The High-Horses
The dishes clinked gently down on the table. Bread, olives, fruit, dips, a pitcher of sister's tea; it was Celestia's night to cook, and she never did anything half-heartedly.
There was a brief pause as their personal plates were put down, and then her sister turned to look out the western window, out at the light of the dying Sun. After a moment's silence, she said, "We look to Rialta that was, to Albion that is, and to Coroin that is to come." Picking up her's and Luna's plates, she said, "May what we eat from these sustain us in body and soul," then picked up their glasses and said, "May what we drink from these renew us in body and soul."
"Marsine," Luna murmured, bowing her head.
They both sat down, the meal's prayers over, and began to fill their plates and glasses. She grabbed a good-sized chunk of her sister's fresh bread while Celestia poured herself tea, then switched positions once her sister's cup was full. While her sister plucked up olives, though, Luna moved on to the dips, giving a torn scrap of bread a generous coating of crushed tomatoes and garlic.
They ate in silence for a while, Luna's brow furrowed in thought at her sister's weary but otherwise unreadable face. Eventually, she could take the tension no longer and asked, "Is something the matter, sister?"
Celestia took her time to reply, as she always did. "Starlight Glimmer is almost to the capitol," she answered. "and she doesn't come alone. Two hundred was the last count of her followers, and we don't know how many will join her once she arrives." She bit her finger. "Maybe I should reach out to Shining, not just Signal. A handful of retired Guards are not nothing, but against two hundred or more..."
"The school will be safe," Luna reassured her. "Shining will not allow anyone in his city to suffer harm, and if he lacks the numbers to reinforce us, there are still our friends on...the other side."
Celestia furrowed her brow, doubtless thinking of the same thing she was; a small, parchment journal on her desk, one Sunset had entrusted to her while she was stuck in the capitol. She didn't doubt that Celestia had been making use of it, either to discuss the situation or her dreams with Princess Twilight, and though they'd agreed to close the portal out of caution, Twilight had made it abundantly clear that they had but to ask for her help and she would throw it open and come through with the might of Equestria behind her. Of course, her sister insisted that that was only to be a last resort, but Luna knew that any threat to her students would constitute a last resort. Her sister did nothing half-heartedly, especially not loving and caring; she could wait and watch if you worked against her, but if you threatened, credibly threatened, her students, her children, she would swoop down on you like an avenging angel.
"We shall have to hope it doesn't come to that," she murmured back after a few moments, then returned to her dinner. Luna did the same, and they finished in silence. Not a comfortable silence, the threat and fear of Starlight Glimmer's approach was too close to them for comfort, but not an uncomfortable silence either; it was a silence, asking to be filled but willing to wait until she or her sister chose to fill it.
Her sister chose to as they began cleaning up, asking, "Do you think it might be wise for us to flee, to head west until the situation gets under control?"
Luna almost dropped the dish she was washing. "I've never known you to run from someone in need, sister," she replied after the shock wore off. "Nor have I known you to propose something so ill-thought out. If we flee from Starlight, sister, then who will get her under control? How can we ask others to fight her when we aren't willing to do so ourselves? No, she will find us, or at least me, here whether she finds or fails to find approval in Castellot." She frowned. "Why do you ask? Have you--have you had a vision of something happening to us?"
"No," Celestia sighed. "I haven't seen anything about us. I'm just...afraid. I'm afraid, Luna, like I haven't been since-since Nightmare Moon."
Though she winced at the reminder of her 'incident,' Luna refused to let it stop her, saying, "And you didn't run away then, just like I know you won't now. Running away won't solve anything, sister; it will only allow Starlight to grow stronger. The only way to resolve this is through confrontation, either now or later, just like with Nightmare Moon. And just like with her," Luna smiled at her sister. "I know you'll do the right thing with Starlight."
"But is confronting her now the right thing?" her sister asked. "If we oppose her so directly and she wins approval, or worse, power, what will her supporters do to us? Elite opponents of the revolution, ones associated with one of the most frequently suspected magic-affected areas in the kingdom; what cause will they have not to hate and try to remove us? If we were to work against her more indirectly, we might be able to wait for the honeymoon to wane and strike against her more effectively then."
"Only after allowing her to inflict herself upon the kingdom," Luna argued. "We need to stop her before then, before anyone has to suffer her misrule. If we try, fail, and suffer for that, then so be it; better that than not try, fail, and let others suffer in our place." Her face softened. "It's not like you to try to put others in harm's way so we can escape it, Tia," she murmured. "Why are you trying to do so now?"
