//------------------------------//
// Bad Dreams 
// Story: Gloom and Doom 
// by casualbrony10 
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	The sun slowly lowered beneath the horizon as two ponies watched from atop a castle. Twilight and Sunset smiled as they admired the beauty of the shift from day to night. Twilight and her friends had spent the whole day hanging out with Sunset and showing her around Ponyville. They were filled with anticipation of what the next day would bring. Celestia was going to come to Ponyville and see Sunset for the first time in over 3 years. Sunset was nervous about seeing her former mentor whom she had so arrogantly left, but Twilight assured her that Celestia bore her no ill will.
"I think she actually blames herself," Twilight said, "You were her student and she feels that she failed you."
"She was a great teacher and I turned my back on her because I was too impatient and greedy to understand," Sunset replied, "What could she have possibly done to prevent that? She can't just ignore what happened, and I doubt things can ever be the same."
"You'd be surprised, I've seen the princess forgive when anyone else would have been furious. Her own sister betrayed her and hated her for a thousand years and the minute Luna sought her forgiveness she gave it. Celestia forgave Discord after all the terrible things he had done just because my friends and I vouched for him, then forgave him again after he betrayed everypony and was sorry. Celestia doesn't hold grudges, I don't think she can."
"Thanks Twilight, I'm still nervous though, I can't help it."
"Sunset, Twilight, you two watching the sun set at twilight?" Spike asked from behind them.
"Why don't you join us Spike, it isn't often that we just enjoy a good sunset without princess stuff or friendship problems or dangers to Equestria popping up," Twilight patted the floor next to her. Spike walked up and sat beside the two ponies. Together they finished watching the sunset then entered Twilight's castle for a good night's sleep. At that same moment, Gloom came within sight of the town.


Celestia finished setting the sun just as Luna raised the moon. As always, the royal sisters were in perfect synchronization. Celestia smiled to her sister and bowed her head, observing the protocol they had set in place. The bow was a formal acknowledgement that Luna was sovereign ruler of Canterlot and the most senior princess of Equestria until the morning, when Luna would do the same for Celestia. Celestia had insisted upon that arrangement ever since Luna had returned in order to ensure that their subjects understood and respected Luna's authority. The four princesses were all equals in name, but Canterlot was considered the capital city by other countries. Twilight and Cadence also looked to Celestia and Luna for guidance as they were both much younger and less experienced than the millennium old sisters. Luna may have been locked in the moon for the last thousand years, but she had already ruled alongside her sister for several centuries before succumbing to darkness, and her leadership ability was impressive despite her initial stumbles during Nightmare Night. She had spent many weeks adopting the modern lingo and no longer used the royal Canterlot voice at random.
"Goodnight Luna and I hope you enjoy your new throne," Celestia said with a smile.
"It's finally ready?!" Luna was overjoyed at no longer having to share the one throne. It worked normally, but sometimes both princesses were needed in the court and since most meetings occurred in the day Luna usually had to stand as Celestia occupied the throne. Luna wasn't jealous, she promised herself she never would be again, but that gave dignitaries and officials the impression that Celestia was higher than Luna.
"The craftsponies just put it in today, they even moved my throne to keep the room symmetrical. Now hopefully everypony will understand that we are equal." Some ponies apparently had not gotten the message as more than once Celestia had been woken in the middle of the night by some noble or whatever that thought they were going over Luna's head. Celestia had always disliked dealing with the nobility, they always had to get their way and some were arrogant enough to whine to her when Luna denied some selfish request.
"If only I were as tall as you, then it would be perfect," Luna smiled, "Then again, it makes me look much younger." Luna primped her mane with a silly grin causing both sisters to laugh. When they finished they looked at each other for a few moments.
"Did I tell you that it's wonderful to have you back Luna?"
