Of Time Before The Stars

by JinxTJL

Of He Who Left Unseen

"I can help."

It was nearly uncanny that- as she could feel against her- Luna and Celestia both looked up in the same synchronous motion.

The stranger had moved. Close.

So close that they were actually right on the other side of Luna's body. Standing just aside of the blood-covered rock, likely to avoid the worst of the huge puddle. Probably even close enough to reach out and touch them, but still somehow not close enough to see under their cloak.

Maybe not see under it, but Luna- through the haze of intense loneliness- was fairly sure that she'd never be able to see under that cloak.

Maybe it was intuition- or maybe it was grief-driven insanity- but now that they were so close and she could see into the cloak-bound non-space, she was more certain it may have been magical.

It just seemed unnatural, the way it hid them.

What did she know, though? Her sister was the unicorn.

Her poor sister, who she could feel clearly through their close contact try to speak. Soft gasps and chokes that died too soon in her throat, until she soon fell completely silent.

It was so... un-Celestia, to be so speechless. It was sad.

She watched over her shoulder as she continued to press herself against her sister, and a nearly unnaturally yellow hoof slid out from the sleeve of their cloak- and Luna was suddenly absolutely certain that it was magical. The sickly-colored limb stretched out from seeming nothing.

Growing discomfort itched at her withers from her posture, but she could barely take her eyes off the scene before her. She turned and circled: keeping her hooves close as they found new places around waist and under limb holding purple limb; her eyes focused on the slow drift of that yellowed hoof as it gently ran a glistening trail of red across... not her forehead.

Celestia seemed worsened at the sight, as an entirely new wave of intense shakes vibrated out through their side hug. Her eye drifted to the side in momentary distracted concern, but returned to see the stranger's hoof begin to explore about in the reddish-purple hair of her downed self's head.

"It's bad," murmured the stranger, and there was an immediate tensing in her sister to hear the strangely roughened voice of the stranger. Their head tilted towards them, and she tried in vain to peer beyond what veiled their face. "She's torn her scalp very badly, and she's lost a lot of blood."

Celestia gasped, and all she could do was squeeze that much harder. She hoped that somehow, across the indeterminable distance, the sentiment would convey. She'd just have to hug her sister again when she-

Her sister's breaths were so uniformly ununiform that the first little off-balance catch was nearly unnoticeable. She wasn't sure- until the second jitter through her jaw came harder, and then it was too late to do anything as the third shake that nearly threw her off came in a retch.

She leaned away as much as the hug would allow- and there was really no way to properly feel about watching somepony she'd lived with all her life throw up all over her dying body. It was the sort of thing one simply just watched.

Celestia was bent over her work and taking deep, shaking breaths, and as Luna looked down with wide eyes at the... mess, she was suddenly very glad that she hadn't filled in all the gaps. The way her sister spat and choked as she returned upright- though she didn't lessen her hug any for it- it must have tasted and smelled as foul as it looked.

She'd keep the worst details of vomit out of her dreams, thanks very much.

Each breath seemed a labor to her sister, and though she was undoubtedly dirty even before her vomit, Luna still nestled herself deeper into the shallow crook of the neck she was rest upon. She wanted to comfort her... but she just... couldn't.

She'd never before wanted to see her sister so badly.

"Can't you help her?"

Celestia seemed to cringe from the very sound of her own voice, and Luna couldn't help herself from wincing along. If 'groggy wake-up' was the limit for how rough her sister's voice had ever been, then this tone had surpassed it by leagues. It hurt Luna's ears, and it must have hurt Celestia's throat.

The stranger took the question and the tone and the vomit all in stride, as they returned merely to looking down at her head. Certainly though, it was all very distressing, and her sister was taking the moment to rest with hot breaths and slumping posture. She was sure she'd be as worse off or barely better if it weren't for the quiet, undeniable professionalism of the stranger.

It set her mind just that much at ease, and even then, they acted in total succinct silence. With their hoof prodding in such delicate motions about the messy surface of hair, to eventually stop in one specific, nonspecific spot: the entire inspection screamed precision. Diagnostic methods with such ease in such dire time seemed... tested.

Were they a doctor?

"I can... with your permission." They spoke as they looked back up at them again, and Luna was suddenly struck then by the tone of their voice. She'd not expect her sister to have noticed it- blinded and deafened by grief as she was- but the gruff edge of their graveled voice seemed... torn, rather than worn.

It was much like her sister's. While it tore their throat and others' ears alike, she could almost hear faint traces of some accent beneath it all. As though they'd merely not had a drink in some time. And still: there was nuance to even that blunted edge. The way they spoke was almost... wavering?

It did not lack conviction, to be sure, but she could hear something identifiably meek there. They seemed... nervous, even to speak.

She was becoming endeared to this stranger.

Her less than momentary reverie was broken as her sister shook- no, not shook: nodded. Repeatedly, in extreme motion, for much longer than was necessary. The jostle was nearly enough to shake her off, and she was forced to hold herself at hoof's length as her sister affirmed with her entire body.

It would have been funny if she'd not been crying.

How even a small glimpse of hope must have seemed such a miracle to her, after such a total resignation.

Her savior seemed to regard Celestia in a long moment of silence. Simply staring. Perhaps thinking on the consequences of such blind and total faith in a total stranger. She hoped they might forgive it, as she already had.

She hoped it would not be abused.

"Thank you."

