A Beam of Light

by OutofCuriosity

Leading to the Stars

Luna flew through the ethereal landscape of the realm between dreams, spheres reflecting fantastic landscapes and countless stories, watching as their number began to diminish. Ponies are starting to wake up, she observed. Nonetheless Luna continued her vigil for any whose dreams brought trouble instead of rest even at these odd hours. Then she came across one that showed clouds of smoke and the dim glow of fire. Luna focused her magic and entered the dream, intending to bring calm to the nightmare. She found herself flying in through a thick cloud of smoke and she blinked her now watery eyes. Sometimes I wish ponies would get the details wrong about these things more often, she thought as she coughed and emerged from the smoke.

Canterlot was burning. Luna felt herself tense at the sight. The level of detail made her feel compelled to intervene despite knowing the failed invasion happened a little over a month ago. She could see ponies running through the streets with changelings in hot pursuit. The changelings were different, she noticed. More savage looking and predatory than they were in reality. She continued flying, bringing a wave of soothing rain clouds in her wake. The fires were extinguished and the monstrous dream changelings faded away. She cast out her senses to locate the dreamer reliving this horrible day and found a wellspring of negative emotion coming from the castle. Before she could do anything further, the entire landscape shook before vanishing and leaving Luna in the dream realm.

"What?!" exclaimed Luna and realized she could no longer directly sense the dreamer.

"After you stopped visiting my dreams I made it a personal project to develop a method of consciously keeping you out. I'm glad all those years spent working on the theory paid off. I wonder how many of my other time-killing projects actually pay off," said Aduro materializing. His form was like a window, a view of a grassy plain with large white clouds contained within his silhouette contrasting against the starry dream realm.

Luna blinked in amazement for a moment before regaining her composure and a bit of anger. "I have questions for you, Aduro." Her wings ruffled ever so slightly as she spoke.

"Is it to formally charge me with crimes associated with Chrysalis' invasion? Or is to test me and see if I let slip a clue to my location?" asked the dragon as he started to circle the princess. The view of the grassy plains through his silhouette rotated with his body, strengthening the window image. Is he using his dream as a body? Wondered Luna even as she prepared for arguments likely to ensue.

"I'm here to find out why you seem determined to be our enemy. We sent a letter offering a peaceful meeting and you answered by attacking me with an army of changelings at your back," said Luna.

"By the time I got the letter I had already held Princess Cadenza prisoner for several days. Once I took all the factors into consideration I made the decision I thought would benefit the most," answered Aduro.

Luna sighed. "I fail to see how killing an imprisoned Discord helps more ponies than preventing a invasion that will cause long-lasting enmity between ponies and changelings. Even with Celestia's and my best efforts, it will take years before changelings can even consider walking openly among the population. You could have exposed that imposter and shown that maybe you were deserving of redemption."

"And yet, if I had done what you said, there would still changelings loyal to Chrysalis in Canterlot with you unable to ferret them out. How confident are that they didn't have contingency plans for that very situation? Now you can least be assured that there won't be any serious cases of internal sabotage," said the dragon.

"You've certainly been prepared for this meeting if you have so many excuses at the ready," remarked Luna. Aduro stopped circling Luna for a moment. She tried to glean what he was thinking but while she could see the outline of his head clearly, there was no visible face.

"Will Celestia be joining us today?" Aduro asked cautiously.

Fortunately for Luna, she didn't need to see someone's face in order to gather information. The nature the of dream realm made sensing Aduro's emotion foal's play as his mind was literally on display. A soft mist was gathering over the grassy plains at the moment offering Luna insight she suspected Aduro didn't want to consciously give.

"...No. Not today. She has other matters to deal with presently."

"Organizing the search for Tirek?"

"Among other things."

"I meant what I said in my letter. I will help in anyway I can in the search for Tirek."

"How much aid can you really offer when you're spending most of your time hiding from everypony?" asked Luna. She watched as storm clouds began to roll into view on Aduro's 'skin'.

