Fine Steps

by TwilightSnarkle

In which we shape our tools

It was midsummer, and while the world outside the walls sweltered in the early afternoon sun, the subterranean chamber they occupied was still cool despite their exertion. This deep, the stones soaked up the heat with fervor, and the tapestries absorbed any noise. Only the growing humidity reflected any awareness of the two ponies within. Only one of those ponies noticed it in return.

They had been in the chamber for four hours.

The grey stallion watched his pupil step through her exercises over and over again. Her mane was plastered to her poll and withers, and fatigue dug deep grooves across her face, but she persevered. First the loopback, then the sphere, then pushing the sphere into resonance, and finally a crystal: A multifaceted otherness that hovered briefly in the air as it appeared to drink in the light - and then shatter into flickering energies.

Every time, it lasted a moment longer. Every time, it vanished and left nothing for her to show for her efforts, save the knots working their way down her back.

"Again," Somber Dreams called from the candelabra’s flickering shadow, his voice traipsing along the path from frustration to derision.

Celestia's eyes narrowed, displeased with the new tone, but she renewed her efforts.

Her tutor began to walk in slow circles around her, examining her physique, noting which muscles strained and how her stance changed to compensate. The sphere came again, and the crystal soon after. With a thought, he dashed it away, and sighed heavily, just loud enough for her to hear. "Again," he intoned, as if addressing a particularly dim subject.

The princess nearly growled, and seized the flows of magic once more, weaving faster, and pouring more energy into the structure. He decided to give her a moment of happiness - crushing a pony’s spirit was harder if the landscape never changed. For a slow count of five, he watched the crystal form and - this time - start to develop into something more. At that fifth second he snapped the weaves away, causing it to collapse upon itself with a shower of ephemeral sparks. Celestia nearly collapsed along with it.

“Good, Celestia,” he crooned. “Much better.”

Celestia glowered and turned to face him. “I could do without the commentary.”

Somber Dreams nodded, feigning deference, and labored for words. “I apologize. I thought… emotion… might help.” Celestia’s expression softened, and he forced his face to stillness. “Been a long day,” he continued. “Meet tomorrow?”

She nodded, stretching her neck and working her shoulders in slow circles. “I will return, Somber. But even with that last success…” A self-satisfied smile flashed across her lips. “Well, if progress continues to be this slow I do not think I’ll be able to meet your timeline.”

“Don’t worry,” he soothed, lifting a hoof to forestall the concern. “I am… certain… you will find it… easier, next time.”

Celestia did not seem so sure. “As you say, then. Thank you, again, for your time. I will take my leave.”

He nodded and watched her go, a little unsteady in hoof but held still high. As the door closed behind her, a feral grin split his muzzle, locking his face in a terrifying rictus. She had not sensed his interference once, even when he felt he made it obvious. The smile faded as he began to gather his notes and diagrams into his bag.

“Anything can become normal”, he thought to himself, “if you restrict opportunities and increase exposure.” He hefted the bag to his shoulder and turned for the door. “And I control both.” The smile returned in force.

---

“Time grows short,” the voice said, and the limitless darkness seemed to tighten around Somber Dream’s hooves. The cool air of this place suddenly grew stale — no longer that of a cavern but of a mausoleum. There was a moment’s pause as if to set that scent in place, and then the speaker continued. “If you are not in place by the Solstice, all of this risk will have been for naught. You will tell me: are you ready?”

Somber drew in a breath to steel his nerves. “Yes, my Lord,” he replied. “Every day I walk her further down the path to working in Shadow. She can bring forth the shards at will, now, and is nearly able to maintain the control needed to shift phases. Once she has that mastery, we will be able to move.” He swallowed, as what was to come next was not part of the original mission.

“While she is open to the umbra, I take the opportunity to alter her perceptions.” Even with his wariness, he could not keep a hint of pride from his voice. “She loses track of time and overexerts herself. While she recovers, she daydreams of adventures with her favorite pupil. This reduces her concern for the building fatigue and explains the affection she has for my presence. When her skills are ready, she will be as malleable as any drone.”

