As Spark Impulse and Sprintpoint set her royal chariot onto the road at the outskirts of Ponyville, Celestia reflected on her sadness that ponies everywhere fled as if she was going to banish any roadhogs to the moon. She was due the right of way but there shouldn't be any fear in yielding it. Shadow Orange jumped off as soon as the craft was on solid ground, and Celestia could taste the shield spell he held just in check. It would protect her, she noticed. If circumstances warranted that spell, Shadow would sacrifice his life to save her. For some reason, this natural order of things also saddened her today.
The sergal caster had written back, saying for Rainbow Dash's health he would not hurry his trip, but expected to arrive at about dusk. Twilight Sparkle on the other had had asked for a few extra hours to dust the shelves so as not to embarrass the ruler of Equestria.
Since this was attack was in the mind, she left as soon as she could, not worrying about physical protections. Barely two hours since Twilight wrote her first letter, Celestia arrived, doing so with only three guards total. Stepping regally off her craft, she instructed the pegasi to disconnect and drop the flight straps; again her choice was for speed. "I don't really expect anything even resembling trouble but the threat level is higher than I'm comfortable with regardless."
They both stiffened and nodded their approval. As she turned to enter the library she heard the clanking and ringing of tack being disconnected behind her. This early in November there was no snow scheduled but her sunshine was not really warming the ground, either. She had subtly shifted her mane and wings from protecting against the winds of the chariot to the still, cold air of the ground.
It was Twilight who answered the door, not Spike. And her eyes seemed to have been replaced with saucer plates. "Princess!! You're here!" Turning she shouted behind her "Spike she's here just move stuff. Move it now!" Piles of things dropping somewhere deep in the library created a muted cacophany that came to Celestia's ears. "Your highness, please enter my humble home and the humble town's library." Bowing deeply she levitated the door wide enough to admit the tall white alicorn.
She started to walk in, then stopped. Turning over her own shoulder she called out to her own somewhat hapless assistants, not entirely unlike her student. "You three. Please give me … oh, fifteen minutes. Then follow me in but try not to make a ruckus this is my friend's house not just a call of state." Making eye contact with each of them in turn, she finished by asking "Alright?"
When she saw they all agreed, she proceeded into the library and seated herself in the middle of the main room, where a coffee table had been brought out. There was neither coffee nor tea which wasn't really a big concern except to her student who was still beside herself over feeling unprepared. Celestia knew she would calm down in a few moments.
Walking briskly towards the kitchen area Twilight turned to her teacher and said "I'll be right back with some tea, and my notes, and you can decide what kind of crazy I am." She glanced around the room for a moment. Deciding not to react to anything in this room, Twilight went toward the kitchen
A scant two minutes after that, Twilight came back with a silver platter of some quality, with two small cups and a flower-motif teapot as well as some slightly wrinkled sheaves of paper with writing too small for Celestia to read it from here. She noticed Twilight was carrying it in her mouth rather than levitating it. Must be too worried about protocol. Or maybe it's something else entirely. Celestia dismissed it as the purple mare set the tray on the table, then gave a sweet, concerned look to the alicorn. Celestia almost had time to ask herself What are you expecting me to say, dear filly? You called this meeting. but the smaller mare lowered her head in supplication, and smiled carefully.
"Princess, I'd like to begin with an experiment. Would you agree to participate?" Twilight looked at that moment sort of like a frightened puppy dog.
Unable to guess where this was going, Celestia quickly looked for the signs of a sudden lack of control as they'd been explained by Spike. Frazzled mane and tail, bloodshot eyes. Neither were present, so after a few seconds Celestia replied "I think so, Twilight. What would this experiment entail?"
Twilight breathed deep, her confidence quickly returning. Almost nonchalant now, she looked around at the library, her expression no longer acknowledging the alicorn in the middle of the room. Again after a few seconds, Celestia heard "Oh, it doesn't matter princess. The experiment is over now."
As Twilight turned too look Celestia in the eyes, Celestia thought to herself my own student is dismissing me! Aloud she asked "And, did I pass the exam, student of mine?"
As a licentious grin spread across what was moments ago a sweet young mare's face, the unicorn shook her head. "Nope."
