The Silver Stars

by David Silver

56 - Perchance to Dream

Silver snuggled into her bed with her loved ones tucked in with her. It had been a hard day, and she was sore, but it was a good sore. She was tired and ready to surrender to sleep. Fast gently poked her in the ribs. "You sure you're tired?"

Silver laughed and rolled over to face Fast. "I am certain, but if you want to cuddle..." And cuddle they did. Silver's thoughts drifted to the fact that she was gladly cuddling a male, and cast the thought side. It was Fast. Fast was worthy of cuddles no matter what parts they had. Silver kissed Fast's throat with a soft growl, then faded away into the embrace of sleep.

Silver was in a familiar dark place. "Text?"

Text did not appear. Luna did. She approached Silver slowly. "Are you calling for your writing friend? I have seen no sign of them since your ascension."

Silver nodded once. "I thought he had called me here. Was it you?"

Luna tilted her head. "Nay, but here you are."

Silver perked a tufted ear. "Rainbow Dash said I may take after you, being a lunar princess."

Luna extended her wings. "Does this disturb you?"

Silver smiled gently. "No. Will you teach me?"

Luna turned away from Silver. "Follow." They were abruptly standing in a long hallway of doors. "This appears as you wish it to. Sometimes I travel a field of stars, other nights, I am drawn to gaze in a pool." She looked over her shoulder at Silver. "I feel I should warn, dreams are no kind place. Some ponies dream of terrible things, and not all of them wish to be roused from it. If you wish to return to your own mind and never return, I will not blame you."

Silver trotted up beside Luna. "Have you been working this by yourself for... however long?"

Luna tilted her head. "Who else could take this burden?"

Silver pointed at herself. "Me, now... I didn't intend to become a princess, but sitting on the title seems even worse. If I can be a help, a real help, then that is what I want to do."

Luna turned towards Silver. "You play a dangerous game, young princess. You tempt me, and I surmise you haven't even told your herd of our meetings."

Silver shook her head with a smile. "Wrong, actually. We talked about you this morning... Well, all of us but Twilight."

Luna glanced away, then back at Silver. "What did... they say? Did Night Watch remember me?"

Silver frowned a little, pawing at the ground. "Remember you? She... she really misses you."

Luna stiffened then raised a wing to brush it against Silver's face, making her sneeze. "You lie to make me feel better. I would rather the truth."

Silver rubbed her nose with a fetlock. "It's true. She..." Silver trailed off again and sat on her haunches. "She loves you."

Luna bared her teeth and advanced on Silver. "Why would you tell me that?! If it is a lie, it is one most cruel! If it is a truth, it may yet be as cruel! She is bound to you, and you to Twilight Sparkle. You will not return to my side, so why taunt me with this? Why?" Luna sank before Silver, fresh tears flowing. "Why..."

Silver realized she had messed up in a big way and clenched her teeth as she tried to find a way out of it. "You deserve to know the truth..."

Luna suddenly pinned Silver, leaping at her before she could even register the movement. Silver was thrown to the ground and Luna pinned her, teeth clenching tightly around the throat with a terrific force. Her voice was quite clear despite the stranglehold, the logic of dreams caring little. "The truth does not always set one free! You have attacked me with things I cannot have! I cherished her. I cherished you! You ran away, not I. You gave up on me..." Luna sank against Silver, her crying becoming more potent than her moment of fury as she draped herself over Silver's body.

Silver took a deep breath when she was able. She might have grown a little, but she was still but a foal under Luna's bulk. "What can I do?"

Luna sat up then, looking down at Silver. The tears were gone, banished to where forgotten things go in dreams. "You will swear fealty to me, my little princess of the night. I will formally deputize you as a watcher of the night hours, and you will respect this task with all the burden that it is. You will not complain, nor whine, nor receive recompense. It will be thankless work that most will not remember you rendering. You will suffer terribly."

Silver tilted her head at Luna. "As you already have."

Luna stiffened. "Yes... Do you accept?"

Silver looked around a moment, then tilted her head. "This is another crossroads."

Luna blinked at Silver. "Yes, yes it is. What do you mean by that?"

Silver waved a hoof vaguely. "The paths that Text speaks of. This is one of them. I could say no, and hide, and live a quieter life."

Luna frowned. "Yes, that is an option."

Silver pointed at Luna. "Or I could step forward, and know that my life will be more complicated for it."

"Yes." Luna tapped a hoof on the ground. "Do you accept?"

Silver nodded slowly. "Then I accept. Future me, you did this willingly, so no crying."

