Sweet Dreams
Sweet Dreams
(The present)
Sweat poured down Sunny's face as she tried, desperately, to unravel her own maddeningly stubborn transformation spell. She must've cast the blasted thing hundreds of times over the centuries, and never had it been even remotely this difficult to remove. Reversing the transformation usually demanded no more effort than throwing off a dress. Now it was like trying to escape a duct-taped straitjacket. She dropped onto the ground with a gasp, taking long, deep breaths as her red-hot horn cooled from the intense effort. She'd grown a foot or so in height, and gained a few colors in her mane, but she wasn't even a third of the way there. This was the absolute last thing she needed right now.
When she felt strong enough to stand, she trotted over to the looming exit of the courtyard hedge maze and poked her head around the side of the opening. The dawn patrol would make their rounds soon enough. She'd danced this dance enough times over the centuries to know that it would probably be best to wait, and catch her breath until they'd passed.
Hearing heavy hoofsteps in the distance, Sunny slipped back into the maze, tucking her legs under her body as she silently laid on the grass. Through the exit and across the courtyard lay the ornate bench she'd had fashioned out of Discord's big, empty stone slab. She could only pray it had not been an unfathomably colossal mistake to let that weasel loose. She knew trying to reform the living embodiment of disorder had been an absurd risk, especially considering their history, but with Luna back home she... well... the idea of imprisoning someone for another thousand years just seemed cruel. She’d been cruel enough for one millennium.
It was strange. It wasn't long ago that she would've sealed Discord back up and left him to rot in the courtyard without a second thought. If the brat couldn't behave himself in this age, then maybe he would the next. And yet, barely a year had passed before she gave him another shot at freedom. Had she gone soft? The old ways seemed so distantly vengeful to her now.
As the guards finished their patrol of the area and re-entered the castle, Sunny pulled herself to her hooves with a stretch. Time for round two.
Slow this time.
She closed her eyes and lightly lit her horn, guiding the magic up from the ground and out from the air to coalesce within her body. It stirred and spun through her veins, sailing and wandering with a restless momentum. In her mind she pictured the transformation, piecing together a sort of script for the magic to follow. 'Don't be afraid,' she thought. 'You'll do fine. Just as always.'
She called on the memory of countless past transformations, feeling the process begin, then slow, then run errant. It was bored. It understood what she wanted, but getting there was such a chore, so difficult and so futile. It was scared of the spell not working again, and as a result, the spell was again not working. She couldn't think of a way to properly convey this concept of self-sabotage. It didn't grasp things that might or would happen in the future; it had eyes only for the present. Already, the magic was fraying, ready to jump ship. She sighed, letting the spell unwind for a moment as she thought on the matter. It was skittish. She needed to soothe its nerves, distract it from its frustration. A story, or better, a memory, to keep its attention. The elemental Harmony loved nothing more than a juicy story.
Her legs shook as the magic struggled, becoming harder and harder to hold onto as she searched her mind for something fresh and eminent. This had not been a good week. Between tending to Luna's fever, fretting over the moon in her dining room, and wrestling with the very essence of reality to fulfill her duties, memories of something light and encouraging were few. She hardly wanted to think back on it all herself. The only genuine laugh she'd had all week had been... well...
Sunny smiled as she called to mind the memory of Joe's foalish squeak after Luna had chomped down on his cutie mark. It had been an embarrassing, appalling display for all involved, of course, but you couldn't very well run a kingdom if you didn't let yourself enjoy the absurd every now and again.
A soft giggle passed her lips as she recalled his mortified, rigid expression when the princess of the night had run her snout through his mane. He never did know how to deal with royalty, that one. The first time she'd ever seen him, in the delightful chaos following her student's first Grand Galloping Gala, Joe had been an absolute wreck. His entire body rattled with the most adorable skittishness as he'd bent down by her side, a clattering tray of various coffees and teas balanced on his back, stammering out the various blends and brews at her choosing. She hadn't even looked at the display, holding a bemused expression on the nervous stallion as he tried his best to remain perfectly balanced, each well-toned leg braced in a separate direction with spartan rigor.
"Which would your princess find most pleasing, my handsome subject?" She had asked, with a playful smile. The clattering grew ever louder as his trembling became steadily more intense, eyes locked forward and mouth a furrowed line of strained effort.
"Um." He'd met her eyes with a hesitant glance, one she knew had only been intended for the briefest of moments. Yet, one which he hadn't been able to break. The rattling steadied, then slowed to a stop as he'd stared into her eyes with a strange mix of expectation and... fear. As if he was waiting for her to say or do something dreadful. She had been slightly baffled, but held her smile. A weighted moment passed, then he seemed to snap out of it. "T-the Neighgerian blend, your majesty... the dark one, closest to my ear." He gave two little flicks of his left ear, a little smile peeping out from the corner of his mouth.
She could still remember that cup of coffee, even now. It had been... simple, in the best possible way. Lightly honeyed, with a mild bite of acidity to tame the sweetness. For whatever reason, she had expected something more harsh and challenging from the roughhewn colt. She had been pleasantly surprised.
'And then?' she felt the universe wonder with rapt attention. Celestia sighed, opening her eyes to the first trickling of the morning's sunrise. In an instant, she could feel the cycling magic coursing out from within, wandering back into the lawn and the trees and the air. The moon had been put to bed, the sun was awake, and her disguise had been shed. Story time was over.