The silence was deafening. Somber strained to hear something, anything, that might tell him how his message had been received. All that stirred was the occasional breeze — now a caustic, vomitous fume — and a sound in the distance of what Somber dearly hoped was dripping water.

A horrifying thought flickered into awareness, and with it came the familiar voice in his head.

You idiot. The voice seethed with contempt. You might never wake up, now.

In the interminable dark, the silence stretched, unfolding from nothing into nothing. He briefly imagined an enormous cat rising from its sleeping spot with murderous intent. He swallowed again, as much against the bile rising in his throat as to soothe his nerves. “M-,” he began.

The voice spoke again, directly behind him, a pulse of chill accompanying the words, the intensity shattering the silence like trees fracturing in the cold. “You seek power for yourself, worm?”

Somber spun, hooves scrabbling for purchase on the uneven ground. He realized only in mid-turn that doing so would show him nothing in this blackness. “N-no, my Lord,” he said to where the voice had been. “Only to bring your wishes to fruition.”

The voice in his head screamed in frustration, but in that moment of panic he found he was able to reduce its keening to the barest hiss.

His master’s voice seemed to come from every direction now, each word a sliver of pain. “Some ambition is necessary, little shadow.” The words began to echo, the slivers now hammers to his temples. “You will take every caution that your scraps of ambition do not become more than necessary. I expect I am clear?”

“Yes, yes my Lord.” Somber dropped to his knees, and pressed his muzzle against the ground. “You are merciful indeed.”

His master’s tone vaulted into incredulity. “Merciful?” There was the strangest noise, then, in the dark. Was — was that a laugh? “No,” he said, every syllable a fishhook raking across Somber’s throat. “I am not.”

At that moment, the connection between realms was severed. Somber found himself prone, staring at his room’s ceiling, and began to sigh with relief only to choke as something filled his throat. He forced himself upright and, with a shuddering gasp, vomited blood and bile into the dead coals of his fireplace. The stench was an assault, but far better than the miasma that had bathed him in the dark. Running a fetlock across his muzzle, he drew a ragged, weary breath.

“That could have gone better,” he mused. Had he not been the subject of today’s lesson, he might have even found it funny. Somewhere in his head, the voice raged. He could read its emotions now, sense what it was feeling even if he couldn’t hear it. And right now, he didn’t want to hear it. His mind was racing, but memory latched onto the trick from the cavern. He forced the hiss into silence, and ignored the incandescent flare of indignation in response.

Then he crawled into his blankets and fell into a dreamless sleep.

---

As the sun crept lower in the sky — it was ever earlier, now, as autumn fell into winter — Luna descended from her tower and entered the palace proper. A short walk from the stair, through the hall leading to the servants’ quarters, and past the doors to the audience chamber brought her to the dining hall.

Like the other rooms in the palace, it was crafted with care and furnished well in dark wood, and provided enough space for a dozen ponies. The palace maintained a sterility that the private rooms did not. Objects of art were arranged just-so, nooks carved to display gifts from their ponies or dignitaries of other nations. Furnishings were placed in straight lines and allowed ready access from any direction that a servant might require.

Which is what made her sister’s presence seem even more out of place: she sat, disheveled and unfocused, staring into a bowl of cold stew.

She paused in the doorway and realized that despite being in full view, her sister had not noticed her arrival.

“Sis?” Luna crossed the threshold and furrowed her brow. “Are you okay?”

Celestia looked up from her bowl and fixed an eye on Luna, her head not quite managing a level position. “Oh. Yes, hi, Luna. Yes, I’m fine.” She made to push away from the table but caught the bowl instead, sending its contents onto the floor. “Ah… sorry…” Flustered, she shifted in her seat to start cleaning but couldn’t seem to find the motivation to move any further.

Luna focused for a moment and sent the stew and its bowl away, then turned to her sister once more. She approached, stopping at the chair beside her sister’s position. Worry hung on every word. “How long have you been here?”

Celestia had managed to slide back into her seat. “Oh, since midday, I think? I was going to get some fruit. And then my mind wandered, and here you are.”

“It’s nearly dusk, Celestia,” she replied.

“Is it?” Celestia looked towards the west, through the walls of the palace, sensing the position of the sun. “Why, you’re right. We should get started.”

