Luna ascended the steps to her observatory tower, and let her guards push the great doors open before her.
The familiar scent of dusty old star-charts, lens polish, and dried lavender filled the air in a strange but calming mixed fragrance. It had been a while since she had been up there, with her nightmares taking a toll on her energy, and no new inspirations for constellations to create in weeks.
“Leave me, please.” She uttered softly, and her accompanying guards saluted her, before silently disappearing out the doors and closing them.
The great glass dome that covered the top of the tower cast radiant moonlight across the bundled piles of scrolls and canvases that had slowly built up over the years. A range of telescopes, from her old brass piece that was barely any better than mortal sight, to the slightly dinged magical centrepiece which Twilight had donated to her following the destruction of the old Golden Oaks library, capable of peering at even the tiniest stars in immense detail, though she had little need for such things. It was, as she recalled, pointed towards the mountain pass from the Badlands- the changelings may have changed, but it never hurt to keep an eye out. They were creatures of deception, after all.
She hummed gently as she kicked her shoes off and slowly strode across the room towards her balcony, the feeling of the plush carpet soft and cushioning on her hooves. For the first time in as long as she could remember, she felt full of energy, ready to take on the night before her. Her horn lit up, stars twinkling in response from the inky skies above, as the moon drifted smoothly into its proper position.
The balcony doors swung open with a dull creak, the weathered wooden frames shuddering as she wedged them into place with a chunk of moon rock. She stepped out, her bare hooves clacking quietly on the polished stone floor.
The whole of Equestria lay before her, blanketed in a deep, wonderful purple-black as the faintest hints of dusk faded away. Velvet darkness hung over the countryside, the meadows and plains, broken only by the occasional bobbing lantern of a traveller or lonely farmhouse. The cities and towns were like little lakes of honey-tinted light, the many different shops, bars and inns still bright and shining, like beacons in the night, calling the waking nightlife like moths to a candle flame. And then, the towering skyscrapers of Manehattan, just visible far off in the distance, glowing with the lights in a thousand windows, as the city went on, sleepless, into the late hours.
She flinched as she scanned the patchwork skyline, waiting for the delicate, tranquil view to warp into some Tartarus-born hellscape, but nothing happened. The lights in the towers did not turn to ancient eyes filled with primal fury; the pitch-black lakes, lit only by the occasional glint of silvery moonshine on their surface, did not turn into yawning voids or gaping maws looming to swallow and consume all she knew and loved.
The nightmares did not plague her.
She was both relieved, and curious. Why had they suddenly abandoned her? Her dreams had been just as horrendous as ever! Though she did feel awfully rested, and she had awoken at a more reasonable time- late, even- instead of her nightmare-driven midday waking. Perhaps it had simply been that- a silly nightmare, that had recurred by itself, as they were oft wont to do.
But that didn’t explain the fearful ponies that had gathered before her in court the previous night. Nor did it explain the wretched grip the nightmares had had on her- a normal bad dream was nothing compared to the nightly torments she had faced.
Something was terribly, terrible wrong.
Still, she had ponies to watch over, blessings to grant, and promises to fulfill.
She stood up on the balcony, hooves resting on the balustrade, horn shimmering with mystical blue magic as she began to slowly sway from side-to-side, as if working her way into a trance.
The dreamrealm awaited.
The rift opened with a cutting flick of her horn, scything open nothingness, and her world took on a strange purple-pink colouration as she was immersed in the space between dreams. The quiet sounds of the night faded away, from the sharp, longing calls of birdsong and howls, to a distant, muted, unrecognisable noise, as if they were underwater.
The cool, soothing sensation of dream magic flowed over her, and the chatter began to grow- the low din of a thousand dreaming ponies, all of their thoughts, feelings and visions pouring onto her in a torrent of emotion as tiny glimpses of their dream floated around her in mystical bubbles.
But, as much as she wished to venture into the innocent dreams of foals at play, or gaze upon the summery meadows of her friends’ sleeps, she had a duty to fulfil.
Her magic hummed and rippled, tendrils of purest white stretching throughout the dreamrealm, searching out her targets. Deeper and deeper she delved, sifting through thousands upon thousands of dreams, good and bad, until the surrounding hue began to change.
The beautiful, silky pink-streaked purple clouds that formed the realm began to darken and harden, taking on a definite crimson hue.