With a flap of her wings, the princess of the sun took to the air, gliding over the maze and toward the south tower. Court would begin soon. Back to work.
* * *
Gilda's feathers stood on end, her eye twitching with murderous intensity. The waiting room adjacent to the royal court was always a loud, awful, crowded mess, packed with as many delegates, nobles, and representatives as could feasibly be seen by Her Majesty over the next six hours. Gilda didn't care much for crowds, nor did she particularly like being sandwiched between dozens of stuck-up, loudmouthed ponies.
With a scowl, she glared at the clock. It was an absurdly unnatural thing, politics. It put you in places you should rightly never go, and saw you tolerate people you would never, in your most fevered nightmares, engage with. Her eagle half screamed at her to get some distance, anxious at such reckless vulnerability. Her lion half staunchly demanded she slay one of them in a sorely-needed display of dominance.
sproing! sproing! sproing!
It took everything the young griffon had not to cave in to that very impulse as her absolute least favorite Equestrian, the infuriatingly energetic, friendship-destroying Pinkie Pie, leapt about the crowd with a chipper tweedle. It had been two hours since the spritely mare had skipped into the waiting area, and she had not stopped making that infernal noise for a single excruciating moment. She just never got tired.
sproing! sproing! sproing!
Her teeth ground in raw irritation as Gilda pretended to scribble something important into the massive tome she'd been lugging around since yesterday. Anything to avoid eye contact, or Zu forbid, actual conversation with these lame-brained dimwits. Her feather quill wound about in breathtakingly ornate calligraphy, spinning a wild and indulgent self-insertion epic across the book's unused index pages. Thrilling exploits and daredevil stunts adorned each sheet as a daring griffon warrior vanquished the deceitful, ruthless pink siren and saved a beautiful prismic pegasus princess. The margins were lined with foalish doodles of the daring champion standing atop the scribbled-over slain foe, swooning mare in claw. Gilda sighed, adding another couple majesty lines around her avatar for good measure. Gods, she was bored.
"OOOO!! That looks exciting! Did you write all this yourself?"
Gilda's feather quill snapped in half as she froze in rigid horror, momentarily paralyzed with shock as the squeaky earth pony started reading aloud over her shoulder, "The rainbow-maned maiden let out an awestruck gasp! 'An inverted Immelmann corkscrew! Nopony has ever attempted such a bold, dangerous technique and lived to—' " She stopped dead in her tracks to pull in an enormous, full-body gasp, literally lifting two feet off the ground, "RAINBOW's in this too?? Best story ever!"
Gilda's eye locked on the mare with ruinous ferocity, struggling to process the sheer inconceivable audacity of it all. In a flash, she'd slammed shut the book, feathers standing on end in a display of trembling rage. "GET YOUR—WHO in the blue kalla said you could read my... my..." She shook the tome at the grinning pink mare, both claws wrapped tightly around the cover. "This is secret griffon business, you snake!"
Pinkie seemed oblivious to the insult as she pranced in place, from one side to the other, eyes closed in a wide smile. "But it looked so cute! I'm sure the princess will love it to iddy bibby bits when you read it to her!"
Gilda opened her mouth to spit out a long, exotic barrage of obscenities, but held her tongue with a narrow gaze. She could never quite figure out if she and Pinkie were locked in some subtle psychological mind battle, or if the pony was just an idiot. If they were fighting — as in, if this very conversation was a dizzying mind game of deception and feigned emotion — Pinkie was most definitely winning. Gilda was quicker and more cunning than most, but Pinkie didn't even seem to try and she still made Gilda feel like a fool. Of course, if the opposite was true, and Pinkie was just some scatterbrained Ponyville simp, the pony was still winning, because here Gilda was fuming about an imagined paranoid fantasy in silent futility. Naturally, that just made her angrier.
She leveled a glare at the pink mare, trying to detect some crack in her facade. She couldn't tell with ponies. They didn't 'test' each other all the time, like griffons did, prodding around for weaknesses. They might be embarrassingly fragile, but they also were much... simpler. It was not necessarily a bad thing, she had decided.
"I certainly didn't expect to see you here!" Pinkie chirped, punctuating 'you' with a vaulted leap into the air.
Gilda scoffed, flicking her hair feathers with a bored look. "What, I'm not good enough to see your namby-pamby princess?"
"No, silly! In Canterlot! Rainbow said you'd gone back home!"
The griffon's expression grew sour. "Welp, not any more."
"Awww! What about your family?" She leaned forward, shifting her weight entirely to her forelegs and pivoting forward, bringing her eyes waaay closer than Gilda was cool with. "I'm sure they miss you a whole lot! I know whenever I visit home, my mom and dad and three—”
"That's none of your beeswax, Stinky Pie!" She spat the words, glaring daggers. Pinkie dropped back onto all fours with a dull thump, her smile evaporating in an instant. Almost immediately, Gilda regretted it. Which was absurd. But... ugh. Figures, the one time she actually got the grating pest to shut up for half a second, she felt crappy about it.
"So..." She swallowed, feeling the anger dim slightly, "What are you doing up here, then? They finally run you out of that one-pony town?"
Pinkie giggled with apparently genuine delight. "Nope! I'm here to see the princess, dummy!"
Gilda gave her a flat stare. "Yeah, no crap! I mean why?!"