Luna smiled. "No crying indeed. I thought you would back away, considering the pain you have suffered so recently."

Silver frowned a little. "Think... of it this way... I paid a lot to have this chance. If I throw it away, then I paid for nothing but a few inches and some wings."

Luna raised a hoof at Silver. "And yet, by marching forward, you invite further pain. Enough. I profit not by talking you out of this. Concentrate on the image of somepony."

Silver considered a moment, and a door slid into view, stopping in front of them both. Luna gestured at the door. "Their dream awaits. I do hope you selected well."

Silver opened the door, and was suddenly elsewhere. She was part of a loud angry crowd, shouting and jeering. Standing up on the gallows was Twilight. Her hooves were secured to the floor and a noose hung around her neck. Her eyes were bloodshot and she was messy with tears and rotten fruits.

Ponies in the crowd shouted hurtful things at the captive Twilight.

"Hang the murderer!"

"Show her how we treat killers!"

"Unicorn menace!"

"No more hiding under Celestia's hooves!"

Twilight cried and sobbed, piteously apologizing for her crimes, but the crowd hardly seemed to notice. A pony in a black mask stepped forward and wrenched a lever. Twilight fell down, the noose went taut, and suddenly Silver was ejected violently to Luna's side with a blinding headache.

Luna looked down at Silver impassively. "A nightmare, I gather. From the dazed look in your eyes, it ended. As you have experienced, a nightmare that ends without your being prepared for it is quite painful. You will learn how to 'land' properly with practice. Tell me, what did you see in Twilight Sparkle's dream?"

Silver slowly gathered herself up as the pain ebbed away bit by bit. "She was being hanged! What the heck! Do they even do that in Equestria?"

Luna nodded slightly. "Only for most heinous crimes. Celestia prefers to reform wrongdoers." She pointed at Silver. "For instance."

Silver flipped her ears back. "I... Well I guess better mare than dead or in jail forever." She shook herself out. "I turned out well, right?"

Luna raised a brow. "That remains to be seen. Our job is not simply to witness, but to intercede when a lesson of a dream is not being learned. Some nightmares are very educational, and should be left to do their work, but other times, the pony becomes frightened or confused and loses sight of the wisdom being offered. That is when we intercede. Do you understand?"

Silver gave an unsure nod before focusing a moment. A new door slid into position. Silver glanced at Luna, then nudged it open and stepped inside into what appeared to be her own bedroom back home, on Earth. Luna appeared beside her, making the bed creak under their combined weight. "Ah, your own dream world? Well, it is yours, you can change it as you please."

Silver looked at Luna curiously, then they were on a ferris wheel, side-by-side, riding it under a sunset. Luna smirked lightly. "Silver... Romantic visions are not called for. Good control, I confess. Come, let us visit a dreamer who can control her own dreams." They were back in the hallway again and a new door slid up in front of them with a large sun painted on it.

Silver pointed at the symbol. "Celestia?"

Luna nodded. "Of course. She has a powerful dream magic of her own, deeply prophetic, but it is personal. She cannot enter the dreams of others as we can." Luna opened the door and they were drawn inside. They were soon seated around a small table. Celestia was there, and all three of them had cups of tea held in their magic.

Celestia smiled. "What a pleasant surprise! Luna, you are a rare delight, but you brought a friend." Her eyes turned on Silver. "I wondered if Sister's lunar talents would rub off on you. Are you enjoying dream walking?"

Silver nodded. "I'm still learning, so I can help Luna. It's terrible that she has to do all this alone."

Celestia's expression softened to sadness. "It is... but she was the only one that could do it. Now that's changed!" She clopped her hooves together twice and a stallion stepped in with cake. The stallion was the literal definition of stallion attributes. His muscles were well defined under a glistening coat. His features were strong. Even his scent was virile. Silver barely had to glance to see that this stallion was the complete package. This avatar of masculinity set the tray down before Celestia then prancing away.

Celestia noticed Silver's wide eyes and smiled gently. "These are my dreams. Even I'm allowed to enjoy my own dreams, am I not?"

Luna snorted softly. "Of course, Sister. You're just confusing Silver."

Celestia reached out and stroked the befuddled snout of Silver. "You'll understand when you get older. Ah... since you're both here. I will need you both to be ready for a trial in three days. Twilight Sparkle has turned herself in for a most grave crime."

Silver cringed and recoiled at once. "What? She fell asleep just next to me a moment ago."

Luna tilted her head. "I do presume Princess Twilight Sparkle has been given time to gather witnesses. What is the crime?"

