Sidus and Somnus

by Berattande

Chapter 2

Ah, much better. Sorry for the delay; I couldn’t find the apple juice so I had to go buy some more. But I’m back now, so rest assured, fair fillies and gentlecolts, that this story will not go unfinished. Now, where was I? Ah yes, Luna had just gone to get some sleep. Good thing too; she really needed it.

Celestia strode out onto the castle battlements, surveying the land that had been in her care for dozens of generations. She had named it the Everfree Forest to symbolize her subjects’ freedom from Discord’s tyranny, and the ponies seemed very happy with that. The wind whistled through the trees in front of the castle. It seemed to be playing a jovial tune above the distant chatter of conversations between her people below the castle. Celestia stood for a few moments, taking in the sights and sounds of her kingdom, more at peace with herself and with the world than she had been for over a week.

Then it hit her. She didn’t feel the dark presence. At first she was elated; it had passed and nothing terrible had happened! But then the unknown feeling terrified her more completely than it had when she could feel it. “What if it is still lurking around, but has simply hidden itself? Luna said she felt it closer than ever before last night and judging by how long it took to approach, the chance of whatever it is having left for good is undeniably slim. Perhaps I should wake Luna and tell her of what is happening.” Panicked thoughts were running around Celestia’s head like a foal who couldn’t find his dam. “No, Luna needs her sleep now more than ever. I will let her rest. I shall just have to keep careful watch over the kingdom, looking for anything that could possibly have caused this feeling.” Celestia collected herself, taking deep breaths. She knew that she focussed much better when she was calm, and she would certainly need to focus today.

She spread her opalescent wings and took to the sky. She soared above the Everfree Forest, enhancing her eyesight with magic, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Unfortunately, she didn’t know too well what ordinary was among her citizens, for though both Celestia and Luna liked to believe that they were on good terms with their subjects, the two rulers rarely interacted with them. The Equestrian citizens got along well enough without two princesses lording over them, and besides, Celestia had to deal with bigger problems. Just last month a dragon had decided to take its century long sleep in the nearby mountain. Celestia and Luna had to forcibly evict it, for it would have spewed enough smoke to block out the sky and caused regional climate change had they left it where it was. That was the fourth time since she had took the throne with her sister that such an event had transpired. “One of these days,” Celestia had told Luna after the dragon finally agreed to leave, “we shall have to get some personal assistants to deal with problems such as that. Or at least fill the hole in that mountain that is so conveniently dragon sized.” Just between you and I, I heard they never got around to filling the hole.

As the princess of the day reminisced about her recent escapades a thought came to her, unbidden. “Luna didn’t really help with that situation at all. I led the way to the top of the mountain, I woke up the dragon, and I convinced him to leave. We left for the mountain at dawn, and returned at noon. After Luna got back from an oh-so-tiring day of letting me do all the talking she fell right asleep. She may as well have stayed at home.” Celestia surprised herself with her own callous sarcasm. “Perhaps she is too young after all, too young to carry the duties of a princess. I wouldn’t be very surprised if she just slept through the night as well.” The pale alicorn was alarmed at those thoughts, for they seemed rather foreign, as if belonging to somepony else. That last bit in particular sounded quite harsh, rather unlike the manner she usually tried to think of her sister in. The notion of Luna not taking her duties seriously was not one she had before conceived, and she wasn’t sure where it came from. “But I must admit that it is a thought that has merit. Perhaps I should temporarily revoke Luna of her duties until she is more mature. After all, some of the trees in my fair forest are older than her.” Celestia seemed uncertain that she should be so hasty about such a large decision, but eventually determined that she would follow through with this and inform Luna of her temporary retirement that dusk. She would do it gently, tell her that it was because the stress was getting to her. She would call it a holiday. But she felt that she had to do it.

Celestia returned to her post on top of the castle walls. For the rest of the day she idly toyed with brightening and dimming the sun.

Dusk came quickly that day, not just to Celestia but for all of Equestria. When one of us is nervous about something that will happen later in our day it just seems like the sun is flying as fast as it can towards the horizon. When the pony controlling the suns movement is nervous about something that will happen later in her day, and she forgets to make a conscious effort to keep the sun moving at its normal pace, it dashes along its path much faster than normal. For this reason Luna woke up wondering why it felt like she got an hour less sleep than she normally did, despite falling asleep quickly the previous night.

Oh, would you look at that. This story is much longer than I remembered. This is all we’ve got time for tonight; Joe’s going to kick us out soon. Come back tomorrow if you want to hear the rest. Bring your friends too, if you think they’ll enjoy this tale. I know that Donut Joe wouldn’t mind the extra business.