• Published 22nd Jul 2012
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A Dream of Dawn - Starsong



What if Luna won against Twilight? What happens when Discord comes back?

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The Faraway Stars are Singing

Nightmare Moon

Nightmare Moon's journey continued across the fields, and once in a while Apple Bloom and her friends would tire, and she would allow them to rest. The truth of the matter was, though, that she was also finding herself exhausted more easily and drawn deep into the realm of dreaming.

In most of her dreams she merely found herself among the stars, and played with the quiet shimmering things, setting them this way or that as delighted her at the time. Even these peaceful moments unsettled her though, for the endless silent glow of the cosmos reminded her too much of her imprisonment in the moon, her body trapped in the stasis of sleep and her mind dulled to contemplate herself (and her vengeance) without the certainty of returning to freedom.

It puzzled her, then, when she fell into her nightly visions and found herself standing upon cracked and arid ground. Wilted flowers created a spiral outwards towards the orange crease of the horizon. But all the world from there seemed to be nothing but a wasteland.

“Were our dreams ever not our own?” she wondered to herself as she followed the trail of flowers outwards. She was the lady of the night. Ruler of dreams and nightmares. Anything should have been within her grasp, there in the realm of her own mind.

She leaned down and touched one of the flowers with a hoof, bidding it to turn to crystal. But instead it withered into dust and fell to ground, absent of any wind. A jolt of panic shot through her as she realized that she was no longer in control of her mind. The barren landscape encircled her and and ran desperately, looking for an escape.

And then, in another moment, she found herself in front of a pool of water emitting a wintery chill, contrast to the wasteland climate. She bent and looked at her reflection and saw her own face there, iron helmet braced on her face. How war-like... she thought, sucking in her lip. She raised her hooves and pulled it off, setting it on the ground beside her. Her hair uncoiled and fell about her mane, flickering like the night.

Princess Luna put her hoof on the helmet from the other side. “If only it were that easy,” she said.

Nightmare Moon turned her head and leered at her phantasmal self. While her reflection would not appear in the water, she nonetheless sat there and persisted. “I suppose this is your doing,” she said.

“If you're going to complain about your free will, you have a lot of nerve,” said Luna. “We are bound by the same journey. We are merely traveling different paths.”

A twinge of dark magic flickered through Nightmare Moon but she let it slip along the water's edge and dissipate. “Fine. But why bring us here? There is nothing left.”

Princess Luna dug her hooves into the ground and flicked her wings back. “Bring you here? This is the world you helped create. This is just the first time you've ever seen it.”

“Another trick,” said Nightmare Moon, placing her head on top of her hooves, hoping that she would soon wake and the dream would end.

“Are you going to keep telling yourself that until you are absolutely alone?”

Nightmare Moon lifted her head to retaliate but was interrupted by the sound of the earth being churned, like a deep, rolling roar that nearly bowled them over. The ground shook and they both looked up. A great scaled coil of a beast fell from either side of the sky and scrapped the ground, wrenching and squeezing it, tearing up bits of dirt.

“And what is this?” Nightmare Moon demanded, but when she looked over, Luna was gone. She sighed and whisked her helmet up with her magic, donning it again. “Of course you run away again. You always do.”

The beast groaned and twisted, and its body crashed towards Nightmare Moon. She leapt out of the way, and flew through the rising cloud of dust. The beast continued to strangle the very land itself. She could not see beginning nor end to it. Running seemed useless. She closed her eyes and tried as hard as she could to awaken.

Please, please make it stop... She shuddered as the deafening roar filled her ears again.

The grinding filled her ears until they filled with a dull silence. For a moment she thought herself deaf. But she heard the soft singing voice of a mare. She realized that it was her lullaby. Her own promise, being sung by another mare. Her eyes snapped open and met with the white, harsh light of the sun.





Nightmare Moon flinched and covered her face. When she removed her hoof again, the singing had stopped and the sun hung in its place in the sky, just setting into night. The dream passed and left her lucid in the golden fields once more.

Apple Bloom and her friends peered at her from all around. She sighed and got up onto her hooves, dusting her sides gracefully with her wings.

“Don't you think we should be going already?” Scootaloo bumped past her.

Nightmare Moon flinched at the filly's sudden audacity. “Yes, of course,” she said, resisting a chuckle. “I feel we are close.”

Close to something, at least, thought Nightmare Moon. Her hooves moved automatically. The dream had gotten into her head and stuck there. It'd been forever since she'd been in what one could consider a nightmare. But what stuck with her more than anything was the glare of light seared onto her eyes and the familiarity of the voice she'd heard.

Could it have been her?

