Guiding Light

by archonix

The Dying Day

The Dying Day

Sparkler knew something was wrong the moment the sun rose. It had been fast, though not unusually so, and it was welcomingly bright, but it had been wrong. Unmoving. Moments after it had risen Dinky had screeched out of another nightmare and run to cower under the bed, refusing to come out for any number of promised treats or threats. Her only reaction when Sparkler had mentioned the rising sun had been sullen silence.

The 'miracle' of the risen sun had quickly soured as she realised it wasn't rising any further, which meant that somehow the world was still going to Tartarus in a tater sack. With little to do, and with Dinky apparently snoozing in her hiding spot, Sparkler taken a walk.

At first the palace had thronged with ponies celebrating the new dawn after almost a week of chilly darkness, but the celebrations had quickly disbanded as the palace guard reasserted their presence. Protest had been brief once it became clear the day wasn't getting any brighter. By some shared, unspoken thought, the denizens of the palace had returned to their chambers, or to whatever gathering place they thought might see out the end of the world, until the castle appeared almost completely deserted.

The main courtyard was empty as well, save for the occasional guard posted to some remote vantage point. Sparkler wandered the cobblestone paving, her hooves unnaturally loud in the empty space. As she approached the gates she could hear the raised voices of an angry crowd outside, demanding entrance, or justice, or whatever it was that crowds might demand outside a locked castle. The shouting raised still further to the clatter of steel-shod hooves as a pony yelled for the gates to open. Behind it all, a voice rang loud and clear, declaring the damnation of the world.

"... brings the sun and tries to shine it upon us in defiance of the gods but they have thwarted her! See the sun falls, torn from the grasp of the heretic demon-princess! Turn back from your sin, for the end of all days is upon us!"

The gates swung aside, giving Sparkler sight of a vast throng of ponies flooding the road to the city. Guardsmares – veterans, bearing the scars of distant wars on their flanks – pushed back against the crowd as it surged toward the gates, their ranks opening briefly to permit the passage of a squadron of city guard into the castle with a small group of ponies in their midst. Two stallions, half a dozen mares. One of the guard glanced at her and barked an order at the others, before crossing to her side at a brisk trot.

"Your Grace de Canterlot!" Sparkler's head shot up at the title, as did the heads of some of the ponies being herded by the guards. Her presumptive guardian clattered to a halt at her flank. "I suggest you return to the keep, your Grace. We cannot guarantee your safety in the open."

She thought to protest, but the look on the guardspony's face made it clear the 'request' was anything but. Sparkler reluctantly followed the guard back to the safety of the palace, passing by the crowd of ponies as she did. Some of them looked familiar, but she couldn't quite place them. One in particular seemed like a pony Sparkler had met before. Their eyes met as they entered the grand entrance of the castle.

"That's the Duchess of Canterlot?"

"She's the daughter of the Princess herself," a second mare loudly declared to the first. "Show a little respect!"

"I'll respect her when she's old enough to chew solid food. Gods and Celestia, she looks like she should still be in school!"

"You were young once, Star," the second mare responded. Sparkler couldn't quite read the look in Star's eyes, but it didn't seem as hostile as her words suggested. Almost sorrowful.

"I was never that young."

With a final, apologetic look from the second speaker, the group turned through a broad door, heading toward some distant part of the castle, and leaving Sparkler alone in the corridor once again without even the guard for company. With nothing to do, she slowly made her way back up to her apartments.

The palace was even quieter on the way back.

She met Twilight at her apartment door, with the ever-present Sure Stride rolling up behind like an obedient puppy. Recognition clicked in Sparkler's mind.

"I saw your mother."

Twilight's gait faltered and her eyes went wide. "She's safe? Oh thank Celestia..." She glanced at Sure Stride and gave him a nervous grin. "And your guards too."

"For what it's worth," Sure Stride replied with a half shrug. He glanced at a nearby window, eyes narrowing slightly in the bright morning light, that still seemed so strange after such a long night. Sparkler took the chance to edge between Twilight and the door to the apartment.

"What are you doing here, Twilight."

"Visiting Dinky."

"Why? Isn't she terrorised enough for your tastes yet?"

Twilight snorted and glared at Sparkler. Her eye twitched. "Why don't we ask her?"

"No. You aren't going near her, Twilight Sparkle. You're going to walk away and—"

"I don't have time for this!" Without waiting for Sparkler's response, Twilight wrapped her in a bubble of magic and lifted her out of the way. She opened the door with a second burst of magic and trotted inside, with Sparkler bouncing along behind her like a half-abandoned balloon. "Dinky? It's Twilight, are you here? I need to speak to you."

"She's asleep," Sparkler growled. Twilight turned slowly to face Sparkler, narrowing her eyes a little as she did. She set the young unicorn down on the floor and released the magic holding her. The ball fell away with an audible pop and Sparkler's hooves settled into the thick carpet.

"The bedroom, then."

"Leave her alone, Twilight. She doesn't deserve—"

"Sparkler, we don't have time for your grudge right now! I'm going to go in there and ask your sister to help me, because I want to help your mother and Dinky is the only way I can do that." She took a step toward Sparkler and it was as if every other emotion she was feeling was washed away by the pain that filled her face. She was pleading. "You have to understand, she might be our last chance."

"Sounds a little melodramatic to me," Sparkler shot back, trying to fan the heat of anger in her chest. Twilight's cool gaze did little to dissipate it.

"If you're going to let your hate for me destroy the entire world—" Sparkler snorted and rolled her eyes, drawing an angry glare from Twilight. "Yes, maybe it does sound melodramatic, but it's no less real because of that! The sun is setting, Sparkler! Forever!"

