Of Time Before The Stars

by JinxTJL

Of They Who Whispered From Afar

It was a tree.

More than that, though: it was her tree. And, a little less than that: it was an alright tree.

Not too short, but not too tall, either; which was really too bad. If it had been a taller tree, then it would have been a much better vantage for seeing the sky. It'd be a better hiding place, too.

Luna cocked her head up at the tree from where she stood at its roots. This tree- her tree certainly left some things to be desired, even for as many needs as it fulfilled. She sometimes wished she could just change a few things about it.

Of course, if her tree was much taller, then it would be much worse for napping. That was pretty much all she needed it for, after all. In that way, its natural shade made for great, and more importantly: consistent protection from the changing light.

The sun and moon: the things in the sky that were inherently wrong.

Or, so she'd heard from her dreams.

Dreams that- as her waking episode of just a short line ago signaled bright, flashing red- she needed to delve into.

They'd been trying to get her attention for nearly the entire pot, and now they'd completely commandeered her mouth in broad waking. So blatant; they'd barely ever even spoken to her outside of her dreams.

Something was wrong, or at least noteworthy enough to warrant all of this. She and they needed to speak.

She didn't have long, though. The pot would be nearly empty soon, and her sister would be along to collect her for bed. She needed to take a nap in her tree soon, or she might lose her chance to bring her weird trance up.

Luna's wings flared, and she crouched low for a moment before she was taking off towards her favorite branch. It was just about the lowest nap-ready branch in the tree, which honestly hadn't been her first choice. Her first choice had been to lay as close to the sky as possible, obviously.

A choice that she had come to regret as her sister had become involved, as she oft did. It turned out that having a sister that enjoyed yelling to shock ponies into waking up mixed somewhat badly with having many poky, spiky, prickly things to hit on the way down.

And so, since she could not rightly throttle her sister to death as a solution, she'd taken to sleeping on the branch with the fewest other branches below it. A lovely, uncomfortably scratchy branch that she now alighted on.

Luna set down on four careful hooves, and in practiced motion: curled herself down against the rough surface. It had been a lot easier as she'd been younger, but she had the relative practice to make well-do.

She couldn't ever give up sleeping in the tree, though. Not until she left the woods for good.

Her back was now set safely along the decent length of the branch, with her head laid just so that she was able to see well into a large gap in the treeline. She scanned the bright, empty blue field now, as her splayed back hooves swept lazily about on each open side of the branch.

Her front hooves encircled around her stomach, and a contented sigh loosed from her lips as she soaked in the feeling of dangerous height. It was simply incomparable, and she'd long since given up trying to compare it to anything her sister would understand.

No, Celestia, it wasn't like just laying on the ground. No, Celestia, it wasn't like sleeping on the floor. No, Celestia, it wasn't like sleeping on a cloud- how would she even know, anyway?!

Oh, she'd had dreams, about it, sure. Like her sister's paltry dreams could ever compare to the majesty of Luna's... Celestia did not know what it was to truly dream!

Celestia just did not know... anything, really.

But maybe that made it a little better, in the end. This was something just for Luna, that Celestia or their parents didn't understand, and could only slightly meddle in. Yell at her to get down from there all they would: they could still never really grasp the peace of persistent weightlessness.

Like floating without end. Maybe like resting on a cloud, but probably better.

Like... drifting off...

And... drifting away...

And waking up.

She opened her eyes, and she was no longer on the tree. No longer felt the electrifying, constant threat of falling in the back of her mind. No more rough, scratchy bark on her back. No more slight smell of pine. No more... smells. No more feeling.

But still, she was weightless.

Luna closed her eyes, but did she? She could still... see, in a certain way, but it was more of another kind of seeing. But, then again... there wasn't really anything to see, and... she didn't really have... eyes, either.

You need no eyes to see here, as much as you need not dream in the waking world.

Their voice, so much louder in her head now than when she was awake. Like many different ponies' voices layered on top of each other, all speaking the same exact sentence with the same exact tones in the same exact moment. Nearly deafening in its dissonance, but still oddly quite distinct.

She couldn't remember if she'd ever dreamt alone.

You are never alone.

Her dreams weren't normally like this, this... scape. This... emptiness, shared with them. It was only when she slept in the tree, for whatever reason, that she would... drift like this.

