Monstrous voices and sights faded to darkness. Ragged breaths beat dryly through the air, a name on their lips. Purple eyes shot open, wildly scanning the room for the horrors her sleeping, animal mind felt certain loomed just out of sight.
Five, then ten seconds passed before the mind caught up with the woken body. Just a nightmare. Again.
Celestia did her level best to sigh, but with her adrenaline still coursing it came out a quickened gasp. She shivered a little in the sweat-damp sheets, and looked to the clock. One in the morning. At least it was Sunday.
She’d done this dance often enough to learn the routine. No use trying to go back to sleep with the heart still hammering, and the memories still fresh. Celestia rolled from the bed, groaning as her lanky frame stretched to the floor. She quickly changed to a fresh pair of sleep clothes – different pajama pants, a robe, and an old tie-dye shirt – and kicked her feet into some flip-flops.
Celestia smiled at her slumbering roommate. “I’ll be in the living room. Goodnight, Luna.”
No response came, with Luna asleep behind her glare. The younger sister slept like that even as a baby, and Celestia had long-since ceased to think it odd. She kissed her forefinger, tapped it to Luna’s cheek, and padded quietly to the hallway.
She pushed open the door, blinking and frowning as light greeted her eyes. The living room lamp was on, accompanied by the steady, unmistakable clatter of fingers on their desktop’s keyboard.
Her voice went out ahead of her steps. “Sunset, it’s one o’clock.”
“It’s not a school night!”
Sure enough, entering the living room brought the yellow teen into sight. Her bed was unfolded, but abandoned, with her skinny rump planted on their computer chair. She didn’t even look up from her browser, opened to a dozen news articles on Queen Chrysalis Tobacco.
The counter-argument did not impress Celestia. “Young lady…”
“I know what you’re going to say, but hear me out.” Sunset clicked on another page, taking her to the story of the German Doppelganger. “With this Chrysalis thing, we’re completely blind. We don’t know what Earth’s changelings can do. We don’t even know if these are Earth’s changelings. Pony Twilight said their Queen Chrysalis has disappeared, so maybe this one’s her. It would make sense – with mankind clueless, there’d be no one to get in her way. But on the other hand, what if this is Earth’s Chrysalis, and she isn’t hostile? I know her changelings attacked Redheart, but she was spying on them so maybe they were just defending their secret. If they’re not doing anything really bad, I’d be a lot less happy about the idea of blowing holes in their queen. And then there’s the issue of–”
“These questions will keep until morning,” Celestia said tersely. “Bed. Now.”
Sunset shook her head, gaze still on the screen. “If I don’t get at least some answers, I’ll be up all night anyway worrying about it.”
Celestia knew the feeling. She compromised, but only because it wasn’t a school night. “Fine, one more hour. Then bed.”
A few clicks carried Sunset to another wall of text. Her eyes remained forward, though they rolled in her voice. “Okay, Mom.”
“Don’t you start with that,” Celestia chided. Too tired to argue, she passed on into the kitchen. A little warm milk sometimes helped – one minute at the microwave provided her with a steaming mug. She took it back to the living room and settled it on an end table.
“Do you mind if I turn on some music?” she asked.
“Uh, no, go ahead.” The incessant clatter of the keyboard stopped, and Sunset finally looked to Celestia. “Are you okay?”
Celestia gave a wan smile as she turned on the CD player. “Fine. Just… trouble sleeping.”
“Night terrors?”
That brought a startle. Celestia turned swiftly, and Sunset flinched.
“Luna told me,” the girl admitted. “They started after... something bad happened. B-but she said they got better.”
“Better? Yes. Very much so.” Celestia frowned – that had been rough, back before Luna moved in. Months of caffeine pills and coffee as her own sleep betrayed her.
But such trials had ended a long time ago. She sat down on her easy chair and took a sip from the mug. “They still hit me every once in a while. As you can see, I have my routine for how to make do.”
Sunset turned fully from her work, giving Celestia her attention. “Why not just go back to sleep?”
