Twilight and Luna's Lessons in Teaching

by dracone

Chapter 5: Dream Step's Memory and the Bond She Shares with Luna

Dream Step's Memory and the Bond she Shares with Luna

Luna was up in time for sun to go down, on her way back to her room to think about what to do next she opened the door to Dream Step's room and saw the filly still fast asleep. Luna's horn gave a light glow after she decided to sit down next to the filly and she was once again in Dream Step's dreamscape. Here she saw and heard a curious thing, a Dream Step much like the one from Eclipse Touch's memory earlier that day said how she knew the night princess would be there without moving her mouth or giving the glow of a unicorn's magic. Then there were 2 with one still heading down the hall with her sister and the other walking towards Luna. Luna gave an amused smile as she and the filly followed said filly and her sister. At the moment that a yellow unicorn with an orange mane appeared the dream seemed to pause itself.

“This is the memory that corresponds with the one Eclipse volunteered,” said Dream Step with a hint of sorrow, “Sunshine could have become somepony to help us, but she's more concerned with making our mother happy. I don't think what Sunshine does really makes mother happy, Sunshine is just fooling herself. You saw how her display almost cracked, I never noticed that when Eclipse did. Maybe the hopes Eclipse has for showing Sunshine she can be an amazing pony without doing things to benefit our family will let us see the real Sunshine Bottle.

“I took a look at Twilight's dreams a short time ago,” said Luna, “she's helping Eclipse be her real self.”

“What do you mean?” said Dream Step looking back at the black filly in her memory.

“The reason she kept you out of her dreams was because the Eclipse you mostly knew was an act make sure you wouldn't worry too much."

“I thought that might have been the case,” said Dream Step with a smile smile, “I look forward to finally seeing the real Eclipse Touch. We all had to put on acts for our mother. Sunshine Bottle with her forced cheerfulness, even when she was crying of sorrow and fear deep inside; Storm Walker with his bored obedience, when we all knew he never felt loyalty to our parents; Eclipse Touch with her calm and collected forgiving look, when I know deep down she was more scared and resentful than any of us; and me with my overly cautious obedience, when I just wanted to defy the rules and scream at the top of my lungs until all the pain and rage had been emptied from me,” she continued, “we kept up the acts when we got to Equestria, I still have all that pain and anger bottled up,” when she said that an image of a midnight blue bottle with a white unicorn on it with a note tied to its neck that said 'Dream Step's pain, fear and rage DO NOT OPEN under any circumstance' appeared next to Luna, “well those art pieces I did in practice were reflections of the good emotions that have been surging through me since arriving in Equestria,” Dream Step said to Luna as the alicorn eyed the bottle with interest.

“This will break eventually and when it does the pain you inflict will be far worse than all the pain you have in the bottle united against you. You need to express your pain. Show that pain with your art, do that scream you talked about, tell somepony about what that pain is really like to live with,” said Luna with a voice that sounded like an understanding mother that was disappointed in her child for hiding something that was something she would said yes to anyway.

“I don't want to give somepony the wrong idea,” said Dream Step with a dejected look.

“I know a few places we can go for you to just scream and yell without anypony for miles seeing or hearing you,” said Luna with gentle smile before looking back over at the frozen memory before saying, “your sister really is beautiful, pity she's not at harmony with herself. I was like how you are now before I became Nightmare Moon, trust me when I say that sealing your pain and anger away will make you transform into something just like Nightmare Moon, you need to find a way to be at harmony with yourself before you can begin to learn anything beyond the basics that art practice can instill in you.”

“Bridleton isn't big the whole harmoniousness thing, it's more a case of imposed order from a class of ponies that mostly do what they want and claim it for the good of the nation,” said Dream Step as she unfroze the memory and they followed the 2 fillies.

“The nation sounds like something that Equestria could have become and to an extent was before my sister and I arrived in Equestria,” said Luna, “you and your siblings talked about how the nation was almost like a Equestria. Care to elaborate?”

