The Woe of Aftermath

by Twisted and Warped

Chapter 2

Alone in the library, Celestia stood reading a book floating before her. As the pages magically turned by themselves, she looked at it in disappointment, threw it aside, and let another book float in front of her. This one was small, smaller than her hoof. With no title or author, she curiously opened it. The only sentence read, 'The secrets of dreams can only be revealed by the dreamer.' The rest of the pages were blank. Again disappointed, the book was thrown aside.

As another book floated in front of her, a door opened. In walked a green unicorn, a mare with one blue star as a cutie mark. She stood in the doorway for a few seconds staring at the princess. Then she turned her attention to the pile of books on the ground.

"Hello Adell!" said Celestia smiling.

"Good morning princess," Adell replied, "how long have you been here?"

"I am not sure, at least an hour."

"Are you looking for something?"

"Yes. Last night I was getting ready to sleep. When I was lying in my bed, I began to hear strange noises that no other pony could hear."

"That is strange. Is this the first time you heard this noise?"

"Yes. I am terrified that it will return again tonight."

"If this is the first time, then you should not be worried. Maybe there is something bothering you. Having to rebuild Equestria may be getting to your head."

As she finished saying that, a guard walked in.

"Princess, you are needed in the Main Hall," the guard said.

She followed the guard out of the library, leaving the books on the ground. As she entered the Main Hall, a large group of ponies began to shout at her. Unprepared for this, the princess jumped back. All of the ponies were shouting at her so she could not hear what they were mad about.

"Can everypony calm down so I can help you?" Celestia said. The crowd became quiet to hear the princess. "What is the problem?"

"All of the cities in Equestria are destroyed!" somepony shouted.

"Your rebuilding plan is not working!" shouted another.

A few more ponies began to shout, then all of them. The mob was now even more angry.

"I realize how much destruction was left behind by this war. However, it only just ended. All of the cities will be rebuilt. How long it will take is anypony's guess," said the princess.

There was a few more hours of Celestia talking with the ponies. Every once in a while they would all start yelling again. She had already cancelled all of her meetings that day, which proved to be a bad choice. At that moment, she decided to take Adell's advice and not let one incident bother her. Promising more involvement with rebuilding, the mob finally dispersed.

By then it was a bit past three in the afternoon. Celestia returned to the library with her head low. She looked around for the books she had left there, but they were nowhere to be found. Quickly looking around, she saw Adell reading at a table.

"Hey, Adell. Did you do something with the books that were here before?" Celestia said.

"No, I did not. Maybe one of the librarians saw the mess and put the books back. However, the only book they left was that small one, over there," she said pointing at a book on the ground.

It was the same small book as before. On the ground, it was open to a page with a different sentence than before. This time it read 'Nothing could help a dreamer, but the dream.' Confused by the meaning, she tried to find the other sentence. Flipping through the pages, they were all blank again. There was no trace of any words or pictures. She set it down and began to look for the other books. After a few hours passed, Celestia was only able to find a few of the books she had
earlier. By now it was almost eight at night. The tired princess exited the library forgetting about everything that happened the night before.

Dragging herself to her room, she felt somepony was passing her on the stairs. It felt real to her, but looking back to an empty hall, all Celestia could do was sigh and walk on. It was still early, but she had to rest. Asking the guards to once again block the hall to those passing by, she could feel her energy draining fast. Finally in her room, she quickly fell asleep, to a nightmare.

On a summer day, Celestia sat alone at a long table in the forest. The table was set for twelve ponies, but served only one. Happily looking around as if the vacant seats were full, she poured tea in all of the cups at the table. The sun shone through the trees in a cloudless blue sky. Birds of all sorts were singing in the trees. There was never a more perfect day for a casual party in the forest.

Celestia stood up to propose a toast to the empty seats. However, the grass crunched when she stepped on it. The once soft, green grass was now yellow. Flying away the birds have stopped chirping. The rabbits and squirrels fled in fear. The leafs on the trees turned to brown and black. Finally, the sky turned red with the setting sun and rising moon.

While the moon was rising, she felt the mare looking down at her. The inescapable eyes followed the princess as she ran from the table. The moon stopped rising when it reached the center of the sky. With the sun gone, it dominated everything else she saw. She stopped to stare at its presence.

Hovering over Celestia, the moon began to crack like glass. It started small, but it was branching out, growing larger. Eventually the moon shattered in the sky, its pieces turning to daggers as they fell down at the princess. Once again she ran, or tried to. They were too fast for her.

Suddenly, all on them flew past her and dug into the ground in front of her. They formed the shape of the mare on the moon. Stopped, she looked at the figure. The hilts of the daggers began to smoke, and they caught fire. It moved to the grass, then the trees. She turned to run, but everything behind her was on fire too. All around, the blaze began to creep closer.

The suffocating smoke made her curl up on the ground, helpless.

Celestia woke up breathing heavily.