Not believing herself in a scenario, or sinfully acting her fantasies, but just a vast... lacking.

No body to move in. No surroundings to see. It wasn't black, or white, or- oh, how best to describe it..?

It was waiting. There was nothing, except potential. It was empty, but only until she made it otherwise.

Or they did.

Your day has come. You received the gift.

'Day.' They used that word, sometimes, and they'd even taught it to her. It had been used, in far gone times, to denote the passing of time in relation to the now-defunct sun and moon. It felt odd in her mouth when she'd said it in the waking world, and it didn't feel much better to imagine it in the scape of her dreams.

A relic of the long-gone past, as many things they taught her were.

But this 'day,' for her, had apparently been something awaited. For her father, certainly, but it was a little surprising to hear that they had also been waiting. For her to receive 'the gift.'

Was that why she'd had that weird trance? There had only ever been one time that had happened, but it hadn't been nearly as... intense.

Your fates change, and you make it so. In the gift lies your key to the past.

The past...

If she still had the concept of a mouth, she would have frowned.

In an instant, the world bloomed. Color splashed into what little reality there was, and weight followed to give it shadow. Sound popped, and air dropped. Force, volume, action and equilibrium; the ground rose up around her. Plain and unadorned: it lay as a simple green field.

Vast and smooth; only barely ticked in places by patches of tall grass and two-dimensional trees. It was unnatural, but there probably wasn't any time to make something prettier. She'd even left the sky a boring white, instead of making it dark and painted with color as she usually did.

Luna's new hooves touched down to the ground made equally new, and a sense of being washed over her. She blinked, and her nostrils flared as new sensation of nonexistent smells rushed to seamlessly fill the void. Her ear flicked, but there wasn't anything to hear, anyway.

She took one deep breath to taste the tasteless air, before she let it out in a long, calming sigh.

Well, she was ready to see about this new, old past. Was it going to be something about the Pegasi Legion?

The gift.

Oh, right. She didn't think they'd meant that literally.

The recent memory of the cherished gifts she'd just inherited was still very fresh; enough that she could clearly recall nearly every detail of the weapons themselves. She'd unblinkingly stared at them for nearly the entire time they'd been in view, and now it was paying off.

It was... a tug. Yes, a simple tug at the image of what she desired.

And with a dragging sensation and a blink, they were before her. As beautiful and silver-laden as she'd left them at her training post. Winged, short, and oh so beautiful hanging there in the air.

My, but it was some pleasure to see them as a realized set. She loved the things she could do in dreams; the complete freedom never quite failed to make her smile to herself.

Luna felt so good, in fact, she might've even felt worthy of a little dance.

Yes, she decided with a firm nod. It was quite warranted to perform a small dance.

Luna raised her right hoof, along with her back left. She held them in the air for a moment, before she hopped shortly, and came down on the complete opposite hooves.

She did it again, then faster. Again, and her knees bent less rigidly. Only a few hops before her movements were fast and liquid as she barely touched the ground, and her mane was bouncing to a nameless tune that she freely hummed. Her wings unfurled, and they flapped along with her joy as she closed her eyes, and shook her head rhythmically from side to side.

It was safe to be awkward and weird in her dreams. She knew they would never tell on her.

But still, her weapons were waiting for her.

Her movement slowed as gradually as was safe, and all four of her hooves eventually found the ground at once. From there, it was easy, dream-bound as she was, to raise herself to an upright position.

Luna frowned as her hooves curled around their grips. Oh, they felt wrong. She'd held them before, if briefly, and they needed to be... yes, they were much lighter.

The picture of the weapons blurred, and she smiled. She swung her right hoof to the side to hear the absolutely lovely swish of the sword, then twirled the dagger around her left as she stepped forward with another downward swing.

She may have been able to do that in the waking world, but it was a lot easier in her dreams where she could just make the dagger stick to her hoof.

She took a quick backstep as the world shifted, and the phantom silhouette of a faceless pony stepped toward her: sword in hoof. They raised it to the blank white sky as she crouched low, and rolled to the leading side as they brought it down where she'd been.

Her rough dodge thankfully left no bruises, and she was fit to swing out with her dagger to cut into a ghostly leg as she righted. The deep slice through textureless skin sent her conjured aggressor down on one knee, and she quickly capitalized as she pushed herself to move.