“Eclipse is better at that, after all she read more on the subject than me,” said Dream Step as she watched her younger self eating the bland salad and mineral water, “the original Artanus was the child of a unicorn and pegasus, those 2 tribes were at war during that time, and as you've been told he was an earth pony. Artanus had no explicit magic of his own like a unicorn or pegasus, what he did have was a charismatic personality that drew ponies, griffons, and even dragons to his side. He was a kind leader, like you and Princess Celestia. He formed the Circle Knights, a group dedicated to maintaining the peace and stability of his kingdom. The knights had all kinds in their ranks; Earth Ponies, Pegasi, Unicorns, Dragons, Griffins and even a few Hippogriffs. There were 2 of each in the main Circle Knights. Artanus's kingdom existed for half his total lifespan, that over ten-thousand years ago.”

“I've not seen a hippogriff for some time now,” said Luna with a hint of amusement, “someday in the future we may see one in Equestria again.”

敵riffons in Bridleton are treated with disdain by our family's house, and by that I mean my parents and grandmother. I've heard that many of the unicorn nobles have a great dislike for a union between a pony of any tribe and a griffin. The disdain is so strong that many unicorn nobles refuse to even negotiate with a house that has a confirmed hippogriff as part of the staff. Storm Walker told us about how one of staff that wasn't visible to anypony was a hippogriff by the name of Snow Feather, of course he never told us anything beyond that I don't know what Snow Feather looks like or if Snow Feather is a mare or stallion, we've never really met or had a chance to meet.

“That's fine,” said Luna as they resumed their excursion through Dream Step's memory. The first plant exercise was just as Eclipse had remembered it, with the added bonus hearing the younger Dream Step's thoughts. Thoughts like 'just get to full bloom once, if you do I will keep you in as nice of soil as mother will allow and water you when I can', 'stupid plant just grow a little more' and 'can you just do what I want this once, stupid seed'. Luna gave a comment about how frustration can be problematic to learning after hearing Dream Step's past thoughts.

When it came time for the reading portion Luna noticed the title of Dream Step's choice of reading material was Floral Magic: How to Show Superiority Over Plant Life and just shook her head before saying, “your family really does have control issues if they have book with that kind of title.

“It's worse than that, almost all the spells they taught us were created or improved upon by our family, that book was written by my father's great grandmother, and the summoning magic book that Eclipse is glancing over this time was written by our mother's great great great great grandmother.”

“Why have your mother and grandmother simply not used that magic to their benefit? They seem to only use their magic to levitate books and items in the same room as them, if they have always had access to spells that allowed them to call up other creatures and impose their own will on the summoned entities.

“Because summoning spells are tricky,” said Dream Step with amusement as the memory froze again, “the only unicorn in our family history that managed do any summoning was the one who wrote that book. Summoning creatures takes a noticeable amount of energy, much like the improved memory spell you and the others used to display Eclipse's memories for everypony to see, and then the energy demands of maintaining the summoned creature and the energy demands for commanding it. Only a unicorn with an amazing amount of raw energy or magical talent would ever have a hope of being able to pull a summoning spell off for a few minutes. That still doesn't stop our mother and grandmother from trying to see if we can pull it off once a month. That was one of our worst birthdays ever.”

”Why is that?” asked Luna as the memory returned to its flow and they followed the fillies again.

“Because we never got a celebration, all our 'gifts' went to our parents and we spent 5 hours trying to do a basic summoning spell after only half a minute of reading the 13 page starter spell, that was barely enough time to properly read the first 5 pages and skim the rest with everything else our mother had us doing. Birthdays were never really celebrated, they were just used as an excuse to pile more on us than the year before.”

As they watched the second plant exercise Luna said, “what we've been seeing with these memories are really all going to show very little in the way of having a chance to just act your age, I have a feeling I might end up very disappointed.”

“We never once got a chance to meet fillies or colts our age,” said Dream Step, “the only time we saw anypony our age they were the children of the servants in the manor, and they did their best to avoid us because that's what they had been told to do. We would occasionally hear the sound colts and fillies at play in the gardens, but by the time we got to a place we could watch their time of fun was over and our mother or father was berating their parents for not instilling enough discipline in them to keep composure in a work place,” her ears pulled back before she said, “we really did want to enjoy life the way they were, but every time we tried to approach them they just galloped away.”

