-Thirty Faith Sunrise-
-Sleep-
I watch as Ponyville disappears behind us. My eyelids droop heavily with sleepiness. Next to me lays Thorn, his head in his dark hoofs as he snores lightly. The clack of the train blends into the normal sounds of early morning as I resist sleep. The sun has barely lifted of the horizon, and the stars were dimming slightly as the sun's light outshone theirs.
From a star to somepony who can raise the sun, is that a promotion? I wonder silently as my eyes finally close.
☀✴
My eyes widen more than I ever thought possible as I look upon the gleaming knife before me. The wielder is a sickly unicorn with greying and matted blue hair. Her mane is a sickly teal and her eyes a dulled emerald filled with a crazed malice. Her smile is wilder and more deranged than any I've ever seen, and my body is wracked with shakes of fear. I try to move but am bound by bonds upon my hooves. I struggle against my bonds to no use. My captor laughs madly.
I start to scream but find myself muted. No! No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! NOOOO! The knife comes closer and closer to my chest, and I struggle more and more.
☀✴
“Daybreak!! Wake! Up!” Thorn’s worried exclamations reach my ears as my eyes shoot open. Thorn stops shaking me, and I look around at my surroundings. I'm still on the train, though now it’s mid-morning and I'm surrounded by ponies with looks of concern upon their faces. I blink away tears at the horrible dream.
“Th-Thorn, what happened?” I ask. I'm surprised by how shaky my voice sounds, and how sore my throat is. Thorn pulls me into a tight hug, tears welling up in his eyes.
“You're ok! I didn't know what was happening!” He says, his voice equally as shaky. “I woke up from a kick to the face and you were thrashing about and screaming. I didn't know what to do! I was so scared for you.” He cries, the tears spilling out onto his face and into my mane. I wrap my arms around him and hug just as tightly while fighting back my own tears. A collective ‘AWWW’ erupts around us.
“I-It was just a bad dream, that's all.” I tell him in an attempt to reassure both of us. A wary feeling in the back of my mind tells me otherwise. We pull away from the hug, and everypony does their best to make sure I'm alright, though a few were upset at the disturbance and didn't mind making it known. The train soon stops in Canterlot and we make our way to the exit.
As we step off the train I notice Luna waiting outside, a horribly worried expression upon her face. Surrounding her is a detail of Lunar Guards, one of which is Flitter. She runs over and immediately pulls her son into a loving embrace and a look of relief washes over her face. Thorn gives me a look that very much says, ‘help me’. I laugh at him instead.
Luna walks over almost as quickly as Flitter did, and looks me over worriedly. I frown slightly at her overbearing inspection, curious as to what brought it on.
“Art thou not hurt?” She asks, returning to her habitual dialect, presumably due to stress.
“I'm completely uninjured Princess.” I reply. I watch a look of relief, once again similar but different to Flitter’s, cross her face.
“I sensed distress, but had already left the world of dreams. So I came down immediately to ensure a safe return. What caused you such distress?” Luna asks, traces of panic still within her voice. I hear Thorn audibly wince, and look over to see the shock on his mother's face as she found the bruise from my kick.
“I had a terrible nightmare, I was screaming and flailing. Apparently I kicked Thorn as I slept.” I reply sheepishly. Flitter pulls Thorn into another hug, though a more protective one. He rolls his eyes at me and I try not to laugh at their antics. Luna pulls me into a hug of her own.
Luna and her guards, except Flitter who was taking Thorn home, walk me back to the castle. If Luna is tired, she doesn't show it. She greets everypony we pass kindly, and asks about different things happening in their life. She hands out reassurances and promises to discuss this later like extra change. Everypony treats her both as a princess, and as a trusted consult and friend.
I smile at everypony, and they everypony ‘awws’, bows, or does both. One filly tugs on her mother's tail and points at me,
“Look Mommy, a princess my age!” She says. I smile and wave at her, which causes her to smile and bounce around happily. Her mother smiles graciously at me and I nod at her. Luna ushers me forward with one of her wings. We make it to the castle without any problems.
Luna leads me to a small room with a circular table and many ponies sitting around it. There are three seats open, and Luna takes one of them, and gestures for me to sit next to her. I sit and we wait for a few minutes, I almost ask what's going on, but the look on everypony’s faces says silence is the way to go. After a few moments of waiting, Celestia opens the door and enters. She takes her seat on the other side of me. A worried expression rests on her face, and I start to worry too. What in the world could have caused this?
