Eternal Slumber

by Shimmer305

Ch. 2: Luna's Vision

Luna stared out the window at the dark city of Canterlot. Nearly everypony was sleeping (normal sleep, not the eternal sleeping spell), save for a few guards and herself. For nearly the entire night, she'd been in that exact same spot, simply contemplating the words of the mysterious stallion, and the idea of everything in the entire land of Equestria and beyond being put under an eternal blanket and going to sleep forever. Luna tried to imagine herself falling asleep for the rest of time. It seemed peaceful, simply laying there for all time, forgetting all those worries and memories...

No, thought Luna, shaking her head viciously. She cared for everypony, she wouldn't simply leave them all like that. She wasn't Nightmare Moon anymore, that time had long passed. Now she had to protect all her subjects, no matter what happened. Already she'd failed at that; The guards and bystanders that'd been killed had their funerals scheduled for tomorrow. There would be many tears shed that day.

Luna closed her eyes, trying to feel the night, her home. When she opened them, the entire sky was blue, not it's usual dark purple. Black stars were falling from the sky, and red lightning bolts lit up the sky. There was a red moon on the left side of the sky, and a black-and-white striped sun on the right. An evil laughter resounded throughout the entire area as a huge shadow rose up from the ground. The shadow didn't have any particular form, it was just a big mass of darkness. Two bright, vibrant scarlet eyes appeared in the middle of the shadow. They seemed to be surveying everything around. Luna then noticed that the entire city of Canterlot was under a ginormous blanket of fire. The evil laughter boomed again, this time apparently coming from the mass of darkness.

Suddenly, a flash of light came out of the sky, accompanied by a huge BOOM similar to Rainbow Dash's Sonic Rainboom. Luna had to squint her eyes in order to see what it was. She could barely make out a seemingly young mare with the horn of a unicorn and the wings of a pegasus. The alicorn shot out a beam of blinding light towards the giant shadow. The creature let out one final roar before dissipating into nothingness.

Luna snapped out of her vision with a lurch. She blinked a few times, making sure that the sky was its regular color, Canterlot was safe, and there were no giant shadows or alicorns. Luckily, everything was intact.

"Hey there, Luna."

The princess of the night whirled around, only to see Twilight Sparkle standing there innocently. Luna sighed in relief and said, "Hello Twilight Sparkle. Why art thou--I mean, why are you awake?"

Twilight shrugged. "Couldn't sleep, I guess." She walked over next to Luna, gazing up at the stars. "They're so beautiful..." she murmured. "It's so sad how everypony has to sleep in this time when the stars are out. They miss out on the...well...beauty of it."

Luna smiled and nodded. "Thank you. It is my duty, after all."

Twilight nodded and kept looking at the stars. Her face melted from the smile of an innocent filly to the deep frown of an elder beyond her age.

"Something troubles you, Twilight Sparkle?"

Twilight nodded, not once taking her eyes off of the night sky. "It's just...what if none of this is real? What if none of that 'Eternal Slumber' thing is just some sort of prank played out by a sick pony wanting attention?"

Luna thought about this for a moment, then shook her head. "I have heard countless lies through the thousands of years I have lived. Believe me, that stallion was not lying. And besides, nopony would dare stoop so low as to murdering at random when playing jokes."

Twilight sighed in relief, knowing that she could trust Luna. "Okay. And what about that other alicorn?"

Luna did not know how to respond to this. For a moment, she wanted to share her strange vision with Twilight, but held herself back. Something inside her told her that the vision was something to be known only to herself. Instead, she just shook her head and said, "I don't know."

"I mean, Celestia is planning on notifying all of Equestria of this alicorn, gonna be putting up signs and sending search parties and all of that junk."

"My sister is wise--far wiser than I--but sometimes the choices she makes aren't exactly the wisest."

Twilight laughed softly and looked to Luna. "I'll make sure not to tell her you said that."

Luna smiled and continued looking outside. There was silence between the two princesses for a while, until Twilight yawned, walking off to her room. "Well, it was nice talking with ya, Luna. Good night!" She walked off.

Luna spent the rest of the night worrying.

Author's Note:

Sorry it was so short, I'd originally planned on putting this and the next chapter together into one long chapter, but decided against it since I wouldn't know what to call the chapter 'cause I suck at coming up with good names/titles for anything.