It was her savior who'd offered it, and it was from they which sprung the glowing red light of magic from a horn. Shock bloomed in her breast as her eyes widened, and her sister gasped and tensed back as her savior's cloak raised; many different vials carrying themselves out from under the cloth on visible waves of crimson light.

The bottom-heavy bottles danced and alit on sheer air, and the song of corks unpopping accompanied them as myriad powders and liquids poured forth from their containers.

One by one and all at once did they collect and aggregate together before separating to collect in piles on her body. Covering so cleanly in myriad complimentary colors the slurries of refuse- yet there was something ever more brilliant about it.

So quick, and so often did they all cross and mix in their dance, but not once did any of the settled piles overlap.

So sure she was, that her savior knew medicine.

"Your hoof, please."

Luna looked up, and it was becoming ever more difficult to not notice how timid her savior was. Their hoof had outstretched, but just barely did it extend from the encompassing shadow of their cloak, and even there it seemed so tentative. Their hood was colored on its rim alone by scarlet light barely shading a horn- but she couldn't help imagining them nervously averting their eyes.

Luna felt all the more heartened.

Her sister, though... "W-What?"

As much familiarity and kinship she was beginning to feel for her savior, they still must have seemed so strange to her poor sister. Her mind: gone through such trial; was it any wonder that she'd feel such suspicion even for how kind they were?

"I must have a small amount of your blood, and your forgiveness in turn," murmured they, and she felt nearly pitied for them. The reticence to their rasp was as prominent as it'd ever been, though she could certainly understand the way their hoof shivered in the air.

Certainly, they had their reasons, but that was an awful lot to ask. Her blood? Celestia was as likely to agree as she was to-

The motion was so quick- so unexpected. Her sister thrust her hoof forward in less than a drip, to hold itself opposite to the yellow hoof which shied away from the sudden motion.

As she looked from her sister's shaking, outstretched hoof, she could only see the barest side of Celestia's face from where she was hugging her. Just a corner of eye and twitching, seething frown, but still...

It was hardly long since Celestia was a weeping, shaking mess- and certainly she still shook and wept- but there was a growing sense of... control, there. As her breaths still jumped wildly from deep to shallow, it was no longer great distances. Her shakes still taking her entire body, yet with less regularity and force did she jerk.

And her hoof... was strong. It was not still, nor did her sister seem uncaring of what she was so blatantly proffering, but all the same it kept. It did not retreat of volition, or fall of fear.

And certainly, she did still fear.

Something piteous took hold of her for a single, overpowering second, and her face pinched as she buried it into her sister's side. "Thank you," she murmured, muffledly.

How could she ever repay her? Even to begin?

By the time she'd dried her eyes and removed her face from her sister's side, her savior seemed to have recovered from whatever reverie they'd undergone through her sister's bold, wordless declaration. Staring at her for so long, but then did they sigh.

"Please, forgive this," they whispered, and she felt then her sister turning away. To avert her eyes- and tense through her whole body- must have been the only way to keep the strength of will she'd shown.

But as her savior's horn lit again, and as their cloak lifted, Luna found she could not tear her eyes away. Not even for what impended.

Her sister may have seen the instrument coming forth as a simple knife, but Luna was of the mind that steel- cold and voiceless- so often held a story. And the knife that floated up to rest upon her sister's hoof- as a yellow hoof raised to hold it gently- was yet to tell as it so obviously had.

It was not dull, and so did it glide through a shallow cut of her sister's arm. Teased out a small trickle of red over red with ease, and yet did the plain, grey blade glint. Flesh yielded so cleanly: it was sharp. Hardly did it seem cared for: short and unpolished and wrapped by loose strands of frayed fiber around its grip, but her eyes were keen for detail.

And as the bare, crimson liquid trickled down in timed drips to cover the powders, the knife that floated away caught. Bright light off red oozing over grey: it filled in and showed pattern. The blade was adorned.

And then it was gone. Too fast to see the emblem emblazoned with care into the face of the blade, and all she could remember seeing in the quiet moments after was the slightest edge of a shape.

A shape she'd remember, as a messy ball of pristine gauze replaced the knife, and a much smaller bottle joined it. A small cap- rather than a large cork- uncapped, and some kind of clear liquid was dripped onto a long stretch of the fabric as it earmarked and tore itself off.

Before she'd blinked, the cloth was wrapping around her sister's cut, and the small gasp of pain that brought her sister back to reality was only a drip before each tool was lifted back into the cloak.

Her sister's hoof turned as she inspected the wrap on both sides, but Luna only had eyes for her savior. Leaning down to angle their dark hood at her downed self's body without pause, while her heart took the cause for them.

So quick. So mild mannered- yet so forward. They'd hesitated to ask her sister for something so small as the favor, yet bled and wrapped her so quickly it had seemed most of the work was the ask.

How contradictory in its very premise.

The urge to somehow ask her savior their entire life story was rising by the drip, yet the then and now was not finished. Her sister sighed shakily, as a yellow hoof stretched out to nestle into purple mane again.

"What now?" Celestia whispered, and it sounded like she could only whisper: such was the wear to her voice. The raw tone tugged again at her heart, and her thoughts were drawn away from the most romantic aspects of mysterious saviors as she did her best to hug her cold sister harder.

Her savior seemed to not have heard the low words for a long moment- and she wouldn't have blamed them- but then they retracted their hoof in a slow motion. The sound of shuffling cloak seemed louder to her ears as the unseen pony seemed to... brace themselves.