Another sip. Celestia used it to try to hide her tremble, but Sunset was sharp. She scooched her chair a little closer, eyes full of worry.
There was no reason to hide the truth. “It’s not that easy, Sunset. It’s… like it’s waiting for me. If I go to sleep, the nightmare will just pick up where it left off.”
Another tremble. Celestia closed her eyes, still vividly recalling the horrors that chased her from her rest. Funny, that in all her years of monster hunting, the only things that truly terrified her came from her own slumbering imagination.
When she opened her eyes, Sunset had grown closer still. Her yellow face was marked with exhaustion, but also a tender concern that brought back Celestia’s smile. It was… nice to be cared for.
“I’ll be fine.” They were close enough now that Celestia reached out and patted the girl’s hand. “After so many times, it’s become merely a nuisance. I have my snack, I have my music, and I’ll just relax the rest of the night.”
She closed her eyes, smiling softly as her music began to play. Luna called it, “Old-people music,” Harshwhinny and Cranky agreed it was “Hippie bullshit”... but they were Celestia’s songs. She’d grown up listening to them, and never grew out.
“For I'm going to try for the sun…”
An old, familiar tune, given extra percussion as Sunset resumed her typing. The combination was a pleasing one. A little bit of imperfection to the pristine, memorized song. A reminder that Celestia wasn’t alone this dreadful night.
She leaned back into the chair with a sigh, breathing in warm vapors from the milk and letting the music carry her away.
“Hello Darkness, my old friend…”
Two o’clock. Then, two-fifteen. Maybe Celestia wasn’t paying attention to the clock. Still manically focused on her work, Sunset ignored the negotiated bedtime and pressed on.
It seemed only a moment had passed when the computer’s clock ticked over to three in the morning. Sunset smirked a little, guessing the truth as she wheeled around in her chair. Celestia, still in her recliner, was fast asleep.
But the smirk died with her second look. Celestia’s shoulders moved up and down with fast, uneven breaths. Trembling hands held the hem of her shirt tightly, and her whole body seemed in a tense, guarded position. Her chin pressed to her chest, letting the tears drip down from tight-closed eyes.
“Miss Celestia?” In an instant, the changeling research left Sunset’s mind. She stepped over to the sleeping form and gently reached out. “Um… Celestia?”
“Luna,” the unconscious principal breathed. “Luna, I’m sorry.”
She kept mumbling the name, twitching and sobbing. Sunset tried again. “Miss Celestia, it’s just a nightmare.”
Sunset blinked, and felt tears in her own eyes. It was awful to see Celestia like this. Vulnerable and weak. Awake, the principal was strong and in control. And sometimes, like yesterday, she was a total badass. But here…
“What happened?” Sunset asked softly. “What did this to you? You don’t deserve it. You–”
“Luna,” Celestia groaned again.
They were both skinny enough for Sunset to slip onto the chair. She did so, and wrapped Celestia in a hug. “Luna’s fine.”
Gently, she rocked Celestia back and forth. “She’s in the other room. She’s safe and sound, sleeping with her eyes open like the weirdo she is.”
One of Sunset’s hands slipped down and worked its way into Celestia’s grip. “You’re both at your house. You’re both safe. And… Sunset’s here with you, and she’s safe, too. Everything’s alright.”
“Um… can you hear me?”
Celestia didn’t answer. But her weeping and mumbling had stopped. Her body relaxed, causing her head to roll uncomfortably to the side. With no pillows in reach, Sunset snuck her head beneath Celestia’s, giving it a resting spot while her own lay on the bony shoulder. Not exactly comfortable… but it felt good. A warm body in the crisp autumn night.
As she felt her own blinks grow heavy, Sunset gave the shoulder a kiss. “Good night, Miss Celestia.”
The music shifted to a new, peppier song. But at this time of the night, nothing could keep Sunset awake. She drifted off as it played softly through the room, a smile on her own and her mentor’s face.