//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Stars Rise & Fall // by Illumenarie //------------------------------// “Are you positive that it was her?” The Princess of the Sun asked the Princess of the Moon, her jaw tight and her eyes sternly looking over the images that Luna was showing her on the curved walls of her Dreamitorium*. “Is thou blind? Clearly it is her, sister, for what other pony other than those who are either descended from royalty or who have ascended to alicorn status are adorned with both horn and pair of wings? Who other than her would have a star on her flank? Who, might I ask you, could this otherwise be? Who--” “Alright, Luna, enough. I understand your point,” Came Celestia's terse reply to silence her sister's tangent as she found herself more annoyed at the plethora of reasons Luna could point out that left no doubt that it was indeed her of all ponies. Pacing, Celestia chewed her lip as the gears of her mind ground together in her attempt to find any other reason to discount this unsettling bit of information. “Perhaps it is best that her horn is shorn off completely,” Stopping in her tracks and biting down on her lower lip hard enough that she could feel the metallic spurt of her own blood in her mouth, she whirled around and stared at Luna utterly shocked at the words she heard her say. As her back was turned, she asked her to repeat what she said to make sure she had not heard wrong and that the words had indeed come from her. “I was saying that instead of simply causing temporary damage to her horn as in with the use of the poison joke, that we act to completely remove it. It would sever her connection with magic indefinitely, thus never allowing the dark--” “I know what it would do which is why I am shocked and utterly appalled to have heard you say such a thing. That is cruelty. It is unthinkable. To rob a unicorn of her magic...” Her voice trailed off as she pondered over that thought. Sharply shaking her head to remove such horrid hypothetical solutions, she focused back on her sister seeing her unwavering composure. Her face was blank though her brow was raised in a questioning manner. “Then what does thou propose we do? Allow her to keep it? Allow her to practice it under our very noses? To do nothing to stop this—this nightmare from taking on a life of its own in the waking world?” Silence stood between them as Celestia was still taken back by Luna's idea of a solution. Though she heard her sister fumble over the word nightmare, she seemed little concerned with the repercussions for taking such a rash measure to keep Equestria safe. But perhaps it is not that she lacks concern but that she simply doesn't see reason to be? Clearing her throat and taking a softer approach with her more blunt and direct other half, she walked over to stand beside her and draped a wing over her back. “Perhaps that would be one way to handle this but I honestly cannot say that I would be willing to do such a thing if another, less...” She paused trying to find another word in her vocabulary other than the one used earlier to express how she felt about the whole idea and when she couldn't find one, she continued on while silently cursing herself for not recovering from her shock to resume higher cognitive skills. “...cruel method presented itself upon further thinking.” “Thou doth not think there is any other way. You know as well as I that a unicorn's horn is both one's most powerful asset as well as being their greatest downfall. If their magic is left unchecked or finds itself becoming corrupted, the results would be more than devastating. To add that she is not just a unicorn but an alicorn like ourselves makes such results catastrophic at the very least. That much power should never be allowed to be corrupted. Ever. Has thou not learned this in the thousand years spent alone?” It was times like these that Celestia truly could not help but realize that they were as different as the day was from the night. Calculative, blunt, direct, one could go so far as to even say ruthless, Luna had always been the one to lean towards the decisions that would most effectively take care of a problem no matter the means to achieve said results and never thinking long enough to measure the effect it would have along the line. But as much as she hated the idea, she had to give her sister credit. She did feel that this needed to be handled in a manner that did not leave room for error but she also felt that this error could fall on either part; be it theirs or be it...hers. The very thought sent a small ripple down her withers, right between her wings. Hopping her flowing mane hid any outward signs to the involuntary reaction, she chewed her lip again as she thought. Act too little and she becomes a Nightmare whilst doing too much would more than likely just result in the same fate. This truly is a complicated matter. Celestia had to face losing a part of her magic once before and that hurt came to a very close second to the pain felt when she had to banish Luna to the