“You and your siblings weren't just trying to get out from under the hoof of traditions you knew were wrong,” said Luna with smile as they trotted along behind the memory version of the four siblings, “you wanted the chance to be different than what you had been told was the way things were. So when you found information that confirmed Equestria you knew you had to come here.”

“Eclipse was the one who pointed me in the right direction,” said Dream Step, “but it was me who found what little information on Equestria Bridleton had, and for some reason my horn guided us to the town where you and Celestia met us.”

“How sparse was the information on Equestria?” said Luna with a piqued interest.

“Mostly rumors and partially confirmed stories,” said Eclipse as they watched Artanus prance around like it was his right to everything, “everything cuts off at around the beginning of Discord's reign over Equestria. My parents, grandmother and most of the nobility to my knowledge believe Discord to be nothing more than an analogy, they claim that the draconequus is not a real creature and merely a symbol of a lack of order. I believed that myself until I saw Discord at the viewing of Eclipse's memory, Eclipse believed in everything she read about Equestria without fail. She's still very self-aware in a place with more than 4 other ponies. Of course our parents and grandmother almost never let us off of the family grounds or even out of the manor most of time. The few times that we did have more than one guest were the extravagant balls that they threw twice a year, and during those times we were more of a showpiece than anything else.”

“That is quite unfortunate,” said Luna with genuine sympathy, “you might end up feeling like something similar at the Grand Galloping Gala in a few months.” The white fillies memory paused at the adult ponies bowing to Artanus and her eyes went wide with awe.

“A gala, like a formal dance,” said Dream Step with surprise, “I don't think I could be ready for something like that if I had an entire year to prepare.

“It's an event my sister has thrown every year for a very long time, this year is I got to schedule the music without my sister's assistance. Although the event itself is still very boring. I've been trying to develop my own yearly event that could be held on par with the Gala, so far nothing I've been able to think of will not be able to get approval from an appropriate Equestria's elite.”

“Then don't get their approval, see for the event to be approved by the populace,” said Dream Step as the memory rippled out to turn into the Canterlot Gardens. Luna Just smiled as the dreamscape faded away and Dream Step awoke.

“The memory your sister chose was more than you expected,” said Luna as the white filly crawled out of bed, “that's why the corresponding memory invaded your dreams”.

“Yes,” said Dream Step with a hint of shame.

“You don't have to be ashamed of yourself or your memories,” said Luna, “the only shame you should feel should be for those who did things that weren't for the benefit of the many.”

“Like running away with no intention of returning,” said Dream Step, “I feel bad about that, hopefully when we're all older and wiser my siblings and I will return to Bridleton to make things better for the populace.”

“See you have a heart that is every bit good as your sister,” said Luna, “and the same holds true for the inner strength you talked about. Sometimes our strengths are right in front of our eyes so we can see them clearly as the moon or sun and other times they're hidden in places we are afraid to go within ourselves. Having the courage to face the parts of ourselves we are scared or ashamed of can help us to see strengths we never imagined or knew were possible for us. It was true for me and I know it is true for everypony, especially you.”

“Thank you,” said Dream Step with a timid smile, “I'm starting to feel hungry, maybe we should get something to eat.”

“Of course,” said Luna with a smile, “and after that it will be back to art room for lessons. This time I want you to use the art as a medium for expressing some of that pain and anger you have bottled up, it could help you more than even I could know.” They trotted into the dining hall and Luna informed one of the night staff that she and Dream Step needed a simple light meal. A few minutes later the 2 were at the table each with a plate of tomato slices, bowl of warm applesauce and tall glass of chilled grape juice. Dream Step took slow deliberate bites of the tomato slices and gave sounds of enjoyment. After testing to see if the applesauce was to hot Dream Step used her spoon, which wobbled a bit and made Luna give a ghost of a smile as she ate her meal. After finishing off the dishes and downing their drinks Dream Step trotted over to Luna and gave a little hug.