Luna reached out and rested a hoof on Celestia’s shoulder. Her sister twitched at the touch. Softly, in nearly a whisper, she asked, “Are you sure you can set it, today?” She glanced at the door to the servants’ hall, and continued. “Do you need anypony’s help?”

Celestia looked at her sister’s hoof as if marveling at its presence, and then suddenly snapped to lucidity. “Luna?” She took her sister’s presence in with some alarm, and then glanced at the windows and towards the doors, attaining a sense of her surroundings. “I’m sorry. I must have dozed off. What’s going on?”

Relief crashed across Luna’s face. “I was asking you. You were in a daze, and didn’t know what time it was or even that I’d arrived. Are you okay? Truly?” She withdrew slightly, giving her sister some space.

Celestia stood from her seat and shook out her mane. “I’m not sure. If that’s how I was acting, I clearly need to be concerned, but I feel fine at the moment.” She pursed her lips, frowning, then suggested, “It’s getting late. Let’s perform our duties, and then I will seek out Calliope — and if you don’t mind, I’d like you to come along.”

Luna nodded, reassured. That was her sister: clear, concise, and with an understanding of what was important to her fellow ponies. She took up her place and focused, waiting for her sister to join the weaving, and then lifted the moon into prominence as the sun sank beyond the horizon. Then she shadowed her sister towards the court physician, trying to ignore the worry that crept alongside.

---

The first snow of the year shone brightly beneath a moon that ducked between wispy clouds. It had billowed this way and that, drifts falling about the land, until it obscured a familiar landscape into one of faintly glowing mystery.

Tonight, Luna had no patience for it.

With a thought, the path around the palace grounds and through the gardens rippled, a gust of wind carving away the snow and scouring the path down to the stones. She strode purposefully, half tangled in thought, in an attempt to quickly complete her rounds so she could return to what concerned her most — her sister.

The moonlight played along her iridescent mane and tail, not caring one whit for its mistress’ mood. Against the white backdrop, even the deepest purples seemed to glow and shimmer as moonbeams swept past. Her servants and guards, rare as they were at this hour, ducked out of her way or made themselves busy as she passed, avoiding her gaze. She could not see it, but her jaw was set to carve steel, and thunderclouds seemed to gather in her wake.

Her rounds soon completed, and her mood not improved, Luna retired to a reading room where she would not be disturbed. While she did not need to sleep to walk in dreams, it did make certain things easier. With a few practiced breaths, she rolled herself under and swam out into the Dream.

The Dream was at once familiar and bewildering. It rarely took the same form twice, but it always felt like home. A skilled dreamwalker could move through it swiftly and surely, finding what they sought in moments. With luck, they could return to the waking world just as quickly.

Luna was a very skilled dreamwalker indeed, but in approaching the dreams of her sister she would have to use caution. Celestia was as powerful as she — although their gifts differed — and she did not care to discover what might happen if her sister were to take offense at her appearance here. Especially in her potentially unstable state.

In the span of a breath, she found Celestia’s dreams and felt for the mood, pressing what passed as a hoof in this nothingness against the tenuous otherness of her sister’s thoughts.

“Odd,” she thought. “I don’t feel anything at all.”

Her sister clearly dreamed; a dreamless sleep would not appear here. It was as if her dreams were behind a screen, which in Luna’s experience was not something easily accomplished or maintained. She gave the barrier between them a nudge, a testing touch. Celestia’s dream recoiled — a bubble in a breeze — and then lurched forward, enveloped Luna whole as if pouncing on prey.

---

“...yes, indeed, Master Somber,” Celestia replied, beaming, nearly shining with joy. She turned away, walked up to the lectern and gestured with a nod towards the nearby chalkboard. “When you focus on the smallest change instead of the full effect, it’s much easier to identify a problem before it becomes unmanageable. Well done.”

Somber Dreams stared at his hooves, clearly discomfited by the fond attention of his tutor. “Thank you, Princess,” he murmured.