"Is there something you want out of this conversation other than an opportunity to insult me?" he asked at length.

"I wanted to see how much of my old friend is still in you, but I can safely say I'm disappointed by the answer," snapped Luna.

"Do not forget that you were the one who chose to not visit for centuries," Aduro shot back. "You can't abandon someone and then complain that they aren't the same they were before."

Luna grimaced at that and after a moment of debate asked, "What do you know of Nightmare Moon?"

"It's some kind of monster made up for Nightmare Night. Something to frighten foals and be an enemy for you defeat or something like that. It's somewhat hard to care about a festival focused on candy when you've forgotten what candy tastes like. What about it?" he asked dismissively.

Luna had felt a small smile form on her face over just how wrong Aduro was even as she recalled the unpleasant memories involved. "A thousand years ago, she and I were one and the same," she said.

Shock radiated from Aduro and his dream body warbled before dissolving. Luna found herself now standing on the grassy plain facing a white-scaled dragon and felt the link to the dragon's emotions return. She noted that Aduro looked how she remembered from millennia ago, with lithe muscle and confident stance, rather than the skeletal being she'd fought. Luna felt her throat grow thick with emotion as she spoke. "I had grown jealous of Celestia over a course of decades and eventually decided that being feared as a nightmare was better than being ignored as a princess. I attempted to bring about an eternal night and Celestia was forced to use the Elements of Harmony to stop me.

"I was imprisoned on the Moon for a thousand years until the stars were right. Then I was free to resume my conquest and I even managed to imprison Celestia. But then Twilight Sparkle and her friends were able to return me to my senses. So don't you dare try to act like I have no idea what you've gone through. I have been doing my absolute best to make up for all the wrong I have done since my return. What have you done? Run. You've run away from justice and seem to be doing everything in your power to avoid the consequences of your actions. That is something I cannot...no, will not allow."

Everything was silent for a moment. No wind blew through the grass. The alicorn and dragon stared at one another, neither blinking or even breathing. Then Aduro looked away.

"Why is it that just when I think I can start to hate you, you go and do something like that? Luna...even if you don't believe anything else I say, believe this, I don't want to be your enemy. There were times in the past when I seriously considered letting go of my hate for Discord thanks to you and Celestia. Particularly when it came to that night 1800 years ago. But every time I thought about it I always came to the same answer. Discord is too dangerous to be left alive.

"I thought I had enough conviction in that belief even knowing it might cost me your friendship. Then came my imprisonment. It took a toll on me, especially when you stopped visiting and Celestia barely acknowledged that I even existed. I thought you two had willingly left me to rot in isolation and I tried to hate you. But as time dragged on, I found it harder and harder to hold onto that anger or to even feel anything at all. Then came Chrysalis with an offer out of that pit. I wasn't entirely sure she wasn't a hallucination when I agreed either. And now with all of the consequences of my decision rearing their heads, I've realized something."

"What?" asked Luna gently.

"First, that I will accept death over being sent back to Tartartus. With all that I've done and all that I know can you honestly say that there is no chance I won't be sent back there?"

Luna said nothing which was answer enough for the dragon.

"That is why I ran and am still running. Fear, pure and simple."

Luna couldn't fault Aduro for that at least, she'd shared a similar fear after the Elements purged Nightmare Moon and restored her. It had taken weeks of Celestia's reassurances that the both of them had been punished enough by the whole affair before she could start to relax. "It doesn't have to stay like this," she said at last. "I know Celestia wants to talk to you face-to-face and reach a peaceful agreement. 'It's not too late for all of us to make amends' is what she said." Luna sighed heavily and lowered her head. This is not something I planned for.

Aduro stepped closer and brought his own head down to meet her gaze. "What do you want, Luna?"

"I want to understand," she whispered. "I want to understand why you care so much about revenge that you're willing to kill ponies to get it." Her expression hardened as her voice began to rise. "I want to understand just where things went wrong. I want to understand why you can't move on! That's what I want!" She was practically shouting by the end.

