Shadow Seeds

by Orsuros

Chapter 3

Luna felt sore and stiff as she stretched out in her bed. A doctor had cleaned and bandaged her wounds when she had returned early in the morning. She had collapsed into bed before he had finished. Celestia must have let her sleep more than usual this afternoon. The sun was already setting. Luna lifted her head and looked around. Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer were both sitting in chairs by her bed and reading through books.

“What are you doing here?” Luna asked.

Twilight set the book she was holding down. “Celestia was very worried about you. She told us about the attack and your cutie mark. She asked for our help. She knew we could handle this without starting any rumors.”

Luna looked down at her unbandaged flank. It was still empty.

“Twilight brought me along.” Starlight trailed off as she frowned. “I do know a few things about magic that has to do with cutie marks. While you were asleep, we did a few tests.”

“How are you feeling?” Twilight asked. “Can you still do your magic? Do you feel strange in any other ways?”

Luna stood up and went over to the door.

“I appreciate your help in figuring this out, but I first must attend to some of my duties. There will be time for questions later. Excuse me for a moment.” Luna walked out of the room and up some stairs.

Celestia was already waiting out on the balcony as she gently lowered the sun. When she finished, she gave Luna a quick hug.

“How are you feeling? You don’t look as energetic as you usually do this time of day.”

“No. The fight must have taken more out of me than I realized, but I can still attend to my duties.”

Luna stepped away from her sister even though Celestia looked like she wanted to keep holding her. Luna stepped to the edge of the balcony. She grunted and tried to summon her magic to lift up the moon. It felt unusually difficult today, but she hadn’t quite felt fully like herself since she woke up. Without her cutie mark, perhaps her powers weren’t quite as strong, and it felt difficult to care quite as much about her duties. Or maybe she just had to do a better job at clearing her mind. She imagined the moon and let all other thoughts drop away. She opened her eyes as she lifted it above the horizon. She grit her teeth as the effort began to make her tremble. The moon inched upward and then took its proper place. Luna stepped back and caught her breath. She was sweating from the strain but finally succeeded.

She smiled at Celestia. Her sister looked worried. She put a wing over Luna as the two of them walked back inside.

“If you need help, don’t be ashamed to ask me for it,” Celestia whispered. “It’s not good to hide your struggles from those who only want to help. You’ve already proven you’re good enough.”

Luna slipped out from under her sister’s wing and walked ahead.

“I’m fine. I just need to rest a bit more before I get to my other duties.”

Celestia looked a little hurt. Maybe she had been expecting some heartfelt conversation about Luna’s problems, but Luna wasn’t even sure what to say. Celestia folded her wing back in and sighed.

“I think it’s time for me to finally be done for today. I have our best scouts looking for the things that attacked you, but it would be foolish to go after them until we know more. Promise me you’ll stay here with Twilight and Starlight tonight.”

“I promise.”

“Good. We’ll solve this. But I think I’ll be more help when I’m not so tired. I think I need a good book and maybe a nice bubble bath.”

Luna stifled a laugh. Celestia might be very old in years, but she was still young at heart. Sometimes Luna felt as if the years had affected her more than her sister. They reached the royal bedrooms and Celestia stopped at the door.

“Goodnight, Luna. If you need anything, you can come talk to me at any time.”

Luna said nothing as Celestia went inside. She left the door open for a few moments, but the guards shut it when they saw that Luna wasn’t following her sister. Luna went across the hall to her own room. Twilight and Starlight were both waiting inside.

Twilight approached her slowly. “Luna, can we have a closer look? We know it wasn’t Tirek. It must be something new.”

Luna stood tall. “Very well. Look carefully. I hope you can find answers. I trust Celestia filled you in on everything that happened?”

“She did.” Twilight’s horn glowed and she poked at Luna’s side with it. “But it’s still hard to tell how it happened. I’m not even sensing any magic I know of.”

“There aren’t many spells that could this,” Starlight said. “There’s the one I can use. There’s the one by Starswirl that Twilight used. There’s the dark magic Tirek used. But I think we’ll have to get answers from something other than books or history here.”

“At the very least, Celestia asked us to do one thing.” Twilight used a spell and it made a copy of Luna’s mark appear. “It’s not the real thing, but she’d rather not have ponies panic when they see you with a blank flank.”

Luna poked at the fake mark with a hoof. It was a strong illusion spell. “I would feel rather undignified without my mark. Luckily, I have to make very few public appearances. This should work fine for me. Did you have any other questions for me before I begin my other duties? Ponies are still dreaming. They need me.”

“It would be great if we could capture one of those creatures,” Starlight said. “We did talk to the other ponies who were attacked. The mare you saved got her cutie mark back after you destroyed the creature that stole her mark.”

Luna’s eyes widened. “That’s the best news I’ve heard! Maybe if we defeated the main source, I could get my own mark back!” Luna startled the two with her sudden stomp. “But Celestia made me promise to stay here with you until the scouts can track down the creatures. And it would be foolish to risk either of you before we know more. We need to gather our strength and strike once we understand what we’re facing. You may stay or go retire for the night. I don’t think there will be anything more we can do from here.”

Twilight grabbed the stacks of books with her magic. “I think I want to go check a few more things at the library.”

“One of us should stay here,” Starlight said. “I’ll do that.”