Their stance lowered, and widened with a soft shuffle as their head raised to an arch. Towering above the three comparatively diminutive forms before them, and it suddenly struck her that the stranger was likely far older than them.

Did that make her heart grow fonder, though?

Luna felt oddly.

"Do not fear," came the rough, yet calming, whisper from that cloaked form. She'd barely begun to ponder what she might possibly fear before the red light of their horn burst, and dimmed.

No... Not dimmed...

Blackened.

Her mouth gaped- and she heard her sister gasp- as something akin to fire leapt from the horn glowing so brilliantly black. The cloth fluttered and swept about in a sudden breeze that whipped her sister's pink mane into her face, but she swatted it away as she remained intently focused and wide-eyed at the sight before her.

The brighter light was above them- but in front of them burned the dark. Like a visible shadow had descended upon those poor few to dare to see it, where it thinly veiled the bright outside to leave nothing but the dancing dim.

And oh, how it danced. Where the dark had consumed the crimson light in an instant, it still fought. Where one color ceased in receding tails of flickering flashes, the other chased it with hot tongues that lashed against their antithesis with deadly intent. A suffering battle for the survival of flush: played about in the air.

It was all strings, and Luna was enthralled.

But as the miasma cavorted on scant high, yet more took stage below, and there did her eye track.

If she'd not known herself to be in a dream before, then surely watching as the powders laid in piles over her body gathered into coalescent embers of red light would have loosed her grip on reality. She could scarce believe her eyes- yet the sight grew all the more fantastical as the rushing wind caught the shards of light: to blow them into an ascent for the skies.

It was nearly playful, how the cinders swayed and dropped away from each other. Coquettish whimsy to the light touches and uncertain leaps away. The sound of crackling flames and screaming wind whorled about her ears, yet it nearly sounded as a symphony for the graced show before her.

She'd never cared for magic. It had always seemed something for her sister, as Luna spent her time honing her blades, and dreaming of the past. And even her sister hadn't seen much success; all she'd ever managed to do were the simplest of spells, and that had been enough for her.

Maybe that's why Luna had dismissed it. Levitation and showers of sparks; she'd never known magic could... be like this.

It was beautiful. The most beautiful thing Luna had ever seen.

She felt restless. It made her want to paint her sky again. Just to see if she could capture... any fraction of the majesty.

Yet, as all things must, it soon ended.

She'd barely taken in any one masterwork of living art before each show was brought to a close in sequence. First did the cinders finally complete their descent, to fall without barrier into her chest. Lights absorbed like dripping drops of water. Then, as her hopes grew with a sudden enragement of the red-and-black flames whirling faster in the air, a sickening crack broke the sound of fire, and she snapped to attention as her double's body convulsed.

Just once did she jerk, but already did she see that her wing had moved. Closer to her side- and those sides were steaming. Each and every cut she could barely see under fur was closing in visible motion of moving flesh; pinks and reds growing shallow until they finished clean.

Even her pale and motionless face seemed to gain color between one flash of the rapidly shifting light. All in one moment: anything she'd seen to mar her coat had been closed. Excepting the blood and the vomit- but who cared?

She sort of did, but she'd woken up relatively clean. It must've been taken care of.

Her eyes stayed stuck to her body- which was now clearly breathing for the first time since she'd seen it- but she still pressed herself closer to Celestia. "Sister, wasn't that beautiful?" she whispered in breathy awe, as the sound of rushing fire dipped out of focus. The brilliant show of light abating.

And it was only then, as she listened for a response that she'd forgotten would not come, that she heard her sister choking.

Awareness rushed in- and her sister was shaking. Worse than ever before, and as Luna turned, she found the side of her sister's face as a deathly profile.

She put herself at hoof's length and turned as much she could to see better, but it was hard to see anything past the anguish cut into every reaching, deep, scrunched line of that frozen expression.

Her mouth open in a silent scream, while her chest moved relentlessly to push whatever air she could find through. Many breaths came out as short, hollow wheezes, though for one moment she stopped for a long moment of utter silence before gasping one, deep breath out. Then, back to the desperate gasping.

"Sister?" she whispered, though she knew in the back of her mind that the concern clawing at her heart was for naught. She reached a shaking hoof out, and touched upon the clenching surface of her sister's cheek, and it was so taut.

Celestia was barely moving: her eyes set straight forward yet jittering uncontrollably. Unfocused on anything, yet for as wide as they were she could have been staring at everything.

The reddish light coloring her face was dying down, but now she was merely shaded in lighter hues that nearly caught the expression better. Made the lines seem that much darker. Made all the emotions seem graver.

What had happened to her? She looked... She looked... Well, if she'd looked traumatized earlier, then she looked... insensate now. Barely conscious, really. Luna found herself waving a hoof in front of her still face for a moment, before she stopped with a seethe as she remembered that Celestia couldn't see her in the first place.

Luna had been so enraptured by the light show, she'd not caught any glimpses of her sister throughout. Whatever had spooked her- had terrified her to the point of total, full-body shock... Luna had missed it.

And that left her not knowing what to do.

...Like she'd be able to do anything, anyway.

Her eye, in its search for any sign of anything helpful, reached low, and caught sight of what her sister still held to her chest. A purple, red-splotched hoof clenched tightly abreast, and the whitish-red limb holding it shook.

But it shook. It moved; tried to keep firm. Unlike her sister's face, it showed life.