"57 times exactly, and once again it is good to be back Tia, sweet dreams," Luna smiled warmly. Celestia retreated to her chambers and Luna went to the throne room. The court was empty except for four of Luna's personal guard standing at attention. Luna smiled at them as they bowed. She cared deeply for the dozen soldiers that had volunteered to be her guard. They had agreed to accept her mark, granting them bat-like wings and dragon-like eyes as they accepted the magic of the night into themselves. They were her most loyal subjects. She sat upon her throne and began her nightly duties. Few ponies requested audience at night so Luna did not deal with as much administrative work as her sister. Her most frequent visitors were astronomers, guards from the night watch, and the odd messenger. However, Luna was far from idle. While upon her throne she could meditate and enter the dreamworld, where she could view and enter the dreams of ponies across the land. It was a talent unique to her as even Celestia could not exercise such control over dreams. Time passed differently in dreams, Luna could visit tens of thousands in one night. Luna's smile turned to a sad frown as she was once again reminded of how she had abused that power so long ago. After her first transformation into Nightmare Moon she had struck Celestia with a powerful blast that knocked her out of the sky. Twilight had told her about the vision Zecora's potion had shown her but Luna didn't have the heart to mention that the potion had skipped over the 12 hours that Celestia had lain unconscious before finally getting up and activating the elements of harmony. Nightmare Moon, thinking Celestia dead, had started what she saw as punishment upon her subjects for rejecting her night by sending horrific unending nightmares to all the sleeping ponies. The first Nightmare Night had begun, hard to believe it became the candy-filled festival that it was today.
Luna shook off such thoughts, that was behind her now, and she had vowed to make up for it by ensuring that all the ponies had sweet dreams under her watch. She had even started receiving requests, mostly from children, to visit their dreams. So her mind began it's journey across Equestria, searching for any nightmares. Random, vague nightmares were easy to remove, it was the more detailed ones that gave away deep worries or problems. Luna needed to enter these dreams and give whatever advice she could to ensure the nightmares didn't continue. The Cutie Mark Crusaders had been only a few of her many stops. Luna smiled as she flew across the dreamscape, it was beautiful, a swirling mass of lights and colors laid over a translucent image of the real world. Every light was another dream; nightmares looked like shadowy wisps of smoke trying to engulf dream-lights, for they fed off of fear and needed the dreams to sustain themselves. It didn't take long to banish them all, Equestria was a happy country, and few residents had the problems that attracted nightmares. Luna's dream self flew up to the moon and looked down to admire the sea of lights that almost mirrored her beautiful stars. 
Suddenly, Luna saw something peculiar, a large group of nightmares suddenly sprang up and converged upon the edge of Canterlot. She saw identical groups appear near Ponyville and the Crystal Empire. Luna confronted the Canterlot group first and saw with alarm that the nightmares spread quickly from one point that was the city gate in the real world. She had never seen this before, not only were the nightmares spreading from one point in an organized fashion they were also all similar in nature. Perfectly good dreams were suddenly filled with tragedy as sleeping ponies relived the saddest and most traumatic moments in their lives. The nightmares were also not the scattered, wispy puffs of smoke that she was used to but a single, huge, slimy, oily shadow that advanced in a wave. She realized with horror that something must be attacking the ponies' minds from the real world and whatever it was was moving right for Canterlot Castle at a rapid pace. Luna shot back into her body and leaped off her throne, ordering her guards to sound the alarm. As they all charged towards the door of throne room, Luna sensed something and motioned her guards to stop and listen. Sobbing noises could be heard from the other side of the door, getting louder by the second. Luna quickly backed away from the door as a pool of black liquid seeped out from under the door. She and her guards watched in morbid fascination as a creature slowly rose out of the pool. It was horse-like with three-toed feet and wicked claws instead of hooves. It was made of the dark liquid with glowing blue eyes and stood on its hind legs. The creature regarded Luna and glanced at her guards, but said nothing other than making a few quiet sobs. 
"What are you? How did you get in here and what have you done with the guards patrolling the halls?!" Luna demanded as her horn began to glow. The creature's gaze unnerved her and she could feel the dark magic radiating from it. Her guards held spears in their mouths and had been pointing them at the creature since its entrance. 
"You have so much sorrow in you princess," The creature hissed. Luna winced as it spoke, its voice was grating and hoarse with a high-pitched, otherworldly echo. "1000 years worth of pain, and now I will give you so much more as I did the others." Luna opened the door with her magic and looked down the hall past the creature. She saw several of her guards scattered about, some rocking back and forth in fetal positions and some unconscious. All of them had tears flowing down their faces, but the tears were black and flowed towards the creature before joining the pool at its feet. The sight was disturbing to say the least. Luna now knew that whatever this thing is, it's powerful and it is definitely not friendly. The creature's mouth opened, "Let's begin." The only other warning Luna had was the monster's leg muscles tensing for a split second before it lunged.