//------------------------------//
// chapter nine: Princess Luna's school of Dreams 
// Story: How to train a Princess 
// by Foal Star 
//------------------------------//

Gleaming Shield blinked as she realized that the garden she was standing in had disappeared, and now she was standing in what appeared was a large circular room. The room in question was rather large; it was like a wizard's study with stormy weather blowing outside sounding like a rather powerful storm. Rain and wind were blowing against the window outside. The white-coated mare looked over and saw that the room was somewhat cluttered with books and scrolls scattered across the room. There was a hearth with a fire crackling within and giving the entire room a warm feeling as she looked around, trying to get used to her surroundings. She then turned to see princess Luna sitting across from her. This version of Luna looked like she was rather wise with her eyes glowing white with power wearing a cloak, and she had a hot cup of steaming tea in her hooves. She gave Gleaming a glare as she greeted her. "Welcome, Gleaming Shield; please sit and have a cup of tea."

The white-coated mare eyed her but continued to the table and sat across from her and then turned towards the princess of the night. Gleaming Shield sat down, took a small cup of tea, and started drink from it quite daintily, and then squeaked as she was somewhat surprised to see herself subconsciously doing what Celestia taught her. She continued to drink her tea, enjoying the ambiance around her with the crackling fireplace and the stormy weather outside. This was all starting to feel like an odd dream.

After what felt like a good few minute, Luna spoke up. "Seems as if my sister has you past her test."

"Yeah...though I guess my drama wasn't much help." Gleaming grumbled angrily into her cup, hoping her fight with Cadance didn't count against her.

Luna shook her head and explained. "On the contrary, that drama you and princess Cadance had helped Celestia come to her decision to pass you."

Gleaming's eyes lit up as she couldn't believe what she was hearing and shouted, "seriously!? Is that true?"

Luna looked over at the princess in training. "Yes, she was very pleased with how you handled yourself as you embraced who you really are."

The white-coated mare was stunned as she poured herself another cup of tea and asked. "What does that mean?"

The princess of the night continued to explain. "This was, in fact, a trap of sorts; it was meant for Twilight as this book was created by a Lauren Faust in another timeline. She wanted to infect other alicorn princesses with her definitive version of them in other timelines. However, you took it before Twilight read it, and then she set her sights on you."

"Right…" Gleaming replied, still not fully accepting what Luna was saying.

The princess of the night sipped her tea and continued to explain. "So, we had to redirect our plans and create a new alicorn princess through Shining Armor."

The mare gulped as the words Princess Cadance said about her not being Shining Armor came to her mind once again and she stammered. "Wait...what do you mean by that!?"

"Let me explain...now, yes, your Gleaming Shield and Shining Armor still exists within you, but you're in control of his body right now as it was intended by Lauren Faust."

The white coated princess alicorn looked down, looking rather horrified as she whispered, "wait...so... I'm my own pony; I'm not Shining Armor…."

Luna took a sip of her tea as she continued to explain. "Yes, Lauren Faust placed me as the last test in hopes that you would've been brainwashed into believing your Gleaming Shield by now. But unlike her, I believe in free will, and I'm glad that you still believe yourself to be Shining Armor. You should have the choice to decide whether you wish to stay as you are, or give Shining Armor his body back."

Gleaming sat there shivering taking all of this new information in. It started to make sense in her mind seeing her feelings with Sunset and her love for some of the more feminine activities she spent doing throughout her time in the academy. She continued to sip her tea until she finished the cup then stammered. "But...if I give Shining his body...would that mean…"

The princess of the night bowed her head as she finished. "Yes, you will cease to exist; in essence, you'll be dead." 

Princess Gleaming gulped as she began to sweat bullets and stammered. "W..wait...if I give this body back to Shining, I have to die!?"

Luna placed her drink down as she took a potion flask and poured a thick liquid inside a goblet. "That's up to you, there are three challenges in a dream I'll send to you, and through those dreams, you must decide on your own what you want."

"Right, so whatever I do in these dreams will determine my decision to either keep this body or give it back to Shining..." The white coated alicorn whispered under her breath.

Luna then presented her the goblet, and the white-coated mare looked down into it to see it full of purple nectar. She bent over and gave the liquid a good whiff. It smelt rather good that smelt like a cool night breeze with a mix of lavender. Luna sat back and waited patiently for Gleaming to stop before preceding. "When you're ready, drink this."