And... though it made her feel useless, and awful to her bones, it let her know that her sister would be okay. She'd recover. She... obviously wasn't okay now, but Luna remembered well the sight of her sister's face as she'd woken up.

She'd smiled. Soon, very soon now, she'd smile again.

Luna's head hung, and she sighed, just for herself. A deep, piteous sigh that lasted longer than it should've by any rational means. She rocked back onto her haunches, and clutched her own hoof to her breast, as she just stared down.

The longer she spent here, the more and more she understood of her sister. In new, uncomfortable ways; she wasn't sure she'd ever been so in tune to her kind of thinking. Never had she felt closer, even in being so far away.

Yet, she still didn't...

She shivered, and it wasn't until a moment after that she realized the weird feeling. An odd sense of artificial wrongness, like one would feel at having something caught in their throat. She looked down, to its source, and...

A yellow hoof stretched out from her slightly transparent stomach, holding a plain little cloth.

"Oh," she murmured, and after a moment, she slid to the side. The hoof didn't... catch on any of her body, and just kind of... cut a glowy path through her side: staying outstretched to her sister.

Who was here. And Luna wasn't here. And... if those two ever... intersected, it seemed as though it would just... rectify itself.

She sat again in a comfortable distance away from her sister, who was thankfully looking down at the cloth being offered by her savior. Her hoof touched lightly on the spot where she'd been... pierced, but she didn't... feel anything... off...

Just... weird, to have happen.

She tilted, and looked again at the spot.

She was fine. No scars, or anything. She needed to quit... worrying about it. Dream stuff.

"I'm sorry, I should have warned you. Some ponies feel the effects of my magic... worse than others."

She looked up, and her sister had taken the cloth. Held it close, to Luna's hoof, as her savior, with their head dipped in apology to her, stuttered out in whole sentences. They'd not actually stammered as they'd spoken, but they had hesitated, to say the least of how they weren't even looking at Celestia during.

It hadn't been their wonderful magic that had terrified her sister, had it?

Luna came to her hooves, and the worry of her surprise impaling was forgotten in an instant as her savior took two steps backward. A flash of concern for their cloak getting wet passed over her as her hoof raised to follow, but then the moment washed over her again, and her hoof fell in the same spot as she pursed her lips.

Their cloak probably had a bit more than water to worry about.

She glanced over to her sister- who, similarly, was spattered with dots and scrapes of red all over. Celestia was staring at her savior in much the same way Luna couldn't help herself from doing; her eyes surprisingly dry for once. Her face was still tight with unease and unrest, but a modicum of life had returned along with a little flush on her cheeks.

It was nice to see. Made her feel a little better.

"Your sister will wake soon, none the worse for wear," came the soft murmur from her savior, and she looked back as their hood turned bashfully away. "Her body has been restored, and each of her injuries cared for."

It was a moment of silence that quickly grew awkward as her sister didn't respond: only continued staring. Eventually, her savior slowly turned back to her sister, and nodded somewhat shortly. "You... should clean her up. Make her decent. I'm... sure you two have a lot to talk about..."

The halting tone and obvious pauses each an opportunity for her sister to jump in, but every time she looked expectantly to her for the awaited 'thanks,' she only found Celestia still... staring. Wide eyes and closed mouth in a frown. Stock still, and not prostrated in gratitude.

It was rude, no matter how affected her sister was. Her savior deserved...

Luna turned, and opened her mouth to give her own thanks. If her real self wasn't able to, and her sister was too deadened for niceties, then she'd just do it herself.

...And then she closed her mouth because this was a dream. And her real self was still unconscious.

She clopped her hoof to her forehead as her savior turned, and began to slough their way through the stream. She looked mournfully after them as they trudged out of the scene, then back to her sister still staring after them.

This wasn't right. They'd saved her life. They'd not asked for anything, least of all thanks, but deeds deserved. If they left now, without having... anything to show for the encounter, then...

She looked to her savior, stepping out of the water and shaking their hooves dry, then back to her sister sitting stilly, as she felt her face begin to grow hot. Her nose felt scrunched.

...How were they ever going to remember her?

Luna turned from her sister, intent on following after her savior. One step into the stream, and she looked down, then looked forward as her next step landed on the suddenly solid surface of the water. What was the point in wading if she didn't need to?

She'd scurried halfway across the mirror-like plane of water, knowing again in the back of her mind that she wouldn't be able to do anything, but dreams be damned if she couldn't somehow make the sentiment travel. She'd... try to get a dream message to them, or something.

It was about there that she stopped.

"Don't come back."

It was a combination of the surprise and the slightly scary feeling of walking on water that made her trip- not because she was clumsy.

Her face impacted with the surface of the water- and she wished that she'd put less effort into remembering that it was solid and more into imagining that it was soft. Her muzzle twinged with pain that faded in a thought, and she pushed herself up onto her hooves with a groan.

But that groan cut off as she remembered why she'd tripped, and then she twisted her half-prone body around with her mouth open in an affronted frown.

How could she say that?!

"Sister!" The rebuke was unnecessary and unheard, and Celestia only continued to stare out past her. Her face was as still as it had been, but now there was... something else, and it gave Luna a moment of pause.

It wasn't just her face that was still anymore. Her rising chest was slow and easy, and her hooves were calm. Her eyes no longer shook with unfocused, fearful energy, and instead were... hard.

Hard in a way that she'd never seen from her.

