Selene Embers

by AFanaticRabbit

Chapter 1: The Night’s Youth

Luna soared. Wispy trails surrounded her, and a myriad of twinkling pinpricks dotted the infinitely blue and black world, and below her lay another myriad of shapes, doors and windows and formless sleeping minds.

All of them belonged to ponies. All of them her subjects, all of them her children to care for in the years and decades to come. The thought brought a smile to Luna’s lips, and while she had no real physical form in this realm, it also sent a chill down her back.

Most of the dreamers below seemed calm and content. Many of their dreams grew and swelled, indescribable forms surrounding their little pocket of collective consciousness. Luna occasionally peeked in on these dreams, if not to check for trouble, then at least to move on with the same content feeling, knowing they were safe.

Some of the dreams were nonsense, their owners’ minds simply sorting through their memories and experiences of the previous day. Luna checked these dreams a little more often, not trusting the randomness to simply leave her ponies alone, but like the others she was relieved to find most of them peaceful and calm.

Lastly were the dreamers whose fears and worries bled into their sleep. They were hard to spot from afar, from her vantage point above every one of her subjects, but little telltale signs drew her in. Darker bubbles, misshapen and restless. Their anxieties and worries manifested in tendrils that wormed their way deeper into the collective space around them. Luna had seen what these do to other dreamers. She stopped these horrid manifestations, pruning their vile vines and following them to their roots. She approached their sources, and with care applied hers magics to the crying foals and panicked adults.

She still didn’t know what to really do, how to work through their problems. She had repeated visits to the same individuals, and they never recognised her, but that was okay. To see their dreams calm, to shrink and fall into themselves like a rage subsided was good enough for her, at least for now.

This night, however, was different.

Luna fashioned herself a routine. Many dreamers were clustered, presumably living near one another. That seemed to ring true for Everfree Castle’s staff and Celestia’s radiant imaginings, and for the aristocrats of the budding mountain town of Canterlot. Usually she worked her way outward, picking a direction inside of Equestria’s borders, to the twinkling east or west, or the ominous darkness of the north. She instead flew south that night.

For Luna saw a single bright dot flitting over the dreamers there, out of place against the static starfield.

As she moved towards the curious ember, she passed by more dreamers, those from less familiar lands. She saw no reason to let curiosity make derelict in her duty, so she still checked in on them, glancing at their dreams. Academically she recognised these ponies, and she could still combat their terrors, comfort the individuals, but some of their languages were unfamiliar, some of their cultural worries foreign.

As Luna dove to another cluster, she caught sight of the ember doing the same nearby. Now that she was nearer, she could see it had a peach tint to it. Pausing, she admired the grace with which it fell, the way the inexplicable, non-light glinted off of it.

Luna made a choice. These dreamers below could wait.

She dove toward the ember.

The ember slowed. Luna felt attention cast upon her, filled with some level of judgement and curiosity. Whatever the ember was thinking, it decided to continue on its fall to the minds beneath it, but now it spiraled and spun, allowing Luna to catch up.

The ember did not grow as Luna came near. It was no brighter, no larger, no more intense than it was when she first spotted it. Up close, however, it was faster, more agile, and entirely aware of Luna’s presence, as the moment Luna neared it, its spiral ceased and it shot down and into one of the dreams beneath.

With a smirk and a laugh with no lips to pass through, Luna followed. She passed through the dream’s threshold, and then came to rest her hooves upon warm sand in an alley. The sensation came as a surprise, and Luna’s wings flared out as she stumbled back. Her rump connected with a closed door recently slammed behind her, then fell as she sat down.

Most dreams before were partly built, details missing, like she was peering into a painting to where the artist’s brush was unable to reach. This dream was vivid, more real than a painting or even a memory. The heat of the sun above and the sand below, the smell of spice from a distant market, the far away echoes of faint conversation. Luna supposed it’d sting if she pinched herself.

The novelty of the moment passed before long, and Luna rose to her hooves. She tilted her head, raising an ear to listen to the environment. Aside from the unfamiliar tongues, it sounded not unlike most other townships she had visited over the past few years. She also supposed if it was being dreamed so clearly, then the source of the noise, the sounds of conversations and work and rabble must be the center of the dream.

Luna took a few steps toward the center of the town, and paused to examine herself. In most of her duties, she had no self to examine, but here she was every bit as real as the world around her.

Her coat might stand out a little, as dark as it was, but her height and wings and horn combined would most certainly cast her as an outlier.

Glancing around, Luna found a solution to some of those problems. She took down a patterned linen sheet off a line to wrap around herself like a cloak, hiding her wings and obscuring her horn, then set off. A little twang of guilt tugged at the back of her mind, but she suppressed it with the reminder that she was but in a dream.

The market itself was as real and as vivid as the alley she arrived in. The moment she turned a corner she bumped into another pony. Both stumbled and turned, and he rose a hoof and fired a string of strong words Luna’s way, none of which she understood.

