Solem Perditum

by PropMaster

- IX -

- IX -

---

Luna held up a hoof, stopping Celestia as she spoke. “Hold thy tongue, sister, something is amiss.”

“What is it, Luna?” asked Celestia, looking around.

Luna stood up slowly, glancing around, her ears slowly canting back to lie flat on her head. “I sense a presence with us in the dream realm.”

Celestia got to her hooves, standing beside her sister. “That’s not possible, is it? You’re the only one that can traverse the dream realm.”

“That is... partly true. There is another, though,” Luna replied.

Luna’s horn lit up, a translucent shield spell erecting itself around her, and Celestia reacted on instinct, throwing up her own shield spell. The royal dining hall suddenly grew darker around them, and a thick black smoke began to pour from under the doors. Celestia took a step back, and Luna spun to face her. “Sister! Awaken thyself!”

The doors to the dining hall exploded as Celestia hurled herself bodily out of the nearest window. She found herself facing a four story drop from the upper levels of the palace, and she folded her wings tightly against herself, plummeting towards the ground. The ground rushed to meet her, and Celestia felt a stirring of panic and fear as a rushing sensation filled her being.

With a yelp, Celestia awoke, standing up in the middle of the ancient bed, every ward and counterspell she knew flaring to life in a prismatic web of brilliance about her being. Disoriented and, for once, afraid, she lashed out immediately. Blasts of manafire spiraled out from her body as her horn burned red-hot, and she launched herself towards the doors, which exploded on contact with her shield spells. Her wings flared open as she slid to a panting stop in the middle of the building, which shuddered as the aftershocks of her attack spells rippled through the building. Celestia made for the doors, dashing through them, as pieces of lunar rock fell around her.

She made it to the street before the building collapsed, sending a cloud of dust into the air and filling the area with choking sediment. Celestia coughed, trotting swiftly away from the mess, and waited in the center of a side-street, her every nerve on edge. She turned in a slow circle, attentive and waiting.

Nothing happened.

Celestia slowly exhaled. What had happened in her dream? That hadn’t been normal, or something of her subconscious’ creation. A specter that was enough to make Luna afraid was something that was formidable indeed. Especially when that specter was invading Luna’s own realm.

Celestia shivered, sitting down in the dust, her wings flaring open briefly before she tightened them around herself. She waited several moments before her nerves finally calmed and the slight tremor in her hooves left her.

Standing up, Celestia slowly walked back up the street to examine the damage she’d caused to the empty city. She turned the corner and winced, noting that the five-story building was nothing more than a pile of rubble now.

Exhaling, she turned, and resumed her trek toward the center of the crater.

Comments

[PropMaster]

Sorry, true believers. I cut it a bit close on this one! Enjoy!

[Emberspeak]

Alternate title:
Enter: The Nightmare

Good stuff. It looks like the city of Nightmare Moon is not quite as innocent as Celestia first thought

[ocbaker]

2759531 We Believed!

Great chapter, interesting twist! Perhaps it is Princess Twilight Sparkle returning from the 'human' realm after consuming the plants bacon and steak.

[That_one_guy]

There's a Silent Hill on the moon.

Lez do dis

[Skeeter The Lurker]

Soooo.... Nightmare isn't gone.

~Skeeter The Lurker

[Swirls]

Yaaaay.

[shortskirtsandexplosions]

"Awaken thyself!" Badass line.

I know this scene is uber serious, but I can't help but giggle at the image of Celestia Renegade Angeling her way out a nearby window.

25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3mk0o6UVn1qg39ewo1_500.gif

Really gorgeous description of the manner in which Celestia exits the sleeping chamber with her defense spells going all nuts. You certainly have a way with kaizo vocabulary.

[Super Trampoline]

her ears slowly canting back to lie flat on her head.

I always love lines that remind us they are minature horses. And I can add the word "cant" to my vocabulary. Win win!:

[FashionablyHospitable]

Oooooooh snap

Nightmare b back

[AppleTank]

Twilight
Twilight did it.
Just because everyone says its the Nightmare.
She figured out how to dreamwalk, but hasn't figured out how to lucid dream, and thought everypony became a changeling.