//------------------------------//
// Chapter 9: Making Sense 
// Story: Trus and Luna 
// by Trus 
//------------------------------//

Trus and Luna
Chapter Nine
Making Sense

He woke with a sharp intake of breath.
Trus blinked wondering where he was and then noticed that he had a blanket covering him up to his neck and a pillow under his head. He was lying on his side in a bed. 
Instead of getting up to take a good look around he just stayed there and with caution, he looked around at what he could see with his eyes without moving his head from its current position. 
From what he could see, he was still in the castle. There were the stone walls and ceiling, the draperies of the sun and moon, and even a small window he could see out the corner of his eye. He didn’t see anyone around, nor did he hear anything so he turned his head and tried to sit up. 
Tried and flopped back down on his back. 
He blinked, stayed there with his head facing the ceiling and thought to himself, didn’t have this problem before. 
He tried to get a feel for his muscles again and just thought about how he should try to get them to work for a bit. Then he sat right up and took a good look around the room. The other half of the room though looked exactly like the other. He could see now that he was in a raised bed, that there was a door at the far end of the room which the foot of the bed was facing towards, and that the room was quite small. Just two windows, a door, a few banners and the bed pushed up against the last barren wall.
Trus blinked again…and then again. Wait what’s going on? If that was all a dream then how do I know what this place looks like? Unless… He directed his eyes to the first window he had seen. Pushing the covers off of him, he moved to the edge of the bed, slid over the side and nearly fell over upon landing. PAWS, PAWS! HOOVES NOT PAWS! He thought as he stumbled and caught himself with all four legs spread. He took a quick breath in and a quick breath out. Not really used to hooves eh. 
He steered his attention back at the window and took a good solid step forward. Then waddled forward a few steps and began walking normally. Okay yes I can remember how to walk as a horse. 
He got up to the window and looked out at what looked like nothing at all. All he could see beyond the window was blackness. He figured it was night. Then he focused on the window and thought methodically. The window opened inwards, and as it moved out of the way a scene of a small lake, a mound next to it and a mountain beyond it was seen in the bright light of day. It was a place Trus visited in daydreams sometimes when he wanted to be somewhere else. Still a dream then. The scene before him waned and was pushed away as stars and the moon came to replace the scene.
Trus pushed the window shut with a hoof… 
…So it was a dream…and this is still a dream… 
So why am I having so much trouble moving around now?
He turned his head to look at the door. He moved away from the window towards it and just about fell forward when his front legs forgot to keep moving. It’s like I’m steering a ship that keeps forgetting how to move, he though after stumbling to a halt. He looked at the door again, breathed in and walked up to it like he had been walking for years. He put a hoof on the door latch and stopped. Not turning his head again he attempted to look back. This is already really weirdly inconsistent… His eyes snapped forward with another thought coming to mind oh…like a dream should be. He opened the door and walked out…then stumbled after he had come to a stop outside.
A curved hallway was on the other side of the door where Trus now stood. It was lined with pillars, torches, archways, several long red rugs that acted as carpeting and there was an occasional black suit of armor.
Someone snickered. “Are you alright?” Trus looked around to find Golden Shield a few feet from the door smiling with a cocked grin and looking right at him. 
Trus lifted a hoof to make a gesture and he was reminded the he didn’t have fingers…or paws. As it was, he just stood there with his mouth open looking at his raised hoof in front of him until he thought of something to actually say. “I don’t know…” he put his hoof down. “I think I’ll be fine…once I figure some stuff out.”
Golden raised a brow with that same smile still on her face. “Sure, sure.” 
There was a moment of silence. “…so- what’s going on?” Trus asked.
“What do you mean?” Golden asked back.
“How did I end up…” he motioned to the room he had just come out of. 
Golden glanced at the room through the open door and looked back at Trus. “Huh?”
“In there? H-how did I end up in there?”
“Oh! You should have just said so in the first place. Luna said you passed out and I suppose she brought you here too. I was just told to stand guard until you woke up and now you are up! I will be off now!” She turned and started walking away down the hallway…
“Hey uh, where’s Dark…or Luna at?”
“Hmm?” She turned her head back and stopped. “I think Dark is somewhere patrolling the halls. I do not know where Luna keeps herself at these times of night.” With that she turned her head back in the direction she was heading and continued walking.
Trus watched her go and once she was out of sight he smiled and thought to himself. Heh I like that girl. He turned himself around and went in the opposite direction she had gone; only stumbling slightly on occasion as he walked.