Spike's voice from the kitchen could be heard. He was screaming but it didn't last long, drowned in the gurgling of his own blood by the sound of it. Twilight didn't react. "Twilight tell me what's going on."
The purple hair across her student's back separated, as she became a small alicorn as simple as opening her eyes would have been. "Teacher, it's simple. I'm going to kill everyone you love now, and you've been instrumental in showing me how to finish the job." There was a tiny flash of purple light from the newly formed alicorn, and Celestia was thrown backwards hard enough to break her right wing against the wooden wall.
All the ruler of Equestria could do magically was a feeble shield spell. "Guards! Guards!" she shouted but there was no reply. She was even magically augmenting her voice but her breath was being squeezed out by the spell that continued to attempt to crush her ribcage.
Twilight walked towards the elder alicorn, and the coffee table flew out of the way fast enough to break a bookshelf. But at the mention of the royal guard outside, Twilight looked with condescension towards the door. "Those little things?" The spell was dropped, and Celestia teleported herself to a safe distance above her chariot, but forgot about the broken wing.
Landing rather painfully, her hooves stinging nearly as much as her right wing's throbbing, she frantically searched the empty streets, and found only ... three dead ponies, their spines nowhere to be seen, their bodies still bleeding rapidly but all quite thoroughly dead.
As the door opened, and the young alicorn stepped out, Celestia remembered why she was here. Dream warfare. "You're not Twilight Sparkle."
The purple mare shrugged. "Really? Does it matter now, teacher? The pain is real, even if I'm not." And with that, there was a purple streak as the thing that was not Twilight flew at Celestia, short swords somehow strapped to each fore hoof, her form hazy and indistinct from a thick shield spell.
Their shields clashed, multicolored sparks flew everywhere. "What kind of a monster are you?"
Sparks were added to the pyrotechnic display as she short-swords flashed and flew against Celestia's rapidly depleting shield energy. "The kind that eats ponies!" shouted the small alicorn, her teeth bared in what seemed equal parts anger and dismassal.
Celestia tried magically attacking but this realm didn't acknowledge her power; her spells fizzled with little to no effect. She even called down a solar flare, the sun acting as her own personal orbital laser cannon, but no one watching would have guessed a spell had been tried.
Then the skies darkened, and the young alicorn stopped, and stared in amazement as out of the sky, descended night. Or more precisely a midnight blue alicorn flying fast. This alicorn's magic worked as expected, and Twilight, or whoever it was, was flung backwards, body on fire.
But the fire went out, and the purple mare teleported away. "Sister! Thou sleepest now?" Luna wasn't even looking at Celestia as she spoke, but at the deserted town around the pair. Seeing no threats still, she softened a little, and added "Thy magic works not the same, in dream. I shall teach thee sister but why art thou" Here she shook her head, and breathing one careful breath, corrected herself. "Why are you sleeping just as you arrive to Ponyville?"
Still shaken but as of yet uninjured beyond that one crushing blow, Celestia straightened and replied "Neigh sister. I know I sleep but remember only wakefulness. I have no idea where in the waking realm my body lay." In the distance, several Ponyville buildings exploded into fire, the sky darkening into a menacing dusk.
"Truly?" Now there was a lamp post next to the library, next to Luna, that had not been there a moment before. "I can wake you, but it will hurt." Luna looked askance at the library. "You are sure you were not drugged?" The lamp post slid out of the ground, and levitated next to Luna who paid it no mind.
Celestia wasn't really sure, of course. "I don't believe so. I arrived at the library. At least I think I did. And tea was brought out but that was definitely in the dream. I'm pretty sure. Why?" Celestia was tripping over her words as she watched the pole floated higher, well above the alicorns now.
Luna looked too embarrassed to explain, but said "Since this is dream, you can wake by dying. Except if you were drugged, you will simply remain a helpless corpse or something similar. I would drive you out of your dream but this isn't happening in your head. Somehow the interloper has drawn you into his head." A stern look crossed Luna's face as she reasserted eye contact. "This is his dream, and you and I just happen to be here. In your case by his whim I assume. Entering your dream was enough to find myself here by your side. But your guards will be frantic I'm sure."