Twilight's magic gripped Sparkler's body again, dragging her to the window. Sparkler tried to resist, though she knew better, but the pull was inexorable and she found herself floating before the tall panes, staring at the horizon. The sun was already noticeably lower.

"See? When that sun goes down, we all die. I need Dinky to help me find a way for your mother to stop that."

The magic bonds slipped from Sparkler; she fell awkwardly to the carpet again. Stumbling and woozy, she chased after Twilight to try and stop her barging into Dinky's bedroom, just barely managing to grab the Archmage's tail in magic of her own.

"Let go!"

"You keep talking about Dinky helping but you never explain how!" Sparkler tugged at Twilight's tail, drawing a pained yelp from the Archmage. "She's just a foal!"

"She dreamed about Derpy, Sparkler," Twilight growled over her shoulder. "She saw the sun in her dream, she sees something in her mother. She's connected somehow."

"But—"

"Listen to me! We don't have—I don't have the time to explain this!" Twilight effortlessly dispelled Sparkler's magic with barely a flash of power from her horn. The door fell to another flash, swinging inward with a loud thump, and the Archmage trotted through.

Gasping as the exertion of using her magic so violently finally caught up with her, Sparkler sagged against the wall. The sheer power Twilight had used to dispel Sparkler's magic had been almost more than she could handle, yet the Archmage hadn't even broken a sweat. All the times that prodigious power could have been turned against her came back to Sparkler.

I hit that, she thought, pushing herself away from the wall. What if she'd hit back? It didn't bear thinking about. Sparkler stumbled through the door and into the bedroom to find Dinky staring at Twilight with rapt attention.

"You wanna go inside my dreams?"

"If you'll let me, Dinky. I think there's something in your dreams that can help your mom and I need to find it."

"But the scary mare—"

"She isn't real! She's just a scary dream that you had. Even if she is real, I can fight her just like I fought that hydra. Remember the story I told you about that?"

"I thought you said you ran away from that big mean monster! You should have blasted it with your magic!" Dinky bounced around the bed, shooting crackling sparks of light from her horn into the air to pop and sputter harmlessly over their heads. She returned to jumping up and down in front of Twilight, grinning fiercely. "That would have been awesome!"

"Dinky." Sparkler trotted to her sister, shaking her head. The little unicorn's bouncing stopped. She looked mournfully at her elder sister and even backed away a step, until Sparkler stopped walking toward her.

"You're gonna be mean to Twilight again."

"I'm not, Dink. I—she deserv—I'm not." Heaving a sigh, Sparkler looked at Twilight. "She says she wants to help mom."

"Yeah!"

"And that means you need to stop jumping on the bed and answer her question," Sparkler added, returning her attention to Dinky. The little filly rolled her head back and forth and let out a theatrical sigh of her own.

"Okay..." She sat down in front of Twilight and stared at her with the intensity only children can invoke. Twilight smiled awkwardly at Sparkler, mouthing her thanks, and positioned herself a little more comfortably.

"If you're really good, I'll try and teach you how to do some of the magic I'm going to use."

"Cool!"

"Yes, it is. Now sleep," Twilight commanded. Her horn glowed briefly, accompanied by an answering flash of magic in Dink's eyes. Dinky pitched over on her back with her legs in the air and started snoring. After a few moments her back legs twitched and fell sideways, her breathing deeper and more even.

"Forget teaching her, you'll have to teach me that," Sparkler said, unable to hide the awe in her voice. She remembered who she was talking to and quickly looked away, frowning. "I... I mean, I'm still mad at you, okay?"

"I get it." Twilight smiled and crawled onto the bed and lay down next to Dinky. She laid her head on the pillow and looked to Sure Stride, lurking in the doorway. "I should come around in about ten minutes or so. Don't try and wake me before then."

"Is it dangerous?"

"No, I just get cranky."

"I've seen her cranky," Sparkler said, keeping her voice low as Twilight wrapped the skein of a spell around her body. "By the end of the day she had everypony mind-controlled into chasing a stuffed toy."

Twilight briefly opened one eye to glare at Sparkler as the spell completed. Then she fell slack, her body relaxing so completely that it appeared for a moment as if she'd stopped breathing. Dinky huffed in her sleep and murmured before falling silent again.

Sure Stride leaned against the door frame and shook his head.

"I tell you, I've seen more crazy magic in the last week than in my entire career up to now. Celestia herself might have thought some of it was strange." He pushed away from the door and wandered across the room to closer examine Twilight's face. "Sure is cute when she's not wrinkling herself up with stress. You know she's pretty much run the entire country for the last week?"

"What? But Parliament—"

"Packed up and went home three days ago, not that they ever did much to begin with except claim their expenses and debate their way around the next pointless tax regulation." He stood up, grinning mirthlessly at Sparkler. "What, you thought the Princess just moped around the palace and sat on her butt all day? Twilight here, she's been shielding your mother from just about everything she'd normally have to deal with. Let her handle a few things to get an idea of what it was like, but all those committees and councils and all the paperwork, back-room meetings, briefings... bureaucracy doesn't stop just because the world's ending. She's been riding that monster on the Princess's behalf this whole time. Hell, she's even handled the few reporters that haven't high-tailed it out of the city."

"I didn't know that..."

"No. You were looking after this little hellcat," Sure Stride said, still smiling as he looked at Dinky. The filly stirred as if responding to his attention. "Twilight probably had the easier job."

Sparkler laughed in spite of herself, caught between imagining Dinky as the sort of precocious monster Sure Stride seemed to think she was, and wondering just how much work Twilight had really been doing. The thought was interrupted by Dinky snuffling and rolling over in her sleep. She muttered something under her breath.