At large, dreams were not very subtle things. Cryptic? Yes. Puzzling? Certainly. But they tended to wield emotional cues like a cudgel. At the moment, Luna was almost in awe with the amount of love and affection pouring out of her sister, as if having been reunited with a long-lost child. She shook off the waves of feeling and tried to look for clues as to her sister’s state of mind.

“Now,” Celestia continued, settling in behind the lectern and levitating a few notes from a nearby shelf. “Knowing what we do about resonance,” she frowned briefly while she searched for a page covered in layered diagrams. “Ah. Knowing what we do, how would we counter a spell’s effect that had already taken place?” She looked up, then, and noticed the room’s other occupant.

“Oh! Luna! What a nice surprise. Somber, you’ve met my sister, haven’t you?” The dream oozed with deep affection, but not for Luna. No, Celestia seemed most enraptured when her gaze swept across her pupil.

Luna decided to alter her plans. A little risk might have better results. ”Besides”, she thought to herself, perhaps uncharitably, “she deserves it for letting herself get to this state.”

Luna nodded politely, if perhaps a little cooly. “Master Somber,” she chimed. “Sister,” she continued, nodding as well. “I apologize for the intrusion. I was having some difficulty sleeping, and on the way to the kitchens overheard this lesson. I’ll just be on my way.”

“It is a pleasure to see you again, Princess,” replied Somber with a small bow. It seemed words came easier to Celestia’s dream-version. “I apologize if our lessons were any disturbance.”

Luna smiled, as she knew dream-Somber would only be saying what Celestia thought he should. “Do let me know if I can help with your sleep in any way, Luna,” added Celestia.

At the moment her sister made eye contact, Luna gave her a look. A very specific look, from long ago. One that Celestia had taught her, when she was still new to romance, from a long list of silent expressions pegasi used when in mixed company.

As far as Luna remembered, the look implied accusations of intense, inappropriate canoodling—and what pegasi considered intense would cause most other ponies quite the shock. She knew the look had hit its mark when Celestia’s ears went up to points, her expression wrestling between indignation and embarrassment.

If Celestia’s reaction had not been clear, her dream’s response was undeniable. Gone was the classroom, the blackboard, the lectern. Gone too was Somber. What now surrounded the two alicorns was the place Celestia felt most safe: the great audience chamber of the palace. As the change took effect, a dozen guards—more than had ever served at once—took their positions around the dais that held both of their thrones. Lanterns flared on the walls and tapestries loomed, their occupants seeming to glare down at the ponies below.

Luna took it all in, sparing a glance for the heavily armored honor guard. While they could not truly hurt her here, she would still feel the pain of being struck or worse, and she preferred to avoid such entanglements. She smiled faintly, then addressed her sister, intent on keeping her off-balance. “Why do you still give lessons to Somber, sister? You told me you had sent him on his way months ago.”

“Lessons? I don’t g-.” Celestia blinked, and then her eyes narrowed. “This is a dream, isn’t it? You’re in my dreams.” Suspicion began to flow into anger. “How long have you been sp-”

Celestia winked out, and so did the room. Luna found herself back in the Dream, and forced herself awake. She selected a random book from a nearby table — the title appeared to say ‘Principia Alchemia’ — and stepped out of the reading room into the audience chamber next door. There, she settled into her throne, and flipped through the book and waited for the storm to arrive. She did not have to wait long.

---

The door from the servants’ hall flew open. Celestia loomed in the doorway, and despite its arch reaching twice her height, seemed to fill it. She noticed Luna immediately, who closed her book and set it on the ground. “I cannot BELIEVE you,” she nearly shouted through clenched teeth. “How dare you poke about in my dreams?”

Luna expected the question, and answered calmly. “Because you’ve been slowly losing your mind, sister, and I needed to see why.” The room darkened behind her. What good was magic if you couldn’t make your point clear? “We had a similar conversation a week ago, just before dusk,” she continued, her voice walking the edge between concern and frustration. “And then, today, you were in a similar state.” The darkness that loomed beyond seemed to quiver with intent. “You can ask Calliope if you have any doubt.”

Celestia drew herself up but, to her credit, paused before saying anything further. She pursed her lips and allowed her muzzle to drop a few degrees. “I… have no memory of that, Luna. But I have no reason to doubt you, either. How long have I been acting this way?”