Her sister's hands fell, coming to rest upon her breast. "You're right," she murmured sadly. "It's not like me. I'm sorry, Lulu; I'm...I'm just scared. Scared for us. For you. I-I'm sorry." Then, before she could reply, Celestia walked away at a fast clip, what seemed to be tears in her eyes.
She frowned; something was wrong with her sister, something worse than mere fear. It was almost like she felt...guilty, or ashamed. But of what? Fear was nothing to be ashamed of, only wrongful responses to fear like Nightmare Moon were, and Celestia's fearful proposals just now hadn't been responses, only thoughts, ideas, musings. Like her sister had taught her (hard) after Nightmare Moon, you weren't culpable for your thoughts or emotions, only your choices, and unless Celestia had secretly made travel plans to escape Luna was reasonably sure she hadn't made any choices to be ashamed of here.
But then what was wrong with her sister? What was bothering her? What darkness was her weariness hiding?
Idly, she patted her breast pocket; she would try to find out, tonight. For now, she had cleanup to do.
When she was younger, there had been a constant feature in her dreams; a large, silver key, one that could fill the role of any tool. It became a torch in caves, a plate in bakeries, a sword on the battlefield, but its main use was in its base form, as a key, one that could unlock the doors between dreams. She couldn't remember when she'd discovered that, but she made use of her discovery, sharing many nights' worth of dreams with her sister.
That had stopped after she told her parents and they called the doctor. She told Luna that dreams weren't real, they were just stories the brain told itself while she was asleep, ways for it to try to understand things it hadn't while she was awake. Luna might have thought that she was sharing dreams with her sister, but it was just that, a thought, like all dreams were; a fictional, personal, isolated thought. She'd accepted the doctor's explanation and the key disappeared, though the lucidity of her dreams didn't; that was one contributing factor to the Nightmare Moon incident, her inability to find respite from her anger in sleep.
But then, a few months ago, after Sunset and her friends found their necklaces, her key had reappeared, burning silver-bright and searing away the nightmare afflicting her. It rejoined her and behaved as it had before, though its effectiveness was enhanced by her greater understanding of dreams. The doctor was right, dreams were just stories the mind told, but sometimes stories were true and meaningful.
And sometimes, she thought as she sailed the dreamscape in search of her sister's dream-door, stories have more than one listener. Rank upon rank of doors passed as the city slumbered, the dark mist of a nightmare occasionally leaking out of one. A quick wave of her key fixed that, a new ability she'd only learned of recently; though her key may have shrunk in relative size over the years, its abilities seemed to have done the inverse. She wondered what other secrets its smooth, shining silver form hid.
She shook her head, then continued her search; it was not her key's secrets but her sister's she hoped to learn tonight.
Another patrol failed to show her her sister's door, and she grit her teeth in frustration; where was she? Where was her sister hiding? And why? She wouldn't be able to see anything Celestia didn't want her to, dreams served the dreamer, not interlopers like her; if Celestia wanted to keep something hidden, nothing Luna could do would make the dream give it up.
Actually, she frowned, she wasn't sure her sister knew that. She wasn't sure her sister even knew she'd found her key again; she hadn't been hiding it, there'd just been so much going on she hadn't gotten around to telling her about it. But then where was she? Why wasn't she in the dream-world?
Her eyes widened in realization; the same reason she'd tried to avoid it back during Nightmare Moon. Facing something in the waking world was one thing, facing it in the dream-world another, and whatever was bothering her sister must have scared her enough to drive her away from sleep, from facing whatever it was in her nightmares.
She bolted awake and crept to her feet, quietly opening the door to her room and peeking down the hall at Celestia's; as expected, the door was open, and her sister lay nowhere in sight. She snuck through the house, trying to find her sister, bracing herself to ask what was keeping her awake at--she turned to look at a clock on the wall--midnight.
She wasn't in the living room or the kitchen, nor her study or the reading room. She wasn't in either of the bathrooms, the attic, not even the basement provided any clues as to her location. Eventually, Luna managed to find her, kneeling in front of the reflecting pool out back. Frowning, Luna pursued her, following her out with as much stealth as she could muster. Fortunately, judging by the lack of attention Celestia seemed to give her, she succeeded, and managed to get within a stone's throw of her sister before pausing.
Though clearly prepared for sleep in one of her nightgowns and with her hair down, the tired slump of her shoulders indicated how little she'd actually used those preparations. Her lips constantly quivered, as did her silvery hands, tightly gripping her main set of prayer beads, a series of crude wooden spheres run over a rough cord. Her eyes were closed, and heavily, as if she knew something was in front of her, something horrible, and if she merely pretended it wasn't there it wouldn't hurt her, like the monsters under the bed or Luna's personal difficulties.