“Ah.” She murmured as the all-too familiar arid winds and burning smells assailed her. She had found the nightmare-stricken dreamers, it seemed. The ethereal laces that pulled the individual dream-windows to her began to warp and spasm, and the beginnings of a magical-fatigue headache echoed in the back of her head.
It would be a tough night.
She pulled the first of the many trapped dreams towards her, the tiny porthole into their world a dark, lightning-lashed red.
“Go.” The haunting cry reached her ears from beyond the realm, somehow. She shivered at the scraping tone, but there was little time to consider it further, as she leapt into the nightmare.
Immediately, the searing heat of her own nightmares struck her in the face, like a wall of hot, arid air, slamming into her as soon as her hooves touched the cracked, tremoring ground.
For a split second, it threatened to overwhelm her, before a chill touch on her back warded it away with a blooming wave of icy magic which enveloped her. It tingled against her coat, tiny flurries of ice and frost beginning to drift from her as she moved. She stepped forward, and a frozen hoofprint marked her path.
“Abnormal…” She wondered, a shiver running along her spine. But there was no time to dawdle- the realm was littered with her old failsafe spells designed to protect her from particularly bad nightmares, after all. Why they hadn’t been tripped by her own issues was a minor issue, given how ancient they were. Perhaps they had activated, and the real nightmares were even worse.
A piercing scream stole her attention.
The mare from the nightcourt, the mother of the sleeping foal, if she recalled correctly, stood atop a collapsing cottage, overlooking a huge rift in the ground. Fires raged around her, charring the few supporting beams and forcing her further out over the precipice, forcing her into dangerously balancing on a narrow timber spar. The creaking death-sighs of the wooden building rang out shrilly as the whole structure tottered and leaned.
“Help! Please!” She screamed to the boiling, crimson-grey skies, her voice hoarse and desperate, before dropping to a fatal sob, “Pl-please…”
Luna wasted no time. She leapt up with such force that the dry ground cracked beneath her hooves, taking wing and swooping towards the endangered pony in an instant. With a neat corkscrew, she blitzed through the flickering flames that were licking up the sides of her perch, and whipped the mare up in a vice-like embrace. Barely a second later, the building succumbed to the raging fires, and collapsed in a smoky fireball, flaming splinters showering them as the wave of intense heat rolled out.
“Please…” The mare continued to cry, her words turning to incomprehensible mumbles as she buried her blackened, tear-streaked face in Luna’s chest fur.
The target was safe. She simply had to crush this nightmare and place her into a calming scene, and it would be alright. Hopefully, she wouldn’t remember much, come the morning.
That begged the question: How was she to banish a nightmare so vast and terrible? As far as she could see, the land had been ravaged- it seemed to bear a striking resemblance to Ponyville, or at least, the Ponyville she remembered from long ago, with the sweeping plains and a few dotted houses, though all aflame or adust, of course- so where was she to go?
Then the smoke cleared.
She wished it had not.
A towering beast, somewhat draconic, and utterly gigantic loomed over them. A single eye, burning with a fury and hatred deeper and darker than she could comprehend, opened. They were like motes of dust, barely insects before the vast creature. Even the eye dwarfed them entirely.
“Sweet mother of the stars…” Luna gasped, frozen in place with a fear she felt on such a primal level that she could not resist it. It wasn’t even her dream, why was she being affected so?
“Please!” The mare wailed. She could not even see the monstrosity, but her tremoring, terrified shakes and whimpers spoke for her.
Slowly, ever so slowly, the giant moved. A maw larger than she could possibly see opened beneath them, the jaws sparsely lined with enormous ‘teeth’ formed of monolithic grey stones that glinted dully in the hellish light. She fled, speeding upwards fast enough that the air began to cut and claw at her body. Even her strange magical protection did not protect her from the rushing wind, and the heart-stopping terror.
A grating rumble, as if the earth itself had split in two and was grinding itself apart, filled the skies, stunning her into a stop as she frantically clasped at her ears. Her magical focus shattered, and she had to flail for her passenger with her backlegs to hold her tight.
A thin hissing noise, bizarrely calming and soft-sounding reached them, and then the world turned completely black.
Her own body disappeared into the darkness. Her magic could not penetrate it, despite her mastery of the night skies. She was a pony who had grown and flourished in the nightly hours for thousands of years- and it unnerved her.