The courtroom doors creaked open as a towering guard marched out, scroll in hoof. "Pinkamena Pie and Gilda von Godric?"
Gilda casually shoved a few noblemares out of the way as she pushed through the crowd. "Yo, right here." She waved her tome around in the air with one claw, catching the eye of the guard. "Who goes first?"
The guard glanced up from the parchment. "Both."
Gilda gave a frigid, silent glare.
Clearing his throat, the stallion moved a hoof between the mare and the griffon. "Looks like you're both here for the same thing, so you'll be going up together. Saves time."
Pinkie and Gilda exchanged a confused look. The guard clearly had no intention of explaining further, providing only a light flick of the hoof toward the open doorway. Gilda shook her head and moved in, followed closely by a paced rhythmic spoinging. Ohhh boy.
As ever, the royal court was breathtaking. The vast, ornate hall was surrounded on all sides by soaring glass windows, each adorned with intricate designs that endowed the room with brilliant pillars of lightly-colored sunlight. Before them sat the immortal solar princess herself, an ethereal goddess whose otherwordly grace and beauty were the stuff of legend. She did not disappoint. The flowing, gentle mane, the warm smile, the impossibly immaculate coat, those two... huh.
Gilda squinted, her arms still bundled around the enormous tome. "Is... is that a black eye?" She lightly scoffed, moving her head to the side for a better angle.
Celestia lightly gasped, touching a hoof just under her right eye in horror. Augh! The fight last night, that hoof to the eye... she'd seen dozens delegates before this griffon!
"...You're kidding. Nobody’s said anything yet?" Gilda shook her head softly, bemused. Pinkie gave the griffon a chastising glance, concern writ across her face.
The princess frowned, looking at the two guards before her. Their stoic forward gaze was unwavering as both began visibly sweating. She sighed. Any other pony would've been barraged by shocked gasps and concerned inquiries if she paraded around the castle with a black eye. Did she really intimidate them all so much?
"No... no they had not. This was from an... earlier altercation." She tipped up her chest plate with a hoof, inspecting the dark bruise in its reflection. Perfect. Just perfect. Gilda gave her an incredulous look, still searching for the right page. Celestia returned a light smile. "You should see the other mare."
The griffon scoffed, fighting off a teensy smirk. Clutching the top of the text with both claws, Gilda stretched forward to offer up the open book, sending Celestia an expectant look.
The princess ran her tongue against the back of her teeth, considering the heavy tome. No way was she going to even try levitating that thing after this morning's struggle. "Guards, if you would."
Both guards snuck a questioning glance at each other before immediately retrieving the tome from Gilda, trotting up to the raised platform and pulling the open page across their shoulders, so that their princess might use their backs as a podium.
Celestia studied the remarkably detailed drawing spread across both pages. It seemed to be a stretch of farmland with rows upon rows of a tall, perennial grasses — sugarcane, if she wasn't mistaken. It was a somewhat new crop that had gradually edged out honey and beets as their main source of sugar. Most of the fields dotted the more temperate outskirts of Equestria's western borders, not far at all from the griffon capital of Elpithasus. Considering her ponies' voracious appetite for the sweet, it had become quite a popular choice for enterprising farmers.
But it was what was cast over these fields that struck her. A vast, reddish-pink aurora bathed the scene in a dim crimson glow, ephemeral strands of light bending from the heavens to settle into the crop. She had seen the northern lights many times in her life, but never had it taken such a bizarre tone, nor had it ever wandered so far to the south. Celestia looked up from the paper, casting a concerned glance at the griffon.
Gilda had assumed a piercing glare. "You wanna tell me what that is?"
Celestia again studied the image, flipping the page and finding several photographs of the event enclosed in a small envelope. They had been taken from roughly the same vantage, though the dark exposure made it harder to discern. Each one was at night.
"Does it always happen at night?" Celestia asked, trying to make out some of the detail on the photographs.
Gilda's eyes widened in surprise, shifting from wariness to indignant anger. "Oh like you don't know! The heck are you guys doing over there?!"
Celestia gave an annoyed look. "You'll watch that tone with me." she glanced over the extensive notes and charts that filled the following pages. It had been going on every day for the past week, always at its brightest when the moon neared its peak. She furrowed her brow. This certainly would explain the taste of the sugar. "Truly, Gilda, this is the first I've heard of it."
The griffon leveled a cynical, 'do you think I'm an idiot' glare at the princess. The two found themselves in a locked stare, the air thick with unflattering implication. Gilda balled her talons, clenching a tightening fist as she welled up a venomous accusation like a thick loogie. Lie to her face, would they? Well, it'd be a frosty day in the pits of Irkalla before she let some ridiculous, prissy hornhead pull the wool over h— GAH!
Gilda stumbled backward in shock as Pinkie exploded into being not two inches from her beak, the griffon landing hard on her rear.
"Maybe it was supposed to be a surprise! Princess Luna even made us promise not to tell anyone! See?" The bubblegum mare beamed a grin as she unfurled her own scroll, containing an enormous, glitter-soaked crayon picture of princess Luna as she shot out scribbly red lines and loudly pontificated, hoof to chest. Gilda took note of the many sharp yell lines coming out of the mouth as she stoically endured the plume of glitter that absorbed itself under every feather.
