//------------------------------//
// Coming Clean through Closed Doors 
// Story: Fictionationality - Equestria 
// by Spirit Guide 
//------------------------------//

Equestria's capital, the grand city of Canterlot, was built on the side of a mountain in the center of the land. The royal castle sat at the very edge of the city, in a place most ponies would think it leaning dangerously over the mountainside but was in fact perfectly safe. In the throne room, Princess Celestia was looking over the latest reports from the surrounding pony settlements.

Manehatten is in need of road repairs, Saddle Arabia's reporting of dragon sightings and swarms of unidentified insect-like creatures were found a few miles from Fillydelphia. What to do, what to do...

For the last one thousand years, Celestia has been ruling Equestria all on her own, since her sister Luna was trapped in the moon along with a very powerful fit of jealousy she accidentally created in her attempt to gain respect for her work. Only recently had she returned but Luna no longer felt she was fit to govern Equestria at all anymore. So Celestia continued to carry out the royal duties, listening and helping the various pony settlements in need and raising the sun and moon at dawn and dusk. It was never too taxing but now that Luna was back to her old self, Celestia was really wishing they'd be able to rule together again but ever since they got back to the castle, Luna had shut herself in her room, not even coming out for dinner. The only ones who ever saw her nowadays were her personal guards who stood outside her door, keeping everypony and anypony from entering without her permission. It saddened Celestia to see her sister like this but she knew Luna would come out of it eventually.

Oh well, there's no point in trying to hurry her along, Celestia reasoned. She'll come out whenever she's ready. She glanced again at the town reports and sighed. Although I do wish she were here to help me. Luna did enjoy this kind of work for some reason. Probably because she always has a solution. Celestia looked to her right, the very place Luna used to stand beside her. I'll never understand why she preferred standing. If she'd like one now, I'll gladly get her a throne of her own. She's more than deserving of one. The white alicorn groaned. All this thinking about her sister was not going to help the Manehatten ponies fix the potholes in the city streets, but she couldn't help but worry. When Nightmare Moon was defeated, she'd left Luna in a weak state. So weak that she had to revert to a younger stage of her life. Stripped of her former age and size, Luna no longer felt she could face the ponies of Equestria again. All this worrying was keeping Celestia from her duties. Okay, as soon as I'm done here, I'll go see Luna. No more waiting. I must speak with her.

The Princess was just about to calculate how many bits Manehatten would need when the doors of the throne room burst open. Standing in the entrance was one of Luna's guards. Celestia immediately straightened up. Why would the guard leave Luna? She cleared her throat and called over to the guard. "What happened? Is something wrong?"

The stallion galloped forwards, stopping before the throne. He kneeled and removed his helmet, as was the guard's custom. "Your Highness. It's your sister. She requests that you come at once."

Celestia threw the scroll aside and and stood up. "Lead the way!" she commanded the guard.

Donning his helmet, the bat-winged stallion turned tail and began to run, Celestia close behind him. Countless thoughts were running through her head. Was Luna okay? What did she see? Why was she willing to speak with her now? None of these were putting her at ease as she and the guard galloped through the castle corridors on their way to Luna's private chamber. Upon arrival, Celestia immediately noticed the difference. The usually calm and unmoving bat-pony guards were disturbed and agitated, walking back and forth in front of the door instead of standing stoically beside it. The guard that reported to Celestia stepped forwards and the other guards let him pass, standing in two lines and making a path towards the door. The guard walked over to the door and gently tapped on it with an armored hoof.

"Yes?" called a quiet voice from inside. There was no doubting it was Luna.

"Your sister, Princess Celestia, is here your Highness" replied the guard.

"Thank you. You may return to your post now."

The guard backed away from the door with his head bowed, he and the other bat ponies taking positions throughout the hall. Celestia stepped forwards nervously and rapped lightly on the door. "Luna?" she called. "Are you in there?"

"Yes Tia," came the reply.

Tia. It's been a long time since anypony called Celestia by that name. At least a thousand years. "You wanted to speak with me?" Celestia continued.

There was a short silence before Luna answered. "Yes."

"May I come in?" she asked hopefully.

Luna's pause was longer this time, during which Celestia glanced at the guards on both sides of her. They had regained their impassive composure, standing stock-still but some couldn't hide a concerned frown at the thought of their charge. Finally Luna replied. "Alright."

Sighing gratefully, Celestia slowly pushed the door open and stepped inside. Luna's room was well kept in her absence and with her return was restored to be liveable again. The books were ordered on the shelves, the wardrobe and side-table as good as the day they were made, the fourposter bed tidy and made. And that was were Luna lay. Her coat was a grayish blue and her mane, now a light azure, was shorted and no longer flowed like it once did. Her crown and collar were left on her bedside table, her shoes right beneath them. Luna's expression was troubled, her eyes sad and her head laid down against the covers of her bed.

Celestia didn't like seeing her sister like this. Stepping over to the bed she asked gently, "What did you want to see me about, Luna?"