…

After running into a few other guards and getting some hints and directions as to where Dark was, Trus eventually found himself walking past an archway leading to a balcony. With a glance out onto that balcony he spotted Dark standing at the railing, and looking out at the castle’s exterior. 
Trus initially thought of calling out to Dark, but the will to do so got caught in his chest. So he slowly walked up next to him instead. After Trus joined Dark at the balcony’s rail Dark turned his head to face him and Trus could finally find the will to speak.
“Hi.” Was all that he said.
“Hello again.” Dark said with a smile. “What brings you out here?”
“I want to know if you know anything about…”
“About what?”
“About all the dream business.”
“Oh, that this is all a dream?”
Trus blinked, but Dark didn’t seem to pay any mind to it. “Yeah.” Trus said.
“Yes I know about it. This is usually when I leave however.”
“What?” Trus shook his head back slightly, blinking again.
“I suppose it’s time you learned about Luna’s story.”
Trus blinked twice more. “…And you?”
“You wouldn’t remember anything I told you about me. At least you wouldn’t once you woke up.”
“…What?”
“Never mind me or any of the others like me. Luna’s the important one that needs all the help she can get.”
Trus had a mind to argue, but again he couldn’t find place to his words. All the new information he was getting was starting to take its toll on him and all he was able to do was to stand there and to look really confused.
Dark apparently ignoring Trus, began speaking again. “Luna once was and can still can be considered a princess. However right now she rules over nothing.” 
Trus only looked more confused after that.
“You see Luna was a princess of Equestria, but she became jealous of her sister Celestia who received far more praise and adoration than Luna did. Luna hardly saw any praise for herself in fact, and one day she turned on Celestia and became one with a darkness that turned her into a dark mare named Nightmare Moon.” Dark gave Trus a look. “Are you following?” 
Trus thought for a second. He was still trying to cope with the information about Dark and why he would forget about him on top of trying to listen. “…I believe so…” He said.
Dark didn’t seem too convinced, but took it anyway. “Well okay then… After she became Nightmare Moon Celestia had to banish her in the moon. And that is where she is today; one hundred years after that event. She is still Nightmare Moon on the outside sitting there in her prison in the moon, but she can still be herself whenever she dreams...”
It took a moment, but Trus’s mind caught up surprisingly fast as the last thing Dark had said helped something clicked into place. ...Oh!...That’s why we’re in a dream…
Trus waited for anything else Dark had to say, a bit afraid Dark might start talking about something else random and mind blowing. Then, after his mind had settled down, he eventually asked “And…that’s it?” 
“The jist of it yes.” 
“…And yourself?” 
Dark smiled with a single, short laugh. “I’m just a dream. Don’t worry about me.” 
“…I don’t think dreams usually admit to being dreams…”
Dark gave a full on laugh at that. “Just call me a dream pony!” he said. “Dreams are the only place I and any others like me exist… That’s all there is to it. You’ll forget all about me when you wake up.”
Trus didn’t move and gave Dark a sad disappointed look. 
“Go find Luna.” Dark said. “This dream is about to become a nightmare and she will be waking up soon. I’ll be leaving, because it won’t be safe for me to stay any longer.”
Trus tilted his head. “Huh’?” he said.
“Just go you. I’m not important, she is! You’ll only forget me.” He smiled once more. “You always do…”
…Trus stood there for another moment looking totally perplexed, his mind doing a few flips. Then he slowly turned away from Dark having had enough of his mind getting smacked for the time being. But then once he was halfway across the balcony, he stopped and looked back just to make sure Dark didn’t have anything else to say. 
Dark was simply watching Trus leave and as it turned out he did have something to say. He opened his mouth one more time. “Oh one quick question. What’s that Cutie Mark on your rear stand for?”
Trus tilted his head again and gave a puzzled look. “…Huh?” He looked at his flank and noticed a picture of a cloud with a scene inside of it of two ponies beneath a tree next to a body of water. What the – What is that? 
As though to respond to Trus’s thoughts Dark said “It’s supposed to represent your special talent.”
Huh? Trus looked at Dark back at the Cutie Mark and back at Dark again. “Does every pony have one of these?”
“Only the young ones that haven’t gotten theirs yet don’t have them.”
Trus stared at Dark a moment longer and then he took a good look at his cutie mark again. How did I not notice these things?... Must have seen- … Hmm… A cloud with a scene in it… “…Dreaming…I guess?” Trus finally said with a shrug. “What’s yours?” 
“Oh mine’s just a shield. Sentry to the end.” Dark said gesturing to himself with a hoof.
“Huh.” Trus said, looking away from Dark again and towards the archway. He tried to think of what Luna’s Cutie Mark was, but all he could think about was a blur. He looked back to ask Dark if he knew, but when he did, Dark wasn’t there…
Trus blinked, lowered his head, looked at the stone floor of the balcony, slowly looked up, started walking while shaking his head and then proceeded to fall forward! 
His wings reacted and caught him before he took a complete nose dive, but he still managed to nick his nose a good bit...