"I wonder what—"

A loud yelp interrupted Sparkler before she could get the thought out. She looked at her sister. The little unicorn was twitching, her legs moving as if she was trying to run in her sleep. Suddenly Dinky squealed, her whole body jerking as she fought some unseen assailant, but before Sparkler could reach her Twilight's eyes opened, glowing with bright white fire as her power expanded through the room. With a blinding flash, cutting off Dinky's wail mid-stream, the pair vanished.

Sparkler stumbled to a halt, staring at the empty bed. "Wh—where'd they go?"

Sure Stride looked about, tutting and sighing as he considered the room. After a few moments he rolled his eyes to the ceiling and shrugged.

"Beats me."

Sparkler snorted and trotted from the room. She stormed through the apartment and out into the corridor, not caring which way she ran until she realised her hooves were taking her toward her mother's apartments. She slowed, thinking hard. Twilight had said Dinky could help her mother. If Twilight had taken Dinky anywhere... with renewed determination, Sparkler sped up, running the empty halls of the castle as she sought her mother.

* * *

Dream riding had always struck Twilight as the sort of magic everypony wished they could do, until they found out what it was really like. To a conscious, rational mind, the world of a dream was a nonsense barrage of imagery and sound and sense, without structure or any recognisable form. Riotous colour and shape impinged on her consciousness; snatches of impossible touch and taste and scent and a thousand other senses that didn't even exist. Ideas and fears and wonders and wishes pummeled her from every direction and none at all, because direction implied meaning, and meaning implied structure and structure was something that she couldn't find anywhere.

Focus. She had to focus. She existed, which was a good start. Around her the nonsense flowed and warped, a void of irrationality and delirium. Twilight let herself buffet along within it, straining with all her metaphorical senses for any hint of structure in the chaos, any sign of how she should perceive the dream around her. She heard laughter somewhere in the distance and a snatch of a voice denying the existence of itself. Artefacts of the Dream.

Luna had tried to explain the concept to her once, that the Dream connected to something more than itself, but the Princess had quickly slipped into her own incomprehensible language of mysticisms and metaphor, before falling silent entirely, and leaving Twilight no more enlightened than before.

That had been Luna. Always a little unreal, unworldly. Never quite a part of the mundane. For her, walking dreams was no more unusual than walking in a forest. Twilight slowed, relaxing in her search, aware she had little time, but knowing that she might spend subjective hours or days in the dream as her mind looped in and around itself. She tried to recall what the Night Princess had taught her...

All around the chaos raged, but it felt peaceful now. Almost calming. Laughter echoed around Twilight again and for a moment she thought she saw strange, loping figures dancing behind the noise. Their movements distracted her for a little while. After they vanished, Twilight realised one of them had been wielding an umbrella. How very odd.

She drew her legs close to her body and closed her eyes. Or opened them. She wasn't particularly sure on that point, but she certainly did something. Her mind stretched out into the void, probing and seeking, trying to make sense of her surroundings, until it alit on something familiar. The shape of a single idea, a tiny sliver that she recognised. With a silent laugh she reached out to the shape and held onto it, merging herself with it until she understood its most intimate details.

Around her the dream began to coalesce as her perception altered. The idea filled her, revealing the way to twist her mind so that the dream would make sense. A world abruptly took form around her, a brightly lit park heady with the scent of a warm summer's day, filled with the sound of singing birds and the screams and yells of foals playing, though the green was completely deserted when Twilight looked around.

She looked up at the sky and saw darkness overhead, filled with unrecognisable stars that shone bright and clear in a moonless night. Yet, all around, the world was daylit and warm. Twilight filed the thought away for later and began walking.

After just a few steps Twilight felt the presence of another pony beside her. She turned, expecting to find Dinky, but saw only her shadow stretching across the grass. She stopped. The shadow stopped a moment later, tramping impatiently at her feet as if it wanted to go on.

"I thought this was Dinky's dream, not mine," she said quietly, looking around again. Still no sign of the filly herself. Twilight looked at her shadow again, and then turned to look at the sun.

"Don't look at it!"

"What—"

"It can't see you if you can't see it!" Dinky bounced up to Twilight and around her in a circle, her head turned toward the unicorn the entire time. She had her eyes closed, but that didn't seem to stop her. "If you look at it, it'll chase you!"

"What will?"

"The sun!"

"Why would the sun chase..."

Twilight's voice faded away as she looked toward the horizon. Where she had expected a bright dawn, she found an enormous, flaming arc of light that filled nearly half the horizon. The sun lurked behind the distant mountains, enormous and angry, yet strangely dull for all its size, burning a reddish-orange. Twilight could have sworn she heard it growl.

"Huh."

Dinky had disappeared again, along with most of the sounds Twilight had heard up to now, leaving just a faint rustle of wind in the grass. Twilight reluctantly turned her back on the bloated sun and tried to spot the filly, but she was nowhere to be seen. Again, Twilight felt the presence of another pony beside her. She looked down at her shadow, expecting another odd little show of impatience, but it, too, was gone.

Twilight turned and then froze. Before her stood a shadowy figure, an alicorn, its wings raised in salute. Twilight stumbled back from the apparition, her frantic gaze quickly taking in the creature's body, featureless save for a pair of glowing white eyes and a similarly bright crescent moon imprinted on its chest.

A voice reached her ears, echoing and distant. "Hello, Twilight Sparkle."

"Princess Luna?"

The shadow twisted and curled around, losing shape and reforming a short distance to Twilight's left, now appearing more solid, but somehow less real. "We are the dream of Luna only. She has departed."

"But—"

"We are a memory, Twilight Sparkle. An imprint. The impression she left with every dreamer that she visited." The ghostly alicorn shifted again, swirling away into a cloud of black smoke that curled slowly around Twilight. "You found us by walking these lands as she once did."