She heard a coughing noise from the mare below and pulled her up into a more secure position, now that the noise that she felt had bloodied her ears had ceased. She fumbled for a moment, utterly blind, but her grip was poor as the pony continued to shift and move.
“Please, Pri-” She managed to force out between hacking coughs and spasms. “My f-foal-“ Her voice was quiet, barely more than a wheeze.
What in Equestria was happening?
A faint burning sensation lit up along her back, as something dusty touched her face.
She flicked her tongue out. “…Ash?”
No sooner had she spat out the disgusting, sulphurous grit, than her nose was blocked by it. It stung furiously, hot and acidic. She gasped in pain, and she knew it was her undoing.
The very second her mouth opened, a heavy feeling began to fill her body. Her limbs became stiff and lame, her senses numbed, and her breath began to fade. “I am sorry, my dear little pony.” She said, her voice barely a croaked whisper, before she fell.
She could not feel the rushing wind. Her grasp on the mare had failed some time ago. All she was aware of was that single, horrible eye, watching her as she fell past it. Fell for an eternity in the darkness.
The whispering hint of cold on her fur did nothing to rouse her from her numbness.
She had failed.
“Weak.”
A glacial gale cut across her, freezing her to the bone. There was a blinding flash, and the world turned from pitch black a bitter blue-white. Her wings did not move, frozen and cold, and yet her fall slowed as the ground neared. The crystalline terrain was lined with arches, spires, and warped spines of ice.
Nothing moved.
Not a sound could be heard, save the soft crackling of crystals as her body softly slumped down.
She looked up, and the beast looked down, its single eye blind and still, coated in a thick layer of translucent, purple-blue ice. It still made her chest tight with fear, but the primal horror was muted significantly.
A blue hoof swam into view.
“Sweet rest. ‘Tis a realm of mine, and so shall I ward.” A voice breathed into her ear. And then her gaze pitched forward, and the ice consumed her.
“Luna!” Her eyes flickered open as a coarse shout rang in her ears. “Luna! Come on, wake up!” The voice- Celestia! It bordered on frantic, and there was a loud, panicked din all around her. Dozens of voices cried out and screamed in worry and desperation.
Her sister stood over her, cheeks streaked with the tell-tale matted tracks of tears, eyes bloodshot and puffy. Everything about the majestic goddess was cowed and worrisome.
What had happened? Had the nightmares taken her too? All she could remember was trying to save a mare from her dreams, meeting some huge, terrible beast, and then everything had gone cold.
“Celestia?” She murmured, her lips and tongue strangely heavy and unresponsive. She had meant to sound reassuring, that she might put her sister’s mind at rest for a moment whilst she found out what was going on, but the pathetic mumble would hardly reassure a rat.
“Oh, Luna…” Celestia wept in a sudden gasp of relief. “I knew it wasn’t true- that a simple fall wouldn’t be the end.”
She tried to get up, but her body would not respond. “’What in Equestria are you talking about?”
And then she realised that Celestia was not looking at her, rather, looking over her. There was pity in her eyes, a great sadness, and a quaver in her voice that spoke of a worry beyond what she dared to share.
“’Tia?” She did not respond. “’Tia!” Nothing.
“Celestia Sunborn, the Golden Light That Doth Shine!” Her growingly-furious bellow earned her barely more than a sorrowful sigh.
“Oh, Luna. My poor, poor little pony.” She shook her head, wiped her tears, and drew herself up and away. “Tend to her as your own, Doctor. If anything should change, contact me immediately- Raven Inkwell shall be around to carry messages.” And then she walked off, disappearing from view.
Why could she not move her head? She could barely see anything but the stark off-white flat of a ceiling, lit by a single golden light. Where was she?
A hoof held her still, pressing a cool cloth to her brow. “I’d love to say you’d be up and around in no time, Princess.” A smooth male voice tutted quietly, “Truth is, you shouldn’t even be alive right now.”
The doctor, she assumed, swam into view for a moment, fussing about something below her sight, before he turned away and dimmed the light. “I wonder if you can even hear me.” He smiled, “I’ll be right back, Princess, you just get some rest.”
“Yes, rest, my dear.” That voice from her nightmares purred. Even the bare sound of it sent shivers down her spine.
