//------------------------------// // Chapter 20 // Story: After the Nightmare // by CORACK //------------------------------// The wind whistled as it blew through the entrance of the dimly lit cavern. Outside a blizzard raged on, thick curtains of snow obscured any view of the outside world. Luna sat silently in the middle of the room, concentrating on her work. Every once in a while a surge of magic would bubble up through her horn, providing a burst of light that cast thick black shadows on the craggy rock. The hours passed by slowly, Selene paced back and forth, waiting for some word from her friend. Finally Luna stood up, a bright glow in her horn provided the first steady light Selene had seen all morning. A tear formed in the air, small at first, it grew downward as reality was ripped open. Luna turned towards the human and grinned, but something was wrong; her mouth may have been smiling but her eyes were lifeless and black as night. "I have finally recovered enough strength to open a portal home; through this lies the land of Equestria." Selene smiled back nervously. "That's great Luna, but what about Earth? You said that you had figured out how to get me home, weren't you going to open the portal there first?" "Oh no Selene, I can't do that," Luna said as she turned and began to walk towards the portal. "Well then I'm coming with you, but I don't have any of my stuff, it's all back at the Ascension, can we go back and pick it up first?" Luna stopped right before the portal and then turned to look at the confused girl. "You must stay here," she said, shaking her head. With no other explanation Luna stepped through the portal which vanished a second later. Selene stood in the now empty cavern, looking at the spot where Luna stood moments before. She dropped to her knees, and let out a long shrill cry. As her mind replayed the last few seconds, and Luna's abandonment sank in, her body began to tremble and shake until she finally collapsed to the ground choking back sobs of grief. The scenery shifted. Selene eventually made the long trek back to the ship and the months flew by. Without Luna's magic the garden she had created died out. Selene had to take up hunting again but food was impossibly scarce. To make matters worse her last bottle of vitamin supplements had run out three weeks ago. An unusually powerful storm had damaged the ship's exterior and made the mess uninhabitable and the shuttle generator had finally died. Selene sat huddled in a corner under a pile of blankets in her room, struggling to keep warm. She looked to her left at the rifle sitting next to her. The storm had damaged her ammunition stores and she had only a single round remaining. Slowly she reached over and opened the bolt. She fed the round into the chamber and closed the bolt. Tears streamed down her face as she slowly turned the rifle around, bringing the barrel up in contact under her chin. The cold metal ring rested underneath her head, she reached forward and moved her hand slowly towards the trigger. As her finger found its destination, a bright light flashed open as the air in front of Selene split open. Luna staggered though, panting heavily. "Oh, hello Luna," Selene said with a cough. "Come to see me off?" Luna's ears swiveled towards the sound of Selene's voice. Still breathing heavily, she turned towards Selene, just in time to noticed the gun resting against Selene's throat. Her eyes went wide and her horn flared to life pulling on the end of the barrel just as the gun went off. With a loud bang, the bullet flew out of the barrel and struck the ceiling harmlessly. Exhausted, Luna collapsed to the ground, leaving Selene sitting there with a confused look on her face. "You're really here?" Selene asked in a whisper. She reached out and rested a hand gently on Luna's back. "You...you... you left," she said with a stammer. "You went back to Equestria, you left me here." Luna lowered her head and began to nuzzle Selene. "It's OK Selene, this is a dream, nothing more, just a dream." "No... you left me here, alone," Selene cried out, unable to contain her emotions. Luna's horn lit gently as she let out a spell designed to help calm the girl down. "This is nothing but a dream Selene," she said. "We were in the complex beneath the cavern, we were separated. I've been looking for you ever since. What is the last thing you remember?" "I... the complex... separated?" Selene struggled to clear her mind. "Malice!" she shouted. "I met someone, it was another golem, but this one could talk, he called himself Malice." Selene spent the next few minutes bringing Luna up to speed on what had happened. She explained how Malice had called himself a god and how he had been imprisoned. She also told Luna that Malice had gone on about finding some sort of magical, divine shard inside Selene and he wished to use it to escape his prison for good. Luna shifted uncomfortably when Selene began to talk about Malice's plans for her, but she let Selene continue without saying anything. "Wait minute, why am I even explaining this, if you are right and this is a dream, I just told myself everything I already knew. I mean I appreciate that you stopped the dream, but you're just part of my own subconscious. The real Luna is out there somewhere, hopefully still looking for me." Luna stood up and began to pace back and forth, trying to figure out how to best explain what was going on. "No Selene, you did not. You are dreaming, but I am the real Luna." She paused and then look awkwardly down at the girl. "Selene it is time you learned some things about me. Things I should have told you before, but I was too nervous to do so. A lie of omission is still a lie and I have left out so many things about my past and who I am." "I told you before that I ruled over Equestria with my sister. I also told you that Celestia