fire? What kind of twisted religion was this? Persei thought. Who would be delusional enough to believe that this would happen, or even think that this would be a good thing?
The stallion had trailed off, and Cepheus asked. “So, what became of this religion? Is it still around?”
“It’s still around,” the stallion whispered. “But the Church of Celestion was destroyed by Nightmare Moon, and its believers scattered and branded as traitors.”
“How did Nightmare Moon find out? If this was so secret…were they betrayed?” Cepheus asked, fascinated.
The old stallion looked around fearfully, making sure they weren’t overheard. “No, there was no betrayal.” The stallion shuddered. “The Night Terrors found out.”
Persei noticed Sirius withdrawing from them, but she was intrigued and ignored him. “Who are the Night Terrors?”
“The Night Terrors,” the stallion whispered. “They are Nightmare Moon’s brutal secret police. They gather intelligence for her, they are her spies.” The old stallion struggled to his feet, slowly moving further inside the house. They all followed.
“You see,” he grunted, out of breath from the movement. He closed the door behind them. “The Night Terrors, their specialty was dream espionage. A select few Nightborn,” the stallion said, glaring at Sirius, “have this fearsome ability. They can enter a sleeping pony’s dream and rob them of all their secrets. That’s how Nightmare Moon found about the religion. They foolishly thought they were out of the reach of the Night Terrors….”
Cepheus was fascinated. “So, they can enter your dream and learn everything about you?”
Persei was mortified. How come she had never heard of these ponies?
The old stallion nodded. “Yes, and so much more…” he trailed off cryptically. “They scan the populace’s dreams, searching for any thoughts of dissent, or anything that could be seen as unfavorable to Nightmare Moon. If they find something they don’t like….”
The old stallion had trailed off again, staring at Sirius. “What happens if they find something?” Persei asked. She hated how he was being so dramatic.
“A pony’s dreaming mind is completely vulnerable to them, and until he wakes, the Night Terrors can do whatever they want to him. I have heard stories of the secret police torturing dissenters, trapping them in a nightmare they couldn’t escape from.”
Persei and Cepheus leaned forward, terrified.
“A pony would wake up in the morning, and not remember a thing. Though there would be fear entrenched in his heart, and subconsciously, he would never be able to think negatively of his government again, let along disobey them. But, if psychological torture wasn’t enough, if thoughts of dissent were too deeply ingrained, the Night Terrors had other means of punishing them.”
The old stallion leaned forward. “Have you youngsters ever heard of a thing called sleeptrotting?”
Of course they had. Ponies could gallop, eat, drive, have sex, and do almost anything while they slept and still appear normal from the outside. When they woke up, they wouldn’t remember a thing. Persei nodded. “Yes, we’ve heard of it.”
She didn’t like where this was going.
“The Night Terrors liked to do this to ponies to make an example. They would hijack the sleeping pony’s dreaming mind and he would unknowingly walk to the kitchen, pick up a knife, and carve the word ‘traitor’ into his chest. He would return to bed, and when he woke up, he would be covered in blood and in pain. But, if thoughts of dissent were too deeply ingrained to be removed, they could prevent you from ever waking up again. You could sleepwalk yourself off your balcony, slit your own throat, and if the Night Terrors didn’t like you in particular, they would force you to murder your own family. They would wake you up for a moment then, to see what you had done, and then watch you take your own life.”
Cepheus eyes were glazed in terror. “So, the Church of Celestion…the Night Terrors found out and scattered them all?”
The old stallion slumped down on his bed. “Yes, the religion was a threat to Nightmare Moon. So she destroyed it.” The old stallion stared at Persei. “That marked the beginning of a period of time where the Dayborn where subject to many atrocities. That’s when my father and I were forced to come here.”
The old stallion looked intently into her eyes, and Persei felt uncomfortable. “Yes, what is it?” she asked.
“You look like your mother.” Cepheus and Persei looked at each other. “Yes, I knew your mother when she first came here. It was around the same time the order had been given to destroy the Church of Celestion. You two were still tiny foals clinging to your mother’s hooves, and that bat-pony wrapped in a white bundle.”
Cepheus stared at Persei. “Could Mother have been a believer in the Church of Celestion?”
The notion was ridiculous. Persei shook her head. “That’s impossible. Mother is a die-hard atheist, and has been for her entire life.”
Cepheus put his hoof behind his head. “Oh, yeah. I forgot about that.” Persei knew that look. Those wondering eyes pointed upwards, gears spinning behind them. “I’m going to ask her though,” Cepheus said. “I want to know why she left her life of grandeur as a pharmacist to live here.”
Persei sighed. “She did not live a life of grandeur….” But she was intrigued. They had never asked Mother as to why she had left the city. They had always assumed it was because of Father’s death, but the old stallion’s story made her think that maybe there was more to it.
After giving the old stallion his medicine, they noticed that Sirius had disappeared. Cepheus had shrugged when asked about his whereabouts. “Maybe he got bored and left?”
Persei had rolled her eyes. “He probably went home. After all, it is his race of people that are oppressing us. Sirius probably didn’t like the way that stallion was looking at him.”
As they walked back home, her mind began to wander.
She had been thinking about Sirius last night, and she realized something. “If the Dayborns are so oppressed by the Nightborns, then why did Mother sleep with one?” she blurted out.
Cepheus blinked uncomprehendingly. “What?”
“Well, where else did Sirius come from? He didn’t just fall out of the sky.” Persei told him sarcastically. “She obviously slept with a Nightborn.”