And then a strange, tingling, prickling feeling began to work from her chest, spreading out across her torso like an itchy rash, tinged with cold. She couldn’t move to see or scratch it, but it felt like her skin was shifting and squirming. She spasmed and twitched slightly as the discomfort grew, but despite her best efforts, she could not move properly.
A painful twinge developed in her brow, and her sight flickered as her eyes involuntarily blinked and roved. “Curious. So very warm.” Her horn began to tingle, but not with the familiar sensation of charging magic. It was far too cold, as if it were frozen, the waves of frosty vapour rolling down to chill her scalp, and go deeper.
“Who are you?” Luna asked, though it was more a command than a question. As she told herself, at least. The growing desperation and concern in her mind threatened to break out at any moment.
“‘Who art thou’ the pony did cry, ne’er knowing the mirror-eye.” The voice sang, mockingly.
She groaned, half in discomfort, half in annoyance. “Answer me, unseen one. And no more of these riddles and verbal ditherings!”
“I am thine which thou didst damn.” It said, a strange hardness in its tone, marked with sometimes almost mournful.
Luna huffed, trying again to move against her bonds. But it was no use. She was stuck fast, her voice had somehow fallen silent to all but this taunting fiend, and her magic refused to respond. She had too much to do- ponies required her assistance in their horrendous dreams! The kingdom needed a princess to watch over its troubled dreams, and Celestia was busy enough as it was. There was no time to lay, bed-ridden and useless, whilst such turmoil held the dreamrealm.
Somewhere from beyond her sight, a door creaked open, and some two or three ponies trotted in- she couldn’t quite determine from their clattered hoofsteps.
“Hello, Princess Luna.” A familiar voice whispered nervously. “We heard you had fallen ill, and we wanted to thank you for your work.”
Try as she might, she could not place the voice.
And then three happy, if a little pitiful, faces wove into view- The mother, guard, and thestral from her mass court session. “The doctor said you were terribly hurt.” She spoke up after a moment’s weary pause. “I hope you can hear us.” She sniffled, leaning into the guard’s shoulder.
He spoke, slowly and calmly. Completely unlike the panicked descriptions he had launched into at their last meeting. “My Princess. Your blessings we felt, and your efforts we saw. You banished those demon-dreams and bade us rest. Our thanks cannot be expressed fully.”
The thestral clicked her tongue and leaned in, her ears twitching and her little fangs curling her lip back. “B-bless you, Princess.” She whispered weakly, the tip of her wing brushing her brow in a small, nervous salute. “My grandmother called you, ‘Luna, our dream-guard’. She was right.”
There was a moment’s quiet as they all watched her still, unmoving body, gazes thankful but sad.
“Please come back soon, Princess.” The mother said, cowed, laying a gentle hoof on her still chest. “The night isn’t the same without your grace.” The others nodded their affirmation, and they shared a sigh.
A minute of lingering gazes and a round of sorrowful nods, and they quietly tramped away, leaving nothing more than their worried whispers fading into silence once more.
“Ha, did I not fail them all? I fell to the first nightmare I found!” Luna laughed, “And a horror it was too.”
“And yet, thine will and duty was fulfilled.” The voice chimed in, “And how so?”
“I don’t doubt Celestia stepped in.” She admitted, “She, with the guidance of a trained dream-seer or two, would have little issue, I think.” Truly, her powers were undeniably individual in the realms of sleepers, but any old pony with a good guide and grasp of magic and mind could bend and heal nightmares. That these nightmares had been too much for her was horribly unnerving, but perhaps Celestia, or maybe even young Twilight, had managed to forge their way through- Sparkle had shown something of an affinity for dream magicks during her Tantabus issues, after all.
“Deny, deny, deny, for what stares you down, enfears you.” The voice took on a sharp edge, almost annoyed-sounding. An icy chill flowed through her body. A single wave of shivering cold.
“Enough. My ponies need me. Let us away, and then I shall deal with you, fiend.” She finished resolutely, before renewing her efforts.
The ponies, the doctor- even her own sister- had looked and spoken as if she had been utterly dead to the world. What in Equestria could have happened that they saw her so?
Her bonds held her tight, not that she could move a muscle anyway. Even her eyes would not move from the fixed stare at the ceiling.