Luna nodded in approval and stepped back out onto her balcony. Hopefully using her magic over dreams wouldn’t be as hard as raising the moon. She opened her mind and let the dream magic start to weave itself around her. The dream world was cloudier than normal. She had to focus more than normal to send her spirit out into it. Once the hard part of getting into dreams was done, Luna settled into watching over the dreams across the land.

This really was her favorite part of her duties. Through dreams, she felt as if she knew many ponies in ways they usually didn’t reveal on the outside. She could forget about her own problems here. She browsed through the dreams, looking for where she might best be of service tonight. A very unusual dream stopped her. She could feel it was a nightmare of some kind, but it felt very unfamiliar to her.

She stepped inside it. On the edges of the dream, shadowy beasts like the ones she had fought were closing in, but these ones seemed more like wolves than ponies. At the center, a dragon growled and lashed out with his claws and tail. The creatures attacked it all at once. It fought them off for a time, and even seemed to use magic to help itself. The beasts finally got through its defenses. They tore something away from the dragon, but it wasn’t his scales. The dragon slowly lost his form.

The world around Luna faded. The dragon remained as a helpless spirit in a black void. The crushing weight of time passing began to weigh on Luna from the dream around her, and she could sense feelings of the dragon. He felt the burden of his failure and the hopelessness of being in this void, unable to do anything.

Luna felt as if this dream could hold some important clue, but she’d have to be careful to keep this dragon asleep when she acted. Luna approached him and spoke.

“What happened to you? Who are you?”

The spirit’s eyes focused on hers. “I’m Orsuros, but what are you doing in my mind?”

Luna froze as she stared into the golden eyes. They looked the same as the shadowy dragon’s eyes! Luna could feel the dream weakening.

“Wait, don’t go! I don’t mean you harm.”

The dragon was wary, but her words seemed to calm him enough to keep him asleep. He watched her and growled.

“I did not expect to need to protect my dreams in this world. I’ll only answer your questions if you answer mine. What is your purpose here? I don’t take others messing with my head lightly.”

“I did not mean to intrude. Usually I watch over all of the dreams in Equestria and ensure they are helpful to the ponies having them. My name is Princess Luna.” She spread her wings, hoping to look a little more impressive. “Please, tell me more about those shadow creatures. I need to know about them.”

“A princess? Well, you should go. Some things are more dangerous the more you know about them. The dream you saw is a reminder of the things I have faced.” Orsuros shivered. “And what I’ve been through while fighting them. But I don’t like or trust anyone being in my head. It’s time for you to go.”

Luna was pushed out of the dream. She tried to get back in, but her way was blocked. It would take a lot of magic to force her way in, and even if she did, she’d be very vulnerable if she got trapped in that dream. And the dragon could probably just wake himself if she got through.

She thought it over as she went back to the normal dreams of ponies. That dragon had some connection to the shadow creatures, and his dreams had been of somewhere very different from Equestria. He must have also been arrived last night. She wanted answers, but she’d need to find a way to get him to open up to her. For now, she only had his name.

He certainly was very similar to the dragon that attacked her, but he didn’t seem as hostile as the shadowy dragon had been. The eyes had been the same, but Orsuros had eyes that merely looked wary. The other dragon’s eyes had only held contempt and malice. But there had to be some connection. Luna found it hard to focus on the dreams of ponies with such worrying things to think about, but she still tried to keep herself busy with helping where she should.

The night faded and Luna withdrew as the dreams started to fade. Starlight had dozed off while reading some books. Luna felt a bit shaky, as if she had used up more magic than normal while dreamwalking. She walked over to Starlight and poked her with a hoof.

“Huh? Oh, Luna! Sorry!”

Starlight shook herself awake and tidied up her mane.

“It’s fine. I didn’t expect you to stay awake all night for me.”

“But I was supposed to watch for…” Starlight’s tired words trailed off.

“Don’t worry. You look like you could use more rest, but Celestia probably has breakfast ready.”

Starlight followed Luna. The two walked very slowly. Luna just wanted to go rest, but she tried to think of what to say to Celestia. She took her place at the large table. Twilight was already there and waiting, and Starlight took a seat near the middle.

Celestia came out with a large kitchen cart. She smiled at everypony as she handed them stacks of pancakes. They quietly ate a few bites of breakfast, but Luna’s tail swished back and forth. It was an old nervous habit of hers.

Celestia noticed and gave her a questioning look. “Sister, has something happened?”

“Yes, there was a strange dragon with a strange dream. We need to find this dragon. Let me tell you what I saw.”

Luna recounted her brief encounter to everyone at the table. She told the story quickly and looked around as she finished telling it. The room was silent.

A knock on the door interrupted the silence. The guards opened the door and let a tired pegasus scout through. “Princesses! It’s terrible. Two more farms were attacked. At first, we didn’t see or hear anything, but when it got light enough to see, the doors and windows were broken. We didn’t find anypony left at either farm.”

Celestia’s horn glowed as she stood up. The guards took a step back as Celestia’s protective side began to show.

“We need to find them as soon as possible. Send more scouts out immediately.”

Luna looked up at her sister. The guards scrambled to meet her orders. Once they were gone, Celestia took her seat again. Luna could barely lift the fork to finish her pancakes, but she was trying to put on a strong face in front of everyone. She finished the last of her food and stood up.

“Thank you, Tia. Let me know if you hear anything.”

She left Twilight and Starlight with her sister. She was too tired for any further questions, and it took all her effort just to walk without shaking. Luna needed to rest because it felt like something big was about to happen soon.