Philía
Cadance was always young in her dreams.
The worlds that sprung from her slumber were shining with facets of exuberance that only lurked in the laugh lines of her face in the waking world, and the light of her eyes when she was excited.
There, I saw her and how short her curls were, for they only brushed her jaw. Now, they were as I had known them: long and sweeping, without any graying strands or evidence of dyes in her mane and the sweep of her tail. Though, I had truly become very used to seeing it done up in the Crystal Headress and other Crystalline fashions over the centuries.
I smiled and hummed as dream-winds caressed my face. Dreams varied across Equestria, and the more creative and wondrous, and vivid always struck some fond chord in my heart. While those never meant to be spoken of were of a far more sordid nature, I always shunned those happily for the ones that meant anything at all: wishes, hopes, adventures, and all the workings of the mind. There was so much to be known in all other dreams. Centuries of combating and unraveling nightmares since my return have given me the thrill of battle that is absent in the extended peacetime I have ruled; not that I am ungrateful for such a thing.
Cadance's laugh is sometimes far too much like the lightest of songs. Her flight is a dance across the most vivid and whimsical of dream-skies, and is all that paints her dreamscape tonight. Under my hooves is naught but some variety of crystallized mist that supports me as a chilly wind teases my dark feathers. I sigh and smile, allowing myself peace in such a dream. When I first discovered and tapped into the dream-magic that earned me my second domain as a goddess, I was still new to the Equestria my sister had maintained for so long. Still quite the shadow-princess then — because then I truly held only the rank of a princess — I found it thrilling to find something beyond lucid dreams within my mind.
As my body snored, the tugs of many minds would call to me like strings are pulled, and though I was constrained to my own mind then, roaming the enjoyable puzzles that were my thoughts, I learned that I could answer these calls.
Sometimes, I did not have the chance to roam about my dreamscape of the evening first and ponder such a thing, but to wake up in a foreign dream. In those cases, I had to roam about — a nightly adventure awaited me — and determine what the dream was. This included the lay of it, the whereabouts of the dreamer, and the nature of the dream.
Even now, I was rarely tugged into any dreams that were not created by the minds of children. Thus, my worries about walking into dreams of a more foul adult nature were often in vain. The dreams of fillies and colts across Equestria were filled with so many wonders that so many adults were barren of, and how could such a thing be anything but delightful to me? I was a mare who thrived on wonders, and my own daughter did too, in her own way.
In Canterlot, my form lay sleeping; a wing draped over my husband who I knew slept next to me. In the Crystal Palace, the form of my dear friend slept alone in her bed too, sheets bunched up on the other side. I knew they would be white or blue. They always were. Cady always hugged them close, too.
And here we were.
Sticking my tongue out, I caught a couple of crisp snowflakes on my tongue, feeling the sudden coolness of them melting.
"This is a lovely dream that your mind has produced!" I called above her laughing and the gusty, whipping winds that bit past my coat in the most refreshing way.
Lavender eyes find me and Cadance smiles before careening into a snowdrift of her dreams. I wince on instinct, when I first knew Cadance she was engaged and planning her wedding. Crashing into a snowdrift in the waking world, a fool's smile upon her face, was something she could brush off then. And Shining Armor would scoop his demigod empress out of the snow... and how they had laughed! The widow I knew with a paler coat and streaks of silver in those curls, and more than a few coughs caught in her lungs and gripping those ribs of hers. Still, she rarely forgot to preen. Her eyes were still clear, except when she tried to remember all the little things that never really stuck with her any longer.
Cadance's mind was not the eternal steel trap of the divine. I helped remind her of the name of her in-laws, that Blueblood had passed many years before, and 'the meanest maid she ever had' was named Gleaming Tulip and died in the 322nd year of her rule over the now independent Crystal Empire.
"Luna!" Her melodic voice was cheerful. "No nightmares in Equestria tonight, eh?"
I chuckled lightly. "None that require my attention."
Cadance had little chance to respond further. In life, those ribs of hers were so frail now. Here she had the standard lean physique that her youth had granted her. Oh yes, Cadance certainly had the prolonged young appearance that being a demigod lent her. Now, she looked like any senior-aged mortal, with only the luck of aging gracefully enough... her forehooves were clumsy. She simply could not work the strings of her bass any longer, at least not by hoof. She had been crushed then; one of the first things that she ever told me was that she was capable of skillfully playing bass guitar without magic, which was not an ordinary feat.
It was only in dreams that I could give her hugs that threatened her very anatomy. Her ribs might as well have been butter for how I impacted her, and pulled her into the merciless grip of a goddess, forever doomed to out-crush any mortal (or immortal, admittedly) that I held dear in the most ferocious of hugs.
Cady was wheezing horribly, choking and gasping on dream air for dear life as she screamed unintelligible syllables between the harsh sounds.