Quiet. Steady.

Steel.

It... sort of... frightened her.

Her breath was picking up from more than just her fall, and it didn't ease as she turned away from the sight of her sister cradling her own body. Instead, she focused on her savior: thankless and cursed. They'd reached the far end of the clearing by then, at the precise precipice of overgrown foliage, but they were looking back, too. At her sister.

And... she knew she still couldn't see their face, but as they then turned back to their path, and took their first step out of the clearing, Luna couldn't help but imagine she'd seen something, there. Something very dire about that unseen expression.

For a single moment, shining through the veil of their cloak, she swore they'd looked... sad.

She swallowed, and there was a lump in her throat as she turned just her head. To look at her sister, as she now looked down at Luna's body. Eyes traveling between her and the cloth in her hoof, and it only occurred to her then why her sister had made her take a bath when she'd woken up.

She looked out after her savior's departure- or where they'd departed- then back to her sister again.

Her sister was waiting for her.

But Luna needed to know.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, and she turned away from her sister. She knew where Celestia was going. She knew what Celestia was doing. It was going to be hard, and even if it hurt, Luna knew she should have stayed with her, and kept her company at the least.

But she knew where Celestia was going. She knew was Celestia was doing.

She'd be waiting when she woke up.

Luna looked ahead as her face twisted in regret, but she swallowed the feeling down, and began a quick trot after her savior. The spot where they'd left the clearing was close, but indistinct. If she didn't get after then soon, she'd lose them.

Her hooves left solid water and touched solid ground, and she quickened her pace as the unnoticeable squeezing feeling in her guts abated. Even with all her limited experience with flying, it still weirded her out to stand on something she shouldn't have been able to.

There was too much unanswered. Everything... everything she'd learned about her savior, with their magical cloak, and their medicinal acumen, and their incredible spell... it all just made her want to know more.

She wanted to know them. She wanted to thank them.

She came to and brushed past the fronds her savior had gone by, and continued to-

Step out into a white void.

She jumped back in shock as her wings unfurled, as the first thought that came to her mind was 'falling.' Not more than a few steps out from where the clearing turned into forest did the scene just... stop. The plants ended in a line, the sky above ceased to be, and even a tree stood as a half between white and brown.

Luna blinked, and rubbed her eyes as her wings kept her aloft. But even then, as her vision unfuzzed, the only thing that greeted her was a vast expanse of- well, nothing. No trees. No greens. No forest.

It was a bit like how her dreams first were when she slept in the tree, and as she realized that, she let her wings tentatively lower her to what she hoped was ground.

And, it was ground. It was not painted or naturalized, but it supported her all the same. She took a small hop, and the white did not give way. Did not waver, and Luna took another step forward.

It was just like her dreams. And-

Oh.

Luna turned, and it was gone. The forest behind her was no longer there, and all that was, was a lone door standing plainly in the white.

A white door painted in frilly loops, with an odd circle carved into the exact middle of it. Closed.

She couldn't hear the bubbling anymore.

She'd stepped out of her sister's dream.

A tired sense of exasperation crept up over her as she groaned, and let her butt fall to the ground. But even then, her shoulders still felt heavy, so she tilted over and fell onto her back.

Staring up at the blank sky with her hooves spread out around her, and a total sense of failure resting on her.

Of course trying to leave the clearing would lead her here. Her sister hadn't gone after the stranger, so obviously there'd be nothing there.

...She'd thought it 'obvious,' but it was quite a bit of a shock.

Luna let her hooves come up and cross behind her head, supporting her as she cast a leery glance at the door in front of her.

A lot about this whole experience wasn't adding up. When she'd first gone through the door, she'd been dropped somewhere random in the forest. Not in the clearing- and she was beginning to think she hadn't even been close. She'd only been able to find it by using... weird... dream magic.

That was when things had become especially odd. When she'd transported herself to the stream, the light had shifted. Not only that: the circumstances of the dream itself had changed. From that point, things had been oddly affected by what she was assuming was her sister's remembrance of the events.

But her sister hadn't wandered around in the woods for what felt like a pot, had she? Why had Luna been able to walk around in what- as made apparent by her current location- should have been void-y non space? Why hadn't she been able to now?

Luna clicked her tongue, and returned her gaze up to the sky. She blinked, and there was a drawn little circle of charcoal on the canvas above her. She focused, and then there was a floating pin that read 'sister' in neat writing in the middle of it.

Another moment passed, and then there was an identical circle floating to the right of it with its own little pin that read 'me.'

She took a moment to stare at it, and after a heated debate with herself, the little pin that read 'me' turned into a little pin that read 'us.' Because it made her feel a little better.

Luna had gone to sleep, and ended up in the circle on the right. Her own dream. She'd wanted to get into the circle on the left. Her sister's dream.

She'd needed to make the two intersect.

In a moment, the two circles with their pins and all floated closer, and overlapped their edges. About half of each circle lay inside the other, and between them stood a shared space. In this smaller space, Luna imagined another pin that read 'memory,' and there it was.

There were three spaces, and she'd made a distinction for a reason. There was Luna's dream. There was Celestia's dream. And then there was...

The memory.

This was the first theory that had come to Luna's mind, and it made a lot of sense. If she had started in her own dream with the intent on going to her sister's memory- well, she'd not succeeded, had she?

The pin that read 'us' floated from the circle on the right, and tentatively, Luna let it float into the circle to share space with 'sister.'