Celestia brought a hoof to her mouth in shock, turning the page and again inspecting one of the photos. Sure enough, there was a somewhat distinctive alicorn-shaped blur hovering before the aurora. This... didn't seem possible. "You're positive it was this week?"
The griffon futilely tried brushing the glitter off of her chest before blankly resigning herself to bedazzlement. "Yes this week! The patriarchs have been riding me to get some kind of explanation from you people, but every time I try to get an audience with your sister she's conveniently 'sick.' " Gilda sneered, forming a pair of drippingly sarcastic air quotes with her talons.
Celestia returned an annoyed frown. Luna had been completely bedridden since they'd sealed the dining hall. If it hadn’t been for the 'incident' last night, she wouldn't have believed the poor girl was at all capable of flying out that far, the shape she was in. Certainly not every night this week.
"Pinkie, what exactly did my sister say when she visited your..." The princess was fairly certain the spritely mare didn't live on a farm, last she checked. "...forgive me, do you own a farm?"
"It was my parents rock farm! During the off-season they grow sugar for the whole of Ponyville!"
Gilda groaned. "Okay, the 'off-season'? On a rock farm? Seriously?"
Pinkie turned up her head in a huff. "Shows what you know about rock farming!"
The princess smiled, then chuckled to herself with a faint shake of the head. The mare hopped up the platform with one end of the scroll in her mouth, leaving a long, winding train of glitter along the carpet. With a turn of her head, she offered the back of the scroll to the princess, pressing against the front with her forehead. "Now she made me promise not to say anything, but my family's getting super duper freaked out about the horrifitastic pink doom smog! So I wrote what she said on the back instead!"
Celestia scanned the hoofwritten transcript with a will, taking in the flat, dry prose. It didn't particularly sound like her sister, lacking all of the usual flourish and forward bravado, but if Pinkie Pie said she saw Luna, then... it was probably Luna. The transcript was strange. Luna had told the Pies that the red lights were 'a gift from the heavens,' to blossom and accelerate the harvest. That was a little dramatic, even for her.
She passed the scroll back to the jubilant mare, who took it in her mouth and trotted back down beside Gilda. "How fast did the crop grow, after my sister's... 'blessing?' "
Suddenly overwhelmed by an excited response, Pinkie spat out the scroll in mid-turn, sending it rolling glitter-side down over Gilda's head. The griffon seemed to simply stand there, almost imperceptibly quaking with rage.
"Super duper crazy fast!!" Pinkie chirped, springing into the air a solid four feet. "The next day they already had two loads sent out to Ponyville! My sisters had to call me over to help get it all ready." She swallowed, eyes shifting away, then back to meet her princess. "I-I mean, it's not that we're not grateful and all, but it's just a teeeensy-weensy super mega hugemongous bit much!"
For the first time since they'd begun talking, Celestia noticed the dark purple bags under Pinkie's eyes. "How... how much sleep have you gotten since this began, my little pony?"
Pinkie's eyes went incredibly wide as she seemed to zone out completely, intensely staring off into nothing.
"...Pinkie?"
Several more moments of silence passed. Gilda slowly tilted her head to the right, giving her a sideways glance while the scroll slid off her face and onto the floor. Just as the princess opened her mouth to ask further, the mare blinked and began again jumping in place. "Well not MUCH, I don't think! But I don't mind! Since we're pulling in so much fresh sugar, I can have as much as I want!"
Celestia raised a hoof to her mouth in concern. It was troublingly apparent that the pony hadn't slept since this ordeal began, doubtlessly fuelled with ballistic jubilee by her family’s endless sugar reserve. She cleared her throat lightly, waiting just long enough for Pinkie to stop jumping. "Pinkie... Luna has been quite unwell this week, as I’m sure you know. I worry it might not be wise to be indulging in this ‘gift’ of hers, until we have a better idea of what it is."
Pinkie nodded, lightly vibrating in place. "Okie dokie!"
Standing from her throne, Celestia walked between the griffon and the mare, turning to her guards. "I'll be taking them to my sister, so that we may see to this matter directly. Inform our guests that I will be back within the hour."
The two stallions saluted, and cantered off to the waiting room. With that, Celestia lowered herself to the ground, so that Pinkie might leap onto her back. Giving Gilda a slight nod, she unfurled her wings and took off down the hall, the griffon in close pursuit. The royal quarters were close.
"Oooo! What is that?" Pinkie poked her head beside Celestia's as they sailed over the doorway to the royal dining hall. The brilliant, translucent sunlock ticked its way toward expiration, one second at a time, flanked on both sides by hulking guards. For all the work her sister’s Conductors had put into the outlying layer, their seal had almost entirely burned away by now. Setting up a replacement had been troublesome, with the palace unicorns more or less completely unable to command their own magic. The lock would hold, but not forever. Right now, Luna was her only lead on any of this.
"It's a sort of door lock." Celestia replied, as casually as she could manage.
"That's one doozy of a lock!" Pinkie glowed, giving the princess a coy look. "Are you hiding a big birthday surprise inside?"
Celestia gave the mare a delicate smile. "I'd... rather not think about it right now, if that's okay."
“Roger dodger!” Without another word, Pinkie leapt straight into the air, spinning 180 degrees and landing with perfect balance on Celestia’s back. The princess’ heart leapt in shock at the sensation, whipping her head to the side to ensure her passenger was still holding fast. The earth pony seemed perfectly fine, gazing with an inexplicable fascination at the increasingly distant door behind them.