Gleaming paused, not knowing what she was going to do…or willing to do…but maybe she'll come to that decision after the test. So she did as Luna instructed and drank the sweet liquid; she could already feel sleep come over her as her eyelids grew heavy. The princess of the night drifted the white-coated mare her magic and drifted her to the bed like a mother tucking her foal into bed. She then placed the covers over her and the princess of the night watched her fall into a deep sleep.





Gleaming woke up the next morning and rubbed her eyes as she tried to figure out where she was. The mare slowly tried to gauge where she was and looked that she must be in some little filly's room. The walls had flowers and rainbows printed on them, a toy chest was placed in the back, and there were plush animals all over on her bed and all over the room. The mare was somewhat confused as she got out of the bed, then she realized that she must've shrunk in size. Gleaming squeaked as she looked over herself and saw she was the size of a school foal and cried out. "What the buck happened to me!"

Her shouting didn't do anything and only got a thunderclap in response, making the filly squeak out. She scurried under her blankets, shaking all over. Gleaming Shield waited there for a while and then decided to slowly got up and peeked out of her sheets and looked around her room but saw nothing with only the pitter-pat of the rain outside hitting her window. The filly then got out from the bed and slowly came to a mirror where she got to see herself. She was shrunk to a school filly and her scruffy mane and tail. She was even surprised to see her cutie mark was gone!

The filly looked around her rump, seeing she was a blank flank…though technically, that cutie mark was never hers.

"Ok, this is clearly a dream…somehow this is connected to my first challenge." Gleaming grumbled to herself; she then decided to run down the halls to find out what she had to do to overcome this challenge. As she ran down the hall, the filly started to realize that this house was much more prominent, but that was due to her shrunken size.  It didn't take her long to see that this place was Shining Armor's old family home, and then she saw the colt in question. He was the same age as her and a scruffy blue mane; he had a board game in the middle of the room. The stallion looked up and waved a hoof. "It's about time you came by. I've been waiting for you."

Gleaming blinked upon seeing the colt and despite never seeing him before she shouted, "Shining Armor!"

The alicorn filly got rather excited as she ran across the room and hugged the colt to her chest held each other in their embrace.

Gleaming looked up, and rubbing the tears from her eyes, she asked, "so you're in my subconscious, right?" 

"Yeah...been here for a while...glad we finally got to finally meet," Shining added as he sat across from the filly.

The alicorn filly sat down across the board game; it looked relatively simple, with the main goal is to get their pawns across colored tiles. She took a piece and placed it at the beginning of the board. The two then took turns spinning a plastic wheel with the arrow landing on a color, and they moved their pieces as indicated to the nearest colored tile. The two took turns not really talking with the rain outside pounding away. Gleaming felt that winning this game might be the challenge…though it was rather simplistic and there were a lot of tiles. The filly finally broke the silence as she had to ask. "So...um, why are we school foals?" 

"Guess the dream sees us as siblings living in the same body." the white-coated colt replied back as he took his move spinning the wheel and placing his piece on a blue square.

The filly did the same and smirked, seeing her piece was now ahead. However, the smirk faded as she slowly came to the realization he probably saw everything she did while in his body and replied. "Right, so...you saw everything I did?"

The colt took his turn and grumbled, "Yeah, you did alright in my body except for cheating on my wife."

"Right...sorry about all of that…." Gleaming stammered as she quickly played her next turn. She was feeling somewhat embarrassed about Shining seeing her kiss Sunset Shimmer.

The colt, however, wasn't super angry as he spun the wheel and moved his piece. "Hey, it's not like you have any obligation. I'm married to Cadance, not you."

The young filly was sort of surprised at this reply and whispered, "so you're not mad at me?"

"Yeah, I would be lying if seeing you break Cady's heart didn't piss me off. But...I understand you have your own feelings and desires." Shining added as he was now busy drawing something in crayon.

"Right, though...I thought I was you until only a few moments ago." Gleaming mumbled, still feeling somewhat guilty. She was drawing her own picture…she paused, realizing they were playing a board game moments ago. Now she was drawing a picture she turned to see she was drawing a heartbroken in half in pink crayon.

Shining Armor was busy drawing a picture of himself with a pink alicorn. "Yeah, I know... I've been watching you the entire time."