She'd not made it to the memory. She'd been focused entirely on getting into her sister's dream, and... that's where she'd ended up. The left, rather than the middle.

Luna nodded to herself, looking up at the two pins that read 'us' and 'sister.' After a moment of staring at the two plain little squares of paper, she blinked, and one was suddenly colored blue while the other was colored pink.

Yes. She'd first gone to her sister's dream instead of her memory. But then, as she'd wandered endlessly and eventually had her idea, she'd done a better job.

Standing there with her hoof on that root, she'd had a few little visualizations to help her along. When she'd tried to focus on the image of the stream, she'd imagined the root she was standing on as a little larger. Much larger, really- she'd imagined herself stepping over a great gap.

And as she'd passed that gap, she'd arrived to the third location. The memory.

She took a moment of staring, and, as her eyes narrowed, the little square that read 'memory' slowly turned red.

And then, the blue pin found a new home between the circles.

Luna blinked, and the circles were all gone. Her hooves tracked down and leveraged her up to a sitting position, and there she sat as she stared at the door.

She'd started in her dream, then gone to her sister's- which was why she'd been able to wander about in the forest- then found her way into her sister's memory- which explained all the inconsistent oddities- then she'd left the memory and come back here.

A roundabout trip back to her own dream having seen everything she'd gone to see. Dreams and memories had identifiable differences, and she knew now what had happened after she'd crashed.

She swallowed, and her eyes narrowed on the door. The white door with the odd circle standing closed, but still there.

That wasn't really what she wanted, anymore.

---

It made her feel bad.

Once again, Luna stood in the clearing of her near-death. Physically, it hadn't been all that hard to come back. Stepping through the door had been the first part, and while she'd been left standing uselessly in the forest again, it had been surprisingly easy to do what she'd done before.

Even easier to imagine a particular time to pop into now that she'd gained greater understanding of what exactly she was doing. If the timeline of events was just that: a line of time, then she just had to pick a different point on the line. Placing herself not at the start of the memory, but just a little further on.

Well, near the end actually.

"Don't come back."

Luna huffed a hot sigh as the words rang out from far behind her. She had her attention focused on her savior- turned her sister's way far behind the both of them- but hearing those cold words still kind of hurt. And she wasn't even the intended...

She'd thought she was understanding her sister better, but now...

It didn't seem Celestia. When she imagined her sister in conversation with another pony, or their parents, she'd always thought of how kind her sister would be. So perfectly able to be amiable. Princess Perfect.

This wasn't her. This wasn't kind. And she didn't understand.

But- that was a worry for later, when she saw her sister in pony, if even then. Now, Luna had to cast it all aside. All the blood, and the emotions left in refuse behind her, as her savior in front of her turned to leave.

She needed to follow, and she didn't have all that much time in this instance to figure out how.

They were turned now, and taking their first step out, and Luna was immediately on their heels. Close enough to touch their cloak, but she knew physical distance wouldn't matter. She could jump forward and latch right onto the covered back, and though that sounded like so much fun, it wouldn't do anything. She'd probably fall flat on her face as they stepped past the line, and her savior ceased to exist.

It was alright; her diagram earlier had greatly helped her conceptualize this. They were currently in her sister's memory, which lay at a somewhat disconnected juncture between her own dreams connected to her sister's. Less of a true overlap and more of a strange, undefined shape that kept distinct from both but still needed them to exist.

What would that shape look like? Certainly, she couldn't picture it, but it existed as she was able to imagine the idea of it.

Aside the point- she needed to get to her savior's dream to follow them out. A fourth circle that, somehow, intersected with this memory but not either of their dreams.

Now that was a weird circle.

They were halfway gone, and even as fast as Luna was thinking, she was running out of time and room. Her nose was practically to the covered arch of their tail, and she could already picture walking out into that white void again.

There was just no time to think deeply about odd shapes- how did she usually dreamwalk? At its basest level?

She felt. She imagined. Her will ferried her.

So, she needed to feel. She needed to imagine something.

She needed out of her sister's dream- but not into her own. Carry her beyond! Her savior- whatever their name was- they were here. Now that her head knew of them, she could- she could track them.

Believe it. She needed to believe it. As leaves brushed against her cheeks, she needed to believe that she was following them. Not just into the void, she was following their memory.

The shrouded pony. She was following them.

Out of her sister's dream- stay connected to them. To her savior. From two intersecting circles, to fall into a third.

Something... was happening. As she walked forward, something was... dragging... her...

Her hooves felt heavy, and her head was... kind of... starting to... burn..!

Luna gasped as her vision gradually fuzzed over, and she was less certain of her next step. The scene around her was beginning to... blur, and... slow down... Turn... gray..?

Distance didn't matter. Her savior's mind was connected to this dream whether they knew it or not, and Luna was following them back. She could do it. Was doing it.

Everything was... swimming... Her savior was still in front of her, but... was Luna still walking? Everything seemed... muggy... Heavy...

The connection between minds even in passing is like a tether, and it can be traced. Followed, from either end to its opposite. All it needs is a trace. Any mark is a mark made, and a mark made is concrete. Stable.

Every step was across mountains, and each breath was her last. The pain in her head had risen to splitting levels, and every moment that she hadn't passed out was a miracle.

She couldn't feel. Why could she feel?

Her eyes fluttered, and her jaw shuddered, and her gut clenched. She took another step, the world shattered, and she was sure then that she would collapse.