“Should we start with having Daybreak tell us of her nightmare, sister?” Luna asks. A red unicorn sitting across from me picks up a quill and writes down her words. I swallow nervously. Celestia nods, and nudges me with her wing.
“W-well...It was just a nightmare, what is this all about?” I ask, looking first at Luna and then at Celestia.
“We shall tell you of the situation at hand in due time, but for now we must know if your nightmare is related.” Celestia says. I watch as the unicorn writes quickly. Everypony else shuffles some papers and looks over at me.
I take a breath and tell them what I can remember of the terrible dream. Everypony pales to different shades, and one pony has to leave the room, her once yellow coat a sickly green. I would blush at the reactions I caused, but unfortunately I was shaking at the memory of it. Both of the elder princesses do their best to comfort me.
After I finally stop shaking, Luna speaks. “It is worse than we thought dear sister. We had hope this was a mere nightmare, but unfortunately,” Luna says, only to be interrupted by Celestia.
“Yes, we shall have to upgrade her protection detail, and perhaps confine her to castle grounds.” She says. I jump onto the table, not very princess like, and wave my hooves in front of their faces.
“Hello, princesses? I'm right here.” I say, and they both look over at me. “Can somepony please tell me what's going on?” I ask desperately. I feel myself lifted by Celestia’s magic and I'm set back in my seat.
I cross my legs and give a huff of annoyance. Celestia is the first to speak again.
“Fallen stars are very rare, ones that have enough magic to fall as something other than a hunk of rock at least. We are very special, and our hearts are the most special aspect of us. Physically at least. When I first fell I knew nothing of this, nopony did. It took them three years to find me,”
“And three months for me.” Luna interrupts.
“Who?” I ask.
“A trio of unicorns, who had long ran a cult. They're magic is strong and their hearts vile. They're lifespans are unknown. They practice a magic as dark as King Sombra’s. You shall learn of him another day. Not even Starswirl, the greatest wizard of the time, could defeat them.” Celestia continues. I try to swallow, but my mouth is too dry.
“They use the hearts, and other organs of various rare and mythical creatures and beings for their spells.” Luna says with disgust. I shrink a little at the thought of such a thing, the image of the unicorn holding a knife above my chest floating back to me.
“They came into my village as traveling show ponies. They performed wonderful tricks and stunts for everypony, and asked to perform privately for me. As my training was stressful and their tricks were amazing. I happily agrees and didn't think to have my guards prepared, I actually sent them away. However, they did not trust the beautiful mares, and casted detection spells upon the room. The sisters disarmed it of course, replacing it with a spell of their own to make it seem as if it hadn't been removed. They then performed their usual tricks, I was nearly glowing in happiness. But….” Celestia’s voice drifts off, and I don't mind. I don't really want to know exactly what happened, guessing is bad enough. “I was later able to protect Luna, but even if I wanted to defeat them, I couldn't. We had yet to even hear of the elements of harmony, let alone find them. And now, now they are back with the tree, and we have no idea where these sisters are lurking.” Celestia adds.
Luna turns to an Earth Pony at the table. He gives a report on the search for their whereabouts, namely that they have nothing. Each pony reports in turn, bringing worse news than the one before. The Princesses order a higher guard detail, and have wanted flyers made. They plan to give an announcement at sunset.
I fly to my room as soon as I can, and lock the door. My guards wait outside the door and I run through, distracting myself with my many plants. “Oh, sisters above help me. Everything will turn out alright, right?” I ask, thinking out loud. I open the door and ask one of the guards to bring me some stationary and books. “I'm confined to the castle, I might as well find a way to pass the time.”
After gathering my quills and ink, and setting up a place in front of my protected fireplace, I hear a knock at my door. “If you're the guard with my supplies, please come in.” I call. I hear the door open, and I turn to see some pony who was most definitely not a guard. I swallow and prepare my best scream.
“No need for that lovely. I placed a silencing spell on the room. You're safer with me anyway, the Princesses lied to you.” She says in a lulling voice. My eyes start to droop as I find myself struggling to stay awake. “Oh my, you must be tucked out. It's alright, sleep.” She says, the word sleep sounding more like a command than anything else. Everything goes black.