After their little meal, which Dream Step more than enjoyed, they were back in the art room with the water colors once again close at hoof to Dream Step and five paintbrushes like the one before were close at hoof to her as well. Dream Step took 3 of the 5 brushes and dipped them in the red, black and blue paints then began to make delicate angry strokes across the paper before her. After almost a full hour of painting Luna came to look at Dream Step's creation, what she saw was a simple painting that showed a great deal of anger towards 3 images that resembled Dream Step's parents and grandmother.

“How do you feel?” asked Luna with compassion.

“Surprisingly better,” said Dream Step with a more inviting voice as she tore the page off the easel and floated it over to the wall by the door, “may I have the color pencils again, I think my next piece will need to be done with them?”

“Of course,” said Luna as she floated the brushes and paints away and floated the colored pencils over to the white filly. Without a word Dream Step took out the black, yellow, orange and light green and began to sketch with a sort of sorrow that she had never tapped before, an hour and several colors later Luna saw Dream Step's piece. It was an image of her and all her siblings, but they were each displaying a different emotion. Storm Walker's image was displaying contempt as it looked over at Sunshine Bottle's image which was displaying dread, Eclipse Touch's image had the image of fear as the image of Dream Step showed remorse while trying look at both the audience and her siblings. “So, how's that emotional bottle now,” said Luna in a tone that was more of a statement than a question.

“A little less full, and I feel a lot better. This is a good outlet, but I still feel like I need to scream,” said Dream Step as she eyed the image being lifted by Luna and floated away.

“This is how you see your siblings,” inquired Luna as she hung the piece by the door.

“It's how I see us in our relationship with our family,” said Dream Step as she hung her head in a manner that indicated she felt guilty.

“You feel remorse for leaving your sister behind,” said Luna, “she's your sister no matter what.”

“Eclipse wanted all of us to come here,” said Dream Step with a strong tone of remorse, “but Sunshine was too caught up in her desire to please our mother to listen.”

“Every foal wants to make their parents happy,” said Luna, “it doesn't matter where they come from. You and your sibling probably wanted to make them happy as well.”

“You're right,” said Dream Step, “but it was something Storm Walker said that lead us down this path.”

“And what was that?” in inquired Luna.

“he said 'parents should strive for the happiness of their children, even if it means sacrificing their own happiness' it was after he said those words that Eclipse and I began to notice that our parents put their ambitions and desires ahead of the needs of their children. Storm Walker was placed in the long term care of a pegasi family that has been in indentured servitude to ours for almost 20 generations, the only time we felt anything close to happiness was being with older siblings. Sunshine Bottle would unintentionally ruin those moments,” she folded her ears back onto her head, “because she really believed that the way to happiness for all of us was to make our mother happy.”

After their chat Luna lowered the moon as Celestia raised the sun. After tucking Dream Step in Luna went to sit at her sister's side. For almost an hour they just sat their in the early morning with no words and their manes just flowing gracefully before Princess Celestia finally said in an even and warm voice, “You saw her real dream this time, not something you thought would help her relax.”

“Her memory of how it all happened actually,” said Luna in her starry voice, “we also shared a conversation as we trotted through the dream together.”

“So all we'll need is a memory transfer spell since you've already experienced it.”

“Yes, but I think we should still wait a few days like everypony decided,” said Luna before taking a quick look back at her wing of the castle before saying, “she has some things that will eventually hurt her and others if they don't get out so after the sun goes down I'm going to take her someplace where there's nopony for miles and just let do what she needs to get the bulk of it all out. I imagine her siblings have similar problems.”

“I have a good idea of how Twilight is starting off Eclipse Touch, but I am not sure what your lesson plan is like.”

“You know how I was more of an artist,” said Luna looking over at Celestia who just gave a smile and nodded before Luna continued, “I've been starting her off with basic levitation exercises in my arts room.”

“A good place to start,” said Celestia with a prim and warm tone in her voice.

“Well, when we began the lessons she was only willing to express her brighter emotions, I could tell from the start that she was suppressing her darker emotions the moment I saw her first piece but I didn't let her know I could tell.”

“I take it after seeing her version of the memory you convinced her that doing something like that was dangerous,” said Celestia with very little change in her voice.

