That night, Luna tried to connect with her sister in her dreams again but there was nothing but darkness, not a single replied came to her when she called out to her sister. This worried her greatly and she was ready to step into the darkness herself to find her sister. I can't...if i get lost in there, Equestria is doomed. Please..be well sister. She turned and opened a different door of the dream world and found herself in the clubhouse of the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
"Luna!" A small yellow earth pony with red hair ran to her and hugged her.
"Hello Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo," She nodded a greeting to the unicorn and orange pegasus.
"Is there anything we can do to help Ponyville? Applejack and Rarity make us stay in the castle," Sweetie belle grumbled.
"Yea! We're perfectly capable of helping them! Cutie marks or not!" Scootaloo added.
"Can you convince our sisters to let us help? Please?" Apple Bloom looked at her pleadingly.
"My little fillies, I don't think you need to be involved in this. Your sisters are only trying to keep you safe, after all, you're their only younger sibling," Luna pointed out, part of her not wanting to see her most faithful subjects get hurt.
"But-" Sweetie belle started to protest but stopped as Luna pulled all three of them close.
"I've already lost my sister to that monster. I don't want to lose you too," Luna wrapped her wings around them.
"We don't need to get in the fighting...anything will do, just anything! Please!" Sweetie Belle begged.
Luna sighed. "We will have to see, little one," She exited their dream and went onto the next one, using her horn to sense for troubled ponies and nightmares. There weren't many happy dreams, but Luna decided to enter Trixie's dreams, curious of the young unicorn's life. Trixie ran by her as she entered, but didn't notice her. To her surprise, she saw another version of Trixie, her eyes smirking and face smiling evily.
"Stay back," Trixie demanded, her ears flattened as she pressed against a wall.
"You should have taken the amulet back when you had a chance, Trixie," Evil Trixie said, advancing on her.
"No! Never! I won't go back to that life again," Trixie snapped.
"But you are the GREAT AND POWERFUL Trixie!" The dark Trixie tempted.
"I can be great and powerful another way," Trixie snapped, shooting a bolt of magic at her dark self. It faded instantly.
"Trixie..." Luna said quietly, stepping into view.
"Princess Luna! Did you-...you saw everything?" Trixie stammered, her eyes dark with shame.
"How long have you been having this nightmare?" Luna asked, gently putting a hoof under Trixie's chin and lifting it.
"It's n-not a nightmare.."Trixie stammered, not meeting her eye.
"It seems to me like your past is haunting you and it involves the alicorn amulet," Luna sits and wraps a hoof around her shoulders. "I can only help you if you tell me what happened, however painful it may be,"
"I used the amulet to get revenge on Princess Twilight after she humiliated me...and she only beat me with the magic of friendship... with the help of her friends. After that, I realized how important and powerful friendship could be. I left Ponyville and I made a couple of new friends, but especially my mentor, Meadow Dew. She's very well known for her healing magic," Trixie added.
"The nightmares will stop only if you learn to forget your past and move on," Luna said softly.
"How did you get over your mistakes when you were Nightmare Moon?" Trixie asked. Luna was silent. She may have the forgiveness of the ponies, but the guilt of the suffering she had caused was embedding deep into her mind.
"Princess?" Trixie said anxiously. "I'm sorry...I shouldn't have asked such a personal question,"
"It's fine," Luna said, ignoring the pain in her heart. "Over time, ponies forgave me. I made up to many ponies by entering their dreams and helping them with their problems. I even visited them once on Nightmare Night. Turns out they enjoyed being frigtened," Luna gigled at the memory.
"Thank you, Princess. You've eased my worried. I guess I just need to be patient," Trixie smiled. Luna dipped her head and exited the dream and woke up. She glanced at the snowy and moonlit sky. Her efforts to raise the sun had left her magic on lower levels than usual and both her and Twilight exhausted. The unicorns' attempt to help had barely no effect.
"I wonder how Celestia even raises the sun," Luna muttered to herself. She opened the door to Moon's cage and allowed her pet owl to rest on her back before exiting the room.
"Princess, good morning. How ya doing today?" Applejack stepped out of her room in the long hallways and dipped her head to her.
"Good morning, Applejack," Luna greeted her.
"Princess Luna, we thought maybe we could go to your old castle. We may be able to find something there. Princess Cadence is looking through her library as well, but I'm not sure if she can find much." Twilight came up to her.
"Of course. How is everypony coping?" Luna asked, looking outside anxiously.
"Most ponies are staying inside because of the cold. This lack of sunlight is getting the best of all of us," Rarity said.
"May I join you?" Spike hurried towards them with the CMC behind him.
"My guards will stay here and protect the castle. I've increased security since the amulet was stolen," Luna told them as she walked towards the Everfree forest. The branches and vines seemed more wild than usual. Fluttershy shrank close to Rainbow's side while Pinkie crept around each tree like a spy.
"Something's not right," Pinkie said slowly, poking her head out of a hole in one the trees.
"Since when is the Everfree forest ever normal anyways?" Rainbow rolled her eyes. Applejack stepped on a branch.
"Ee!" Fluttershy crashed into Rainbow and hugged her.
"Why are you so nervous? We've been here loads of times to visit the castle," Rainbow gently pushed her off.
"Pinkie is right. The forest seems more eerie than usual," Twilight observed. As she spoke, a bunch of vines shot out towards them. Luna and Twilight shot out beams of magic at them, breaking them instantly. A loud pop behind them startled them.
"Discord, I know you're there," Fluttershy said sternly, flapping her wings swiftly and glaring at a nearby bush. A snake slitered out and transformed into Discord.
"I'm sorry I snuck up on you. But I just want to help," He said remorsefully.
"Yea right!" Apple Bloom muttered.
"Um, maybe you can keep an eye on the castle. We already have too many ponies here," Fluttershy said.
"I would send our sisters back, but it's been a while since they had a little adventure of their own," Rarity said, stroking Sweetie Belle's mane.
"I'll keep an eye on him," Spike said, standing up straight.
"You're not even going to give me a chance? I thought we were friends," Discord grumbled, turning his back on the ponies.
"Why don't you go ahead and tell us if you see any danger?" Luna suggested.
"Sure," Discord sped off. A few minutes lately, he came back.
"You won't believe who I just saw! It was Princess Celestia!" He exclaimed.
"What?!" Everypony shouted at the same time.
"But she was with that other alicorn, Astelle." Discord added.
"Asteria," Luna corrected, speeding up her pace and taking off.
"Wait! Why would Celestia be with her?" Discord called after her.
"Well, she must have imprisoned her," Rainbow Dash said.
"No, actually. They seemed to be talking," Luna paushed mid fligt and turned to face him.
"Let's go check it out," Twilight broke into a run, her friends following her.
"You fillies stay here with Discord and Spike. We'll take it from here," Applejack said, running towards the castle.
"Left out again!" Sweetie Belle complained. The mane six and Luna had amde it to the bridge leading to the castle. Pinkie whipped out a pair of binoculars out of nowhere and peered through it.
"I see Princess Celestia! And that other alicorn," Pinkie announced."Oo! Princess Celestia's got some fancy jewelry on,"
"Jewelry?" Luna asked, fearing the worst. She took the binoculars and peered through them, then looked back at the others with a grim look. "It's not just any jewelry. It's the alicorn amulet,"