"You're just—just a dream." Twilight closed her eyes against the tears she knew she would have cried if those eyes had been real. She took a short breath. It sounded so like her.

"This is so, Twilight Sparkle."

"What are you doing here?"

"Watching. Though she has departed, still we walk these lands and watch the dreams of all ponies. We can do no other."

Twilight turned away, stepping through the billowing foam of Luna's ghost, though she had no idea where she was going. The presence remained with her though, floating just out of sight. Strangely warm.

"Are you following me?"

"You are not moving."

"I—oh. Dreams. Even when they're not weird, they're still weird." Twilight shook her head.

"This is so, Twilight Sparkle."

The shadow reformed next to Twilight, walking to keep pace despite its earlier insistence. It turned its glowing eyes toward her. It spoke again, though it still seemed to Twilight that it didn't have any visible mouth.

"This little one, you shall not find her unless she wishes you to do so. You are a stranger to her dream. She has learned well to hide from the influence of those outside." The shade of Luna cast a glance toward the gigantic lurking sun. "The fear she faces is not her own. Another walks this dream, but—"

The shadow melted away, reforming in front of Twilight, forcing her to halt in her tracks. "She should not be here in this way."

"You're just as cryptic as the real Luna."

"We are sorry we cannot help you, Twilight Sparkle, as much as we would wish. This is beyond our ken. We are, as you see, but a shadow." The shadow turned slowly, parts of itself drifting and trailing to nothing, its movement not so much a motion as a series of reformations. It looked at the glowing arc of the sun and tilted its head. "The dreams of foals are often beautiful even in their terror, but one wonders why she would be so scared of this sight."

"She said it was too bright." Twilight stared at the sun, watching the slow-speed eruption of a prominence across its limb.

"Is it not?"

"This is her dream. I'm seeing it the way she would see it, not the way I would." Twilight looked down at the grass, examining the blades closely. They were all identical. She peered up at the stars again and saw a canvas of bright sparks, unmoving, twinkling brightly against a pitch-black night.

"You perceive it as she does," the shadow confirmed. It began to drift, losing much of its form until it was little more than a pair of eyes in a pillar of fog that watched Twilight as she paced back and forth across the grass. Occasionally the unicorn would pause to stare at the sun and then turn to some other part of the world.

"If she says it's bright then it should be bright, not just..." Twilight turned to stare at the sun again. It was flaring very slowly, shedding bright bands of plasma that curled up and away from the roiling surface, only to break apart and collapse back on themselves. As she strained to listen she was certain she could hear a roaring sound, a deep bass note so low that it was more felt than heard. "It doesn't fit. The stars and the grass are how a foal thinks they'd look. Even those mountains are sort of like scenery."

"You are correct, the sun does not appear to be part of her dream."

"If I could find Dinky I could ask her to explain. Do you know where—"

The plain was empty when Twilight turned to find the shadowy alicorn. She was alone. Nothing else stirred, even the sun seemed to have receded a little, its near-hidden face dimmer and redder than before. Twilight turned her back on it and looked toward the far horizon, where another range of mountains hung against the sky like a curtain, her shadow stretching toward them like an arrow.

Twilight turned a little, judging the angle of the light.

"Very clever," she said, tapping her hoof against the shadow's feet.

"We are metaphor reified, Twilight Sparkle," the shadow replied. It opened its eyes. It seemed to be grinning at her. "Again, please forgive us. We cannot be other."

The shadow closed its eyes again as Twilight marched toward the mountains. Within just a few steps her shade was crawling up a wall that had been invisible from even a short distance, but which now appeared so crudely decorated that she wondered how she'd missed it. Twilight walked up to the wall and reached out to tap it, only to find it billow away from her hoof like a curtain.

She chuckled to herself and peered at the bottom of the curtain. Four little hooves and a tail were clearly visible.

The filly squeaked and jumped as Twilight pulled the curtain away. She looked down, ready to say something encouraging to the little filly, but all she could see were four hooves and the end of a tail, fading into emptiness against a wall that didn't exist. Dinky's voice squawked again and the disembodied limbs vanished. Twilight looked at her shadow on the wall.

"Don't suppose you've got any bright ideas?"

The shadow remained silent. Without any ideas, Twilight knelt down to examine the spot Dinky had occupied, gently probing with her hoof and muzzle. She thought about using her magic but she had no idea how that would work, or how a filly's simplistic ideas of magic would affect her abilities. Assuming she even had any in this dream.

Satisfied the filly was gone, Twilight let the curtain fall back and made to turn until it caught her eye. It wasn't the same. It looked like a hanging from the throne room, but—

"Oh."

Candles burned bright around Twilight, arrayed throughout an an enormous marble hall, casting a glittering light on everything. The walls rose to eye-watering heights to a vaulted ceiling that seemed impossibly distant. All around the hall stood great metal columns, topped by blazing pyres that threatened to burn anything that came close.

Grand windows lined one wall, filled with intricate stained-glass images and vistas. Beyond them the same broad arc of the sun glowered and lurked, seeming to reach out to her with its ever-shifting fires. Twilight ventured out toward the centre of the hall, looking about in wonder at the sheer beauty of the place. It was the throne room in Canterlot, but it was a fantasy of the throne room, wrought on a scale impossible even with magic.

She turned to the throne, not sure of what to expect. Where normally was the welcoming Celestial Throne there stood a towering, imposing dais, lined with uncountable steps and reaching inconceivably high. A bright light shone at its peak. As she looked, the light resolved into a mare, an alicorn, her mane glowing white and gold, and billowing majestically in an unfelt breeze. The mare's head moved back and forth, searching for something but never finding it.