“My apologies,” she said, quickly bowing her head, ensuring she was lower than the stallion she had upset. His frantic words slowed, turning into a mutter and a lazy kick at the ground before he turned and continued on his way. When she was sure he had moved on, Luna rose back up with a frown.

It lasted only a second. That frown slipped from her face when she turned back to the rest of the street. She remembered a place like this described to her once, in a book or spoken about by Star Swirl, and now she saw it with her own eyes.

The entire street was lined with possibly a hundred stalls, each one with linen and cotton and silk hung above them, protecting the ponies there from the sun. They were lush with bowls and crates of uncountable colours and shades, of powders and spices, of fruit and produce, textiles and gems. The market she saw reminded her of Canterlot’s central square, but the foreign smells tantalised her and drew her forward, as if pulling her with an unseen rope.

The acknowledgement of her curiosity reminded Luna why she was there. As she walked, her gaze lifted from the produce and wares to the ponies ahead of her. Just like their surroundings, they too were made of a multitude of colours, and while most were pegasi, a number of unicorns and earth ponies were present too. Yet, despite all the rainbow presented to her, there was not a single pony that reminded her of that ember.

All that assuming the ember she saw was even a pony at all. But it must have been. It had reacted to Luna, she knew it did. It had intentionally caught her attention and drew her into this dream and must have done so for a reason. Another creature might not have played or taken refuge in a pony’s mind such as this.

A shout nearby drew Luna out of her thoughts, and she turned toward it. It repeated, shouting words Luna did not recognise, but she sensed the urgency and anger in them and she hurried toward it.

Seconds later, and she stopped at the mouth of another alley, looking in towards a trio of pegasi surrounding a fourth, a young colt with a dark blue coat. He looked up at the largest pegasus, trembling under the words the stallion spoke. Luna watched, and she tried to reach out with her magic, to chase away the bullies.

The scene was too real. As hard as she concentrated, the older stallions remained, and her usual practice of merely banishing the visions refused to work.

“Vivid dreamers.”

Luna spun and looked toward another cloaked individual beside her. “Pardon?” she asked.

“He is a vivid dreamer,” the figure said. The voice was deep, but calm and soft. “It makes it easier for you to appear here, but it means you must work harder to help him.”

Luna blinked, turning back to the colt. The stallions around him closed in, and one struck the foal’s head. Luna winced, and channelled her focus into her horn. Again the stallions remained, against her expectations.

“Try a real spell,” the figure said. Luna turned to them, and they—she turned back to Luna. A peach face and dark lined eyes smiled up at the princess. Luna’s breath paused, and recognition flashed across her mind. “Or do what I do and tumble with them.”

After a pause Luna smiled, then she stepped fully into the alley.

“Leave him alone,” she commanded, drawing on recent lessons to project her voice. The stallions turned to her, the colt forgotten. One of them said something, but she still did not understand the words. The gesture waving her away was enough.

“I will not repeat myself.” With a ripping sound, the cloak was magically torn away and Luna flared out her wings. She filled the space in the alley, both with her physical form and her presence, casting the stallions into shadow. She scowled, raising her head but angling it to look down on the pegasi past her snout. Their stern looks vanished, and the leader stammered. A second later, three sets of wings kicked up dust and sand, leaving Luna alone with the colt.

He continued trembling, his fearful gaze set upon her instead. Luna’s scowl softened, and as she walked closer to him she tucked away her wings and settled down onto her belly.

“You are safe now,” she whispered. The colt, previously hyperventilating, now slowed his breathing. He said something, soft enough she almost couldn’t hear, but she made out one word.

“...Luna...”

She smiled and nodded. “‘Tis but a dream, my little pony,” she said, but confusion registered on his face.

She frowned, and opened her mouth to speak again when the mare behind her said something, once again in words Luna did not catch. Understanding lit the colt’s eyes a moment later, and he nodded to the mare, then to Luna. He said something in return, bowing to Luna. Luna returned the gesture with another nod of her head.

“That was impressive,” said the mare. “Though I suppose being an alicorn means impressiveness comes naturally.”

Luna looked at the mare and smirked. “Thou were testing me.”

“As much as I was teaching you.” She chuckled, her voice deep and rich like honey. “Come, we should leave the boy. It does him no good for us to remain longer than we’re needed.”

Luna nodded and rose up. The thought of leaving came with an odd sensation in her hooves, and she examined one, lifting it to her face. “May I ask thy name?”

“You may,” replied the mare, “but I may not answer, Princess Luna.” She walked further into the alley and pushed open a door. Cool air blew out, and inside Luna saw the dreamscape.

“Ah.” Luna let out a short little laugh. “I see both my contemporaries and little colts have me at a disadvantage.”

“Maybe in the next dream.” The mare discarded her cloak and beat her wings, rising off the ground. “I’ll be keeping an eye on you, my little moth.” She flashed Luna a grin, and then shot through the door.

Luna remained for a moment, blinking away the sand and dirt that flew up to her eyes. She coughed, and turned to a now giggling colt. Shooting him a brief scowl made him quiet, but a little smile still creased his lips.

“Little moth?” Luna asked herself. “Really now…”