Luna raised her head and looked Celestia in the eye. "Have you been watching the dreamscape in my absence?" she asked quietly.

Crouching beside the bed, Celestia replied. "Every evening, as soon as I'd finished raising the moon, I'd peer into the dreamscape just as you would have."

"And nothing seemed out of place? No disturbances for a thousand years?"

"Not a thing."

The smaller pony frowned and laid her head back down. "That's strange. Very strange." Luna's expression was now one of unease.

"Why is that, Luna?" Celestia inquired.

"Because last night, I decided to visit the dreamscape myself. And there was something there."

Celestia's heart sank. She was sure she was more than capable of watching over the dreamscape in Luna's 1000 year absence but she'd relaxed too soon. The minute she let her guard down things started going wrong. "What was it?"

"I'm not so sure, everything was so confusing," Luna admitted. "When I entered the dreamscape, I immediately felt a presence. Two separate ones actually. Something was going on between them and it was causing a disturbance in the dreamscape, so I went to check it out. There was a fight going on between two beings, the likes of which I've never seen before, in Equestria or the dreamscape."

"What did they look like?" Celestia asked.

"They were both bipedal. One was made up of black smoke, the other had pale brown skin and was wrapped in a cloak. I couldn't hear what they were saying at first and then they started fighting. By the time I'd gotten close enough to listen, the smaller cloaked one had pinned the smokey guy to the ground. Most of what they said made no sense but from what I understood, the smoke being was just one of many creatures of its kind now roaming Equestria. It then turned into a pegasus, its body still made up of smoke. That's when I decided to stop it and I blasted the pegasus."

Celestia draped a white wing over her sister. "That kind of attack requires a lot of energy. You shouldn't be overexerting yourself while you're still recovering."

Luna shrugged. "It worked though. The pegasus vanished. And I was close enough to see the other guy better. I guessed it was a male of its species, but like I said he was very powerful. He had more energy inside him than he should have been able to hold."

"Did he speak?"

"Yes. He was suspicious of me. He seemed to think that he was the only one who knew of the dreamscape and how to enter it."

"I'm already surprised he could get in," Celestia remarked. "Whoever he is."

"Like I said, he's strong. I didn't know what to do from there so I carefully replayed his last memories as best as I could without him noticing. His mind was almost impenetrable and whatever I found was blurry. But what I manged to gather was this: his body is in Ponyville."

Celestia began to pace Luna's room. Everything her sister had seen in the dreamscape must be important. The dreamscape, also called the lunar plane, was a trans-dimensional layer connected to Equestria. In the past, Luna used the dreamscape to watch over their subjects, making sure their dreams didn't trouble them. Yet here was someone who could access the dreamscape seemingly at will for an unknown purpose. All of a sudden Celestia felt her horn starting up by itself.

"What's going on?" Luna cried, unfamiliar with this new spell.

"Homing-teleportation spell," Celestia explained. "It was developed a while ago. The spell is used on two separate targets, which then allows objects to be sent between the two. This spell happens to connect my horn with my student's assistant's fire breath." Celestia gasped, her horn flared and two scrolls appeared out of thin air.

Luna stared at the floating scrolls. "Nice magic," she said admirably.

"Thank you." Celestia opened the larger of the two scrolls, which had a second message attached to it. "It's from Twilight Sparkle. Would you like to hear it?" she asked Luna.

"Okay," the Night Princess replied.

Celestia cleared her throat and read. "Dear Princess Celestia. A lot has been going on in Ponyville lately. You probably heard about the meteor that crashed just outside of town? Well, you won't believe it, but there were humans inside the meteor! They are taller than most ponies, but probably shorter than you. Their skin is light brown and their manes are darker and shorter."

The two royal sisters exchanged looks. Could these humans be the same type of being as the person in the dreamscape? Celestia read on. "They have interesting names though. One of them is called Avi, the other calls himself Six-Thirteen. Definitely not of pony origin. When they crashed, they'd received some serious wounds and asked for me and Spike to help them out. The one named 613 somehow used my magic to weave a spell of his own. I didn't think that was possible! The results were spectacular, beyond most things I'd ever seen. But he's probably written about that in his letter, which was sent alongside this one, so in order to save you the bother of reading the same story twice, I'll stop mine early.
Hope you're doing well and please give my regards to your sister Princess Luna.

Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle."

Celestia looked up from Twilight's letter. She's already made contact with these humans who came in the meteor. Her friendship studies must have contributed to her social skills.

Luna climbed off the bed and walked around to stand by Celestia. "Look, there's a PS beside the second message!"

"P.S: Attached to this letter is my friendship report from yesterday. I apologize that it's late. There's been a barnload of crazy things going on around here." Celestia unrolled the second parchment and scanned it quickly. "A very valuable lesson," she exclaimed. "Wouldn't you agree Luna?"

"Yes. Remembering to never lose faith in your friends is always important." Her eyes fell upon the second scroll. Luna activated her magic and lifted the scroll to their eye-level. "Do you think this one is from the human 613?"

"It would seem so," Celestia answered, then added, "Why don't you read it?"