Moving slowly to keep her silence in the echoing space, Twilight walked toward the throne. The steps towered over her, climbing toward the light against the distant dark ceiling. Where they would normally be shallow and carpeted, here they were steep and bare, sharp-edged, piled up on one another, discouraging any would-be visitor from climbing.

Twilight tentatively placed her hoof on the first step. As she did she heard a quiet snuffle behind her, followed by a lowing moan. A unicorn filly sat a short way from the stairs, her back to the throne, her head drooping toward the floor. It was Dinky. She was crying. Twilight walked toward the little filly she'd started to think of as her student and sat down next to her.

"Dinky?"

"I miss my mom." The confession came out of nowhere. Dinky didn't look up as she spoke. "I know she's here but I can't find her."

"Dinky, she's right behind you."

"You say that every time," the younger unicorn replied. She finally looked up at Twilight, gazing at her through closed eyes. Her head turned slightly and down to look at Twilight's shadow, then back up to Twilight's face. Outside the windows the sun growled and ducked lower behind its mountain shelter, turning the sky a deep red. Time was running short.

"This is the first time I've been here."

Dinky's gaze was disconcerting in its intensity. She examined Twilight closely and then, finally, cracked her eyes open. They glowed with a pale energy that concealed everything behind it. Twilight could see the strength of the magic Dinky was wielding, but it was impossible for someone her age to be so subtle about it.

Except in a dream, she thought, glancing at her shadow.

"Why are you hiding?"

"She's too bright," Dinky offered. The pale light in her eyes left them stripped of emotion, giving Twilight the impression of much greater age. For a moment Twilight thought she saw a smile wrinkle the filly's lips, but it was gone, another figment of her increasingly strained imagination. Dinky closed her eyes again.

Twilight looked up at the alicorn above her again. Despite the distance it was as if she could see every detail of the Princess's face, every line of worry and anguish and loneliness. An energy radiated from her that Twilight thought she recognised, yet she had no idea where she might have encountered anything so potent before. It seemed to fill the whole room without touching any of it.

Ignoring the filly, Twilight returned to the stairs and began to climb. After a few moments she heard the clop of tiny hooves on the stairs behind her as Dinky ran to keep up.

"She's too bright," Dinky insisted. She tried to gallop in front of Twilight, but the mage was too fast for her. Squeaking and huffing her protest the little filly ran to keep up with Twilight on the stairs until they were near to the top. "Twilight, stop!"

The command in Dinky's voice was unmistakable and Twilight, to her horror, found she was unable to disobey. She stumbled to a halt, panting with the exertion of the climb even though she knew it wasn't real. Dinky walked slowly around her and sat down on the stairs, her eyes closed the entire time. She held a hoof up to Twilight's face.

With theatrical caution the young filly looked over her shoulder and then back at Twilight. "If you get too close, it hurts."

"Dinky, she doesn't want to hurt you."

"No, silly, it hurts her! That's why I have my eyes closed, so she can't see me!"

"But with your eyes closed, how can you find your mom?"

Dinky paused to consider this. She turned in a wide circle to examine the room and then sat down in front of Twilight again with a shrug. "I dunno. Maybe she'll find me."

It was an innocent logic. Twilight looked past Dinky at the alicorn standing atop her throne, knowing who it was and what she needed to do. What did too bright mean? It wasn't merely light, not in a dream, not when a Princess was involved – assuming it really was Derpy and not the conjurations of a filly's overactive imagination.

"Dinky."

The filly looked at her expectantly, smiling at the sound of her name. Twilight took a breath and forged on.

"I can help you find your mom, but you need to open your eyes completely. No hiding them."

"But—but the scary mare—"

Twilight tried to hold the filly's gaze but it was difficult without any eyes to focus on. "If you find your mom the scary mare won't be a problem any more. She's a princess now, remember? She can keep you safe."

The quality of the light had changed, Twilight realised. It was darker, a little redder. She glanced toward the windows. The sun was setting, its movement easily perceptible now. Above them, the alicorn Princess closed her eyes and let out a tiny gasp.

It was enough to catch Dinky's attention. She stiffened as she strained to hear where the voice had come from and then slowly, oh so slowly opened her eyes, blinking in the bright light of the throne room. The light itself seemed to grow brighter, blooming on every surface until the throne room was a fusillade of glittering stars and sparkles. Dinky looked at it all in wonder.

Behind her though, Twilight saw the alicorn begin to move. Like a snake uncoiling, its head stretched toward them, seeming to float in the flowing mass of its golden mane. Twilight felt her ears drop back at the sight and she quickly shuffled in front of Dinky.

"Princess, I don't know if you can—"

The alicorn opened its eyes, which blazed with a power unlike anything Twilight had seen before. They were fixed on Dinky. The filly stiffened against Twilight's legs. Shivering, she looked around Twilight's barrel at the creature above and whimpered.

"It's okay, Dinky, just stay calm."

Of course Twilight had no idea if she was speaking to Dinky or herself then. The alicorn drew back a little, never taking its eyes from the little unicorn at Twilight's side. It spoke Dinky's name in a voice that was familiar and terrifyingly alien, carrying undertones of heat and flame and a roar of a thousand burning fires. Twilight swallowed.

"Princess?"

She took a step. The alicorn didn't flinch.

"Derpy?"

As Twilight moved, the alicorn shifted, trying to find a clear path to Dinky. The little unicorn shivered behind Twilight and finally let out a stifled yelp. The alicorn froze for a moment, then its eyes flared. It lunged and Dinky screeched, flailing and tumbling backward down the stairs. Without thinking Twilight powered her magic, teleporting them both, seeking out the safest place she could find.