“Yes, and I told her to channel some of it into her art,” said Luna with a sigh, “the first piece she did after that was of her parents and grandmother. It really captured the negative energy she felt came from them. The second piece she did was of her and her sibling, all of them, that piece showed the emotions she felt towards her parents and grandmother, it had a sort of dark beauty that reminded me of a star flickering out or falling through the sky.”

“It's nice to see you like this,” said Celestia with a smile as she brushed her mane and looked over at her sister, “When I shared breakfast with you two I couldn't help noticing how she brought a maternal aspect in your interactions.”

“You know how much I've wanted foals of my own,” said Luna with joyful look as she met Celestia's purple eyes with her deep blue ones, “You had the chance to watch Equestria grow and flourish the way parents wish to see their children do, in the thousand years of my absence you've been able to see all of Equestria as your children. For me this is a chance to start feeling like the kind of mother I always thought I could be. Dream Step might even start seeing me as a mother figure, and Eclipse Touch will most likely think of Twilight in such a way.”

“Especially given how she reacted to Twilight,” said Celestia with a smile that almost seemed to trigger a full body glow, “I noticed how surprised her siblings were when she called Twilight over to her, she even whispered something that made Twilight look a little happy.”

“Given the prance Twilight gave before pulling out the book I would have to agree,” said Luna, “it seems that the twins genuinely want to bond with a caring maternal figure, which has me wondering what it could possibly mean for their family life before coming here. The twins have abilities that can be considered quite rare, Dream Step has the same ability I have and just like me she was born with it. Eclipse Touch has a natural ability which could be considered the opposite of Twilight's talent for magic.”

“Or a potential logical extension,” said Celestia with a hint of amusement, “by knowing how a certain kind magic or spell works it is possible to create a counterspell. Eclipse's ability is in a way is a meta-counterspell, something that many powerful unicorns have been searching for as a means of defense.”

“You remember when Starswirl said he found a counterspell for both ice and fire spells that got out of control or were modified for combat purposes?” said Luna with amusement and a chuckle.

“Of course,” said Celestia, “he asked you to attack him with an ice spell and me to attack him with a fire spell, it took 3 hours for his horn to thaw out and almost two weeks for the fur on his legs to grow back.”

“All while insisting that he didn't know how it could have gone wrong. We had to explain to him why a spell like that was beyond his skill level at the time.”

“It was a 4 hour lecture that we gave while lowering the sun and raising the moon.” Both gave a few chuckles and giggles before Luna headed off to bed.

Luna awoke with 2 hours before the sunset. She walked into Dream Step's room to see filly rousing from her slumber as well. Luna just smiled and waited for the filly to open her eyes and crawl out of bed. “Good evening,” said Luna to Dream Step as the filly became a bit more aware of her surroundings an hour later. After a light meal of Lily and carrot salad with chilled apple juice Celestia lowered the sun and Luna raised the moon, afterwards Celestia bid the two a good night as she headed off to her room to rest for a few hours. After attending to a short set of night meetings, which didn't even last a full ten minutes, Luna told Dream Step there was something she wanted show her and then in flash of Luna's dark blue magic the two were out of the castle and in what looked like a massive gorge.

“Where are we?” asked Dream Step with noticeable confusion.

“This is Midnight Canyon,” said Luna with Pride, “a location in Equestria that I personally maintain sole control over in all legal and construction matters, Celestia has the Noon Glade as her personal space. Here you can let out that scream you talked about and the only ponies that will hear at you and me.”

“If your sure this is a good idea then I'll give it a go,” said Dream Step with a tone of uncertainty.

“Just take deep breath and let it all out,” said Luna, “sometimes we just need to scram, or yell, or cry before we can move on.”

Dream Step sat for a moment thinking over what she was just told before taking a deep breath and letting out high scream that lasted several minutes, Luna had prepared herself by casting a spell to keep everything above a pleasant conversational tone blocked out until she saw that Dream Step was done before canceling the spell. Dream Step looked like she had exhausted herself in attempt, and some of her scream was echoing back in much more pleasant tone.