Luna smiled at her older sister. "I'd be glad to." She opened the scroll and started to read.

"To Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.
You don't know me and I don't know you, but I hope we might be able to change that in the near future. As Twilight may have told you in her letter, my companion and I have traveled to Equestria inside a meteor, which crashed right outside of Ponyville. While no ponies were hurt, the two of us were fatally injured and it might have been the end of us had it not been for your amazing student and her faithful dragon friend. They lent me the resources I required to preform a transformation which restored our strength and healed us by turning me into a unicorn and my friend into a dragon. Don't worry, we've taken stranger forms than these.
The reason we came to Equestria is this: we come from another world, another dimension, one of many that exist in the universe. In our world we formed a community of all kinds of beings, all living together in harmony. We travel to other worlds in search of people, or ponies, who would like to join us. On most every occasion, we had successfully made new friends wherever we went. Unfortunately, all that good has some bad as well.
Where we come from, evil and sin manifests itself into conscious collections of dark matter which then go around wreaking havoc and strewing chaos wherever they go. Part of our community's mission is to track down these manifestations and expel them from the worlds they enter. Apparently, when my friend Fang and I entered Equestria, an unknown number of manifestations followed us through and are now spread out across the land. Fang and I intend to stay in Ponyville with your student Twilight and her friends while we capture the manifestations until we can find a way to send them back to our world, where they'll cause considerably less trouble then they would in Equestria.
One thing I believe we could both benefit from is a meeting with each other. Whenever you feel like you could spare some time for speaking with me, I would very much appreciate knowing of it.
I look forward to a reply at your convenience.

Spirit Guide."

Luna showed Celestia the letter, her eyes wide. "Well," she said, trying to keep a calm tone, "that was quite a lot of information."

"Yes it was," agreed Celestia. "This Spirit Guide may very well be the being from the dreamscape. Adding this to Twilight's letter, I think we can conclude that he is—or at least was—a human."

"And the black creature?" Luna said. "Could it be one of these manifestations he mentioned?"

"It is possible." Celestia took another look at the letter. "He would like to speak with us. Do you think you're ready to come out?"

Luna looked away. Her unsure expression returned as she climbed back onto her bed. "I've been gone for a thousand years, Tia. Before that, me and my guards were shunned, rejected and feared. I don't know if any of that will have changed."

"Spirit Guide is probably not like anypony native to Equestria," Celestia recalled. "I'm sure he'll see your bright side and the importance of your role."

The smaller alicorn rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling. "I don't know. I just don't know...."

We're not getting anywhere, Celestia realized. Maybe I should just leave her a bit longer to consider. "I've got to get back to work now, Luna. Apparently, Manehatten just got more potholes during the last few hundred years," she added with a smirk.

Luna gave a small smile. Celestia pushed on. "Promise me you'll give it some thought?"

"I'll think about it." Luna twisted around so that she was facing her pillow. "Just another thing I'll be pondering, here all by my lonesome."

"I'll leave you to it then." Celestia levitated the two letters and made for the door. She stopped and turned around. "Luna?" she asked.

Luna turned her head so that one cerulean eye was fixed upon her sister's visible magenta one. "Yes?"

Celestia smiled. Her smile seemed to warm up the room. "It was nice talking with you."

The Night Princess smiled genuinely this time. "You too."

Celestia stepped outside of the room and closed the door behind her. She was feeling much better now that she'd finally spoken with Luna as well as cleared up a few other mysteries. She began to make her way back to the throne room, Luna's bat-pony guards shifting into their posts behind her, sturdy and expressionless as ever. When she arrived at the throne room, she found her secretary Raven waiting there.

Raven jumped to her feet when Celestia appeared at the door. "Your Majesty!" she called, running towards her as fast as she could. "I'm so glad to see you're all right. I was worried when I came in here and you weren't around, I was beginning to think maybe—"

"Don't worry, Raven," Celestia said softly. Raven was a bit over-concerned at times, but she made up for it with her quick organizing skills that were rivaled only by Twilight herself. "I was merely visiting my sister.

"Oh. I see....." She seemed to be at a loss for words. "Well, I-um, I just wanted to, uh..... how is she?"

"Much better, thank you for asking."

"Does that mean she's finally come to her senses and has decided to—"

"I'm afraid not, Raven," Celestia said gravelly, interrupting her secretary's stream of words again. "She still does not feel prepared."

Raven sighed. "I guess we'll have to consider the need for smooth Manehatten roads without her. She did like this kind of work, she did...."

"Wait a minute, Raven." Celestia levitated the two scrolls she'd got from Ponyville. "Before we attend to the needs of Manehatten, tell me: did you hear of the meteorite impact from yesterday?"

The white unicorn looked up at Celestia. "Yes, I did. In fact, I'd received word that a group of renowned archaeologists went there to study and examine the crater."

Celestia seated herself upon her throne, opening the letters again. "Then we have much to discuss."

Raven seized a writing desk from behind the raised dais the throne was built on. "Ready whenever you are, your Highness."