Princess Luna was dreaming the best dream she knew.
“I want to show you something, Lulu.”
It was the night her father had brought her into his dreams, and shown her what he called his garden: a place of giant flowers that thrive and blossom in moonlight, of lakes and little islands and waterfalls, free of all discontent. It was more beautiful than any place she had seen in her waking life, and when she walked in it, she felt more at peace than she had ever known.
“This is the Dreamlands. All the dreams of my little ponies come from here, be they good or ill. Only I have the power to come here freely... only I, and now, you. You take after me, you know. Your sister takes more after your mother, and neither of them have the power to come here... So it's time I taught you the power of dreams.”
That night he showed her every corner of the Dreamlands, and taught her what it meant for her.
“From here we can see inside the minds of all living things. In dreams, our subjects reveal what lies inside their hearts. Their secrets, their hopes, their fears... We watch over the dreams of our subjects. We learn what troubles them, and we help them to grow to their full potential. This is one of my duties as a royal, and someday it will be yours.”
She was so young, then, still a little filly, and her father seemed so grand, so powerful compared to her. She would ride on his back and hide inside his mane, the dark stallion who was only partly made of physical matter, and partly made of the sky: Monoceros, the King of the Firmament. And yet when he took her with him, and showed her the duties that only they could do, she knew that they were made of the same stuff, that she could some night be as grand herself...
The first time she managed to make the dreamstuff listen to her she felt a joy she had not known was possible.
He took hold of her and held her close to him. He was warm and soft and comfortable, and his voice always had the promise of wisdom and safety, and when she heard it she knew that everything was going to be fine.
“You're growing up, my daughter... my little mare of night. You have no idea how proud I am of you.”
She woke up, her face wet from her tears, and found herself back in her own crescent-framed silver bed, and began to ponder the dream.
Oh, she could control her dreams of course. She could visit the garden her father had built whenever she wished... but she didn't. Not unless she felt worthy, and that happened less and less in recent times.
Besides, he would not be there if she did. He was long gone, and this image of him had been an honest dream.
She usually let her own dreams roam freely, and become what they would be. This time they had led her there without her consciously willing it, and she wondered what it signified.
Luna was still pondering it when she sat down opposite her sister for their evening meal. Celestia was already there, looking over some documents while she ate.
“I dreamt that I saw father,” Luna said, after they had eaten a while in silence.
“That's nice,” Celestia said. “We are making progress with the envoys lately. The griffons have agreed to initiate peace talks at last. We have persuaded them to send an emissary here to begin discussions. If it works out, we will have a truce while we negotiate a lasting peace.”
Luna took another bite in silence, watching her sister.
“Terrible as it sounds,” Celestia continued, “it seems to me that ever since Stalliongrad, the griffons have been much more amenable to negotiations. Their defeat humbled them.” She shook her head slowly. “It's sad to think that so many lives had to be lost to get them to the table. We could have resolved this peacefully long ago. I know we could have.”
After their meal they turned the skies, and Celestia retired to her chambers. For Luna it was time for Night Court.
It was an early session, opening shortly after the moon had risen rather than after midnight. It was more convenient for the petitioners that way, and after long and weary discussions with her sister for means to raise attendance Luna had reluctantly been persuaded to take their convenience into account.
It was a bitter concession for her. Her private time in the early evening hours lost, her court torn away from her time and instead positioned as close to her sister's as possible. The results, as far as Luna was concerned, were predictable: there were still few of them, and since they had successfully bent her schedule to their will they were only encouraged to try to bend her further. Over time, she watched herself slipping further and further behind...
This night the bitterness was dulled by distraction, however. Luna's mind was still on the dream.
It meant something. She knew it. But she could not tell what.
Perhaps Star Swirl would have an idea, she thought to herself while listening to a proposal for a bridge to be built across some river or other. He knows so much more than even he realizes.
She ruled on the issues they brought to her swiftly and judiciously, and no lives were lost or saved as a result. She closed the court as soon as she could, and stalked away into her private chambers without waiting to hear praise or criticism.
As she did every night, she looked up at the stars. As she did every night, she thought they were warning her, that they were watching something terrible slowly unfold which they were powerless to prevent, and she did not know what.
Tonight, somehow, she thought they seemed more worried than normal. That something was coming. Something close.
“Captain.”
A hoof struck the floor behind her, signaling his attention.
“Much as I try, I cannot escape this feeling that something terrible is approaching,” Luna said. “Something unspeakably cruel... A noose slipping around our necks. I fear it may be coming to Everhold.”
“We will double our patrols,” said Cold Wing, Captain-Commander of the Shadowbolts. “Let it hide in the darkest shadow, it will not escape our sight.”
Luna nodded. “Let it be so.”
She gazed up at the fearful stars as he disappeared. “I pray you are wrong... and I wish I knew why you cannot see.”
It was drawing close to midnight, and the dreams were rising. She laid down on her barrel in her bed, closed her eyes, and let her mind leave her body.
When she rose again she was in the Dreamlands. She took it in, in all its shifting majesty: another world laid upon the old, where all hidden things were revealed and every horizon was newborn, never seen before, never to be seen again.
She flapped her wings and rode upon its surface and watched dreams rise up from below like bubbles from the sea.
The Dreamlands were no more troubled than usual, only a bushel of ill dreams in an ocean of restful slumber. Yet there was a tension in her that she could not identify.
Sometimes she thought she could hear a sob and a whimper on the wind, like a foal seeking refuge from waking pain in dreams, and and not finding it. But no matter where she went it remained distant, impossible to identify.
For years she had listened to the cry. Her heart wrenched within her to think that a foal out in the world needed her help, but she could not find them.
I have taken steps, she thought to herself. I've found an agent, and I have set him to scour the world. He can find out what is happening, and when he does we will stop it.