Celestia pointed at Silver. "The slaying of your unborn foal, and the unsafe release of extreme war magic. Both serious crimes."

Silver banged the table with a hoof. "Celestia! Really?! How could you do this to Twilight?"

Celestia exploded in light and heat, the table turning to ash as she leaned forward. "Do not presume to lecture me here." The heat and light suddenly faded away. "As I said, Twilight gave herself up. It was entirely her initiative. I would rather not have this proceeding at all, but Twilight will not rest until she faces judgment."

Author's Note:

Welcome to Luna's world! Sleeping minds are very bad at typing. I think typos are born here.

Comments

[Istaran]

"It will be thankful work that most will not remember you rendering. "
Should be thankless.
Or rather it should be thankful, but will be thankless.

[Nataniel]

Celestia exploded in light and heat, the table turning to ash as she leaned forward. "Do not presume to lecture me here."

I wonder when will Silver screw her gentle pony mind with most concentrated Humanity™ he could gather. She's old and seen had fair share of shit.
He's a human.
Our history is a bloody nightmare.
Our medicine is a bloody nightmare.
Here, some painkillers so you won't die from shock while you're getting carved up. Now throw in some stitches and bandages, then you go heal all on your own.
We travel places by power of thoudands of small explosive per minute.
How we prevent our kids from getting bad lethal germs? We just give those germs to them so their bodies can get sick a bit and literaly destroy those germs from that point on.
We have weapons that works like "pow! This city and all those millions of people that lives in it exist no more".
When do we advance our science the best? During the war.
We have fun by being terrified.
Horror makes us either freeze in place and become a prey or go berserk and royally screw everything, filling our veins with adrenaline, emptying our brains of unnecessary thoughts, niceties and that thin layer of culture we have and releasing the primeval beast that conquered our world with all it's dangers. We were nothing but a bunch if monkeys. Now we're the rulers. Sure, our rule is crappy, but here we are, we survived, we adapted, we got shit done.

Human supremacy.

Sorry, can't get over my attitude towards Celestia and Luna in this story.

You ran away, not I. You gave up on me...

She better shut her god damn piehole.

[harts fire]

some how I have a feeling that this was Silver Stars talent or calling in life the hole time.
but now that Silver knows the truth how will she help twilight ? and will twilight ask for help?

Harts Fire

[David Silver]

5891683 Dream walking or saying the wrong thing?

[harts fire]

5891696
Dream walking I think she will be really good at it.
Silver has a huge amount of magic to start with and now as a alicorn she I am guessing is close to the same level as Twilight.
but and here is the difference as I see it Silver is a Lunar alicorn in time she Silver will be stronger but that will be centrays down the road.

[David Silver]

5891724 Lunar unicorns are inherently better than solar ones? Twilight and Rarity would be offended.

[harts fire]

5891749
Twilight and Rarity would be offended?
hum I do not see Silver as the kind of pony to brag or strut her being above pony's just the other end I see Silver going out of her way to help pony's with her new ability.

[David Silver]

5892209 That she would try to do, likely!

[harts fire]

5892220
this is going to tack some special lessons from Luna it is way to easy to heart a pony in dream walking.

[Alzrius]

"I feel I should warn, dreams are no kind place.

There should probably be a "you" after "warn."

"She was being hung! What the heck! Do they even do that in Equestria?"

While the normal past-tense version of "hang" is "hung," when specifically referring to the method of execution it is "hanged."

Her eyes turned on Silver. "I wondered if sister's lunar talents would rub off on you. Are you enjoying dreamwalking?"

In this context, you'd capitalize "sister," since she's using it as a name.

[David Silver]

5893764 Fixed up like a dream!

[Alzrius]

5893841 So Silver shares Luna's dreamwalking now that she's become an alicorn. I confess myself a tiny bit disappointed that her (apparent) signature alicorn power is a carbon copy of Luna's, rather than being something original, or perhaps a unique variant of Luna's ability. Given that Silver is similar, yet different, from Luna, she should have had her own particular twist on that ability.

As it stands, this all but guarantees that Silver and Luna will be having some sort of running romantic affair in the future. There's really no way it can be avoided at this point - they're going to spending virtually every night in an extremely private setting, letting old and unresolved feeling simmer; how could it not result in anything other than a tryst? That's especially the case given that Luna is still pining for those that she lost, and Silver is too much of a bleeding heart not to respond that level of pain and longing.