moon all those many years ago. Being stripped of the Elements of Harmony made her feel weak and vulnerable for many, many years afterwards and that was while she still retained all of her original powers that were not supplied to her by the Elements themselves. She had been weakens as an alicorn while she had not lived nearly as long as they had and by comparison, was just a foal. She had barely enough alicorn magic to hold her afloat even now. Surely she had accomplished amazing feats in her own right but those could easily be written off as simple occurrences of huge amounts of beginner's luck combined with years spent in eager study. As much as she hated to discredit her valiant actions, the Sun princess truly believed that if they acted on her sister's plan, that would be all it took to destroy her. There must be another way to go about this. “Suppose we do nothing or at the very least, do very little. That way if need be, we could dial up our efforts to prevent this only using the precise amount of force to stop the problem without having anything go too far.” She really hopped this idea sounded appealing to the princess of the moon and night. “Pray tell you have something else in mind, sister? We act 'very little' and we face grandiose consequences.” Celestia sighed as she turned away to walk out of the Dreamitorium in a huff, Luna noting her departure yet made no move to follow her. She couldn't talk to her like this. Not when she would not validate her ideas possibly being just as effective as her own. Bristling the feathers of her wings and the pristine white fur of her pelt, she silently fumed as Luna's sarcastic tone echoed in her mind. As her hoofsteps echoed throughout the large corridor on her way back to her chambers, she was stopped suddenly by a familiar spark of light followed by a flash of magenta. There, having blinked herself directly into the castle and having successfully avoided the guards, stood her former most faithful student, Twilight Sparkle. Princess Twilight Sparkle, she corrected herself mentally as she worked to rid her expression and her body of any vestigial harshness from her verbal quarrel with Luna. The young, lavender alicorn looked flushed and her body was vibrating with what appeared at first to be excitement but upon a closer inspection, she realized it to be something different. Still catching her breath, Twilight looked up at her former mentor with wide, purple eyes. It was obvious that the young mare had been shaken by the images of her dream. “P-Princess Celestia!” breathed out Twilight as she caught her breath and found the sun princess standing no more than a few short strides away from her. Galloping to her instead of trotting over in her haste, she nearly bumped into her leg before she skidded to a halt. “Why good morning, Princess Twilight, what brings you here so early?” Keep calm and smile. Act like you know nothing and like there is nothing wrong. Technically there is nothing wrong so just act normal. Chanted the princess in her head as she flashed Twilight a warm smile. “I have something that I need to tell you. You see, I had a bad dream or at least I hope it was only a bad dream but everything that happened in it felt so real. I think it may be something more, like maybe a precognition or something and that's why I came to you,” Celestia had to fight back a small smile as she tried to keep a neutral expression while listening to Twilight tell her of the dream she had witnessed herself at the hooves of Luna who had showed it to her in her Dreamitorium; a room which was used to view the dreams of every pony in Equestria. The smile had come from the many memories of listening to her former student rattle off to her in her panicked state, her fur flustered and the gears turning in her head a million miles per hour. Twilight Sparkle had always been an excellent analyzer; nothing seemed to get past her, but with that talent came a fatal flaw which was her habit of over analyzing things and taking them out of context. While in this particular case, she may have been right to worry as the princess found herself worrying about it too. Twilight was on to something about it possibly being something more serious but she couldn't let her in on that just yet. Instead, she allowed the newly made Princess of Friendship to continue as she listened intently to her warning. “Princess Celestia, I think something bad may happen to Equestria.” Taking a few beats to convey the sense that she had taken in what she had said and had pondered over it, she nodded to her, her expression going from neutral to serious as she took a breath preparing herself to sit through the retelling of her dream. “Come, tell me about this dream.” And turning, she walked with purpose to the direction of a common room in the large castle, Princess Twilight Sparkle hot at her heels, feeling desperate to warn her former mentor and hopping with all her pony heart that if anypony could save Equestria from what she had interpreted as a threat, it would be her. “...and then this