Luna dismissed the looming darkness, then stepped down from her vantage point atop the dais and approached her sister. She no longer needed its height to be taken seriously. “I don’t know. I only noticed it last week, when you lingered in the dining hall when you should have been lowering the sun. But as we rarely meet during daylight hours, I can’t be certain that was the first. Why? Has something happened lately that might explain it?”

Celestia shook her head. “No, not that I’m aware,” she began, then she seemed to shrink ever so slightly, no longer sure of herself. “But…” She sighed heavily. “I have been keeping something from you.”

Luna tilted her head. Celestia strove to tell the truth at all times, as best she could. Even lies by omission seemed to upset her. So this… “What, exactly, have you not been telling me?”

“You touched upon it in the dream. Somber. I… I’m not tutoring him.” Luna’s expression darkened as she guessed where this was going. Celestia looked away, and then forced herself to look at her sister, albeit not in the eye. “Instead, he’s tutoring me.”

Silence filled the chamber. Luna could hear her heartbeat building in her ears.

“We agreed,” Luna began, each word chipped from a block of ice, “that he would be sent away, as his lessons were going nowhere.”

“Yes,” Celestia acknowledged quietly.

Luna raised a hoof and stabbed it in Celestia’s direction. “You were to tell him yourself that the lessons were going nowhere.”

“Yes,” she replied again, shrinking into herself.

“And what did you tell him?” Luna arched a brow and waited. It took a great deal of willpower not to tap her hoof.

Celestia sighed deeply, her gaze flickering over her sister’s, and then back to carefully avoiding her eye. “I told him what we agreed upon, that the lessons were to end since we were not making progress.” A pause, and the next words were nearly whispered. “And I also told him if there were other methods that I would be open to them.” A pause, then, “and he said he had some ideas.”

“And then you kept it quiet.” Her hoof began to tap of its own accord.

“Yes,” Celestia croaked.

Luna stepped to the side and examined one of the tapestries. It was as much an effort to keep her temper as to silence her impatience. “Is he still in the palace, sister? Is he expecting you tomorrow?”

“He is. And yes. I will tell him to cancel,” she offered, “and send h-”

“No,” Luna interrupted. “I am very interested in this new method you mentioned. It may be the key to why you are so fatigued. Let us plan for you to attend tomorrow, as if nothing has happened. Don’t mention me at all, much less that I will be watching. Let us see what is going on. It could simply be that you’re overworked.” Luna’s voice took on a sardonic hue. “After all, ruling during the day, managing the sun, keeping secrets from your sister, these things take a lot of energy.”

“That’s not fair,” Celestia groused.

“Is it not?” Luna turned to look at her sister directly. “I trust you with everything, sister. With the well-being of Equestria. With half of the celestial spheres. With my secrets. The least you can do is trust me in return.”

Celestia frowned, but stepped closer to her sister. “You’re right,” she admitted. “I was thinking only of myself and of an immediate benefit. I need to be more prudent with my choices. I’m sorry.”

Luna smiled and stepped to her sister’s side, brushing Celestia’s temple with her own, then stepped back. “Thank you. And you are of course forgiven. We’ve both been hasty of late, and have spent too much time doing instead of being. Let’s make sure we talk with each other more often than just breakfast or dinner.”

“Agreed,” Celestia nodded. “Tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow, yes. Now get back to bed, you. I promise there will be no peeking.” Luna grinned despite herself.

Celestia ignored the jest. Her sister was always quicksilver, and more so when the sun was down. “The lesson will begin at 10 AM, in the chamber just above the vaults. I typically work on the dais while he watches from the walls.” She turned to leave, but paused before stepping for the door, glancing over her shoulder. “That… unpleasantness, in the dream. Where I had eyes for Somber. Was that your doing?”

“No, sister,” Luna soothed. “I can’t make you want or need anything in your dreams. Your mind was probably just exploring the possibility.” She smiled despite herself. “So you’re not harboring some deep affection for that pony?”

Celestia’s ears flickered with annoyance. “I most certainly am not. I… Goodnight, Luna.” She turned her back and stepped through the doorway, channeling it closed behind her with perhaps a little too much enthusiasm.