Pinkie's eyes widened with excitement. She couldn’t quite put her hoof on it, but she just had an incredibly good feeling about that secret door. It was an absolute certainty, from somewhere deep within her little pink heart. Wonder what was inside? Must be something super duper important! She wanted more than anything in the wide world to at least take a peek before she left Canterlot.
Celestia’s glance lingered, puzzled by the mare’s interest, before turning to face forward. They had arrived. With a graceful fluttering of her wings, the solar princess touched down outside of Luna's bed chambers, crouching down a bit for her passenger to dismount with an impressive triple somersault. Gilda swooped to a stop beside her, distracted with preening out the endless reservoir of glitter she’d been saturated with.
“Gilda.”
The griffon startled to attention, folding her wings back into her sides and standing dignantly idle. Celestia held a neutral look on her before turning to knock on the burly oak door. She’d come to understand that vague submission was Gilda’s way of apologizing for rudeness. If the young griffon wasn’t making a fuss, she was trying to be polite. It wasn't much — barely anything — but you took what you could get with that one.
A sickly, indecipherable groan gurgled from the other side of the door. Celestia lightly knocked a second time. “Lulu?” No response. “It’s me. May I come in?”
She heard some rustling, but nothing further. After a moment’s hesitation, Celestia moved a hoof to the iron handle and pressed. The door slowly creaked open, casting a single beam of hallway light into a dark, disheveled nest of empty cups, balled tissues, whirring fans, and discarded blankets. At the eye of the bilious hurricane lay Luna, drenched in sweat and splayed disgracefully across her bed, face hanging off the side of the mattress and above a waste basket, red eyes wide open. She clutched an empty bottle of Neighquil with both hooves, glaring into the empty distance between the floor and the basket with exhausted resignation.
Without moving in the slightest, the princess of the night spoke, her words a raw, deflated croak. “Hast thou come to put us out of our misery, sister? Come to free us from this nightmare everlasting?!” With a hoarse volley of coughing, the lunar princess shakily stood in righteous fury, a minor avalanche of tissues and cough drops tumbling to the floor. She thrust her foreleg defiantly into the air, medicine bottle still in hoof. “We welcome the sweet release of obliteration to this cruel indignity!” With a puffed chest, the mare cast the bottle to the floor and brought to bear a pitiful mockery of the Royal Canterlot Voice. “The very harbingers of Tartaurus could scarcely dream of such cruel and viscous humili—HGHK” Her gallant proclamation collapsed into a fit of raw, phlegmmy hacking.
With a defeated plop, Luna crumpled back onto the mattress, laying on her back so that the air from the battery of fans might give her some semblance of relief. She let out a low, adorably pathetic whine.
Celestia offered a sympathetic smile, lowering herself to the end of the bed and nuzzling her sister’s ragged, sweat-drenched mane. “Oh Lulu...”
Gilda surveyed the scene with morbid curiosity. This certainly had not been what she was expecting. Grasping a talon around the side of a nearby waste basket, she tilted the bin toward her and peered in. If this was all some sort of elaborate act, these ponies had done one spectacular job on the gnarly details. Some things you just couldn’t mimic.
“I’m uh...” She held a discerning look on the princess of the night, trying to imagine some possible reason for the deception. Stabbing a balled tissue with her claw, she picked it up off the floor and opened it. Yep. That was definitely a disgusting amount of horse mucus. “...Okay am I going nuts? I swear I saw you stroll into Joe’s Diner last night, princess. The poor guy still has your teeth marks peppering his rear.”
Pinkie gasped in shock, her face bursting into a fierce rancor. “Gilda! That is crazy out of line!!” She turned to Celestia with a disbelieving glare, shaking her head. Her princess’ expression was surprisingly neutral, betraying only mild irritation.
A furious blush exploded across Luna’s face, her eyes locking onto the griffon as she rolled back onto her belly. “H-how couldst thou possibly know about that?”
Gilda rolled her eyes. “Uh, I was there? I was the griffon? Like the only griffon in this entire city?”
Luna furrowed her brow. She did remember there being a griffon there, now that she thought about it. She also remembered her sister having been disguised as a unicorn, squabbling with her soldier. That didn’t... actually happen, right? “But... but that was just a dream...” She put a hoof to her forehead, trying her best to remember.
“Well you got some vivid-ass dreams then, because I remember the whole thing.”
Luna shot her a glare that could melt steel. "Mind thy tongue."
The griffon pulled back with a shaky smile. “...Y-your Ladyship.”
Celestia gave a sympathetic smile, laying down in front of the waste basket, so that she and her sister were eye level. “I’m afraid she’s telling the truth.”
Luna blinked in surprise, then slowly, deliberately drew into a facehoof. She struggled to replay the night’s events in her memory, but only bits and pieces came through. “Then we... we truly snogged thine stallion’s flank?”
Celestia burst out laughing, bringing a wide, embarrassed smile to her exhausted sister.
Gilda tilted her head a bit, casting Pinkie a confused look. Her Olde Equestrian was just a touch rusty, but um... ‘your stallion’? Pinkie returned an equally dumbstruck expression.