morning when I woke up there was a shooting star.” finished Twilight. Pouring herself yet another cup of tea making this her fourth, Celestia took a sip and took a breath as she let Twilight's retelling of her dream sink in. Somehow hearing her tell it made it all seem so much more like a real threat and the fact that this was the second time she was given all the information that made it near impossible to see it being anypony else. It had to be her. It just had to be and that thought unnerved the princess. From across the room sat Luna, cerulean eyes focused on her sister giving her a look that said “you need to lay off the tea” and “I told you so”. Looking over the rim of her cup, she even thought she saw Luna's eyes target Twilight’s horn and she nearly lost hold of the porcelain cup, her magic aura faltering as she felt her heart quip. Clearing her throat after setting it down in fear that she would drop it, it was Luna who broke the small span of silence that has passed between the three. “So, Princess Twilight Sparkle, if what you saw did in fact happen to be a premonition, what would you do to prevent the events shown from taking place?” The lavender alicorn looked down at the floor and fumbled with her hooves. Taking advantage of this, Celestia threw a scornful look over at her sister who was unmoved by it whilst she waited eagerly for Twilight's answer. “Well, you see, that's why I came here. I-I don't really know what the dream means. I mean, I feel like it's foretelling something bad happening but I don't know what. I was hopping the two of you would have insights on what I should do about it.” “Regardless of if you know what the dream foretells happening, you've made us aware that you fear something horrendous in effect. Surely this would mean that we are to act with hast to prevent it as you rushed here wasting no time.” Taking another sip of tea, Celestia allowed the warm liquid to idle her tongue from saying the harsh words she was screaming at her sister in her head. For once she wished that they had a telepathic link so that she could hear her thoughts. If Luna kept this up she would be forced to say something and she wasn't sure just what might come out given their intimate relationship with the other pony in the room. “I would think--” And then it happened. There was a loud boom as the thunderous noise shook the castle's very foundation causing the book cases and desks of the study to tremble along with the chandelier that clinked and chimed as glass and metal hit each other. The teapot jumped and fell to the floor, her tea cup saved only because it has been primed in her magic to take another sip just as the sudden ruble rolled through. A few books did fall from the shelves and at the sound of their heavy bound tomes hitting the floor, Princess Celestia raised a hoof to her sister and Twilight as she wrapped all three of them in a cocoon of protective light. Wrapped inside her bubble was another aura of Luna's signature blue and around the entire castle was a large orb of magenta. The shaking only lasted a few seconds and then it was over. “Is everpony alright?” Celestia asked as she was the first one to get up from her seated position and go to the doors of the closed study to make her rounds to check and see if everyone else was alright. “I'm f-fine,” came Twilight's small voice as she looked at Celestia with lowered ears as she got up next to follow. “As am I,” Luna jumped up and strolled to her sister's side leaving Twilight behind due to her longer strides. The door opened on its own and in the doorway stood three large, similar looking stallions with expression that wanted to be held firm but were obviously spooked. “My Princesses, there has been a troubling discovery just on the outskirts of Canterlot,” “Is everypony alright?” “We have scouts out now to see what, if anything, we can do about it.” “We will have more information soon,” Came all three of them at in quick succession after one another, all talking in a manner that lead off from the last pony to the other as if they were some hive mind. Then from behind those three came running another; a pale gray stallion dressed in all his splendor though his armor was streaked with black soot. “...My Princesses...” He was out of breath seeming to have traveled a long distance at his full speed as he came to a halt in front of the three alicorns. “...news from the seventh sector: about an hour ago, a falling abject fell out of the sky and landed on the mountain range above the castle. Sectors four and nine are responding to the situation now and all other sectors have been placed to hold up a protective barrier around the city.” Princess Celestia and Princess Luna nodded as the guard did the same. “I will be your guide to transport you through the castle until we know that things have stabilized.” And with that said, a bubble of orange magic wrapped around the three of them. There was a thud from behind. Craning her head to the source of the sound, magenta eyes found the crumpled mass of lavender. “Twilight!”