Her sister. Even if it was just a figment, she hadn't seen her sister in over a thousand years now. Always she felt just out of reach, like the last warmth of day dwindling into night. Some ponies said that the moon was forever chasing the sun across the sky, and while she knew it to be a silly notion, she could not help but feel as if that may have been her fate.

“Where are we now?” asked Apple Bloom.

Nightmare Moon shook her head clear and looked all around her, finding that the landscape had changed without her notice. The plains rolled away and in their place sprung up old cobbled streets and hedges. They wove through a sprawling garden. Overhead, she could see ancient castle walls stretching towards the heavens, rivaling the beauty of the stars with their platinum and amethyst designs. She followed a path with intimate familiarity, her muscles following a memory somewhere she had almost forgotten.

“In lands of old,” she said, and paused to soak it in. "In memories of a kingdom that once was, a land of ponies great and terrible, but most of all the unicorns. But... this cannot be that place. We are still within the world between worlds."

This place exists no longer. So why have we been brought here...?

The sound of laughter caught her off guard. Apple Bloom and her friends stared as she tried to find the source of the sound. She wound through another hedge and found herself at the scene of a most strange gathering. Tucked away in the winding garden roads of the castle town was a cafe of modest size, practically hidden amidst the taller buildings there. Five ponies sat alone around a table, each pouring one another steaming coffee (which a single waitpony occasionally returned to replace, before glancing wistfully between the party and the outer gate, and then stumbling back inside).

“... and then she just laid the poor colt flat on his back! Can you imagine?” A young filly laughed.

“Your sister?” another chimed in. “I don't believe you.”

“Oh, you wouldn't believe half the things I could tell you about her. It certainly keeps it from being too boring in the castle.” The dark mare levitated a bit of cake to her mouth. “Really! Enough about that. How are your studies going?”

Nightmare Moon crept in a bit closer as the ponies chatted, staring at the dark winged pony before her. This is... me...

“Who are these ponies?” asked Apple Bloom. “More dead folks?”

“No,” said Nightmare Moon, then she sighed. “Well. I suppose they are now. But this is a memory of mine from so very, very long ago.”

The three fillies' eyes widened. One of them muttered, “no way,” though she couldn't pick out which one. She was too focused trying to get closer. The ponies didn't seem to notice her approach, so she stole into a place at the table to test the theory. As she did, one of the young fillies spoke to her.

“I keep messing up teleportation,” she said. “And my mentor is grilling me on it tomorrow! I'm totally out of my league here.”

A colt, sitting to Nightmare Moon's right, shook his head. “It's because you keep overthinking it,” he said. “You mess up because you get nervous. Just do it without thinking about it.”

“That's easy for you to say,” muttered the filly. “Mister prodigy in here. You haven't set your mane on fire yet.”

“I have so.”

“It doesn't count when you do it on purpose!” she protested.

The colt flustered and shook his head. “You're still never going to get it with an attitude like that. Moving with magic is just like moving with your muscles. The more you do it the more natural it is. Watch!”

Then a blue field of magic engulfed him and he blinked out of sight for just a moment, before thumping down on his hooves on a table nearby. Everyone jumped at the rattle of silverware. The colt laughed, and then so did the rest of them. A plate of cookies slammed down on the table between them, and the waitpony stormed off into the cafe once more.

“I'd forgotten just how reckless you were,” said Nightmare Moon. “You're quite good. Now get down from there before you cause a scene.”

The colt promptly teleported back into his place at the table and snatched a cookie from beneath the fillies. “I've still got a ton left to learn,” he said. “It's not hard to shine in magic school. But you're in a whole other league, Luna.”

Nightmare Moon's cheeks tinted red. “I've simply had a lot of time to practice,” she said. “You'll be catching up in no time.”

“Horseapples,” said the colt, swiping another cookie. “There's modesty and then there's belittling. You're special. Your magic is beyond that of what even the most powerful unicorns may ever come to know.”

She shrunk into herself a bit. “Even so...”

“If you wanted to, could you bring down a star?” asked the colt. “I'd like to see that.”

Nightmare Moon laughed. “Goodness, no! Could you imagine the damage it would cause?”

“Well, show us something. Even Berry here did a little conjuration with that sugar trick.”

The filly turned her nose up. “The coffee was too bitter,” she said, then after a pause, smiled at Nightmare Moon. “But yes, please show us! I'm sure it will help us understand magic better.”

Nightmare Moon looked up through the lamp light of the cafe and at the stars hanging in the sky above. “Well, alright,” she said. "But just a little." She closed her eyes and exhaled, letting her magic reach out into the cool expanse. It was like dipping into a moonlit spring, chilling and exhilarating all at once. She felt out a cluster of stars and gave them a gentle nudge.