The princess alicorn took a blank piece of paper and started drawing something else as she lowered her gaze. She then gave a sigh and whispered, "right...well...I think that I'm ok with you retaking your body."

The colt seemed to give the idea some thought before he looked up and replied, "I knew you would say that...but honestly then I'll just end up being a stallion in a mare's body...there has to be another way where you don't have to end up disappearing, and I get my original body back."

The filly started to feel tears coming down her cheeks. "You heard Luna, this was all a trap...I don't think there is a way to get you to be a stallion again….at least not without me dying."

Shining shook his head and replied back quite adamantly. "I don't believe that there's always a way out of any situation, and I think that we can, in fact, fix this whole scenario with both of us getting what we want. So I refuse to take my body back."

"Why!? Are you crazy!" Gleaming cried out; she realized that the two were now outside with the storm outside with rain slamming over them, thunder booming, and lightning flashing.

Shining took her by the hoof, and they ran across a field with the rain pouring down on them as they headed to a tent. The colt and filly were now standing outside the flap. The colt placed a hoof over her. "There's only room for one, and you have already proven to be a good filly, you could've cheated during the board game, but you didn't. I trust you to make the right decision if you truly don't want to go…then I won't go either."

The alicorn was getting somewhat agitated with this colt's logic and growled, "you're not really giving me a choice, and I didn't even know that the board game was the challenge heck, we didn't even finish it!"

"Of course not; when I changed the dream to us drawing, I wanted to see how you really feel. You feel guilty for taking over my body, but you never had a choice…you shouldn't have to feel guilty for just existing." Shining replied, placing a hoof on the filly's shoulder.

Gleaming's eyes went wide as the storm then suddenly began to dissipate, and the pounding rain was now a light trickle. "Ri…right, no, your right…I shouldn't feel bad for existing."

She wiped the tears and rain from her eyes then turned to the tent. "I guess this is the way to the next dream…"

"Yeah…I don't know what's on the other side…but I can feel that whatever it is. It's not something to take lightly." Shining whispered, seeming to look somewhat scared.

Gleaming, however, turned to the tent, and she seemed determined to go through. "Well! When we see each other again, I hope we each have our own bodies."

The young unicorn colt came over and stuck a hoof out as he replied, "Yeah, me too…good luck!"

The filly shook his hoof and ran off towards the tent, and when she went through, she fell down a dark void screaming as she fell into a pitch-black pit.





Gleaming groaned as she rubbed a hoof over her forehead; the filly looked around to gauge her surroundings. She was sitting in the Canterlot palace gardens. She saw that the rain was finally stopping with only a few drops falling down from an overcast in the sky above. But from how she was sitting on a booster seat and that everything around her seemed more extensive than usual meant she was still a school filly.  She then looked across the table. Sitting across from her was another version of herself; this mare was wearing gold armor, her tail and mane were braided, her wings had gold tips forged over them, and her helm had a colossal gold spike over her horn. In front of the two was a chessboard with a teacup on both sides and a teapot in the middle. This alicorn princess looked rather stern as she snapped. "So, you were just going to give Shining Armor your body without a fight?"

"Yeah, it's not our body. We have no say in this." Gleaming snapped back and blinked, wondering why she was saying "our" or "we."

The militaristic alicorn princess unfurled her wings and proclaimed, "well then, your weakness is something I can't allow that! I'm also tired of your girly attitude! It's time I take over!"

Gleaming was starting to feel scared as she eyed the strange version of her and asked, "who are you exactly?"

"I am Glory Shield! And you and Shining Armor both are a disgrace to this body! You both lack the ambition to control Equestria and the crystal empire to ensure their protection!"

Gleaming eyed her and realized this must be some evil version of her. "Right...I don't think so…"

Glory threw her hooves over her chest and responded rather smugly. "You don't really have a choice in this, you have to beat me in a game of chess to keep this body, and I'm a tactical genius."

"Don't think just because I'm in this filly body that I don't know how to play chess." The filly growled as she took the first turn seeing her pieces were white.

They continued on with the chess game with only the sounds of light rain hitting the board and the grass around them. Glory Shield smirked as she had one of her knights taking Gleaming's queen and laughed, "your feeble attempts to stop me are all in vain! Just give up; your weakness will only get the ponies you love killed."