Finally Luna looked up, nervously, at the floating lamp post. "Celly, until your mind agrees that your body has failed, you will feel this. And driving you out that way will leave small mental scars, but will also leave this dream in utmost clarity even for a pony of the day such as yourself." Again with the embarrassed look. "Celestia you know more about these things than I. Where do I put this so you will wake quickly?"
Celestia wanted to cry. Her sister shouldn't have a vision of killing the ruler of Equestria, no matter that it wasn't 'real' in any permanent sense. But she laid her belly to the ground, her head out straight. "Right behind the skull, Lunadeer." She closed her eyes and tried not to think about what she was about to feel. "If you're quick I might not even notice anyt"
Pain shot throughout her body, but mostly centered around her head, causing Celestia to launch herself into the air, briefly lodging her horn into the library's ceiling. Yanking her head free she floated down to the floor amidst the scene of her guards, Twilight Sparkle, and Spike, all of whom held with looks of terror on their faces. There were overturned and shattered bookshelves, and several large scorch marks still flowing with ice cold mist showing how recently Shadow Orange had hit the fires with an ice spell.
Shadow Orange was shouting "My liege!" and Twilight was shouting "Princess you can stop!" but Spike and the pegasi just looked like they were watching her to know which way to dodge. The only thing that remotely looked like it was normal was the silver platter, with the tea cups and pot that the evil Twilight had brought, was sitting mostly on the coffee table. No tea had been poured.
Seeing her point of focus, Twilight began babbling about the reason the tea was there. "I brought the best tray with some expensive tea out but you had passed out your head was on one edge of the table and it looked like an odd angle I thought you had broken your neck princess are you OK the dreams should quit while you're awake so there's nothing to battle you can calm down princess please."
Celestia looked around the room, at the scorch marks, the broken shelves. She tried to remember the strikes she had thrown, the direction they had been relative to her own body. "I caused this?"
Her fedaykin, watching her closely with blood orange eyes wide as saucers but with his normal somber seriousness replied only with one word. "Yes" before adding "my liege." a breath later.
It was young, innocent Spike, who spoke next. "You were having a real nightmare. But instead of just twitching you were throwing spells something serious."
Celestia unfolded her wings, flapped her right wing several times. It was whole, unblemished. But as Luna had said, she remembered the feeling of that injury. The snapping of bone. Even the jolt as she woke by dying, was crystal clear. Even, neigh especially the pattern and colors on that teapot.
Which her protege was carefully pouring from now. Luna's questions about drugs returned to her, and she stared at the cups, unsure of what to do. Seeing her dilemma Twilight quickly crumbled a little of everything into one cup -- a cookie, a cracker, some sugar, some honey -- everything that was on the tray, and gulped it down, swallowing hastily. By the grimace she gave it must have been far too hot to drink but Twilight immediately dropped into a deep bow, and waited.
They all waited.
Celestia didn't really think the cup itself was drugged but she decided to play it safe, and when she levitated a cup for herself, it was the one that Twilight had drained. Seating herself as regally as she could manage with her heart still beating as if she was mid-battle she said "Please, everypony, I'm clearly awake now and so long as it remains so we should all be safe."
Twilight finally stood up, and seeing the cup that was left had tea still in it, she levitated it, and stepped away before seating herself, and tried to sip at the tea.
From the stairwell came an apple drawl. "Is it safe to come down yet?"
Nopony spoke.
So Celestia had to invite the element of honesty. "Applejack, yes, I'm sorry about whatever you all just saw. Please, come join us for tea. And battle planning." When she heard the clip-clop of hooves on stairs, she explained to the assembled ponies what she had experienced.
Her bodyguard, the death commando (so named because he would die for his liege), explained what those still awake had experienced. "We waited outside as you asked, my liege. But two or three minutes after the door closed I felt you call out, although there was no sound. I sent my spell to you, and commanded that we should rush in.
"Running inside we found you asleep. Peaceful looking except for posture. It looked as if you were struck by a fit of narcolepsy, and then you started throwing offensive spells. Fire, force. 'Twas all I could do avoid injury to those present. I swear to you, my liege, there was nopony else in this room but us."