I only nuzzled her. "Happy early birthday!"
...
The last echo of Cadance's hacking cough died in my ears at last. I worried a little. She was my first, only, and dearest friend. This was a dream, and in it, she could endure no harm. Silence probes thoughts of the known alternative. Were Cady and I awake, I would have wounded her. My own friend. She tells me I have always been the stronger, and I do not say otherwise. Of us, I hold a strength she does not. She is sunny and often dependable, and her laugh is as light as my sister's was, but light fades one day, always. I do not ever mourn light passing into the comfort of darkness, but Cadance is something special.
She's smiling at me.
"Thanks for the well-wishes and surprise, Luna." I accept her friendly nuzzle with a smile of my own. The gesture was a rare one from me, no matter how many centuries passed. Such a dear friend like Cady saw my smiles and all displays of camaraderie that the vast majority of my subjects went their entire lives without seeing, and would die never knowing.
"Will there be anything planned for your fantastic 648th birthday that I shall be hearing about?" Oh, her smile was infectious! My own grin was bright and plain for her to see too. "Or will I have to wait until we can finally celebrate together?"
Cadance's birthday had since become one of the Empire's most joyous holidays, alongside the ancient Crystal Faire, and a few Equestrian ones that were adopted during their time as a colony, like Family Appreciation Day and Hearts and Hooves Day. Other winter festivals had been quick to catch on in such a wintery land, being sown alongside native celebrations. Though, national holidays in Equestria like Hearth's Warming and Nightmare Night never caught on.
The worst part about Cadance's birthday — Empress Day, to her Crystalline subjects — is that she can never celebrate it with the family she still has. Cadance must embark to Equestria days after her country's celebrations have wrapped up, visiting my husband and me, and Twilight Sparkle separately before her departure.
We're all the family she has left, but we laugh and cry together, a family after all this time. Though, I'm not sure about what her relationship with Twilight Sparkle has been like recently, since I hardly ever encounter the Princess of Friendship unprofessionally, thank goodness. Centuries did little favor for the extended royal family. All of us had been like trees planted within a too-crowded orchard; having some of us uprooted and placed where we could breathe and speak our minds with those more like us, to have greater peace, was only inevitable. Only when we severed ourselves from one another was there any peace between us. Still, Cady held her sister-in-law as kin no matter what they disagreed on. Perhaps that was much as of late, and perhaps it was nothing at all.
Personally, I wished not to go back to the time when all three of us were but saplings, growing under the shadow of Celestia's wings. Then, each of us was 'encouraged' not to crawl beyond the umbra of their shadow or to reach beyond the limit of her feathers. Our roots were all tangled, and we were better off divided and forming our own families as time went on. I certainly was; they are my respite.
Cady giggled, and any pretense of wisdom — age-induced or otherwise — vanished and was replaced with timeless mirth. "A surprise sounds too tempting! I'll be sure to bring something special for your little filly, too!"
In a mock act of surprise, I pulled away, gasping with my mouth in an astonished 'o' and a forehoof brought up to hide it in a sudden movement. "Nonsense! It is your birthday!"
Cadance stuck out her tongue and swatted at my mane with a forehoof. "If you're gonna be that way, fine. And here I thought you were a fun mom."
I punched her wither, and she squeaked slightly in her old-mare surprise while I grinned. Not even in play was a goddess' strength to be underestimated! "I am, in fact, the jolliest and most fun of mothers, my dear Cady."
"With the grouchiest of husbands," she laughed, pawing at the mist with a forehoof.
I plucked at a feather with my telekinesis and she yelped. "Shush! Do not speak ill of the husband-creature!"
She made a very undignified snerk. "He's a creature alright."
I pouted evilly in retaliation. "A fine creature!"
Cadance smiled a simple content smile, and sat upon the dreamscape ground, stirring mist and sighing happily. "It's really nice here," she whispered.
I need not doubt her. Such a tranquil place was more than simply nice. That word was cursed with banality and meaninglessness. Cadance had largely consistent dreams, as most ponies did, but it was always enjoyable whenever I had the chance to visit her dreams. The repetition in most mortal dreams was painfully dull.
As we stood together, feather tips brushing against each other's lightly, I felt Cady bump a wither against mine. Though I was always taller than her, we were of a similar height that the gesture still worked, no matter how much I stood above the attainable height of any pony.
"Close your eyes," she whispered giddily.
I did, and pricked my ears for the soft sound of her movements. There was the sound of feathers, not a single hoofstep. If I strained my ears, I could nearly feel the twinkle of magic aura in my presence.