“T’was bad enough when we thought it simply an unseemly fever dream...” She sighed, looking into the solar princess’ eyes. “Sister... you must know, we would... I would never stake claim to one you had—”
Celestia rose a hoof to her sister’s mouth, silencing her. “That’s quite all right, Lulu. I know.” With a light nuzzle, she stood, turning to Pinkie. “Which... brings us to the matter at hoof. This one tells me you might have been out for more than just donuts, this past week. Do... you remember anything about the red lights?”
Luna frowned, a distant look in her eyes. “I... yes. I had thought it to be a dream as well.” She stared down at the waste basket, running through her memories. Little came to mind. She remembered the light and the field, she remembered saying something to the starry-eyed farmponies. But... as with all dreams, the details had faded moments after she had awoken. She certainly couldn’t remember what she had been doing, or why. “Regretfully, we remember little. If we have been stirring in our dreams, we can only guess at what we might have been trying to accomplish. Certainly nothing sensible.” Luna squeaked a mousy smile at Pinkie and Gilda. “How perfectly embarrassing.”
It took everything Gilda had not to lay into the mare about scaring the griffon capital half to death with her ridiculous, delirium-fuelled... sleep-farming. And yet, it was hard to stay mad at someone so disastrously, humiliatingly sick. The pony had clearly not meant any of it. Gilda could berate Celestia about the whole mess later. She gave the apologetic lunar princess a small, forgiving nod.
Celestia walked toward the open window, gazing through to the sizable balcony from which her sister no doubt took wing each night. “I’d like to move you to my quarters for the time being, if that’s okay. I... think it’s best if I kept an eye on you during the nights, until the fever passes.”
Luna shook her head. “Absolutely not! We’ll not see your nights sullied under the heel of our own dreadful affliction, simply because we cannot control ourselves!”
“Lulu, it’s quite all right... I don’t mind.”
“We shant hear another word!” Her hoof stomped noiselessly on the mattress as the princess rose to her feet, pressing a hoof to her chest.
Celestia swallowed nervously. "Now, no need t—"
“We could never forgive thyself if we ruined OUR SISTER’S HEATED, STEAMY DATE!” The Royal Canterlot Voice bellowed down the halls of the castle, rattling windows, shattering glasses, and turning Celestia an unholy shade of crimson.
“L-Luna!!” Her ears flattened against her head as the solar princess lowered her forelegs in a flat ‘tone it down’ gesture, “It’s not a date! It’s just a party!” She hissed.
Pinkie’s eyes practically bugged out of her head as she pulled into an enormous gasp. “JOE’S PARTY?!” She thrust a hoof at her chest, face beaming with a wide, unrestrained grin. “I’M going to that party too!”
Celestia went pale. Joe had ‘casually’ mentioned the get-together a half-dozen times this week, evidently celebrating his dreadful sister’s ill-deserved promotion to Night Guardsmare. He had clearly wanted Sunny to come, but with everything that had been going on... it seemed the last thing in Equestria she should be considering.
And yet, the party had been all she could think about during the week’s dry, bureaucratic drudgery. As soon as she’d mentioned it to Luna, her sister had latched upon the idea. Now she seemed to have set her heart on seeing Sunny attend. It was... conceivable that she could could swing by as Sunny, once she’d put down the sun for the day. Just for a bit. But to make an appearance as the princess? By Harmony, the thought alone was tiring. “Oh... I’m not sure, Pinkie...”
The mare’s eyes grew deep and sorrowful, a trembling well of tears teetering on the verge of crushing disappointment. Celestia swallowed. “I... I suppose I could stop by for a bit...”
Gilda’s eyes widened in terror. She thrust a pointed talon in Pinkie’s direction. “Hold on, YOU’RE going to Joe’s party tonight?”
“You betcha!” She chirped, springing into the air. “Joe and I are super good buddies!”
Gilda facepalmed.
Pinkie returned a carefree smile, turning her gaze over to Luna, whom she’d noticed had leveled an unsettling, almost hungry look at her. She tilted her head a bit in confusion, letting a weighted moment pass before trotting over to the bedside. “I’m sure Joe would love it if you wanted to come by too, princess! The more the merrier!” She held a fading grin as Luna silently but intensely stared. “I-I mean, if you’re feeling better...” Pinkie swallowed, looking over at Gilda. “... you know... later...” The griffon seemed increasingly concerned by the display. With no small amount of hesitation, she lightly motioned for Pinkie to back away, with two flicks of the claw.
Luna found herself utterly, inexplicably enchanted by this bizarre mare. They’d only barely interacted with each other during her first Nightmare Night since her return, and yet, she felt an incredibly profound connection to her. It was... beyond irrational. Luna frankly found the little one a touch tiring and over familiar. She could scarcely begin to place her hoof on the appeal.
The princess of the night rose her head high, giving the mare a bold, appraising look. What was it about her? She brought her nose inches from Pinkie’s, slowly following an intoxicating scent. It smelled... delicious. Warm. Sweet. She could taste it, without tasting it. And it tasted amazing.
Gilda unfurled her wings, her eyes darting to Celestia, who was gazing at the balcony, seemingly lost in thought. “Uh, princess? Hey!”
Celestia snapped to attention, turning to the Gilda, then to the bed. She gasped, seeing an all-too-familiar scene barreling toward its ghastly conclusion. “Sister?” Luna took another indulgent whiff, licking her lips. “Sister?!” Celestia quickly took a step forward, eyes darting between Luna and the wide-eyed bubblegum mare. “Pinkie! Pinkie step away from her!”