But still, her mind worked.

Dreams exist in parallel to the waking world, and the mind is their connection. As the mind can be explored from the outside in the waking world, the dream world is where it may be explored from the inside. And thus, the dream world is the true realm of the mind.

A memory is yet another kind of dream. To shape it: an art; to bridge them: foal's play.

You may walk them. There is no distance. Minds yield, as do doors.

It's your destiny.

She took a step forward.

Luna blinked, and her savior walked out in front of her. Into the flush woods in front of both of them, stretching out in a narrow path that lead in a swerve around a tree.

Luna blinked, and looked down, as she raised her hoof.

The sound of her savior trotting away was as clear as the sound of the babbling brook behind them, but... they could... wait a moment...

Her head didn't hurt. Her hooves weren't heavy. She didn't feel like vomiting, like, at all.

She blinked, and her next breath smelled like apples. Because she'd imagined it, and it let her know she was still dreaming.

And that she'd done it. She'd made it.

She cast her eye up, and jumped to attention as she saw her savior rounding the tree far ahead of them.

"No- no- no- no- no- no- no- no..." she muttered relentlessly as she leapt forward on quick hooves. She'd gone through something awful to get here: she wasn't going to just waste this chance by standing around!

But as she chased after the form of her savior, she let herself smile. Rounded the bend, and caught a glimpse of a black cloak fluttering behind a bush, and followed as her heart leapt.

She could feel it. In the back of her mind, she could feel it.

The connection. What tied her dream to her savior's memory. It wasn't like her sister's- this was a stranger whose real body could have been anywhere in the realm. There was a tangible line she could just... feel in her mind.

It was likely necessary. She couldn't just tap into this dream like she had with her sister, she'd needed to force her way in. That might've been all the... pain, and whatnot.

Interesting that the act was so in line with her visualizations that it had resulted in an actual sort of mental line to connect them.

And as she focused, and brushed past vines towards the sounds of cracking branches, she could see where it lead. Back to a plain white void, with a door standing as entrance to nowhere laid slightly ajar.

A door that... she could picture...

Dark brown, almost black. Simple wooden planks. A handle kept with a sturdy-looking wrought iron padlock.

And in the middle: a carved, colored picture of a flower. A single-stemmed, drooping flower that capped in five sickly, brown petals.

Six. One petal had just fallen off, and floated away. Wilted.

Her work imagining a strangely fitting door for a pony she'd never met was interrupted as she finally caught up to her savior. Less that she'd gone very fast and more that they'd actually just stopped. In the middle of a clearing, with their hooded head tilted up to the sky.

Luna came up behind them then, craning her neck up for a moment but not seeing whatever they were looking at. She hummed in interest as she walked up to stand just behind them, and the sound of rustling cloth caught her eye back down as-

As their hood lifted up over their head, and they shook their snowy white mane out into the air.

Luna's jaw dropped, and truly, she was left speechless for a long moment as her savior's yellowed fur and short, white mane were bared. Two yellow ears sitting in perfect shape rising from a shaggy neck-length mane, and she could see little beyond the back of their slightly light green-freckled neck. Barely even that with how tall they were.

But Luna didn't care. Because this was it. This was them. They, who'd saved her life. He- as she could tell with more clarity now- who'd walked into and out of her life without her even knowing it.

The first stranger she'd ever met, and she'd not been conscious.

Buckin' figured.

His voice drew her out of her spacy reverie, and she leaned forward as he sighed. Sighed... wetly?

Her heart froze and shattered as her savior sniffled in that refined, grating voice of his, and the back of a yellow hoof came up to rub at his face that she couldn't see.

He was sad. Her sister had hurt him with that horrible thing she'd said.

Luna's expression became soft, and she took a step forward with her hoof raised to comfort. Again: a memory, and this one of somepony she didn't even know, but she could be forgiven for getting a little dreamy about the colt that had saved her life!

But again, his voice stopped her. Wet and mumbled regretfully, and with an odd little bit of heat.

"Didn't even find the stupid tree..."

That was what had given her pause, because she'd become immediately confused. As her savior sniffled deeply and raised his head to the bright sky with a sigh, she just put her hoof down, and stared oddly.

He... knew they were in a forest, right?

She shook her head, and clopped her hoof to her forehead. Of course he must have been looking for a specific tree. There were regular old trees everywhere, stupid.

But what tree, though?

She returned to attention, intent on eavesdropping even more, yet she was met with...

His eyes. Wide, and locked directly onto hers.

Her own eyes went wide as her savior's face was now turned directly her way, and she could see every facet of his slightly gaunt, slightly teary expression. Wide, red eyes rimmed with dark circles and wet with tears, sunken cheeks freckled again in nearly minty green, mouth gaping slightly open, and a yellow horn rising from a completely unkempt, white mane that dipped just above his eyeline.

His hoof hovered uncertainly under his head, and as her eye flicked between staring in panic at the two things, and she began to formulate escape plans, and she realized that he stood over a whole head taller than her, it finally hit her again that she was in a dream.

That was right. This... was just a dream. He couldn't have been staring at her, there must've been something behind her that captured his interest. She was fine. Everything was fine.

She breathed a small breath of relief as she let her hoof rest on her chest, and the extreme height of panic began to reduce. She even smiled slightly at herself as her breaths steadied, and she returned her focus again to her savior.