Insofar as Luna is concerned, she still seems to be maintaining her victim mentality regarding the loss of her loved ones, which speaks to her immaturity regarding relationships. Yes, Silver and Night are the ones who ran out on her, but she doesn't seem to realize that there was a reason that they did that. While Luna has made reference to wondering what she could have done differently, she doesn't seem to have seriously contemplated what she did that drove Silver away from her. As with most failed relationships, there's blame to go around, but until they sit down and hash it out, nothing's going to be resolved.

Of course, it's possible that I'm overestimating how much they need to go back and reconcile with their past, rather than simply moving past it. Simply put, Silver has changed. I'm not sure how much she's changed in terms of her weak personality - and make no mistake, that's a major flaw in how she approaches life - but she's still grown. Silver was at her worst before, with her suicide attempt, which seemed to bring out the worst in Luna. I don't think that it was coincidental that Silver's greatest moment of weakness seemed to bring out Luna's most overbearing tendencies, from changing Silver's status to a lunar unicorn and being untruthful about her "pregnancy" to not bothering to fight when Celestia and Twilight were flagrantly violating Silver's sexual identity, and that that was when things fell apart. If Silver can show more of a spine, then Luna might be able to regard her as more of an equal - especially now that Silver is a princess - and maybe this time it could work.

Of course, that's all speculative at this point, and certainly doesn't address how the rest of the herd would deal such a situation, but it's interesting to contemplate.

Celestia's dream was entirely self-indulgent of her, which is sort of the nature of lucid dreams, but it still left a bad taste in my mouth simply because that's how Celestia tends to act all the time in this fic. She was upset about being chastised there? Celestia, you don't allow anypony to chastise you anywhere, be it in the waking world or the dream world. You're an iron hoof with a velvet horseshoe on it.

It's that attitude that makes me realize what Silver's next challenge is going to be, and that's Celestia. Like it or not, Silver's princess status has thrust her back into the realm of politics, and this time she's on (near-)even hoofing with Celestia and Luna. While we've never truly hashed out what happens in the event if a political conflict between princesses (especially in the same kingdom), I suspect we're about to find out, simply because now Silver has the political clout to stand up to Celestia directly. Silver may not want a war, but she now has the status to meddle with Equestria at even the very highest of levels, and for the first time can challenge how things work without from a top-down, rather than bottom-up, position.

The intrigue that Silver was involved in as an ambassador was nothing compared to what's about to happen.

[David Silver]

5894476 I think you may like the next chapter (or not, I can never entirely tell!)

I was happy that Silver was forthright in her dealings with Luna, not hiding, skirting, or avoiding the issues at hoof. Their feelings are being thrown out for both of them to dig into and gently push past. Both have hangups, and both have simmering feelings for one another. Perhaps they'll work through to a happy resolution, or at least they'll put animosity gently aside and accept one another as they are. It doesn't hurt that Silver's herdmates have very little against Luna overall and aren't likely to get furious about them working side-by-side.

As for Silver's talents, there's still plenty of room for divergence. All I've shown so far is that Silver has the basic suite of dream manipulation. She may yet have a differing purpose in the dream world. Nightmare patrolling is what Luna knows, and what she shows, but it may not be Silver's calling.

[Vadelent]

Sleeping human minds can't read at all so that would indeed explain a lot of typos... Not sure about sleeping pony minds but it is probably safe to assume they work in a similar fashion.

[Luckyfanisaac]

1.) Fast was worthy of cuddles no matter what parts they had.
they?

2.) Her eyes turned on Silver. "I wondered if Sister's lunar talents would rub off on you. Are you enjoying dreamwalking?"

Misspelled:dream walking is two words
Tired of saying Correction.

3.) His muscles were well defined under glistening coat.

Grammar Error: His muscles were well defined under a glistening coat.

4.) Silver banged the table with a hoof. "Celestia! Really?! How could you do this to Twilight?"

Celestia exploded in light and heat, the table turning to ash as she leaned forward. "Do not presume to lecture me here." The heat and light suddenly faded away. "As I said, Twilight gave herself up. It was entirely her initiative. I would rather not have this proceeding at all, but Twilight will not rest until she faces judgment."

Is Celestia yelling or talking in a stern voice? To me it seems like she would angrily yell "Do not presume to lecture me here."

[David Silver]

6739047 Typos fixed, and she spoke sternly, but did not yell. Celestia rarely needs to yell.

[Cursed Quill]

the noose went taught,

taut

[Boulder]

5892226 Viewing a troubled dream is one thing, knowing the right way to help them overcome it is another.