Night and Day
Luna opened her eyes and gasped for air. While she could interact with the dream world to a certain extent, the coldness of the water took her by surprise. Luna shut her eyes tight and held her legs around her, shivering. Once she had a moment to adjust to the cold, she realized she was no longer standing on the dirt road in Doggieville. Instead, she was laying on her rug in her room in Canterlot. Luna opened her eyes and saw the hooves of her sister, Celestia, standing in front of her. An empty bucket hovered over Luna's head.
“I had a feeling that would work,” Celestia said, tossing the bucket aside. “Do you have any idea how long you've been out?”
Luna got on her hooves and moved her wet mane out of her eyes. “Wh-what have you done?” she said, whimpering. She was just starting to get a feel for what Novella was going through, but now her sister had torn her away. Would Novella remain in Doggieville now that Luna had left her?
“What did I do?” Celestia asked, rolling her eyes. “I woke you up! You've been in that state for so long that I had to raise the sun by myself!” Celestia pointed her horn toward the window. “Just look!”
Sure enough, Luna's sister was right. Sunlight illuminated the room from behind the curtains. Morning had come and gone hours ago. Had Luna really been inside Novella's dream this long? It was true that she had gone through multiple dreams, as well as nearly witnessing Novella's death, but it was hard to believe that it was morning already.
“Now hurry up and get to sleep,” Celestia said, turning to walk out of the room. “We're princesses, after all. We need our rest.” She sighed and started mumbling to herself. “I can't believe I had to wake you up just to tell you to go to sleep.”
“No!” Luna said, kneeling back on her rug. “I'm going back in! I can't leave Novella alone!”
“Novella? Is she that filly you told me about yesterday?” Celestia sighed and turned toward her sister. “Look, I know that your dreamwalks are important to you, but she'll be fine. However bad her dreams are, she'll overcome them, with or without your help.”
“You don't understand!” Luna pleaded. Her horn glowed, ready to cast the spell again. “She needs me!”
Celestia walked back toward her sister, raising an eyebrow. “What has gotten in to you? It's not like this is a matter of life and death.”
“Yes it is!” Luna yelled. She closed her eyes and focused, trying to picture the Equestrian landscape again. However, all she could think about was Novella laying on the ground as darkness closed around them. Luna caught glimpses of the land over Canterlot, but they were gone as fast as they appeared. When Luna felt her sister place a hoof on her shoulder, the images disappeared. Luna opened her eyes and looked up at Celestia, whose cold demeanor from moments ago had vanished.
“Luna, what's going on?”
“So she's in a coma?”
The conversation had moved away from Luna's bedroom to the royal kitchen. The warm tea Celestia had made for Luna had calmed her down just enough to explain what had happened. During their conversation, many staff members of Canterlot had come looking for Celestia, but she had turned all of them away. Luna's story both fascinated and concerned Celestia, and she was fortunate that there were no particularly pressing matters at the moment.
“I never thought something like this would happen!” Luna rested her chin on the table and held her hooves over her head. Her drink had helped, but there was only so much that tea leaves and sugar could do. “I've always been careful helping ponies with their problems, but now I feel like if I make a wrong move, she'll be gone forever!” Luna turned her head and laid her cheek on the table. “Even right now, she might be suffering without me there to comfort her.”
“Luna,” Celestia said, stroking her sister's mane with her hoof. “She's lucky that you were there for her. The doctors may have saved her, but who knows? Your very presence may have convinced her to hold on long enough for the doctors to help.”
Luna gave her sister a weak smile. “Thanks, Celestia.” However, her smile faded quickly. “But I don't know how long that will work. She seems like she doesn't even want to wake up.”
Celestia closed her eyes and sighed. “Luna, you've done your part. I think she's in the doctors' hooves now.”
“Hrm...”
Luna's eyes closed as she thought about everything that had just happened. She felt so useless in the dream – her healing spell couldn't work on a fictional body. If she had been with the real Novella, than maybe things would have been different. Hold on...
Luna's eyes opened wide and she lifted her head off of the table. “I know what to do!” she told Celestia, who quickly retracted her hoof from Luna's mane. “We need to find Novella's actual body! Then my healing spell will work!”
Celestia closed her eyes and shook her head. “That won't work.”
“Why not?” Luna asked, tilting her head.