"Make me a channel of your peace," she whispered, almost frantically. "Where there is hatred, let me bring your love; where there is injury, your pardon, Lord; and where there's doubt, true faith in...in..." Then, to Luna's shock, she almost threw herself on the ground, faintly whimpering. "I can't do this," she cried. "It's too much for me. Please, Shepherd, take this cup away, let it pass. Please, take this cup away. Please." But then she paused. Eventually, she shook her head. "No," she whispered. "No, it isn't like me to try to put others in harm's way so that I can escape. No, I will not-I will not let them suffer due to my fear. Shepherd, please, take this cup away, unless it must be drunk; then..." Her face fell, though her voice stayed determined. "...then, let it pass to me. Marsine."
Luna watched in awe as her sister picked up her prayers again, almost glowing now in the light of the Moon. She'd been a witness to something profound, something she didn't understand. What cup was her sister talking about? Why had she been so sad, so scared, so overwhelmed by the thought of it? What darkness forced her to find the light Luna thought she saw?
She didn't know, and the thought of interrupting her almost beatifically-faced sister to ask felt wrong now. Instead, she quietly retreated back inside and returned to her bed; she would ask her sister tomorrow.
The image of the anguish on her face during her prayers flashed across her mind as she prepared to fall asleep. Opening her eyes and sitting upright, she looked out her window at the Moon, full and bright. And she looked at the realm of the Unseen behind it, that which mortal eye couldn't perceive, and at the harmony between the two that was to come.
"Please," she prayed to the masters of those things, of the Seen, Unseen, and the Harmony to come. "Keep my sister safe. Let the cup pass from her, whatever that may mean. Keep her safe. Marsine." Then, signing herself with the star, she passed back into the dreamscape.
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They are mightier than most, but they are still only human. Whatever may come, I hope it is kinder to them than I fear it will be.
10857536
Amen.
What did she just say?
What does that mean?
Just get pinkie pie to blow them up. Make her pretend like it’s a game.
Who is she talking about?
That’s what I’m talking about.
I honestly doubt that.
Why does she be looking for them?
What happened?
Where were her hands before?
What does she mean?
A literal key or a metaphorical key?
What the hell is she doing?
10858616
Fateful words, my friend. Fateful, and sadly fitting.
10861516
A prayer before dinner.
So be it, basically the equivalent of "Amen."
She would be one girl against at least two hundred fired-up revolutionaries. Even more than odds, though, the greatest problem is one of doubt; it isn't known for certain that the Unmarked will prove violent, or that they'll do anything more than property damage even if they are. Until they actually act violently or directly and clearly incite violence, the law requires them to be treated as any other political group would be, and heavy force is not a proportionate response to a political demonstration. If Pinkie were to use her magic on them, she would effectively be opening fire on civilians, something neither the courts nor she herself would look kindly on. Even if things do turn violent, lethal force is only considered legally permissible in Homestria if deadly harm is reasonably expectable, so Pinkie would basically have to wait for the Unmarked to clearly show that they mean to do more than simply throw rocks or jump on cars before she could use lethal force, and the unstable nature of her powers means that what she thinks isn't lethal force could turn out to be. This forces her to restrain herself as much as possible, in order to avoid taking unnecessary lives (the very thing she is trying to prevent in the first place). Basically, Starlight's plans hinge on plausible deniability; so long as there is reasonable doubt with regards to whether or not the Unmarked actually mean to cause physical, deadly harm, the authority's response to her is going to be limited in order to avoid lawsuits regarding excessive use of force. Legally speaking, until they prove themselves criminals, Starlight and her Unmarked possess the same rights as other Homestrian citizens, namely the right to life and security, and excessive use of force against them would deprive them of that right. And that right is a universal human right, only waived when it infringes on another human's reasonable exercise of the same right, making the choice for Pinkie to pull the trigger even harder. These aren't faceless monsters they're fighting; they're people, fellow Homestrian citizens. They're people who could have been Pinkie's neighbors; would you be able to pull the trigger because you thought your neighbor might do something to hurt you, possibly seriously?
Yeah, she would probably move a bit slower than that.
You would earn her ire, though, and when she finally struck she would need to strike no more.
It's not necessarily that she's explicitly looking for them, it's that she'll find them opposing her when she arrives. She's coming to the capitol, and she'll find them there, whether or not she was looking for them in the first place.
That is a story for another day.
Nowhere specific.
About what?
Literal, though the nature of the dream-world makes it a bit of both.
Praying.