I wonder how he's doing.
Perhaps I can go talk to him.
The thought was quite unbidden, and very unprofessional. She knew she shouldn't: she certainly didn't interrupt her Shadowbolts while they were on assignment to ask for updates.
But then Star Swirl isn't a Shadowbolt. He's a scholar. It's his first mission. I didn't send him to do anything dangerous. I'm sure he's fine.
But it couldn't hurt to check.
She beat her wings and flew, and the Dreamlands turned rapidly beneath her, until she drew near to the distant domain of Saddle Arabia. She searched until she found the dreamer she was looking for.
I am going to be professional about this, she told herself.
“Star Swirl,” she said. “Can you hear me?”
He appeared before her in a hurry, rumpled and disheveled. Even in dreams she could see that his garments had not borne the voyage well, but Luna smiled again at the sight of them. “Princess Luna!” He bowed and put on a nervous smile. “I wasn't expecting you!”
“I hope I'm not interrupting anything, Star Swirl.”
You are absolutely interrupting. Just look at him.
“No, no,” he said a little too quickly.
This was a terrible idea. Stop pretending, you're only doing this for your own peace of mind and you're interfering with the mission.
They stood silently for a few seconds, each waiting for the other to speak first. Eventually he cleared his throat. “Is everything all right, Princess?”
“Oh... yes! Yes, everything is fine,” she replied with a false smile and a laugh, and then silently cursed herself. “I hope you are well?”
He hesitated, then nodded.
“It has been some weeks since you left Everhold,” she continued. “I hope your mission is going smoothly?”
The way his face contorted when she asked did not give her great hopes.
“...My colleague died,” he began, and Luna gasped. “We were attacked during the desert crossing. Your highness, there is definitely something terrible going on in this country.”
“Died?” she whispered. “Star Swirl, tell me you're unharmed?”
“I'm fine,” he said. “I've… I've made it to the capital city. I saw the Khalif. I had a meeting with him and the Vizier to – discuss the matter. I've met a zebra sage, and we're pursuing a lead now.”
Though he put on a brave face, Luna noted, the young stallion was not good at concealing his feelings. He doesn't want to disappoint me.
“It sounds like you're making progress, then,” she said, and he nodded altogether too quickly. “Please try your best, Star Swirl. I trust that you can do this.”
“I... Yes, Princess. I will.”
They fell into silence again. “I suppose I'll let you get back to it,” Luna said, shifting her legs awkwardly.
“Alright,” Star Swirl said. “I'll get to the bottom of this. I promise.”
He was gone, and she was alone again in the Dreamlands. She wandered aimlessly across them, wondering what was going on in her mind.
The sound was there for a while before Luna realized what she was hearing: the distant cry of an ancient being, a bird's call of hope and despair.
Luna looked up and saw it, in the form of an arc of fire high above the world: the dream of the Phoenix's flight. She halted and watched it closely, blocking out all other concerns.
Even to her it was a rare sight. It was a dream, but whose dream it was she did not know.
The Phoenix had not been seen for a very, very long time.
It passed over her, striving for a distant horizon, and faded into nothingness. She listened to it intently for as long as she could, but it drowned out in the distant cries of frightened foals, caught in the throes of bad dreams.
There is a duty only I can do, she thought. Perhaps this is a way I can be something more than just my sister's shadow.
She delved into the first bad dream she saw: a foal tormented by monsters lurking in the dark, hiding outside the window and under the bed, within the closet and behind her parents' faces.
She banished the stalking creatures with a thought, and appeared before the foal's sight with a smile. “All that you fear are only illusions,” she said. “Do not be afraid, for the Night-Mare is watching.”
There, she thought as she moved on to the next dream. Now she will know, and she will tell her friends, and word will spread, and they will call upon the Night-Mare to keep them safe and sound in their sleep.
– – –
“I do not understand it,” Luna told her sister over their morning meal. “It's like there is a creeping tension in everything I see...”
“Perhaps you should speak with a doctor,” Celestia said. “Sometimes I worry about your health. I know we are us, but it cannot be healthy to spend all night like you do.”
“I'm serious, Tia!” Luna snapped. “You know prophecy is my domain.”
“It's a very unreliable domain, Lulu,” Celestia replied. “I'm sorry, but it's true.”
Luna scowled at her sister. “You never take me seriously.”
“Lulu, you know that's not true,” Celestia said, sipping her tea. “Alright then, fine. What's bothering you, sister?”
“Everything feels somehow tense,” Luna said. “Like the universe is holding its breath. I think something terrible is approaching us.”
Celestia rose up and came around the table, sat down and wrapped her wing around her sister. “Everything is going to be fine,” she said. “It's the war, I'm sure. It's been weighing heavily on all of us. But it's all going to be over soon. We're going to put an end to it. These talks will make sure of it.”
“These talks would be a great time for something to go horribly wrong,” Luna muttered.
“It won't,” Celestia answered. “I will make sure of it. Trust me, little sister. Tia has everything in hoof.”
The bell tower rang nine. “I have to get going,” Celestia said. “I'm needed in Court. You should go get some rest. I'm sure everything will look brighter when you get some sleep.”
Luna nodded absently, and Celestia left.
The Sun Princess arrived in the throne hall a minute later, and took her seat upon the golden throne. “Good morning, my little ponies, and welcome to the Sun Court. We will begin in a few minutes.” She looked at the parchment which had been presented by her seneschal and smiled. “I understand a new member has come to our court. Please step forward.”
A pony in armor approached the throne, and bowed. Celestia smiled at him. “Welcome to our court. I hope we may provide whatever aid you desire.”
“Your Majesty,” said the White Knight, “I am certain that you may.”