They had barely begun to try to stand up before her hoof pushed down hard on their back, and they were sent sprawling as she pressed her full weight onto the pony upon which she kneeled. Luna grinned victoriously atop her place on her foe as she effortlessly twirled her sword around, before bringing it blade-down on the phantom's sword hoof.

There was no cry of pain to signal her victory as her blade pierced the ground, but the transparent sword fading from its meagre half-existence as it fell from the skewered hoof was an... acceptable replacement.

The battle was over, excessive blood spilt or no, and the phantom under her slowly melted away as the momentary rush of played combat drained from her system. She was left to pry her sword from its rest in a single motion as her hooves met the ground again, and she stood to hold herself in a confident stance.

Sword and dagger in hoof, and she could only hope they felt as good in the waking world as they did in her dreams.

The past.

Luna started at the sound of their voice; suddenly ringing out and making the world around her wobble. She nearly lost her hoofing, but only swayed momentarily with her hooves unintentionally slashing at the air around her.

She stopped herself eventually, and breathed a relieved breath that she hadn't fallen embarrassingly over. She looked up into the featureless sky with a wide stare, because there wasn't really anywhere else to focus on.

She hadn't forgotten, of course. They could forgive her for indulging herself momentarily, as she'd been denied in the waking world, yes?

Of course. The realm lies at your every whim. Your freedom is paramount, so here it has and shall always be.

Yes, as- as she'd thought.

Luna straightened her back with a sniff, and nodded to herself. It had been impressed upon her many times that she was in control, here. There was no way in which she could overreach while she slept, as she'd been told. For as many and as tall as the voice seemed, all they had ever done was pledge to her in various ways.

Of this realm, of themselves, of that moon itself, oddly enough. All very kind and generous to offer, but she felt sometimes that they came on too strong. It was all well and good to have promises of anything she could ever hope of, but it was another, harder thing to make do.

We need never to make do what must happen. The future lies as the past, and all things are so.

Luna pouted, and it was a moment of hesitation before she slowly drew the edge of her dagger across the back of her sword. The noise was horrible, but it did well enough to convey what she thought.

They were always so indirect. They would never just cut the theatrics and tell her anything. To wit: she still did not even know who or what they were, after all this time! She'd been a foal since she'd started hearing their voice, but for all their grand pledges of alliegiance, they still-

...They would never just be honest with her.

We cannot tell before it is told, and all we can offer in place are lies. This must be so, and you will understand.

Yeah, fine, but she didn't understand now. And there wasn't even anything she could do about it. The absolute best she was capable of was lying to her sister and telling her that the voices she spoke to were trees. And that was just to make her feel better! And, funny as it was, she was left the bigger fool; not even having an idea of what spoke to her.

It was... maddening!

But... she and they had done this before. Had this one-sided argument before, of stomping and lofty declarations. It would solve little, and they never seemed to show any signs of remorse or... feeling at all in response.

Really, there was just no point in demanding the things she knew she couldn't have.

The past.

Yes, of course! She'd... she'd not forgotten!

Luna sighed, as her head and her weapons hung limply.

Okay, she'd forgotten. She was ready to see the past, now. What she was just going to assume was the Pegasi Legion, because she'd never gotten an answer.

Your gift: a conduit. Time intertwines with dream, and the Oracle sees what has been.

Author's Note:

Hey. Hey, so, little problem: I have a bias for Luna. This is usually not a problem, because I think half the fandom does, but it's manifested here.

Because I wrote too much and had to split this chapter up. This means Celestia had three chapters spanning just under 6k words, and Luna is going to have five chapters spanning... um... well, let's just say I've sort of given Celestia the short stick, here.

I do want to give Celestia her own focus and growth and all that, but it's probably going to happen later. Luna's a bit easier to tackle due to, well, you can see. Her flighty attitude and intense desire for a life outside of the woods is just a bit more interesting for this span of the story.

I... guess what I want to do with the characters is use Luna to explore the past through her dreams, and use Celestia to deal with the reality of the present.

I don't feel too bad about blatantly saying that, but I spoiler'd it anyway. Just helps to have a little context for what's going on with the characters, I guess.

Well, anyway, interesting chapter, right? Next one's gonna be... a history lesson! Buckle up and try not to fall asleep!