was responsible for the day and controlled Equestria's sun?" Selene let out a small giggle. "Yeah I remember that, still have a hard time believing it but I remember it." "Celestia is my sister," Luna said. "It was with her that I ruled over Equestria for thousands of years. I am Princess Luna, Mare of the Moon, Guardian of Dreams, and Night Incarnate." With a burst of magic the nightmare was pushed back and the world around the pair dissolved into a pure white nothingness. Making such a large change in the dream world required a vast amount of magic. Sweat dripped down Luna's forehead and she wobbled back and forth as if about to topple over. Selene watched on, unsure what to do. "Are you alright?" she asked, holding out a hand to steady her friend. "I am simply tired, but perhaps I should explain fully." Luna sat down before continuing, "As Princess of the Night, one of my duties is to patrol the dreams of my subjects, protecting them from the dark beings that feed off of their nightmares. While it is possible for a normal pony to learn dream walking spells, altering another pony's, or in this case human's dream is a rare skill, and I alone have the strength to battle the demons that feed off of nightmares. Besides my dream duties, I both begin and end the night each day. I move the moon into place when Celestia lowers the sun and lower it when she is ready to raise the sun." Selene just stared at Luna, not sure how to process the information she had just learned. "Malice talked of a shard of divinity in your soul that he wished to steal. I am not positive but I think this may be my fault. The spell I used to heal you ripped off a fraction of my own immortal life-force and bound it to your own. It should not have even been possible, but I was in such a weak state when I arrived here that I was nearly rendered mortal." Selene scratched her head, then looked at Luna. "I... I don't..." she sat down in the empty landscape. "You can move a moon, you can visit and control dreams, and you are immortal? I don't even know how to respond to this, it sounds like something out of ancient mythology, what's next, are you going to tell me that you are some kind of goddess?" "Goddesses, divine beings, higher power, all those have been used describe my sister and I before," Luna replied. "We are immortal yes, and we embody aspects of the universe. Celestia is the day, and with it light and life. I am the night, dark and untamed. We command vast powers far beyond any mortal pony. We existed at the very beginning of our universe and we will see the end. " Luna stretched her wings before continuing. "But my sister has never liked to be labeled as such, she is quick to point out that we are not all powerful or all knowing, that we can make mistakes and lose our way. Earlier in life I disagreed with her, but now it is clear to me that I am not beyond error. I will have to live with the mistakes of my past for all eternity. But in the end we are still beyond mortal beings, so perhaps it is best to accept the titles we receive, knowing that they do not make us infallible." "Then what about Malice, he claimed he was a god, do you know anything about him?" Selene asked "I do not. If he is a god, he must be from another dimension, outside of my area of knowledge," Luna said. "From what you told me, the gods of Malice's realm imprisoned him, it was their only choice as gods cannot be killed." "So different dimensions have different... beings like you?" Selene asked. "Not always, but they can. You humans know of different dimensions, your spaceships use dimensional travel to take shortcuts through space, but from what I've read you have only seen a very limited number of dimensions. The true number of dimensions is vast, nearly infinite. Each dimension its own self contained universe, with its own set of rules for how things work. Even Celestia and I know little about other dimensions, but we do know a few things. We first became aware of the existence of other dimensions long ago when Discord, a god of chaos, broke open the barrier between universes and stumbled into our domain." "First, the vast majority of dimensions are devoid of life, gods or otherwise. Second, beings like us do not exist in every dimension that has life. We are most often found where magic exists, but even that is no guarantee. It is easier to move between similar dimensions than dissimilar ones. This is probably why humans have not discovered magic yet. Every dimension that your d-drive opens a gateway to is very similar to your own. They all operate on the same, or nearly the same laws of physics, and none of them have magic." "So in theory, humans could open a portal to your world?" Selene asked. "It is possible, your technology is strange, but if your race continues to grow it is likely that more advanced versions of your drive will be able to reach more dimensions than you have currently seen; eventually humanity may even discover my world." "This is a lot to take in Luna. I don't even know what to make of it. For now, I guess I'll take your word that you are real and I'm not just dreaming, and we can figure out the immortal super being thing later..." Selene's face turned downcast. "But what happened before, when we got separated? Where have you been?" "I woke up almost a day later, I waited for you for hours and you never came. You said you would be able to teleport to me," she said struggling to hold back tears. "These dreams or whatever they were, they felt so real... I've watched you die, I've watched my father die, I've watched you leave me. I can't... I can't..." Selene trailed off, all the anger, rage, torment and sadness of the nightmares she was forced to endure bubbled back up inside her, forcing their way to the surface and she burst into tears. "I am sorry Selene," Luna said, wrapping a wing around