Aduro flinched back, but said nothing.

Luna took a moment to calm herself before she asked, "what do you hope to accomplish?"

"What do you mean?"

"I am curious what you intend to do. You've been imprisoned even longer than I and I find myself overwhelmed at times at how much has changed. You were offered a chance at getting your revenge and that failed. You are alone in an unfamiliar world now. So what will you do?"

"That sounds like something Celestia would say," he said.

"She did ask that I make it a point to ask that question," Luna admitted. "If you truly don't want to be our enemy, prove it by answering that question."

It seems that ruling alone for a thousand years has given Celestia a lot of experience manipulating ponies. I don't answer and I practically declare that I'm plotting something. Next thing I know I'm getting letters that explode the moment I open them. If I do answer I'll be giving the Princesses clues to track me down. I could try lying...no. Not while dreaming. I have no real choice at the moment, Aduro realized.

"At the moment, I'm educating myself on the modern Equestrian language. After that I don't know," he said honestly. "I don't know enough about Equestria to do anything. All I can do is wait and learn."

"Are you able to feed yourself?" Luna asked recalling his unhealthily thin appearance.

"Huh? Of course I can feed myself. I've already tried starving myself and it's not a very pleasant experience. Why would you...," Aduro trailed off as he realized what he'd just let slip. Now she knows I've been stealing gems...wait. She already knows that. So why would she ask so abruptly? Is she trying to confuse me? How common are gem thefts nowadays? ...I'm getting distracted, I must focus. Aduro was rescued from his reverie by Luna beginning to speak.

"I confess myself at a loss on how to proceed from here," began Luna. "I was prepared to match wits with a brute, a sly liar, or even a crazed lunatic but not you it seems. You feel genuine regret for the invasion but you are determined to avoid your fair punishment. All I can offer right now is the same thing Celestia and I offered before. Surrender yourself to the Guard and we can discuss what to do from there. I will say this in your favor, you could have told Chrysalis about your blood magic but you didn't."

Luna prepared to leave when Aduro spoke up. "Before you go, I have a question."

"What?"

"How is Princess Cadenza? Does she hate me? Fear me?"

Luna paused and considered the question. She hadn't had the opportunity lately to have a heart-to-heart with her niece while awake or in dreams. She had noticed that Cadence was passionate in being involved in the search for Aduro.

"She seems determined to have you recaptured. I don't know her reasons for doing so at the moment," Luna said choosing her words carefully. "Why do you care?"

Aduro raised a claw to his forehead and pressed it against his forehead. Small red lines emanated from the point of contact and started to form ritual magic designs she'd only seen in the dragon's old notes. "Because I let her believe I was willing to use blood magic on her and it seems she knew enough of the subject to be terrified at the thought," said Aduro. He lowered his claw and the ritual lines vanished from his forehead.

Luna sucked in a breath of surprise at that revelation and paid close attention to the regret and shame she sensed from him. She could not afford to be mistaken about his feelings on this subject.

"Thank you for being honest with me about that. We will talk again," Luna said, and then she woke up. She quickly got out of her bed and proceeded out the door. A messenger was soon dispatched and Luna waited for her sister in one of the many secluded rooms in the castle. She had already completed a dozen circuits around a table when the door opened and Celestia entered the room. Luna wasted no time in relaying the conversation to her sister concluding with, "we need to do something and soon. While Aduro might not be a threat right now, there is no telling what he might do in the near future."

Celestia frowned thoughtfully for a moment, then she shook her head. "Not quite. We can be reasonably sure that she will remain in Equestria. Take notice that she said specifically that she didn't know enough about 'Equestria', not the world, to make any plans. The problem is that when we do come close to finding Lucere, she will almost certainly feel cornered and lash out," said Celestia. She leaned back and considered the current state of affairs.