Cepheus shook his head. “I don’t want to think of Mother like this. Maybe she needed some money on her way here after Father died. She did lose her job.”
Maybe, but Mother was too proud of a mare to sell her dignity for any price. Though she could have been a different type of mare then, Persei thought. Or she could have been doing it so her foals could stay fed.
Persei wanted to share her thoughts with her brother, but he seemed closed off. The topic made him uncomfortable. It always did.
He knew she was still thinking about it, and changed the subject. “So, what are we going to do about Mother?”
The drugs. Persei looked at her brother’s dazed expression. This really wasn’t what he wanted to talk about, but he was uncomfortable about approaching her and was mustering up the courage to do so.
She humored him.
“We find out where she’s hiding them, and then take them from her.” Persei explained simply.
Cepheus blushed, and Persei realized that he was thinking about Candle.
“What kind of things do mares look for in a stallion?” he asked nervously, uncomfortable about having to ask her sister.
The question was a little too personal. Persei hadn’t thought much of stallions in that way. She found them attractive of course, but all the stallions in the village were much older than her or still colts. Persei suddenly felt very uncomfortable. “Umm, a big stallionhood?”
Cepheus laughed, and then looked down between his hind legs. “Yup, I got that covered.” He raised his head back up, looking straight forward. He genuinely wanted to know. “What else? You know. Personality wise.”
That joke was uncalled for, she scolded herself. C’mon Persei, don’t let your brother know that you’re clueless about stallions. So she thought of what she wanted in a stallion. “Mares want…” she looked at Cepheus, his blue eyes staring intently. “Mares want a stallion that gives them a sense of security. They need someone to stabilize their lives and keep them on track.” Persei paused, holding back raw emotion. “A mare needs someone to cling to, someone to give her life purpose and meaning. Anything to make me feel significant.”
Persei hadn’t even noticed that she had switched to first person. Cepheus abruptly leaned into her, nuzzling her neck and wrapping his white wings around her. Persei gasped in surprise, but quickly returned his embrace, wrapping her hooves around him. She felt his warm breath against her muzzle. “I love you, sister,” he said, putting his head against hers, his ears brushing her horn, “and believe me, you are significant.”
Persei sobbed, tightening her embrace. She hated having to be intimate with her brother, but she had no one else. Mother was an alcoholic drug addict. Sirius, well…he was Sirius. She had no friends, no other family…her brother was all she had.
He withdrew his wings, and Persei’s painful emotions ebbed away. She felt much better now. “Let’s go home, Cepheus,” she sniffed.
They trotted together in silence, and their little hovel came into view. The moon was shining on the thatched roof, a soft breeze blowing. Cepheus stopped and cast her a shy glance. “So, about Candle…can you not tell Mother? I don’t want her to know that I have a mare-friend just yet.”
“If you make Sirius steal Mother’s pills,” she joked. Persei had no idea that Sirius had just done so…and he had been caught.
There was a great commotion from inside the hovel and the door burst open. Sirius ran out with the prescription bottle in his muzzle. Mother followed him closely behind, screaming obscenities
“Aw, hell,” Cepheus groaned.
They both galloped down to the hovel, trying to calm the situation. Mother was an earth pony, while Sirius was a pegasus. It was going as well for her as it possibly could, but Sirius flew just out of reach every time. Mother screamed, hoarse. “You give me those damn pills! I need them!”
“Nuh-uh!” Sirius warbled, the pill bottle in his mouth.
“Give it back to me!” she screamed.
Sirius flitted away from her. “Not until you love me!”
Mother leapt up, higher than Persei had ever seen an earth pony jump. She wrapped her hooves around Sirius’ legs and dragged him down to the ground. “Noo!” Sirius groaned, struggling out of his mother’s grip. “Love me first! Tell me that you love me!”
Now this was just ridiculous. Mother used her earth pony strength to pin Sirius down. He struggled underneath her and she punched him hard in the belly. The pill bottle was expelled from his mouth with a surprised ‘ooph’ and went clattering away. Cepheus leapt in, trying to disentangle the two.
Meanwhile, Persei ran to get the pill bottle. Perfect. She lowered her head, letting her saddlebags slide over her horn and fall to the ground. She used her magic to dig through the pockets and pulled out an identical looking prescription bottle with identical looking pills. She chucked Mother’s bottle into the forest, and smudged some dirt on the placebo bottle to make it look like it had fallen in the mud.
She looked behind her, seeing that Mother had her hooves wrapped around Sirius’ neck. “Love me!” he choked, his eyes popping out of his skull.
“Never!” she screamed, shaking him.
Persei would have laughed if this situation wasn’t so pitiful. She trotted over to Cepheus who laid sprawled in the dirt some distance away, a dark gray circle around his left eye. She would have helped him first, but Sirius was dying.
She used her magic to pull the two apart. Her white aura surrounded her rabid looking mother and the half-dead lunar pegasus who was gasping for breath. Persei tossed Mother the prescription pills, and she plucked them from the air, holding the bottle to her barrel like it would try to escape if she didn’t hold it tight.
“Traitor!” Sirius wheezed.
“I saved your life, you idiot,” she said, releasing him from her magical hold. He plunked to the ground, making a very ungraceful landing. There were tears in his eyes, and he took wing and flew away. Persei didn’t stop him.
Mother had retreated inside the hovel with her pills – or what she thought were her pills. Persei trotted over to Cepheus, and dragged him by the hoof back inside. “What a day,” she grumbled, the last sliver of the moon disappearing on the horizon.