Icarus' Fable - Chapter 0 - Prequel

It was another beautiful morning in Canterlot, the sun was shining softly through the trees and the radiant as ever Princess Celestia stood in the suns rays, smiling. She was absolutely tired, but was smiling none the less, glad to be finished raising the sun so she could continue with the rest of her busy day.

Most ponies believed that raising the sun was a simple spell, one that still required great power to cast, but this was Celestia we we're talking about, right? She's one of the most powerful magical beings in Equestria, this must be a walk in the park, surely.

That's where you'd be wrong. Yes, it took monumental amounts of power, something that Celestia did not lack, but easy? Never. No matter how many times Celestia raised the sun, it would always take the same amount of extreme, faultless concentration to complete. Raising the sun meant waking up early in the morning to meditate and prepare for the coming day and then strain herself even more to complete the task.

Usually, this wouldn't be a problem. She'd been doing this for thousands of years on end, even taking over for the night as well while Luna had been in exile. Something had come up quite recently that was making this daily routine become nearly impossible.

Princess Celestia had insomnia. I know it seems like a silly thing to have, but it was serious for her. After her daily sun raising routine, she would go about her royal duties like and princess would, going to meetings, making speech’s, attending legal ceremonies, the list goes on and on. After the day was over, Celestia would usually sleep for around 9 hours before waking up early to bring the dawn of the new day. Her Insomnia, however, was throwing this perfect routine off balance.

She would go to her bed chambers at the normal time, tired as all Tartarus and attempt to sleep. For whatever reason though, sleep did not come to her and when it did, it was broken, short or full of nightmares. She had asked Luna about the nightmares, but she seemed to be just as confused as her.

And so, the routine would start again. Sun, duties, bed, no sleep, sun, duties, bed, no sleep, it went on and on for weeks before one morning, she heard some-pony approach her from behind. She sleepily turned around and saw her student, Twilight Sparkle.

"Princess..."

"Good morning, Twilight. I trust your visit to Manehattan went unhindered?"

"Yes, nothing went wrong, but that's not why I’m here. I believe that i may know what's causing your insomnia."

"Oh?"

"I believe that there has been a disturbance in the global magical energy in Equestria. Something has happened, i don't know what yet, it could be something small, but whatever it is, you're being affected by it."

"Twilight, I’m sure this is nothing more than stress. Luna has agreed to take over more royal duties for a while before i recover and get back on my hooves."

"But i can sense a problem! Surely you must sense it too."

"I do but it feels miniscule. Not something that would have this much an impact on me."

Twilight sighed and walked closer to her mentor.

"I'm going to look into this for you. You need your sleep and I’m going to make sure you get it."


A few days later, Twilight returned to Canterlot and requested an audience with the princess only to be refused entry.

"What? Why not! This is very important."

"I'm sorry Princess Twilight, but the princess has asked that no-"

The guard was cut off by the opening of the door into the princess's bed chamber.

"Let her in." Celestia said from inside. Twilight walked inside and saw the princess lying down, head on her hooves and eyes heavy with sleep.

"Oh no, Princess, you look terrible!"

"I feel that you may have been right, Twilight. My condition has worsened and no amount of rest seems to be able to help."

"That's why I’ve come. I've found out what that disturbance was. A type of monster called a Dream Weaver has been following me and my friends around for a while now. It's been taking our adventures and planting them in the dreams of animals from another world. The world in question is not too unlike the world through the mirror but is different in quite a few ways. It's not an alternate world to ours but a new world entirely. We managed to stop the Dream Weaver, but not before the humans it planted the memories in used those adventures to create what they call a "TV show"."

Celestia moved around on her bed to face Twilight.

"So what does that mean for us?"

"Well, we must restore the balance. It means that we must take something from their world to replace what was taken. I've already tried taking simple objects, but it isn't enough. We need to take ten of their kind to Equestria."