Magic within one's dream was not as it seemed, nor something that most ponies could do, if at all. Few seemed to grasp that dreams were not malleable to any but I, or that they followed none of the physical requirements of the magic and world external of the dreamer. Fewer still, especially those past foalhood dream up worlds that are more than an instinctual projection of what they know when awake. Such a thing was a dreadful default coat upon their dreamscape. As a demigod, Cadance was more than aware that to alter anything of her dream, it took skill — which she had clearly been practicing — and great emotion. The dreamer shaping dreams as she was, and not I, was one of the few magics that could really depend on emotion alone.
There was the soft blow of something like wind, and a fond noise of acknowledgment from Cady.
"Psst, Luna," Cady's voice hisses, "You can open your eyes now."
I was greeted with the sight of brilliant lights and many ghosts.
Cadance had grouped mist and light into the outlines of her departed loved ones. Her horn dimmed, but there was still a peculiar glow about the vague phantoms. And yet, even with their vagueness, there were details that shined through it all.
There was the outline of a slim pegasus mare I knew so easily. Skyla stood with the same coolness she had in life, her coy demeanor as intact as the tiara woven into her dark curls, and a small, pleasant hint of a smirk on her muzzle. Though a motionless apparition, the eyes of tall Skyla were as sharp as I recalled them to be. I half-expected some quick quip to come snaking out of the former Crystal Queen's mouth. A quick pang of longing to hear this mare's laugh, to see her smile, and watch the calculating look in her eyes glitter came over me. I had only eighty-six years with Somber Skies, a mare with the cold looks of the Arctic where she lived and the unwavering loyalty of her father. Though, all her frostiness did not come from them, even if her nickname did.
I missed her dearly. Cady smiled so wonderfully at the sight of this creation, letting out a breath I hadn't realized she held. Few missed Skyla more than Cadance, for what mother would not long to see her deceased daughter?
"Very impressive," I said levelly, voice low.
Letting my gaze roam, I spotted other familiar faces: Cadance's in-laws, whose names I never knew and I never met; Crystalline friends whose faces I knew most of. There was also staff she recalled fondly, but it was only by their constructed uniforms I knew them to be such. I spied visages of further descendants, each one showing somepony who had stood by me once more recently than the last. Though not an eternal creature as I am, Cadance saw many of her daughter's foals and grandfoals rule her beloved empire, and accepted the then-retired Empress as a trusted advisor. With each one, her pegasus wings and Shining Armor's unicorn horn became mostly recessive traits. The Crystalline eyes, hardiness, and coats that began to show all more prominently on each pony in her line, with only the rare sight of wings or a horn a clear sign of intermingling bloodlines.
Not everypony's image was rendered so well by the curls of mist and magic. I could plainly see that the outlines of those that must have been long-gone foalhood friends. Their features were terribly unclear; I knew only by their size that they were foals. Other more adult forms could have been anypony to her — past teachers, Canterlot acquaintances, and old sweethearts peppered the dreamscape around me, conjoined with whorls of mist and crystalline flickers of light.
Cadance beamed at them. She beamed at me. And really, she should be proud of herself for this display. This did not mean that there wasn't something naive about how she eyes these dream-figments. What she saw was different from how I beheld them in that, to her, even the more misshapen were perfect in her mind's eye... or as perfect as she could make them. Her foggy memory was the same reason such faces were blurred by time. She could forget such things and ponies in ways I couldn't understand.
I pitied her a bit for it, though I can't say I would ever tell her such a thing. Perhaps one day from now, when we sit together stars know where, and she sips iced coffee —still insisting that the foul liquid isn't so bad even after all my centuries of refusal — she will prod me out of some daydream and into a conversation about the alien feeling of such profound memory loss.
Alien, at least, to me.
Like Sykla and the rest of Cadance's bloodline, there were three other forms that could not, would not fade. I caught sight of what was meant to be an earth pony mare with the solid stature of anypony who had spent time in the military, even if her misty body was not a youthful cadet's, but one more matronly. The forehoof of this apparition was entwined with an earth pony stallion, with a build much slighter and more average than his constructed companion. These were two ponies I had met but a few times in life, but I knew Cadance's parents enough for their faces to stand out to me.
The third was somepony I most certainly knew, more extended family than a friend, I had some liking for the stallion that subtly stole the show of these stilled specters of memory. With the magic of Cady, her Shiny was re-imagined as the ruling Prince of their Empire he had been in life. His face was not the youthful soldier-to-royal's I had first known him as. He appeared before me as the matured, bearded Crystalline ruler who was more than well-adjusted to his position and terribly fond of sporting events. His form was adorned with vapory hints of all the formalwear Cadance found handsome on him, and a wide smile that rarely left his muzzle.
And of course, Cady simply could not look away from any of her work.
Especially Shining Armor.
"All of it is lovely," I told her, voice a whisper, "and you've really been looking to show me this display for how long?"
Cadance shook her head slightly in a clear effort to rein in her thoughts. "Umm, a while. Definitely a while. Lucid dreaming is actually really hard on its own. This... this was nuts."