“How do you feel now?” inquired Luna as she approached the noticeably exhausted filly.

“More tired than I've ever felt in my life,” said Dream Step with a hoarse dry tone, “and thirsty.”

“Letting the things that mentally and emotionally weigh us down out like that shows us how exhausting carrying those things can eventually get, in a few years you would have felt like you do now on an almost daily basis as opposed to just a few hours that come after you let it all out.”

“You've seen, my future haven't you?” inquired Dream Step.

“I haven't looked at your potential or possible futures yet,” said Luna with a gentle yet serious smile, “but I've seen what happens to ponies that bottle up all their painful thoughts and memories instead of sharing what their problems were with others like you were doing. If you had told your brother or sister about it all it would have helped ease your pain, and possibly even eased their anxieties as well. You're just like your sister in that you get so trapped in worrying about others that you need an outside perspective to ground you and help bring things into focus, that's what Twilight is for your sister and I am for you. We're not just your mentors, we're an extension of your true family and we would like it if someday you thought of us as friends.”

“I really do think of you as family,” said Dream Step, “so, the Midnight Canyon is your personal place?”

“In a sense, yes,” said Luna, “I know that someday ponies will come here for one reason or another that could have the potential of helping Equestria or the lands beyond, but until that time comes the canyon is primarily here for my exclusive use.”

“If the canyon is your personal place then that must mean that you have a lot of trust in me to bring me here.”

“More than that, I have faith in what you are capable of. You're not quite ready for dream influencing like me yet, but one day you will and when that day comes I hope that you will have the responsibility and morality to utilize it properly and for the benefit of others.”

“My mother would be trying have use that aspect of my ability for far more petty and less noble reasons.”

“That spell book Eclipse Touch left in our care had a number of spells that can influence the mind, is their spell that tells how to emulate our ability?”

“Yes, but not the extent you claim to have. It also has spells for altering memories and even manipulating somepony's personality, I'm afraid that some of the memories I have aren't even the ones I earned through life experience. Eclipse Touch naturally would disperse a spell like that, but my other siblings and myself aren't as fortunate in have a resistance or immunity to such spells. I'm afraid that all the terrible memories I have might be manipulated or fabricated to some degree, what if it was our mother's plan for us to come here? Bridleton's ruling class has been gearing up for some kind of war for as long as I've been alive, possibly longer. What if our being in Equestria is the excuse the ruling class needs to attempt plunging Equestria into an armed conflict? To them it would be an easy victory, after all many of the high class unicorns have been learning very powerful offensive spells. It's possible that everypony being told Equestria is a foal's story is a massive fabrication and all the high ranking unicorn family heads know the truth of the nation's existence, when we got here things that made sense in Bridleton lost their symmetry in Equestria.”

“That's in interesting theory you have there,” said Luna with surprise

“It's not mine, it's Eclipse's. She finally let me into her dreams last night, I didn't let her know I was there watching, and she's the one who put it all together. Of course in her dream she was bouncing some the inconsistencies off of Princess Twilight Sparkle to get her opinion on things. I could tell the Twilight she was saying all this to was a visitor, but I didn't reveal that to her dream self anymore than I revealed myself. Eclipse is either going be excited or feel violated by this, but in the end she's still going have to be the one to work through it.”

“You're being very reasonable, and while I like seeing you do this I must insist you stop the act.”

“But its the only way I can manage the pain that's lingering from my little outburst a little while ago, I might be able to work through it in the studio, but here and now I need something to lessen the pain for just a little while.”

“I went through similar phase myself,” said Luna with a smile, “the only time I want to see this act again is at the Gala, whether you like it or not you are going to be taking part in it this year, once the event is over you won't have to show this face to anypony again for a whole year. As for your worry about false or tampered memories I can assure you that the one you showed me was genuine and unaltered.”

“That doesn't alleviate my fears regarding some of my other memories, what if the corrolating memory of one Eclipse volunteers in the future is altered or replaced for me or Storm Walker?”

“I'll talk to Celestia about it, there might be a spell lodged away in the Canterlot archives that will allow us to verify the authenticity of a memory.”