Spike belched green fire, and an especially small parchment formed from the smoke. Spike examined it, and proclaimed "That's Luna's seal." Looking to the princess he asked "Your highness?"
Celestia nodded, and Twilight moved to sit next to the small dragon as he unfurled the note. She spoke up to read it aloud. "She asks if you've recovered from your eventful awakening, and asks that we reply with the means of your return for her confidence in your contents." Then looked somewhat confusedly at the princess.
That would be so she knows it's me, not the interloper stealing my body. Celestia hadn't told the part about being stabbed by the regent of the moon. Out loud she said only "A lamp post. Write, a lamp post, and that the damage to the library will need to be seen to. No more; the rest we can speak of later but she wants a fast reply."
Twilight levitated a quill and pen from a pile of rubble, and Spike scribbled the requested notes, then coughed on it. The green smoke floated purposefully out through a crack above the door.
There was a knock at the door, and then it opened to admit a pink blob. "Twilight?" Only Pinkie's head was sticking through the door, and Applejack was whispering something about this not being a good time.
Twilight perked up, but did nothing more than look hopefully at the party pony, then at Celestia. Taking the hint, she called out for the element of laughter to enter, whereupon said pony launched into a tale of searching. Following her descriptions was challenging but it did help clarify some details.
"And I finally found Rainbow Dash but she was still not talking to me but she gave me a hug but that was yesterday and then she flew off and I saw her go over the Everfree Forest but she didn't come back. Oh! Princess Celestia did you know your chariot thing is in two pieces and sorta on fire?"
Celestia remembered she had called down a solar flare. Since her spells seem to have happened here instead of inside the dreaming … "Yes Pinkie thank you. No one was hurt in that incident." But on the matter of Rainbow Dash she should fill in her friends. "But Rainbow Dash ended up staying the night at prince Jack's cave, and I asked him to come here, with her, and he expected to be here about dusk. I appear to be the unlucky first pony to be struck with narcolepsy by this new threat to Equestria."
"Nah I'm here now. Hey. Hey to you too Sparky, Sprinty."
This last, was from a blue pegasus mare who was just entering, followed closely by the elements of kindness and generosity. Towering behind them and closing the door was a gray and blue sergal of piercing yellow eyes.
"Greetings Princess Celestia. Are you aware your transportation has been burnt to cinders by a means reminiscent of your orbital flare spells?" Celestia told Jack as how, yes, she had been informed of the recent property damage to her mode of arrival.
As the shorter ponies whispered amongst themselves to explain the state of the library's interior, Jack asked if Celestia would telepathically "send" to the other princess a question. "Since I am no longer at a regent's power level, she would not hear my moving of magic. Let her know we all are here, and I have an idea how an attacker might cast a dream forcibly."
There wasn't actually a form of telepathy, but a fake spell formed and thrown away would be "felt" by other regents. Meaning, the two princesses could send simple words to each other and the message would be received much, much faster than even fire-writing. So while the once-prince was talking she thought about how to send such a message, and formed the image 'big crowd' closely followed by 'assembled' followed by the idea of a professor prattling endlessly, then the word 'prince' with the final image of a new package -- modified slightly to imply it was the professor's package.
We're all here, and the big guy has a new idea he wants to present to us all.
Almost as soon as she made an end of not-spells, came the reply. A sleep spell designed to gently encourage a large crowd to feel very tired, then an illumination spell that would draw a line toward canterlot castle, and the sending of a scroll by fire.
if you fall asleep, I'll meet you in the shared dream and tell you what I've learned.
So it was that not but two breaths after the sergal caster spoke, Celestia replied "Princess Luna says if we make a shared dream, she will assist us further there."
She was about to ask if that was within the caster's abilities now, but his triumphant "Excellent!" cut her short. "I shall gather what supplies I must. Twilight Sparkle may I use flour or some other white powdery component?"
Soon everypony but the pegasi guards were laying somewhere on a circle made of sifted flour, and as Jack cast a spell to keep their subconscious linked, Celestia cast a spell to bring them to REM state.
As the spell hit her, Celestia was no more, leaving her quite disoriented until she woke up, and for several seconds afterwords too.