The world dissolved around Twilight and was remade as a great, undulating landscape of light and colour, cut through with valleys and tall ridges and streaming ribbons of energy. The sun shone bright around her and she turned, unable to control her motion and unwilling to try as the heat poured into her bones.

Again before her stood the alicorn, a living statue wrought in silver and gold, its wings spread across the heavens. Its eyes glowed with the same power Twilight had recognised in the dream. She knew that power. She couldn't look away as she was caught up toward the alicorn and pulled toward its fiery form. Twilight knew she should have been panicking but the light was so strong and clear, so beautiful that she saw no need. She had no room for fear.

At the very last second the alicorn's eyes widened, as if it realised what was happening. It tried to draw back. For a moment Twilight fought likewise, some part of her mind clamouring for an escape, only to give in beneath the roiling waves of life flowing through and around her. Finally understanding, Twilight closed her eyes.

Light took her...

Eyes opened on a riot of colour and shape. So like the dream.

Did she remember a dream?

She had to find Dinky, she was trying to find her daughter, to love her, to show her the light of that love.

She wanted to find Dinky to help her Princess.

A fantastic landscape stretched all around her, undulating and rolling to a horizon that seemed at turns impossibly distant and close enough to touch. She could see lights flitting about, dancing to and fro across the world around her. Here were her parents, there the ring of her five closest friends, the links between them so close they almost hurt. Here her first postal route, there the lives of her weather-team friends, there little Spike like a flame. Here her child so much love flitting across and away from her, down a valley that glowed bright and clear in her vision and she chased, her guiding light trying to escape from the love she poured upon it burns.

The love that hurt to look at. Too bright. Look away.

The valley opened to a plain, or its sides fell away, and it shone bright as she passed by, rolling and boiling and turning in on itself as she thundered past. Her guiding light flew on, ejecting out into the vast nothing beyond, cutting its bonds and rising away from everything. She followed, not wanting to lose sight.

But you must.

Nothing was between them now, just the single strand of her love that burns like fire down which she poured herself. Her guiding light flew on, chasing the infinite void, curling around in a wide arc that took her out and away but she was persistent, she flew on, turning and shining herself too bright for one love. She would never let go of the light!

Look away!

How could she let her only light go? It was everything. It was all she had, all she was.

What are you?

She turned and slowed, drifting in the void. The question and its voice tasted alien, distinct again from her own. She began to slip away, to break apart as her minds separated, as one became two, as the other became whole. A streak of mane, a slender limb against her face. Twilight fell from her, understanding dawning on a face that wasn't even there as she slid into the shadow.

You have too much love for one soul.

Alone again. Bereft. Her guiding light raced back toward the coruscating knot of energy and life and existence, the whole churning and fading as she had withdrawn from it.

I need to love her, she cried. Why does she run?

You burn, the voice said. The voice of her friend, or the voice of her love, she couldn't tell any more. Her child was gone, lost in the morass of life before her. Every part of it reached toward her, seeking the light she held, the love she had tried to pour onto her beloved daughter.

Love her by loving all.

Darkness surrounded her. The world was gone. Twilight was gone. She had only the light she held, but it wasn't her light. Not really.

She turned then to the world her guiding light had shown to her.

Called out to the spirit of the earth that it might find her again.

And let go.

* * *

The sun hung low on the horizon, sinking into the twilight as it set eastward, ducking behind the storm-wracked clouds and drawing the cold wind along with it. The night was falling, the last night, the thousand year darkness.

Crowds surged in the streets of Canterlot, nobles and commoner alike pressing toward the castle, torches raised high, crying for mercy, for relief. For vengeance. Urged on by the ravings of the preachers in their midst, they no longer cared what they destroyed in their quest, setting their hooves against individual structures and then entire streets as they pushed forward, looting and burning the ancient buildings.

High above, in the chill of her bedroom, Derpy woke with a start. Light flared briefly in her eyes as they opened, for a moment casting the room in stark white light. She stood, shrugging the crumpled form of Twilight from her back as she rose. Breathing deep, she looked about the room and then down at the little foal cuddled in the warm hollow her body had occupied just a moment earlier.

"Dinky..." She reached out to touch her filly's mane, closing her eyes. "I love you. Never forget that."

The filly yawned and snuggled deeper into the hollow, sleeping peacefully for the first time in days. Derpy turned from her, and when she opened her eyes the room was filled with blazing light. Her mane sprang up, billowing around her head and body like a cloak of fire as she walked toward the balcony. The doors flew aside, she raised her wings and then paused as the light grew about her. A quiet sound worked to her ears from the room behind her. Derpy turned her head, peering over her shoulder at her little filly one last time.

She smiled.

Princess De Raptura stepped out onto the balcony. With a powerful thrust of her wings the alicorn took the the skies above Canterlot, her body transformed to a coruscating blaze of light that climbed into the air over the city. She hovered, breathing the chill evening air, and then raised her wings above her head and let herself fall into the grasp of her power.

"Equestria!"

The fire of the mob's rage guttered out as they saw her rising above them, higher and higher into the sky, glowing brighter with each passing second.

There was a pause, pregnant with anticipation as the light of her glory filled the heavens. The crowd slowed and waited for her to speak. She opened her mouth. Her indrawn breath was heard around the world.

"I found it!"

The sun rose, seeming to fling itself joyously into the sky as the world turned to face it anew. It kept rising, its fire glowing brighter as it sought and found the turning face of its companion, and De Raptura laughed as she felt the overwhelming joy and love pour through her and out into the spirit of the earth, and from there to every creature upon it. Buoyed, enraptured, she swooped and rolled through the sky, revelling in the freedom of her flight, her laughter echoing from peak to peak whilst on the ground those ponies, that had mere moments earlier been set on destroying everything about them, suddenly found themselves throwing down the weapons they had improvised, dousing the fires, even singing and dancing in the streets as they abandoned their fevered rage.