He was looking calmer too- and more importantly, not looking directly at her, anymore. He obviously hadn't been staring at her, and now he was just looking to the side slightly awkwardly as her rubbed his hoof against his leg. Coughed once, and sniffled again.

What was behind her, though? It must've been something pretty shocking to-

His eye flicked back to her, and then his head turned back around. His eye caught hers directly, and her smile disappeared in an instant as her heart dropped. "So... you recovered pretty quickly, huh? Did your... um... sister..? Did she... um..."

He was talking to her. To her.

Luna screamed. Leapt up into the air away as her savior's eyes went wide, and they took a step back.

She pulled on the line. Yanked on it in panic.

The last thing she saw was the frightened confusion on his face as everything sucked itself away.

---

Awareness returned, and she was in the void.

It was familiar. It was comforting. As Luna opened her eyes, she knew that she didn't need them.

She was in her own dream, and everything was okay again.

She sat up, taking deep breaths as her hooves supported her. Blinked, and there was a shelf holding two pots somewhere behind her.

She knew how her sister hated the noise, and she wasn't all that loving of it either, but she couldn't help how calm it made her feel!

Her head was soon filled with the soft sounds of dripping, and as she took yet another deep breath, she finally chose to acknowledge the door in front of her.

It was not white. It was not frilly. It was brown, and plain, and locked with an unusually heavy lock, and had the exact picture of a wilted flower that she'd imagined carved into its middle.

The door to her savior's dream. Not his memory; she'd been in his dream.

It was so obvious now. In hindsight, it made complete sense. She'd come halfway again, and rather than entering her savior's sterile memory of what had happened, she'd entered his dream of the events as he was dreaming. That was actually him.

Just her luck. Was he asleep right now? Had he just happened to be having the perfect dream at this exact moment, or was that just some... afterimage? Maybe she'd influenced him somehow... If he was just dreaming, then maybe she'd accidentally forced his unconscious mind to meld to what she'd wanted...

Scary thought, but even scarier was...

The creaking of a door being opened.

Luna's fiftieth deep breath caught in her throat, and she swore she could see her own death again as the door in front of her began to slowly open. Bit by bit, creaking open slowly, and all she could do was watch.

Until a yellow head topped with a shaggy white mane slowly extended out from the crack: angled up towards the plain white sky as more of his body stepped out.

"What in the unseen heavens..?" came the whisper from his lips, and Luna was suddenly very aware that this was a dream. Her dream.

He'd followed her back into her dream.

Luna screamed, again, and her savior's head whipped her direction with as much fear in his eyes as she felt in her breast.

She scrabbled backwards on her butt, chanting something as loudly in her head as she could as she continued to scream, while the stranger in her dream stepped more of himself out of the door with some kind of appeasement on his frantically stuttering lips.

But she didn't listen.

Wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up-

---

When Luna opened her eyes again, there was a shining light far above her, and a shadow over her.

She groaned heavily, and as there was a splitting pain in her head that didn't go away with her wish, she was sure that she was awake. The awful light in her eyes was a good signifier, too, and she threw an aching hoof over her face to block it.

Something was pulling at her head- her upper body- and something warm was wrapping around her ears. Something soft was stroking over the hot skin under her mane, and something comforting was whispering along her ear.

She shifted her hoof and opened her eyes, and a soft, white face peered back at her from upside-down.

A sigh. Concerned. "I really wish you'd stop sleeping up in that tree, Lulu."

A pause. Heavy. "I don't like it when you fall."

Everything hit her all at once.

Luna turned- flipped herself over as her sister gasped quietly, and pushed herself forward as quickly as she could until her face was in the soft and her hooves were around breathing midriff.

Soft that was warm. Midriff that had give.

She'd been thinking about what to do when she woke up. When she saw her.

How best to thank her. How best to explain. How best to tell her how much she loved her.

But there was nothing to say.

She tightened her grip as much as she could through the creeping weakness, as she tried in vain not to shake. "We don't care much for falling, either," she mumbled, and her sister laughed softly at her. The sweetest noise in the world.

And then, Luna began to cry.

Author's Note:

How's that for unplanned developments?

You see, this is why I don't like planning stories out in advance. I have ideas, and basic events in mind, sure, but restricting myself in advance leaves no room for the story to breathe. This 'stranger' character was just going to be throwaway, and I wasn't sure if I'd even want him to come up in the story again, but then he just bloomed.

And now I've got a character sheet for him. And I kind of love him just a bit. and so does luna

Anyways, this chapter was much easier to write than the last. I do so hate rehashing and circuity, and whenever I can circumvent my own very circuitous writing style, my creativity tends to really flourish. Thus: the latter half of this chapter, and an entire character.

And as for that character, my intention with rehashing this scene in such detail was to more or less give better perspective on him. Really, to just shine an entirely new perspective on the whole scene in general. I think, in concept, the idea of conflicting recollections and outlooks on the same events as experienced by two ponies so close to each other is really fascinating.

Celestia experienced something Luna didn't, Luna saw something Celestia didn't, and they both have secrets to keep.

If you felt bored at all, just know that this entire thing was a means to an end.

...A means to an end that won't come for a long time, if ever. Because after the next chapter, I'll be taking the hiatus on this story that I mentioned a while back. I'll be talking a bit more about it next chapter, but I'm giving the heads up now.

Anyways, I'm a little leery of all my dreamy talk, but that's the only thing I'm kind of worried about. Let me know what 'ya think?