The ponies gasped and stared upwards as the stars swayed across the sky, leaving little silver dust in their wake. She twisted them about until they made the rough shape of a pony and let them settle there.

“Awesome!” said the colt. “Do more!”

Nightmare Moon shook her head. “I can't,” she said. “I'm not supposed to. I'll get in trouble if they catch me messing with the night like that.”

“Oh, well,” said the colt, sighing.

“There's always the Winter Solstice,” said Nightmare Moon. “I can get away with all sorts of things then. And you need to worry about passing your exams. Then we can spend every night like this.”

“Yeah, without having to worry about the stuffy saddles getting onto us,” said the colt.

As if called, two armored guards trotted into the cafe. They nodded back and Celestia followed in between them, her wings up, her eyes filled with cold fury. The waitstaff made a frantic bow. She gave them one look, and then looked away, and then they were gone. Trinity squeaked and vanished in a sudden burst of magic.

Nightmare Moon stared, wide-eyed. Celestia's mane had just taken on its aurora quality, faint streaks of pink still lining beneath it. And she seemed almost small beside the guards, then. But she still commanded a presence that put the fear and reverence into anypony she stood before.

“Sister,” she said. “I am so dissapointed, I don't even...”

“For what?” Nightmare Moon growled. “Spending time with my friends?”

“You are neglecting your duties,” said Celestia. “Again. When you run off like this, I always fear the worst.”

Nightmare Moon stamped her hooves. “I just had a cup of tea and moved a few stars around! I've been to your meetings and I've pleased the ponies you asked me to please. What more do you want?”

“We have more responsibilities than that,” said Celestia. “We are expected to maintain a presence and remain vigilant. Not gallop about partying all night. And certainly not disrupt the cosmos for our own entertainment.”

“Well, you're doing a job keeping me locked up,” Nightmare Moon shot back. “I'm sure you can handle the rest.”

Princess Celestia trembled, her eyes heavy with a day full of trials and now half a night searching for her sister. She had held this argument with her several times before and this time simply turned about. “Come home,” she said, “Please. Before you make a mistake you cannot undo. ”

“I... We...” Nightmare Moon scowled. “Fine.”

She stood up, and hurled a bag of bits at the feet of the waitpony before storming towards the garden. As she went, Celestia turned about and frowned at the remaining colt.

“I expect more of you as well,” she said, leaving him to devour the last cookie in a fit of guilt.





Nightmare Moon willed herself to stop walking. It only occurred to her then that she had been going through the motions, living the moment that her reflection had in the memory. When she came to her senses, all that remained was the empty cafe. The scene had played and only the set remained.

“What was that?” asked Apple Bloom.

“Were those your friends?” added Sweetie Belle.

“You should not have seen that,” said Nightmare Moon, turning away. She walked a few paces before lowering her head. “Yes,” she finally answered, “but that was a long, long time ago.”

The shape of the road changed a little as they wandered up towards the platinum castle. Nightmare Moon stared at each stone beneath her as it passed. Were those the days when I had everything, or just the days when I began to lose them?

Little by little the land changed beneath her. Her lingering thoughts brought her through the gates, past the blank-faced guards and the crowds of staff and nobility. The little fillies followed her and seemed to be caught for once in complete silence. At the one time that she would have preferred otherwise.

The next thing she knew, she was up in one of the towers, sitting before a fireplace. Her eyes blurred as she read scroll after scroll, edict and order and manifesto all churning into one mess of meaningless bureaucratic language. The night held little joy for her then. Her friends had dared to go out less and less as time went on and the pressures of their lives drew them away from her. It seemed at times as if she had only the stars for company.

Her two guards did not flinch as a young stallion blinked into existence in the middle of the room, his presence announced with the shaking of bells. Nightmare Moon dropped her quill in surprise and turned about to face him.

“You can't be in here,” she said, more pleading than scornful.

“Who's to say I can't visit my old mentor?” the stallion smiled wryly. “Besides. I got a letter from Daisy, and I thought you'd want to see it right away.”

The moon itself seemed to brighten in the window as she dropped her work and swept the parchment up from him. “Why didn't you say so in the first place? Oh, let us see!”

She scanned down the page quickly, remembering the skittish mare they'd shared the castle with for several months during her education.

Dear Starswirl,

How have you been? I apologize that it has been months since my last writing. The house of platinum has me working my horn off during the day and my hooves off at night. It turns out that there's a lot of work just waiting for a magic school graduate and some days it feels like I'm the only one willing to do it. But the ponies here are very nice, if a bit more guarded than ones I am used to. I've even met a nice filly named Peach Pie. I hope you have time to visit when your assignments allow you to. Please give my regards to Luna.