The sun had returned, burning away their terror. Their Princess circled the city once again and made a beeline for the palace, coming to a picture-perfect landing on the balcony of her apartments, breathing heavily but all the more joyful for the exertion. She turned to face the crowd, now cheering her arrival amidst the failing fires of Canterlot as the bright summer sun shone down on everything, promising an end to the deadly winter that had gripped the world for so many days.

Derpy raised her wings in salute, but soon backed away from the adulating crowd, her mind already on other, more immediate things. She turned to enter the apartment, and her heart grew heavy at the thought of what she would face again until she saw the rolled curtain at the side of the door twitch and a little face peek out at her.

The foal stared at her, wide-eyed, nervous, but unmoved. Dinky took a hesitant step toward her mother and then stopped. Her eyes roved over Derpy's mane, over the faintly glowing aura that surrounded her body and then to her face. With immense hesitation she took another step.

"Mommy?"

Derpy held her breath. She nodded, sharp and short, and Dinky's eyes flew wide with joy. With a wordless squeal the little unicorn leapt up at Derpy, flinging her forelegs around the alicorn's broad grey neck and nuzzling into the depths of her mane. Derpy carefully held up a foreleg to hold Dinky to herself. She swallowed and closed her eyes.

"I missed you so much!"

"Me too," the Princess replied, her voice barely above a whisper. "Oh Dinky, me too..."

With great care, she shuffled Dinky onto her back, lifting her wings just a little to keep her from falling. The little unicorn plunged into the glowing mass of her mane, giggling all the while.

"Ahh, Dinky! That tickles!"

"It's warm!" Dinky surfaced at the top of Derpy's head poking her snout out and peering around. "The bubbles are so pretty!"

"B-Bubbles?" Derpy turned her head slightly, trying to find what Dinky was talking about without dislodging her charge. The tentative sound of approaching hooves distracted her and she looked back to the doorway to find Sparkler and Twilight walking toward her, their conflict forgotten for the moment. The Archmage stared at Derpy, wondering and fearful all at once. She started to bow to her Princess.

"Twilight, you shouldn't. You're my friend."

The unicorn paused in her motion and looked up, a shy smile tugging at her lips. "Thank you, your—Um. Thank you."

"No," Derpy replied, rolling her eyes to Dinky, still resting on the back of her head like a living crown. "Thank you. For everything."

With another smile and a bob of her head, Twilight backed away, though she was still eying Derpy's mane as she went. That just left one other. Derpy moved toward her daughter and nuzzled her gently. "Sparkler."

"Mom, I—I thought she—"

"It doesn't matter. You were scared. I was scared too, Sparkler, but we're safe now." Smiling, she sat and drew her daughter into a hug, wrapping her wings about them both. Dinky rolled down her shoulder and flopped into the narrow space between them with another giggle.

"Mom?" Sparkler leaned back and away from the hug. She stared at Derpy's mane, frowning and ears flicking. "Why is your mane full of bubbles?"

Derpy tittered and twisted her head to look at the flowing mass of hair, ignoring the clop of hooves on the balcony – it was probably Sure Stride or Twilight come to drag her back to the real world again. "Oh! It's so pretty! Twilight, have you seen—"

She heard Twilight gasp. Derpy looked up. Twilight was bowing, but not to her: another alicorn stepped onto the balcony, her body glowing white in the bright midday sun. She looked down at Twilight, then at Derpy, and smiled.

"I greet you, my little ponies."

"Princess Celestia? But—" Derpy stood slowly, examining the newcomer. The other alicorn stared back at her with a serene smile. "No. You aren't her."

"In truth I am not," the alicorn replied. Her voice was the same, though it seemed to come from a great distance, and there was the impression of a silent, blazing roar beneath her words as she spoke. She turned to look at Twilight again. The unicorn rose cautiously, staring at the newcomer, and the wet glint of her eyes said more than any words could relay. "I am much that she was, and much else besides. You know me, De Raptura."

"Kinda."

"And you, Twilight Sparkle, her most faithful student. You have known me through she that departed, and again through this one. Do you remember?"

Celestia's shade slowly circled the balcony, remaining well away from the edge, and as it did so Derpy realised that she couldn't hear the crowds below, or anything else. Not even the wind. The silence was absolute.

"Who are you?"

"I am the light and the dark. The heavens and the earth. I am that which you wield and all else besides, Twilight Sparkle. You restored me to my love and helped release me upon the world once more. For that, I thank you."

"You're the s-sun?"

"I am, Twilight Sparkle. That I am. I have known you and will know you hence, as I knew Celestia. She greets you." The alicorn paused at Twilight's gasp, but didn't leave her time to speak. "Truly, I know whither she travelled, and why. She would be proud of you this day, Twilight, as would be your brother."

"Shining... but—"

"Speak of them no more. They rest and await you at the end of all things. Accept their gift, Twilight Sparkle, and be at peace."

Twilight seemed about to speak, but the alicorn leaned forward to nuzzle her cheek before she could say anything. A flash of the newcomer's horn brought a momentary look of surprise to Twilight's face. She smiled, all the tension draining from her body, even as tears rolled down her cheeks.

The alicorn turned from Twilight to face Derpy. She took a step toward the now shivering Princess and paused before her, looking into her eyes.

"You have proven worthy of her trust," she said, eyeing the slowly dancing bubbles in Derpy's mane. Apparently even hippomorphic personifications found it fascinating. Celestia's shade caught the slight frown on Derpy's face and smiled again, nodding.

"You have come into your power," was all she said before turning away.