“What have you done to me, Demon? This is your foul doing, is it not?” She snapped, “Undo your spells! I have a kingdom to rule.”
Tinny, tinkling laughter filled her ears, her mind. “Ha, that I would cast myself to stone for pity and damnation?” A sudden glacial chill rushed through her limbs, tingling, burning with cold. “Thou dost damage more than thyself with such impudence. See, now.” A split-second of splintering agony drew forth a silent scream. And then, a cool, quiet numbness.
Luna panted, her teeth grinding and her jaw clenched as the pain subsided.
She was...moving?
Her bonds had slackened, it seemed. She could turn her head, even if only a small distance, but it was progress.
“Ha. Rise now.” The voice wheezed weakly. “Embrace the Nightmare, that you may the nightmare.” A long sigh paused it, “Thy sister dost fear terribly...And-” And then it fell silent, the presence no longer clouding her mind and ears.
“Very well.” She said curtly, enjoying the sound of her voice properly. Perhaps it had been only a short while, but losing the very ability to make audible sounds had been tougher on her than she had thought it could be. Still, she could not afford to waste time with such shallow pleasures- Celestia worried for her, and no doubt there were still nightmares to quell, and fears to put at rest.
It was time to move.
She stretched a foreleg out, moaning at the slight discomfort as a series of clicks ran down it. How long had she been stuck here? Her bones felt as stiff as ancient stone. There was a crackle, a spark, and a loud crack!, followed by a metallic clunking and the shattering of floor tiles. Suddenly, the stiffness slackened, and she could move her leg freely once more.
“What was that?” She wondered aloud, already forcing her other foreleg free. A similar mess of sparks and noise greeted her, and she could hold her hooves before her face. She stared in shock as she turned them over.
Her beautiful royal-blue fur was tattered and torn, ruined, and left in a ghastly patchwork of dark and lighter blues, and mottled shadowy-black sections, which seemed to shift and shimmer before her gaze. Coils of translucent smoke rippled from the new additions to her coat, as if it had been set alight and left to smolder, and yet, it did not hurt. If anything, it felt cold.
Her heart did not beat in panic. It was unnerving how calm and serene she felt- how sharp and clear her mind was, and how cool she was. It was as if she had been hidden away underneath a stifling, hot blanket for a week, and now even the normal air and dim light seemed like some sort of cold sunlight. She could swear her nose was tingling with frost.
She rolled herself upright, cringing as the last few restraints cracked and fell to the floor. One of them rolled to her side as she glanced down- a solid, thick bar of iron, padded with a piece of fabric, and held fast by two large, now-shattered bolts.
There was a mirror in the far wall. It would do. She had to examine herself further- if her hooves were anything to go by, she had been through something rather serious.
The clatter of approaching hooves drew her attention as she walked across the strangely dim room- the shadows had taken on a bizarre blue-purple hue that seemed almost to glow in her sight and light the area.
“What is going on in there?” Came the doctor’s shout, “This is why I don’t allow guests after hours!” He approached the doorway, stomping loudly, “I ought to have the guards throw you lot…” He rounded the corner and came face to face with her.
He seemed awfully small. And the normal awed or slightly worried smile she had come to expect from her subjects had been replaced promptly with a twisted horror. His eyes were wide and terrified, and his whole body jittered and spasmed with a fear so absolute and jarring that she could almost feel it.
“Is there a problem, sir?” She asked delicately. His unnerving reaction chilled her blood. Was it the strange, blotched mess her legs and hooves had become? They were a little odd, but surely he was overreacting a little?
“No!” He shook and stammered, his hooves pacing on the spot, “Prin- Dear...D-dear sweet mother-” A strangled yelp forced its way up his tremoring throat, and he crumpled before her, eyes rolling back in terror as he fainted away.
“What?” She stood, stunned. “By the stars’ grace…” She had but a moment to ponder the strangeness as the tell-tale sound of approaching hooves reached her ears.
A pair of her royal guards tramped up, locked eyes with her, and fell to the floor, heads bowed low. Their shortspears clattered down as they hurriedly removed their helmets and tucked them beneath their forelegs. “M-my queen!” They chorused.
What in Equestria was happening? “Rise, ponies. There is no need for such extreme formality.” She paused as they looked up, their hardy eyes wide and terrified. Had they called her 'Queen?'