“Goodnight, Celestia,” Luna said to the fading echo. Then she levitated the book to her side and settled back into her throne. She didn’t know when Seneschal Buckram had picked it up, but the work was captivating.

---

The chamber held a chill despite the braziers of glowing coals, but Celestia’s mane was already growing heavy with exertion. She had not managed to stabilize the sphere into a crystal, yet, but had only been attempting the flow for a few minutes. A dull throb had already begun to build behind her eyes. She regretted not postponing this session for another day, but squared her shoulders and continued focusing.

Somber, as was his habit, paced around her in a slow circle, keeping regular time as he made his laps. “Good,” he called out, as her new stance resulted in a flickering outline of a crystal. He kept his counsel to short words, now, as his earlier attempts to goad the Princess had ended in failure. He was beginning his fourth lap now, passing out of sight on Celestia’s left side, when a shape materialized silently in an upper balcony.

Luna stood back from the rail, cloaked in a darkness that was rarely disturbed at this depth. The lesson had just begun. Her sister’s eyes flashed in the disturbing scarlets and greens that Somber had shown them months ago, and the outline of a pitch-black crystal formed and vanished at the tip of her horn. Luna put her attention on Somber instead, and found that he, too, was using this magic—but only as he passed out of Celestia’s sight.

For ten minutes, maybe twenty, the cycle continued. Celestia walked through the steps, generated a crystalline shape, and it would linger for a moment or two. But as Luna watched, she noticed that the crystal never lasted very long when Somber paced behind his pupil. Indeed, he seemed to be doing something to disrupt it, although she could not see the flows of this strange magic he used.

At that moment, Somber slashed through the air with his horn, and the crystal Celestia had wrought dissipated. Before it did, it seemed to suffer a gash across its surface in time with Somber’s gesture. Luna watched, waiting for the next cycle. She had to be sure. As the pony stepped out of Celestia’s sight again, she was sure of it.

Somber had been pacing for nearly half an hour, knocking down Celestia’s progress, when he noticed the muzzled voice raging. Frowning, he stopped his spells and glanced about, keeping pace while the itch of paranoia built at the back of his neck. Mentally, he reached for the muzzle he kept on the voice, and as he was about to pull it free…

“A curious thing, Master Somber,” called a voice from somewhere above. There was a flash of blue light and then, suddenly, Luna stood between him and Celestia. She continued, eyes locked squarely on his.

“Every time your pupil makes progress,” she said, looming over him and stepping ever closer, “you disrupt it, sending her spell out of control and forcing her to start again. It’s a method of teaching I admit I do not understand.”

Somber recoiled, rearing back, his front hooves lifting a few inches off the ground before he could settle himself. He still paced backwards, trying to keep a distance between him and the new arrival. “Princess! What… a surprise!” His efforts to speak were hampered further by an overwhelming desire to scream in alarm. “I thought… you’d be sleeping… at this hour.”

“No, Somber,” she said, “I thought it prudent to check on you and your pupil, as it had been some time since I saw one of your lessons.” By now, Celestia had turned to them both, and approached her sister’s side.

“Luna?” Her brows raised in surprise, but quickly settled into a cold fury as she swept her gaze towards her tutor. “Did you say he was disrupting my spell?”

“He was, sister,” she replied, never taking her eyes off of him. “Perhaps you would care to explain the process, sir?”

The voice in his head felt as if it were throwing itself against his skull. Somber tore the mental gag away, only to have his mind flooded by a scream that repeated:

-er! Use her! USE her! UUUSE HERRR!

Somber blinked at the onslaught for a fraction of a second. Then he turned his attention to his weary pupil. His expression hardening, he seized control of his secret magics, and lashed out.

Comments

[Emperor of Jurai]

Well this has been a very long time coming, and...I have no clue what is going on. Ah well time to reread I guess, good to see an update though.

[More Dakka]

Holly heck, it lives!

[PresentPerfect]

11445700
wholeheartedly agreed, this was confusing and awesome :D

[TwilightSnarkle]

11445812
I certainly hope it made sense in context after a re-read, or I've lost a thread somewhere.