"Wait, you can't—"

"We shall have time to know one another," the alicorn replied, glancing back at her with a smile. She stepped toward the edge of the balcony and raised her wings. "All the time you could ever wish. I shall know you again on the morrow, De Raptura."

The alicorn tensed as if to leap, but instead a bright glow filled the air and the creature in Celestia's skin faded away into it like mist burning away in the fire of dawn.

A wall of sound hit them as soon as she left, the ever-present rumble of the city and the rising, falling song of the wind between the castle's slender towers. Derpy looked at her friends, then up at the sun, laughter filling her heart anew. She walked back toward the balcony edge and looked down at the city, eyeing the destruction and the ponies working to restore it. Then, without a word, she spread her wings and leapt down toward them.

Twilight and Sparkler ran to the edge to watch the dwindling shape of the Princess as she flew toward the city below. They looked at one another as Sure Stride ambled up beside them. The guard commander peered over the edge and watched Derpy as she flew to and fro.

"What's she doing?"

"Helping," Sparkler replied, reluctantly. "She likes to help."

Sure Stride frowned at the non-committal answer. "Normally I'd ask her to take a squad of guards if she's exposed like that, but I doubt anypony would want to harm her right now."

"She's not the one I'm worried about."

Twilight shot Sparkler a nervous glance but refused to look at Sure Stride, instead fixing her gaze on the scene below. Her eyelid twitched. Sparkler rolled her eyes.

"Don't pretend you aren't thinking about the Town Hall, Twilight."

"I-I wasn't even—"

"Okay, what aren't you two telling me?" Sure Stride leaned against the rail and stared at the two unicorns. They looked at one another.

"Well. You see—" Twilight began, but got no further. A light flared in the streets where Derpy had landed, followed a moment later by a crack of thunder. Sparkler groaned and laid her head on the balcony rail and Sure Stride, curiosity getting the better of him, peered over the side again. He raised an eyebrow as another flash of lightning crackled through the air, this time accompanied by a streak of gold and grey that rocketed into the sky on a tenuous trail of bubbles.

"My bad!"

Her voice echoed across the sky. Sure Stride stepped back and fixed his eyes on the horizon, his jaw working as he tried to form a suitable observation. Words failed him. Instead he took a deep breath and closed his eyes, content to let the world pass him by for a few minutes as the bright sun shone on his back.

"It's going to be a long day, isn't it."

It wasn't really a question, more of a certainty. Sparkler rested her chin on the rail, watching her mother as she hovered back and forth over the city, not quite committed to another attempt at helping. She smiled as Dinky nuzzled up next to her and propped herself up to peek at her mother, as the alicorn sought her new place in the world.

"Yep."

Comments

[DreadedCandiru2]

Whhhooooooops. She just doesn't know what went wrong.

[Phoenix_Dragon]

It always makes me so happy to see this story updated.

Got to say, you got the strangeness of dreams down wonderfully, and yet managed to do so in a way that it all makes a kind of sense, rather than just being random nonsense and philosophical rambling like you usually see. Quite the accomplishment, there!

...And it's good to see Derpy smiling again.

[Listie The Scribe Maid]

(Joke) Alt. Title: Guiding Shite: Not Departinga Chronicles

[FanOfMostEverything]

Don't worry, Derpy. You figured out how to sun. A few relatively minor hiccups are small potatoes compared to preventing eternal night.

I look forward to the next installment.

[paul]

Just want to thank you for this wonderful story

[Drynwhyl]

Damn, it's not often that a fanfic leaves me smiling like an idiot but this sure did it.

[coandco]

"Don't suppose you've got a bright ideas?"

"A bright ideas" doesn't parse. Did you perhaps mean "any bright ideas"?

[Skeeter The Lurker]

Damn. Talk about an epic way to find the sun and fix the mess.

~Skeeter The Lurker

[Alondro]

*blinks at the Sun's statements* Ok... so the whole family vanishes suddenly... Celestia leaves a tear-stained letter... and the Sun is still being agonizingly cryptic about WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?!

Not to mention, nopony seems to even try investigating the entire time, in case, you know, Derpy was also somehow grabbed by the mysterious force.

After all, it took Shining and he's technically not related by blood to any alicorns. Which means the effect was not isolated to blood relatives, but also took those close to the alicorns. Hmm, wonder why it skipped Twilight.

Anyway, Twilight took this wayyyyyyy too easily. She's be tearing her hair out for months trying to find them, using every magical resource at her disposal. At the very least, she'd demand more of an explanation for this bizarre occurence.

[archonix]

3014748

Hmm, wonder why it skipped Twilight.Hmm, wonder why it skipped Twilight.

It's a mystery.

OooOOooh.

Anyway, Twilight took this wayyyyyyy too easily.

Even Twilight is sane enough to realise that she might want to prioritise saving the entire world over figuring out what happened. Hard to solve magical mysteries when you're an icicle.

[RemareShadows]

Ah that flaming mare.
Right over there.
..
Dats hot.

Cuz.

Bubbles.

[YoshiFawful64]

1944023
Yeah, it's a mystery.

[TranscendenCelestia]

When that sun goes down, we all die.

Why? The sun has been down for days and they didn't die. All that's happened was that the world was warmed up a little. Shouldn't this bring ponies hope?

[Ice Star]

She has departed.

Very mysterious there...

[PresentPerfect]

So they're all just... dead? O.o I hadn't expected any kind of resolution to that opening mystery, but I also wasn't expecting an answer so straightforwardly noncommittal.

[UrsaMajor]

With little to do, and with Dinky apparently snoozing in her hiding spot, Sparkler taken a walk.

Should be either "Sparkler had taken a walk" or "Sparkler took a walk."