Pinkie Pie smiled, giggling as Luna’s breath pulled several strands of hair forward. She turned to look at Celestia. “It’s okay! I’m sure she’s just noticing my peppermint-twist candytioner!” She turned back to face Luna. “Doesn’t it smell good? It’s made from sixty percent sug—HRMP ”
She found herself immediately silenced as Luna pressed her muzzle against hers in a deep, desperate, aggressive kiss. The mare’s body sprung off the ground, legs rigid in each direction, hovering in mid-air with a voltaic hybrid of shock and horror. A sensation like... chugging a never-ending, immaterial milkshake, overwhelmed the little pink pony. She felt sieged by an electric, powerful, giddy force, yet could sense nothing physically passing between them. Like a warm gale wind, it bore down on her. Pinkie didn’t have much experience with kissing, true, but she was pretty sure it wasn’t supposed to feel like this.
With a fierce blast of light, both ponies’ manes exploded into pulsing, ethereal waves of brilliant-orange ephemera. The room quaked and shuddered in the pull of this single kiss, tissues whirling about like leaves caught in a hurricane. Pinkie’s wide-open eyes now burned with an overwhelming power, a force that threatened to shatter the mare like an icicle. Celestia forced all questions from her mind as she struggled against this intangible tide, one hoof after the other, toward her imperiled subject. What had been a moment’s canter was now an impassable river, bearing down on her with unremitting wrath. Her head lowered, horn red-hot with futile strain of magic. She dug her hooves into the carpet and forced her way one more step closer.
Celestia took in a deep, bracing breath. The force had grown, but it surged in waves. She could even see it in the whirlwind of tissues that surrounded them — the wind would tear with impossible strength, then, with a sharp tug, it would slow almost to a stop. The tissues would hang in place for the briefest of moments before the next wave once more pulled them away. She had that moment. Her eyes burned with determination as she locked on the rigid, helpless Pinkie Pie, still floating in terror at the epicenter of this otherworldly maelstrom. She released her breath and dove, feeling the force remit for just an instant, welling up for another wave. It was enough.
Celestia came down on the mare with her forelegs, grasping her by the midsection and collapsing onto the floor. With a surge of errant light, the kiss was broken, and the force instantly ceased. The sky rained tissues. For a moment, the princess lay there, shielding her subject, praying it had passed. Silence. She snuck a glance behind her. Luna lay on the bed, head over the waste basket, in an apparent daze. Across the room, Gilda dropped from the wall, having been helplessly plastered against it by the fury of the storm. She slid to her feet, then stared at Celestia in intense shock. Suddenly, her eyes tracked just slightly below her, then grew clouded. Celestia gasped, turning back to Luna. She too had recovered her senses, but now sat with the same vacant, thousand-yard gaze she’d carried in the diner.
A wave of dread washed over the princess as she released her grasp on Pinkie, and slowly, morbidly looked down at her. The mare wore the most delighted, beaming grin she had ever seen. A smile that begged, nay, demanded to be shared with every pony in all of Equestria. With a blink, she stared deep into the mare’s fiercely glowing orange eyes. Something far behind those eyes, something deep within the mare, reached into Celestia's mind. Suddenly, like a candle going out, it faded. It all faded.
Like waking up from a nightmare, she felt the world come back to her, the terror and the fear disappearing completely. She couldn’t imagine what she'd felt so worked up about, a moment ago. Nothing important, she imagined. Celestia smiled, finding herself looking out at the balcony once more.
“—made from sixty percent sugar! I made it myself!” Pinkie beamed, shaking her bushy mane about so that Luna might smell the candied aroma.
The lunar princess smiled. “It is... certainly potent, little one.”
With a yawn, Luna climbed off the bed to stretch. Puzzling. For the first time in this entire cursed week, she didn’t feel terrible. She had... energy, again, as if the sickness had simply decided it had stayed long enough, and hopped right out of her mouth. “We feel... quite a bit better, sister. Truly, we must insist that you do not sacrifice thy plans for my sake.”
Celestia mulled over the thought. True, she really would like to attend Joe’s get-together, if she could. And Luna did seem to have improved, rather than worsened. She sighed. “If you’re quite sure, then... I suppose I can bolster the guards, and set two on the balcony, in case you have another ‘episode’ .”
Luna clapped her hooves. “Delightful! It’s settled then.” She began nudging the princess toward the doorway. “Now! Back to the court with thee! The sooner you are done, the sooner you can prepare!”
Pinkie and Gilda followed the princess out of the bedroom and into the hallway, the door gently closing behind them.
Gilda scratched her head with a talon. “Hey, so...” She glanced back at the door for a moment, then at Pinkie, trying to get some kind of handle of the nagging feeling that she was forgetting something just... huge. “... you guys feel at all...” She put a claw over her head, the words dancing just on the tip of her tongue, yet still completely, utterly unknown to her. “...like uh...” She balled her claws, then sighed. “...you know what? Nevermind.”
Pinkie leapt onto Celestia’s back as her princess prepared to take wing. “Well I feel really really relieved! Glad we got all of that dealt with!” She hummed cheerily to herself, a wonderful sense of energy and excitement coursing through her body, from itchy nose to twitchin' tail.