There was managing the fallout of a failed invasion, organizing not one but two covert searches for escaped inmates from Tartarus, both promising complications to any attempts at recapture, and now a potentially festering issue with the Princess of Love to deal with. The only thing that kept her from losing sleep at night was the fact that she could once again rely on Luna for support.

"Why do you keep referring to him as Lucere?" asked Luna. "He made absolutely no effort to correct the changelings or me when I called him that. Even after all this time he still accepts that as his name."

"I know that but... I can't help but hope that by using Lucere that somehow we'll find a way to change her mind. I've lost so much over the years, then I was blessed in getting you back Luna. I can't keep myself from indulging in the hope that we can get our friend back too," Celestia replied quietly. She felt a wing being draped over her back and smiled at Luna.

"We'll come up with something. We've done better in far worse situations than this," assured Luna. "Now let's go over what we have to work with. We know that Aduro is somewhere east of Canterlot based on the robbery of the Element of Laughter's sister. We know that he's somewhere with a library where he can learn modern Equestrian and is large enough to have enough gems nearby for him to eat. That alone limits it to the larger cities."

"It's not much but it's enough for a start," Celestia admitted. "But now our first priority is coming up with a plan that will minimize the risk of Lucere feeling cornered."

"Like finding an alternative to Tartarus," offered Luna.

"If we chose to go that route we will have to build one ourselves. Nowhere else has such a naturally potent anti-magic composition. ...We shouldn't forget about Cadence in all this either. She might need more help than we realized if she deliberately left out being threatened with blood magic," added Celestia. Plans were beginning to form and the two alicorns continued the balancing act of ruling a country as they'd done for centuries.

**********

Aduro awoke around noon from the lucid dream he'd been enjoying after his visit from Luna. He stretched and flapped the partially regrown wing bones on his back. He estimated it would take the better part of a year before his wings would be fully functional again. He rolled out of bed and walked up to his desk. Sheets of paper containing various versions of the Equestrian alphabet composed one stack and notes about Equestrian legends made up another.

The white dragon grabbed an opal and nibbled at it as he focused on the page he'd been translating last night. To many others it would have been ironic that he'd been translating a modern book into old Equestrian but such humor went unnoticed by him. The page in question was about a string of small islands off the coast of Vanhoover, a city located on Equestria's northwestern coast and only half translated. Picking up a quill, the dragon resumed his work and within the hour he finished.

He looked over the translation, now able to read the whole thing rather than single word at a time. His suspicions were confirmed by the decided lack of information about a specific item located on the largest island in the chain. Now the problem is that actually going and getting it will take resources and connections I don't have, he thought to himself. Even with all these new trains and boats it will still take weeks to get there and that's not even considering what it would take to convince somepony to sail there.

I just don't have the resources... I don't have the resources. But it doesn't need to be me who finds it.

End of Part I

Comments

[Delta238]

I can not blame him/her for wanting revenge.

[Emperor]

Honestly, I'm just surprised that Aduro wasn't all "Oh, you went nuts and threatened Eternal Night and only got banished for a thousand years, while I merely killed a few dozen ponies and tried to kill Discord and got imprisoned for 1800 years with no end in sight." Well, I guess he was surprised at the time to work up a coherent snarky response like that.

[The oracle]

You still alive?

[Asolem2]

 All I can offer right now is the same thing Celestia and I offered before. Surrender yourself to the Guard and we can discuss what to do from there.

The problem here is that Aduro is fully aware of the fact that if they meet face to face and if Celestia and Luna see no other alternative then to send him/her back to Tartarus then he/she won't be able to stop them, and since she/he has already stated that she/he would rather die then go back there it makes it too big a risk to ever accept their offer since it is unlikely that they would ever really agree on the subject of Discord.

In short: As long as the risk of being sent back to Tartarus exsits he/she will never appear before Celestia and Luna unless forced to.

Oh that can be a reason to release Discord and reform him so quickly
"Make it impossible for Aduro to actully kill Discord by making Discord capable of defending himself"