I laughed, and let the light sound sweep out in this delightfully unpopulated space Cadance and I occupied. Even ghosts were no more than that in the comfort of solitude, whether it be that of dreams or in waking hours. "You pulled this off wonderfully. It is lovely to know that after all these years talking your ears off about dreams, you thought to do this."
Two pink forelegs had me wrapped in an abrupt embrace, because no matter her age, Cady's exuberance was so clear to those close to her.
"Thank you!" she chirped, pulling away to stare at me with those light eyes of hers and a bright smile, one that shone like the wispy images of her dearly departed loved ones. One hoof now ran through her candy-colored curls in a gesture of awkwardness, but clearly relished in her restored old style as well.
"Your efforts in magic, and all the dreamscapes of mine you've shown me and guided me through... after a while, it's more than a bit inspiring, yah? I'm no dream goddess, but just tapping into things a little of what I could do..."
The same forehoof waves around a curl, batting it, and teasing it as she rambles — and how aware of it she is, for I can't help but laugh softly.
"And you did quite well! You truly ought to be proud." I light my horn, and turquoise aura steadily flows forth. However, spiraling the grooves of my horn were threads of bright, gorgeous white — my dream magic.
Ghosts fell away, dispersing into a mist that mingled back to what it was. That certainly was not like any true ghost, for no spirit of the dead that I had ever known was like these mere figments.
Light lingered on my horn, even after they had gone. I stepped toward Cadance and clapped a lean foreleg of my own around her withers, under her curls. My smile was not commonly seen by any outside the family I had carefully grown over the years. All others were usually faced with cooler expressions, but never Cadance. She saw a congratulatory smile spread across my muzzle. "Consider your efforts approved by the only mare in the world capable of dream magics when I say that you have done good, aye?"
Before she could reply, I pulled her into my strong grip and ruffled her curls with my free forehoof, hearing her make a startled whinny. "But, no matter your pegasus heritage, I still do not think you can out-fly me! Come, be challenged! Let us not squander such a fine dream!"
This one might be a bit of a feel trip. Future Luna is fun to write. Keeping details kinda brief had a neat air of mystery to it, and was kinda fun, but it mostly helps set up standalone stuff like this. And there will be more Skyla when I can get Enemy of Mine to update again, and that story line rolling once more. Words, words, words, basically.
This one has four parts, and this one was released far earlier than expected because of a friend's birthday! I didn't have time to write anything new, but he likes Luna and Cady! 
Go check out his stuff, also.
Philía is one of the four Greek words for love, and describes the love between friends.
[Revised for print on 11/29/2020]
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Unless you decided to have Flurry Heart have siblings, Skyla shoudn't exist. With Luna being the p.o.v. caharcter, I couldn't make heads or tails of this history up till now.
Just that Twilight is still around, and that's about all I got that isn't Love butt related.
9095403
Twilight is still around, yes. The alicorns drifted apart somewhat over the centuries, which was made clear, and tend to have their own family units. As for Flurry? I've never written her or used her in writing. It's kinda apparent in the story. And yes, lots and lots of Lovebutt.
Thanks for reading!
aight, finna read this when I get home from dinner in a bit
9096001
eyyy
9096160
I mean, this is true.
This is the best thing I've ever read from you. It honestly hurt my heart. Why'd you write me something so sad for my birthday, what the fuck?
I cannot wait for you to write more of this. Thank you.
9096291
Well, this was what I had to release. I'm glad you enjoyed it! I'm already working on the third chapter, so updates will flow. The second is just waiting to be released when I so choose.
If you think that this is the best thing I've written, oh boy~
My words have much in store for you.
9096297
It's the thing that has made me feel the most, honestly, and on top of that the way it's written is... pure perfection. There might be spelling errors or something at some point, but the emotion that it conveys in such little space, and how much time elapses in what is clearly just a few minutes, is honestly astonishing. Pls write more of this.
9096304
There will most certainly be more of this. I'm glad it made you feel feelings more than most feels.
And there's no spelling errors. I checked. > : (
I’m liking this so far! The first few paragraphs in particular were really good--the story had hardly started, and yet the identity of the narrator was established very concretely. And while I’ve always been a bit ambivalent towards the characters here, I think the moments that were meant to tug on the heartstrings did their job fairly nicely just the same
Hoping to see more of this soon
9096687
There will be more soon! I'm glad that the writing was so effective too!
9097606
Hrm? Oh, there's nothing else.
This chapter does a great job of conveying subtle emotion and detail. These passages are one of the best examples of it.
Stepping out of Celestia's shadow seems to be a theme in your 'verse for the other alicorns. Also, I see what you did there.
Great worldbuilding here, albeit in an unconventional way. Cadance not being fully immortal and thus declining mentally and physically makes sense. There's a almost wistful yet beautiful sadness here during the figure-creation sequence. It made for a soothing read.