The filly rolled her eyes as she deliberately had the queen put in a position to be taken. This version of her wasn't a tactical genius; she was just pretending to be smart. Seeing that she's practically won the game, Gleaming decided to tease this mare and replied, "please, you sound more stupid as we go on; both Shining and I want to protect others, not enforce our will over them. You're clearly just an overconfident oaf who wouldn't be able to preserve any pony.

Glory was taken aback and scoffed, "we have a tactical mind and know more about politics and how to run the kingdoms more so than the other princesses. We could keep every pony safe and ensure their security; we should dominate, and you sit around acting like a princess, and Shining acts like a lapdog to his wife. You're both insults to this body, and I should be the one in control."

"Not in this lifetime!" Gleaming roared and took her rook and had it slide across the board to checkmate the king who was trapped. Glory gaped as she was focused on getting Gleaming's queen; she left her king exposed. As for the little filly, she stood upon the table and pointed a hoof at the alicorn and snapped, "I will not let you take over this body! Ever! If you ever even come close, I'll have Shining retake this body, and we'll both die together!"

Glory glared at the filly but could do nothing as she sat back and growled. "You'll regret this decision, one day and when that day comes, I won't be there to save you."

The rain finally ceased as the grey clouds began to disappear, and Gleaming chuckled, "I won't need you because I'll have Shining to help me."





The dream dissipated as she woke up once again; she was now on a beach with the ground below her shifting sand, and she saw the waves of the ocean crash on the shore. Gleaming was somewhat surprised to see all of this around her, and as she got up on all fours, she saw her stubby short self, and she turned to see Sunset Shimmer sitting at a table. She was an adult and looking rather beautiful with the setting sun behind her casting an orange glow over her. Gleaming ran across the sand as Sunset turned towards her with a smirk. "Hey Gleaming, glad to see you made it through the last two tests."

"Right, they weren't really tests, I would never give my body to my crazy self," Gleaming Shield proclaimed rather proudly; she then paused before she continued, "as with Shining…well…I made a deal with him that I have to find a way to get him his body back…and find a body for myself."

Sunset took a pack of playing cards and asked, "Well, that's quite the gamble Shining placed on your decision…how do you think you'll find a body for yourself? And how will you convince this Lauren Faust to give this body back to Shining Armor?"

The mare dealt the cards out, and Gleaming sighed, shaking her head. "I have no idea; all I know is that I have to try."

Despite being in this body from Shining Armor's memories of playing cards with his fellow soldiers. She knew how to play poker; the two both had a stack of plastic chips as well, and they played the game for what felt like hours. Gleaming paused as she didn't even know what they were betting? At this realization, she asked, "so...what am I doing here?"

"Were playing a game and were going to see whether or not you want to marry me?" Sunset replied quite angrily.

"Of course, I want to marry you! I love you!" Gleaming cried out squealing in her high pitched voice. 

"Then why would you so eagerly let Shining take his body back?" Sunset snapped, throwing her hand down as did the little filly; she saw that Sunset's hand was the better as she took the pot. Gleaming then gave a small sigh and looked down at the sand below her and whispered meekly, "I have a right to exist; I get that, but it wouldn't be fair to steal Shining Armor's body."

Sunset dealt out the cards once again and asked. "You were bluffing, right? You're not going to just give up this body to Shining? You just said that to keep him at ease so he wouldn't take it back."

"Of course, I meant it! He was born in this body and lived a life, I only existed for a few weeks. How would it be fair that I steal this from him!" Gleaming cried out loud. 

Sunset then threw all her chips in the middle and gestured. "Alright, you have to call."

The little filly sent her entire pile of chips into the middle as well; she then looked at her hand; it was a royal flush! But how!? She looked over at Sunset Shimmer, who held out her hand. "Got a pair of threes, and I know you have a royal flush. But there's a catch you win the game, you get me, and you keep this body. If you forfeit the game, then you have to live with the consequences."

Gleaming got somewhat nervous and whispered, "W...what do you mean?"

"You failed! You were supposed to take this body and become who you were meant to be, but you're still a little blank flank! That means you still think this body belongs to Shining! Do you think the princesses outside will let you just leave? I don't know what they'll do to you, but you don't have a choice: throw down your hand and take this body by force and destroy Shining Armor.

Gleaming looked back down at her hand and gulped, feeling nervous as she shook all over, unsure of what she should do…