“Because that's what hospitals are for.” Celestia turned her head away, not wanting to be the bearer of bad news. “Our healing magic only works for minor wounds. If Novella is on life support, that means that they're already doing everything they can to keep her alive. At this point, our magic won't do anything but prolong the inevitable.”
Luna sank in her seat, her eyes watering. “Is that it, then?” she mumbled. “Novella's just going to die?”
“We don't know that,” Celestia told her. “She may still pull through.”
“How?” Luna asked, a few tears dripping from her face. “Novella doesn't even want to face her family. From her perspective, all they do is make her feel invisible.”
Celestia looked at her sister, who was on the verge of breaking down. Celestia closed her eyes and took a deep sigh. “Then maybe somepony needs to convince her otherwise.”
Luna wiped her eyes with her hoof and looked up at her sister. “You really think so?”
Celestia's eyes darted away from Luna's. “Well, it makes sense if you think about it. If the doctors can keep her alive, then all Novella needs is to convince herself to wake up. Right now, you're the only pony in Equestria who can reach her.”
Luna sniffled, then straightened herself up. “Then it's settled. I'm going back to my room right now to help her.”
“Not so fast.” Celestia held a hoof up and looked back at her sister. “Your dream magic isn't the same as going to sleep. The longer you keep it up, the more you'll wear yourself out.”
“So I'll be a little tired,” Luna replied. “I think I'll be able to handle it.”
Celestia stood up. “This isn't like studying for a test, Luna! You're dealing with a magic spell that's still relatively new! If you cast it improperly, or your physical body becomes too exhausted to handle it, what do you think will happen?”
Luna stood up and glared at her sister. “Well I'm not going to just go to sleep and hope she doesn't die! Is that what you expect me to do?!”
“Of course not!” Celestia yelled back. She sighed and tried to calm herself down before continuing. “I'm just asking you to be careful.” Celestia looked away from her sister. “This whole ordeal makes me wonder...”
Luna tilted her head. “What do you mean?”
“Well...” Celestia said, turning her gaze back to Luna. “Why are you so concerned about this filly anyway? You barely even know her.”
“I just...”
Luna looked down and thought about what her sister had just said. There had to be more to it than being scared of watching a pony die. Every day, sick or injured ponies breathed their last breath. Why was Novella so special?
Luna lifted her head. “I think it's because Novella reminds me of myself.”
“How so?” Celestia asked.
“In the first dream where I met her,” Luna explained, “She was waiting in the cold by herself. When I saw how lonely she was, I thought back to the thousand years I had spent on the moon. Just like her, I couldn't do anything but wait for an eternity.” Luna walked over to the kitchen window and looked outside at the sky. “Over time, I grew to hate a sister who had nothing but the best of intentions for me. I saw Novella's ambivalence toward her parents, and was afraid that she would grow to resent them.” Luna turned back to Celestia. “Just as I had grown to resent you.”
Celestia's mouth hung open.
“But that's not all,” Luna said, walking back to her sister. “When I returned to Canterlot, I found that it was difficult to get along with other ponies. After a millennium of talking to nopony but myself, I had to relearn everything about society as if I was a filly once again. I've gotten a lot better after these past two years, but I still have much to learn.” Luna hovered a novel that had been left on the coffee table over to her and looked at the cover. “Similarly, Novella felt alienated by her peers, and buried herself in these texts. Somehow, she's able to connect with fictional stories better than real ponies.”
It was a lot to take in, but Celestia felt she was seeing a side of Luna that she never had before. “Is that why you go into ponies' dreams?” she asked. “Because it's easier than talking to them yourself?”
Luna frowned and looked to the side. “I suppose so,” she said. “Seeing their problems for myself reminds me that they're just as vulnerable as I am.”
For a moment, Luna and Celestia were silent. Instead of saying anything, Celestia walked over to Luna and hugged her. Luna reciprocated, and a tear fell from her eye. A minute later, Celestia let go and smiled at her sister.
“Alright, go on.” Celestia pointed her horn toward the door. “You have a filly's life to save.”
Luna smiled back. “Thank you, sister.” Just as she was heading through the door, she remembered something else. “Oh, and Celestia?”
“Yes, Luna?”
“Could you see if you could find Novella? I don't know if having her physical body would help me at all, but it couldn't hurt to try.”
Celestia frowned. “It'll take some time. Manehatten's a big place with multiple hospitals. Not to mention, there are rules about sharing sensitive information...”