Sincerely Yours,

Daisy Blossom

P.S. Please tell me you came to your senses about that abomination you call a beard.

Nightmare Moon turned the letter over and frowned. “Her regards, hm?”

The stallion laughed. “She's just busy,” he said. “Try to imagine what it's like, being constantly bugged to do things by every royal family at each other's necks.”

The pile of untouched parchments loomed from her desk. She folded the letter up and levitated it back to him. “That's not the point. She used to prattle on for pages. Now she sounds so terse and polite. We can just tell that she is growing distant. Forgetting us. Moving on.” She paced in front of the fire and shook her mane. “Berry got assigned to a venture in the north. And I haven't heard from the others in months. Not ever since they went back home.”

The stallion swallowed. “It might seem like that now,” he said, “but we'll always be friends. All of us. I'm sure of it.”

“And what of thou? When were you planning on telling us that you were leaving?”

He flinched so hard he nearly reared back. “Whoa. Going all royal on me are you?”

Nightmare Moon pressured him with her gaze.

“Well,” he said, rubbing the back of his head with a hoof. “I've exhausted the archives and my teachers are starting to get more than a little jealous. And I wouldn't think to ask you or your sister for the time needed to guide me.”

“So your answer is just to leave?” said Nightmare Moon.

“I have to get out in the world,” he said, putting his hooves up. “Please understand. I'm not going away forever. I'll write to you every day. I'll share with you everything I see, everything I learn.”

Nightmare Moon shut her eyes. “It must be nice, having the freedom to come and go as you wish.”

He trotted closer and put a hoof on her shoulder. “There may come a day when you can travel as far as your dreams can take you,” he said. “But until then, let me be your eyes and ears. If you cannot go to the world, let me bring it to you.” When she looked up at him with the hints of tears in her eyes, he laughed and jingled his bells. “May as well do something while I'm learning to be the best unicorn that ever lived.”

Nightmare Moon nodded. “Every day?” she asked.

“Every day,” he said. “Even if for three days I am caught in a perilous battle with a beast of many tentacles, fighting for my life and glory, I will write to you. Even if I wander into realms beyond I will still be beside you. I will, Luna.”

She snorted and laughed. “You have spent too much time in the children's library.”

“Well, it's not my fault you can't stock the archives fast enough to stay fresh.”

They laughed together a while. Then at the sound of another pony approaching the door, he drew back and drew his cape up around himself. “I'd best be off,” he said. “Good luck slaying the mighty scroll.”

She wanted to beg him to stay, but before she could, he blinked away in a poof of magic.



Before she could wrap herself fully around the memory, she was walking again, this time up a mountain slope in the Springtime. It was daylight, an unusual time for her to be awake. But the fatigue in her mind could not beat back the pain in her chest. Celestia walked beside her and offered a little nuzzle.

“I was trying to protect you,” she said. “I've always just wanted the best for you. To make sure you do not get hurt. That's why...”

“I know,” said Nightmare Moon, squeezing her eyes shut. “And yet... it feels like there is nothing you could have done.”

“Do you regret knowing them?”

“No!” said Nightmare Moon. “I could never...”

“As long as you hold them in your heart,” said Celestia, “they will always be with you.”

Nightmare Moon turned away. She'd heard it all before, and yet somehow it irritated her even more hearing it then.

“Ponies grow,” her sister continued as they rose towards the summit. “They change and they wander away from each other, from us. Even if they live as long as they can, it can still feel like a blink of an eye for us.” She trailed off and hung her head. “I'm sorry, sister. It does not get any easier.”

“Then I will always be alone, in the end,” said Nightmare Moon.

“You will always have me,” said Princess Celestia, draping a wing over her shoulder. “And I will never abandon you. No matter what. Nor will those who have loved you. A small part of them will always be with you, and you with them...”

Nightmare Moon pulled away from her sister and galloped ahead. “If this is the way it is always going to be...” she choked back a sob. “I hate what we are. I hate it! I hate... hate...”

She tore off up the hill and Celestia let her go. Applebloom and her friends scrambled to keep up. Nightmare Moon froze when she heard them and they nearly bumped into her from behind.

“What are ya'll talking about?” asked Apple Bloom. “Are you... crying?”

Nightmare Moon squeezed back her tears and shook her head. She could not imagine what to tell the young filly. And the memories were coming back too quickly, too vividly for her to get herself together. “I don't want you to see this,” she said. “Please...”

“But where else are we supposed to go?” asked Apple Bloom. “We can't leave ya'll alone.”