“Thank you, with spells like those that can forcefully influence minds I'm not sure if my own decisions are what they should be.”

“So, what do you think of Midnight Canyon?”

“I see a lot of barren landscape, but I also feel like there's potential to be had here. I would have not said something like that second part before meeting you, my mother would have said how barren land has no possible potential if you asked her.”

“Your parents and grandmother are already set in their ways, there's nothing that can make them change their point of view and very few things that have possibility of making them reevaluate some of their beliefs. My sister hopes that just meeting any one of the princesses of Equestria will cause them to reevaluate their notions about things, I myself have some experience in seeing into the true nature of others and while I share her hopes I also believe the only one that will be forced to reevaluate their world views is your older sister and that might be more due to Twilight's friends than my sister or me. Your sister's magical talent is incomplete, not just because she has no knowledge of what true joy or happiness is but also because she has never seen or experienced what true joy and happiness can do to a pony or for them. The ponies that will most likely have the biggest influence on her revelation regarding her ability are Pinkie Pie and Eclipse Touch.”

“How could Eclipse be somepony to influence a revelation in Sunshine Bottle?”

“Your twin isn't just learning from Twilight, she is also slowly learning life lessons from Twilight's closest and dearest friends. Your sister is slowly learning what friendship really means and what kind of impact true friendship can have on somepony.”

“You will be learning similar lessons in time, but they will come in different ways than your sister is experiencing, and possibly even in a very different order. Twilight is obsessed with keeping her responsibilities organized, which might not always be conducive to your sister's development, it is also good that Twilight's friends will be there to help teach some of your sister's lessons. Fluttershy is kind gentle soul, Rainbow Dash is a brash and loyal individual, Pinkie Pie is a laughter filled and energetic character, Applejack is a hard working and honest pony, Rarity is creative and generous soul, and Twilight is a brilliant and well read individual in addition to being a magical talented and caring alicorn.”

“I always thought that only instructors could teach lessons, so miss Twilight and her friends will be Eclipse's instructors?”

“It looks like you didn't hear everything my sister said before you were made my student, she said that we can learn as instructors almost as much as we teach. A truly great teacher learns from from their student, your lessons are just as much a learning experience for me as they are for you.”

“That's a mindset I never saw in older ponies before meeting you, it's kind of nice to hear that.”

“Time to go,” said Luna and the 2 were once again gone in a midnight blue flash, when the flash was over Dream Step blinked away the spots from her eyes, she still wasn't used to teleportation spells. When the swirling lights stopped dancing in front of her eyes Dream Step lifted herself from the floor of her room where she had seemingly collapsed. She didn't say anything, but she did give Luna a look that seemed to be asking if what had happened was real. Luna just smiled and nodded. The 2 had only spent about a half hour at Midnight Canyon. Luna and Dream Step made their way to the dining hall. When they arrived in the dining Dream Step politely asked for a large glass of strawberry and blueberry juice mix and some carrot and lettuce salads. Both took took a few minutes to enjoy the small meal before heading to the arts room.

Once the door to the arts room was closed a more energetic Dream Step said, “so, what will I be trying this night?”

“Go over to the musical instruments a pick out the one that calls to you loudest,” said Luna with a smile, mostly because of the fact that Dream Step seemed to have a massive weight lifted off of her. Dream Step went over to the musical instruments and began sifting through them, she stopped at a wind flute and tentatively gave it a few test blows before walking back over to Luna with the instrument floating beside her in her magic. After they were next to each other again Luna carefully instructed Dream Step on how to play the instrument. When Luna was finished with her instructions Dream Step made some very uneven notes that sounded more like random noises blown through the flute than notes that should have made a fragment of a song. Luna just sat and smiled as for the next 3 hours Dream Step worked at the flute, offering up little suggestions, constructive criticisms and even a few praises when the filly managed a note that should have been exceedingly difficult for a pony that had months of practice with the instrument. After a few more minutes Luna told the filly had to go and lower the moon and Celestia raise the sun. Instead of heading for bed after setting the flute aside Dream Step said she wanted to accompany the princess and be there when the two heavenly bodies switched places, Luna didn't argue because she figured it would be a good thing for the filly to see the acts of magic and said filly would probably fall asleep at the black alicorn mare's hooves so she would just have to float the filly back to bed before going to get some sleep herself.