“But you'll still do it?”
Celestia nodded. “Of course. No matter how long it takes, we'll find her.”
Navigating the dream landscape during the day was much harder than it was during the night. The white orbs that represented dreams were much harder to spot with the sun beating down. Light reflected off of the various dust and dirt particles in the air, obscuring Luna's vision. Even her eyes were an obstacle; they were used to the darkness, not the sun. However, Luna pushed herself forward, determined to save Novella.
As difficult as it was to make her way over to Manehatten, Luna found that spotting the filly's dream was remarkably easy. After all, few ponies slept during the day. Luna was about to enter the dream when she realized this was her chance to figure out which hospital Novella might have been staying at. The orb floated far above the city, but hopefully Luna would be able to identify the hospital with an educated guess.
However, when Luna floated closer to the ground, she ran into complications. Ponies walking on the street were nothing but brightly-colored blurs. Buildings were nothing but brown, gray blobs, and signs were unreadable. When Luna tried floating into one of the buildings, she was greeted with nothing but darkness. It seemed her dream spell had limits. Even if Luna could figure out which building was Novella's hospital, she wouldn't be able to see the building's name, and the street signs were illegible as well.
Defeated, Luna floated back over to Novella's dream orb. This time, the orb wasn't as dark as it was the previous night, but it wasn't glowing purely white, either. Instead, the orb was a solid gray. As Luna approached it, she felt a sense of resentment. Not panic, as it felt during the zombie dream, just frustration. The happy puppy society the dream had been when she left was definitely gone. Luna braced herself, ready to save Novella's life.
When Luna entered the orb, her hooves landed on a solid grate. The air smelled disgusting and caused her to cough a few times before she could adjust to it. Luna held her breath as she took in her surroundings. The grate was on the second floor of some sort of laboratory. Several metal containers of various shapes and sizes were spread across the floor. The grate Luna stood on was off to one side of the room. She turned around and saw a door, but when she tried to open it, it didn't budge. It must have been the limits of the dream.
Luna walked down the stairs on the end of the grate and got a look at the room from the ground level. The linoleum floor was solid red, and whenever Luna took a step on it, it echoed. As she walked around, she saw several test tubes that were sealed shut. Each of the metal containers had several switches and buttons, and they looked arranged in a very deliberate way.
It didn't take long before Luna heard hoofsteps. On the other side of the room, a pony wearing a bright yellow hazmat suit stepped out from behind one of the containers. The pony's mask kept its gaze on Luna as it walked forward. Luna wondered if the pony could be threatening, but it was moving at a normal walking pace, and was not carrying a weapon. Soon, the two of them were standing in front of each other. The pony wearing the hazmat suit lowered its head and took off the helmet, revealing a spiky blonde mane and pierced ears. Novella's sister.
“Get a suit on. We're trying to clean.”
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Lookin' good! Can't wait for the next one!
how does novella not know who princess luna is
2290645
It could be that Novella's been in the hospital so long, she's missed EVERYTHING about Luna.
As for the fic? Very nice of Celestia to assist :3 good to see! Also heart-wrenching to have Luna open up like that.
2290764 very good point... gosh i hope not
2290645 I touch on this a bit in Chapter 3. Novella might recognize Luna in real life, but as long as she's dreaming, Luna is just an alicorn that happens to be there.
2290823 another good point
Fucking excellent!
Write moar!
Moar I tell you!
Excellent chapter! I love the argument between Luna and Celestia.
I'm concerned regarding how Luna just seems to open up to Celestia. Somehow, I just see her as a little more bashful of things such as her banishment. Regardless, this chapter was great as always!
Your wish is our command Luna.
You heard her, troops, find Novella!
Yeah... Thought there might be a.point of connection there...
It moistens my eye. Then I think "surely this story will have a happy ending." , but then I remember I don't WANT the ending to be a complete and rapid recovery. I would like to see Luna's first of several visits as Novella makes her recovery from minor brain damage and maybe physical trauma as well... Perhaps promising to visit her every night in her dreams so Novella will not be afraid that if she sleeps she will never wake.
So very hopeful, but not all sunshine and rainbows.
A subtle reminder/warning to your readers not to spend too long on this site (or at least not without commenting or otherwise socially posting at length)?
An allegory for writing and responding to stories? Maybe, maybe not.
Metal test tubes with buttons and switches? That doesn't sound right to me.