Stats
Page generated in 0.027 seconds
Total duration
871 users online
454,527 hits today, 2,244,100 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
I am SO glad that GIlda is a (semi) major character! This story just... It's so awesome!
oh neat, I've never had a story update while I was reading it before!
I'm afraid I'm going to have to agree on the constant perspective shifts being confusing as all get out. especially that whole dream sequence/time reset thing with luna and pinkie.
2683561
I have no idea what was a dream and what wasn't towards the end....
Okay, I like it but I am little confused as to what the central conflict is supposed to be. At first I thought it was the sugar thing, but that's resolved now, sort of.
Wow, this is shaping up to be a good one!
I like the characterizations and the pacing. It feels solid and reads very well. I've give you a more in-depth review, but I'm just a bit too tired at the moment.
Remember kids, just say no to moon sugar.
I think if you added before hand like Luna PoV or something to that effect it would help.
But its your story so yea.
Nice chapter, but I'm a bit confused about how it ended. Did everything just reset on everypony/griffin present, or did Celestia do something?
2683752
The former - when they looked into Pinkie's eyes, something caused them to forget. Next thing they knew, it was as if it had never happened.
2683701 but khajiit love moon sugar.
I wasn't confused at all so reading all this comments of confusion was wierd.
Anyway, really like how this story goes on.
Intriguing. what could this plague of red sky sugar be, and how is it linked to the malfunctioning magic? *Stares at his screen for a few minutes before coming out of the apparent daze* Hm? Was I just reading somethi- right, the sugar. Intriguing.
hings are certainly weird here. Oh well. I guess that we'll find out what's going on eventually.
2683640 Well, if this chapter was any indication, something is clearly out of whack in Equestria - memory wipes, instantly growing sugar, and issues with the flow of magic itself besides. Not to mention the fact that the moon is behind that door. The big question is finding out what could be causing all of it.
I think the perspective shift is not as much confusing as it's just the events themselves are confusing. It was pretty obvious that there was some sort of time reset or memory reset issue, but why it occurred here and not during that whole episode where Joe got royally chomped leaves me wondering what the heck is going on.
I have absolutely no Idea what the fuvk is going on...
Hah!
Well I hope it wasn't supposed to remain a secret, because the RCV isn't exactly subtle.
Pinkie magic is a strange and ... ... strange thing
Not sure how anyone could be confused by the POV changes, it's quite easy to see them and none of the POVs are even that similar. It's not like you're doing identical twins or anything, you go from a Pony to a Griffon to Celestia
What's happening in this story...
The perspective shift isn't confusing at all to me, but I am confused and eager to find out just what the hell is happening to everypony.
Wow that plot line is twisted, I like it.
I think the POV changes are quite natural and flow pretty well.
No idea what the hell happened when Luna kissed Pinkie, but I'm looking forwrd to the next chapter!
“Then we... we truly snogged thine stallion’s flank?”
That made me literally LOL.
And now a hyperactive partying pink shadow mage joins in... now I really think I should be scared.
Hold on, I need to check and see that this story has a random tag.
I have to ask.
Have you finished this story, and posting as you get them edited, or are you hammering out these chapters this fast?
2683701
i said it first
in chapter 3
I assume Pinkie Pie's tail is twitching because the other shoe is about to drop.
Well, I'm confused...
Loving it all! keep it up!
2684779
Oh god no. The whole thing's pretty much outlined, but I had only the prologue and the first two chapters done when I released it. I usually do about an hour of writing every night, which can get a lot of words on the page in a fairly short amount of time. Then it's just hacking away at it, trying to trim it down and tighten it up as much as possible.
2684825
It's a-comin'
Okay, I think it's time that chapter with the explanations comes around, cuz this is confusing as all fuck
2684825
I see what you did there
sigh.
"GLARE", not "LEER."
Glare means 'to look angrily.'
Leer means "to look lasciviously." (A sleazy look.)
I don't think the POV changes are jarring. But I also read all of the Game of Thrones books.
Dammit, Pinkie
A rock candy farm, perhaps?
(and also a volley of horse coughing)
umm I think i enjoy this story... bit confused.. well LOT confused by it but it seems good.
Wow, that was some kiss
Great story so far.
Luna is best Princess
! Are you going to ship Luna and Pinkie Pie, as well as Joe and Celestia?
I don't mind the character shifts. It's a good story.
2683909 And what do they refine it into? Skooma. And then everything gets even worse.
2691307
JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG
You have no idea how proud I was of this:
2691307
Jeez, what a whinny neighsayer. Don't get your saddle in a twist.
2691335 thats cool with me
Dear SCP Foundation:
Requesting that both branches of the Royal Guard receive training for dealing with class-VI Memetic Hazards, with any procedures specific to [REDACTED] and mind-controlling natural sweeteners given highest priority.
Yours sincerely,
Elmagnifico
To the author,
You have my follow, good sir. I look forward to seeing where this goes!
I have no idea what's going on. You switch scenes and introduce odd plot points randomly without proper buildup. The story just isn't terribly cohesive.
This is third-person omniscient. There should not be any perspective shifts to begin with. Shifting focus characters, maybe, but holy hell it is jarring as FUCK when you repeat the same sequence of events. Just don't do it. At all. Ever.
Only a matter of time and more slip-ups until Gilda figures Sunny out.
What?