her. "I tried to teleport to you right after we were separated, but my spell was redirected. I've been trying to get to you ever since." Luna said nothing more, instead she just held the sobbing girl until the cries slowly died down. Once Selene was feeling better Luna took some time to bring Selene up to speed on what had happened while she was looking for her. She told Selene about Decima, the Eternals and everything else she had learned. "I did finally find you, but when I arrived in Zax's control room, I came face to face with Malice and he rendered me unconscious and forced me into a similar dream state. I broke free of the nightmare and that is when I felt your nightmare." "So what do we do now? If we are dreaming and he's out in the real world, how do we get away?" "Malice trapping me in a dream was a mistake on his part, though it was not easy, I was able to seize control of the dream. After that, I sensed you were also trapped in a nightmare. As my strength has not yet returned fully, entering your dream took a great deal of effort, though returning to reality should be easier now that I have ended the nightmare." "Well won't he notice? It sounded to me like he feeds off of the suffering, if our dreams are suddenly pleasant won't he know something's wrong?" Selene asked. "He may, but this is a dream and time flows differently here. A fraction of a second is all that has passed in the waking world since I first arrived in your dream. This is exceptionally fast even for a dream, but if Malice does indeed feed on our pain then this is likely an intended feature of his spell, to increase the amount of suffering he can feed off of." "So what do we do from here?" Selene asked. "I am not sure. From what I have been able to sense, this Malice is very powerful and while I have continued to grow stronger, I do not yet have access to my true power. I must instead rely on ordinary unicorn magic for most things and though I know many spells, it is likely that Malice does as well." "I shot him, the last time I was awake, I shot him and it hurt him. I don't know if that helps or not," Selene said. "It does, the spells Celestia and I came up with to fight Sombra seem to work very well against him, I can use that." "Sombra!" Selene shouted as she remembered what Malice had told her. "Malice said that Sombra had stumbled into his prison ages ago, something about an untargeted dimensional gateway spell. In any case, Malice did something to Sombra and then sent him back to Equestria." "That explains a lot," Luna said. "My sister and I never did determine how Sombra's suddenly rose to power so quickly and the dark magic he wielded was nothing like what we had seen before. Every spell of Malice's I've looked at feels like a more powerful version of spells that Sombra had used in the past." Luna felt a change in the magical energies that held Selene in the dream. "I think we are running out of time Selene. Malice will soon realize that I am free of his grasp. When I return to the waking world, the dream will end and you will fall asleep. I will attempt to release you from his spell when I awaken, when you do wake up, I will distract him. You must then flee." Luna bent down and touched her horn to Selene's head. There was a bright glow and Selene felt a wave of dizziness wash over her. "I have shared my knowledge of the layout of this base with you. Take the route that I used to get here, go to Decima and explain the situation." "But what about you?" Selene asked. "I can't just leave you here." "I will be fine. I will try to hold him while you get to Decima. With her help we may be able to trap him in the time field if she can regain control I will need to reinforce it when she turns it on. I will not be able to kill him, but neither can he kill me." Luna said. "But he can kill you and I can't fight at my best if I have to protect you." She readied the spell to exit Selene's dream. Selene ran over and gave Luna a tight hug. "Good luck, I know you can beat him," she said. With a crackle of energy, Luna vanished from the dreamscape, which faded away as Selene drifted off to sleep. ##### With a gentle tug of her magic, Princess Celestia opened the door to the guest room Twilight was staying in and walked inside. As she expected, Twilight was still tucked into her bed and fast asleep. She walked over and lay a hoof on the young mare and gave her a light shake. "Twilight, it is time to wake up," Princess Celestia said quietly. Twilight snorted, mumbled something about books, and then rolled over, trying to get away from the offending hoof. Celestia gave Twilight another shake, and this time Twilight's eyes opened up. She saw Princess Celestia standing over her and sat up quickly. "Oh my gosh, am I late for a test!? I must have forgotten to set my alarm." Princess Celestia let out a small chuckle. "No Twilight, there is no test. I am getting ready to raise the sun and wondered if you'd like to join me." Twilight wiped the sleep from her eyes as her brain slowly filled in the details of last night's conversation. "Oh, I'm sorry princess, I wasn't quite awake yet," she said letting out a long yawn. "What about my friends, do you need me to go back to Ponyville?" "I dispatched some guards earlier this morning to go to Ponyville and find your friends, I expect they should be in here in a few hours," Celestia said. Twilight hopped out of bed, swaying a bit as her body continued to wake up and then looked up at Celestia. "To the throne room then? Do you mind if we stop at the kitchen along the way, I need coffee." "I will not be raising the sun from there today. I've closed the throne room and canceled court for the day," Celestia said. Her horn flashed a golden yellow and a mug of coffee appeared, floating in front of her. "I thought you might need some, so I had this waiting for you." Twilight