Anywhere else, thought Nightmare Moon. But she would have rather have seen her witness so many of her more embarrassing, more tragic moments than to experience this one again. The realm brought it out of her against her every wish.

She sat at the top of a mountainside overlooking the pony lands. A few orange leaves blew from the nearby trees and drifted towards the castle. In front of her sat a circle of stones and monuments. The place where her old friends had been laid to rest. But all that remained of their smiles, their laughter, their stupid jokes and their weird tastes, now sat in front of her, already struggling against the onslaught of grass and weeds.

The taste of flower stems filled her mouth. She dropped a flower from the bouquet in front of each stone and then curled up between them, her head between her hooves.

“Why are you doing this to me?” she sobbed. The sound startled her, but she could not stop the tears from flowing. She closed her eyes and tightened herself, unfolding her wings to create a canopy. Why...? Is this my punishment? I should not be able to feel a thing. And yet this cloak of darkness does not keep it out.

Apple Bloom and her friends pressed themselves against her sympathetically. But there was nothing she could do to stop it. She was not herself, but herself as she once was, when she fell to tears at the monument to her friends. Unlike the others, the memory would not fade quickly enough.

The tears would not seem to end, but they stilled for a moment as she heard the faint sound of bells.

“I'm sorry. It has been a long time, hasn't it?”

Nightmare Moon opened her eyes. The hill, the monuments, the memories were no more. Instead she lay in a circle of flowers amongst rolling hills. A stallion, dressed in robes and a drooping blue hat, adorned with bells and swirls of all kinds, stood above her. After a moment she recognized him.

“Starswirl...?”

“You have to admit that being dead makes it a little difficult to say hello,” he chuckled. “I hope you understand.”

“Is it really you?” she asked.

“I think so,” he said, stroking his beard. “Well, to be honest, I'm not really sure. Are you really you? Am I really me? Is this my disembodied spirit, or am I merely your memory brought to life? Am I somehow reaching across the cosmos to come to you now? Troublesome, really. Might take me a few minutes to get to the bottom of it.” He chuckled again.

It really was him. It could have been no other. The joy she should have felt, though, was tempered with another sadness. She covered her face with her wings.

“Don't look at us,” she whimpered. “We are horrible. We are a monster.”

Starswirl shook his head and lifted her chin with a ghostly hoof. “You're not a monster, Luna,” he said. “You're my best mentor. Not to mention one of my greatest friends.”

“You do not know what all I have done...”

“I knew the mare you once were,” said Starswirl, giving his beard another stroke. “And there is great darkness in you now. But that is not all there is, hm? You were burdened with a life that no pony should ever have to face. And if Equestria is in one piece, well... I don't suppose you've done too badly.” He sighed and wiped the tears from her face. “A monster would not be moved by this. A monster would not miss her friends so much it was killing her inside.”

Nightmare Moon stood on shaking legs and regarded the apparition of her friend with great longing. “Will you stay with me?”

Starswirl stood next to her and looked up at the sky. “Always. Though it may not be like this. All the stars are yours, and that includes yours truly. So I suppose if you commanded me, I would have to find a way.”

“You're still insufferable.” Nightmare Moon chuckled, though she hated herself a little for doing so.

“I think I am only here because you were calling out to me,” he said, putting a hoof to her chest. “The strength is always within you. And though my time has passed, our friendship has not. As long as that is alive, we still have power. Such is the nature of magic, is it not?”

He then blushed and tugged upon his beard, seeming to bite something down. Nightmare Moon sighed and rolled her eyes. “Say it,” she said.

Starswirl let out a great bellyful of a laugh. “Working great magics from beyond the grave. Am I or am I not the most talented unicorn to ever live?”

“There is one who may give you a run for your bits, in time,” admitted Nightmare Moon, biting her lip. “Oh, don't look at me like I took your last cookie. I'm sure the two of you would get along.”

“I probably would,” agreed Starswirl. The wind came and chimed his bells again and he looked outwards, towards the edge of the garden. “It seems it is time for me to leave you again. You'd best be off before the pale one catches up to you.”

The hair on nightmare moon's neck stood on end and her tail whipped. She looked about, as if expecting the Pale Mare to be watching. “I... yes.” She made as if to depart, and then paused. Pale Mare be damned, she thought. She hefted his ghostly body and gave him a tight squeeze of a hug. “Thank you, my friend,” he said.

She thought he smiled, but it was hard to tell, because he didn't so much fade as simply cease to be there. Then she was on her way again, the grass tickling her heels.

The three fillies stopped and seemed to speak in unison. “Are you going to be okay?”

Nightmare Moon beckoned them onward. “I think so, children.”