Luna lead a slightly excited Dream Step to the tower and lowered the moon, Celestia watched from her balcony with a smile at the site before raising the sun. As the sun was rising Dream Step collapsed at Luna's hooves and a flash indicating the formation of a cutie mark came from the filly. Looking at the mark Luna saw an inversion of her own moon within a dream bubble and paintbrush crossing across the moon. Luna carefully floated the filly back to bed and tucked her in before heading back to the throne room to have small chat with Celestia and sat in her throne. Celestia walked in and gently sat in her throne waiting patiently for her sister to say something.

“It seems Dream Step has finally come to a realization of what she is meant to do,” said Luna, “she just got her cutie mark.”

“I'm glad to hear it,” said Celestia, “what was the circumstance surrounding its formation?”

“Seeing us move the sun and the moon,” said Luna rising from her seat, “I think this means she was always meant be here. She also shared an old prophecy from her old nation with me.”

“Mind telling me the generalities,” inquired Celestia, “we can get into the specifics when we next meet with Twilight.”

“Of course,” said Luna, “It mentions a green wings of a pegasus, I'm assuming it means a green pegasus or green winged pegasus, and it makes a mention of 2 alicorns. The prophecy also mentions a unicorn with the ability to dream walk and another unicorn that has an ability that disables other ponies. In addition to alicorns it makes mention of the 3 traveling to a land with alicorns. There is some sort of mention of the unicorns being taught by alicorns and refusing to kneel to the rhetoric or doctrine that has been treated as truth when it was false. There's also a mention of a purple alicorn that is connected to others with a force stronger than any magic... and a few other things I think we should share with Twilight. I think that they actually had a prophecy that mentioned Twilight and the power of her friendship.”

“How old is this prophecy?”

“I'm not sure, but the way that Dream Step talked about it and from what I saw in her dreamscape it could be several thousand years old. Which means that whomever was responsible for that prophecy somehow knew of Twilight's ascension to Princess before the emergence of Nightmare Moon, I have no idea how that could be possible. I know that I provided Equestria with some of its prophecies, including the defeat of Nightmare Moon, but even I couldn't see as far as this prophecy seems to have. The pony that provided this prophecy must have had a talent for prophecies.”

“More than that,” said “Celestia, “you said it mentioned dream walking, a talent you and Dream Step both possess, in addition to 2 unicorns being taught by 2 different alicorns. You are currently teaching Dream Step and Eclipse Touch is currently Twilight's student. They have a brother that is a green pegasus and all three came from outside Equestria. If you ask me I think hints of this prophecy are already coming into the realm of the physical world. We learned some time ago that prophecies are imprecise, but hints of the authentic events they speak about can reveal themselves more than once before the genuine event they talk about occurs and because of how they are structured prophecies can be eerily accurate.”

“I know what you mean sister, I told Dream Step about Night Mask.”

“I almost forgot about that mare,” said Celestia with a hint of amusement, “you checked up on her life after you were freed from influence of Nightmare Moon?”

“Indeed,” said Luna, “it turns out she became an actress after the incident and it was through her job as an actress she met her husband and had six foals, 4 mares and 2 colts. Following the lineage of her children I found that one was in fact an ancestor of Twilight Sparkle, the same mare that is now an Alicorn.”

“Which one,” inquired Celestia in a tone that indicated she already knew.

“The mare's name was Shimmer Curtain, she didn't have her mother's flare however she was very good at keeping things organized and had a fondness for checklists so that she knew she was staying on track.”

“I know,” said Celestia, “I kept an eye on Night Mask's line after the incident and was well aware of Twilight's ancestry when I made her my student, Twilight shares many traits with her ancestral mothers and some of those traits I nurtured when Twilight became my student.”

“I'm going to nod off in my room now, sister.”

“Pleasant dreams, Luna.”

With that Luna headed to her room room and once the door was closed and she was on the bed fell asleep.