took the cup and levitated it to her mouth and took a sip. "Thank you," she said. "If you are not doing a public sun raising then where are we going?" "I would like you to join me in my garden," Celestia said, watching for Twilight's reaction. Twilight choked on the coffee, dribbles of the black liquid rolled down her face. "Your garden? As in your private garden? No pony has ever been in there before I'm not even allowed in, the law states that only a Princess of Equestria may enter it." "I know the law Twilight, I wrote it, centuries ago; I needed a private place to relax and get away from the stress of ruling, where nopony could follow me. But if all goes well today, it won't be a private garden anymore. Luna is also a Princess of Equestria and so will have full rights to enter it as she pleases; if I can share it with her, surely I can share it with the mare that is going to help bring her back to me." "But... but... but..." "Relax Twilight, since nopony other than I am allowed inside, nopony will even know you went in," Celestia said with a twinkle in her eye. Her horn flashed and the two ponies disappeared from the small bedroom. The two ponies re-appeared under a moonlit sky, next to a small stream. Twilight turned towards her mentor and prepared to say something when Celestia placed a hoof on her mouth. "Quiet now my young friend, it is time for me to begin the day," she said. Her horn lit up with a gentle glow and the moon, already low in the sky, began to drop below the horizon. For a moment everything was dark, but then a splash of color appeared in the eastern sky. The glow from Celestia's horn steadily increased in intensity, matching the light in the sky as the sun was pulled from behind the planet into view. A warmth filled Twilight, as she felt Celestia's magic reach out, pulling the sun into its path and starting the day. Though she had seen Celestia raise the sun hundreds of times before, it still filled her with a sense of wonderment. The ever increasing light, both from the sun itself and Celestia's horn provided enough illumination to get her first good view of the garden. Given the opulence of the castle, she had expected something far more fancy than what lay before her. It was still beautiful, of that there was no doubt, but it was a simple beauty. It looked as if Celestia had taken a wild meadow moved it into the castle grounds and made a few small additions of her own. A field of vibrant green grass dotted with wildflowers stretched out before her. A small river cut through the middle of the field, bubbling and burbling as its waters brought life to the surrounding area. A narrow stone pathway ran along one side of the river, while on the other, hundreds of different flowers grew, only interrupted by the occasional apple tree. It was then that she noticed the field was much larger than she had originally thought. In the distance she saw a thick forest that should not have been there. She turned around slowly, looking for the castle but it was nowhere to be found. Behind her was a large hedge arch, placed seemingly at random in the middle of the field. It was connected to the main pathway by another stone path that ended the moment it passed under the arch, leading nowhere. Celestia finished raising the sun and turned towards her student. "You have a question," Celestia stated. "Where are we? Your garden is inside the castle grounds, and we clearly aren't." "It is a spell Luna and I came up with many years ago. It will make sense later." The two ponies walked alongside the stream in silence. Celestia pulled two apples from a tree and offered one to Twilight. They sat down on the bank of the river and ate breakfast. Afterward, Celestia went over the work they would have to do once the rest of Twilight's friends arrived. Celestia would open the portal and then Twilight would take over and maintain it when Celestia stepped through. Even with the revisions to the rift spell that Twilight had made, it would still take far more power than she alone could give. The Elements of Harmony would provide the extra power needed to keep the rift open. As they continued to talk, Celestia lead them back down the path towards the hedge arch Twilight had seen earlier. "We must head back now, thank you for joining me this morning," Celestia said. "Thank you for allowing me to come here princess," Twilight said. "Well, after you," Celestia said, pointing Twilight through the archway. Twilight walked through and then let out a gasp. The moment she stepped foot through the arch, she was met with the familiar sight of the Canterlot Castle grounds. The archway behind her was connected to a hedge wall which she immediately recognized as the wall surrounding Celestia's private garden. Celestia appeared right behind her and she quickly moved out of the way. "Is the garden located somewhere else and the archway is a teleport?" Twilight asked in confusion. "Oh no, if I had picked any old place it wouldn't be private. The whole of the garden is in there," Celestia said, pointing her hoof at the walls behind her. "But that place was huge, it would never fit," Twilight said. She looked at the wall before her, it was a few hundred feet long and from past experience she knew Celestia's garden was a square. "Unless, the inside is bigger than the outside..." she said, trailing off as a guardpony ran up to the princess. "Princess Celestia, the ponies you sent for have arrived, they are waiting outside your chambers as you instructed," he said. "Thank you Iron Hoof, Twilight and I will go meet with them now, you are dismissed," Celestia said. The guard saluted and then galloped back the way he had come from. "You are on the right track, I will show you the spell later Twilight but for now, it is time we find my sister." With a flash of her horn the two ponies teleported away.