[Canterlot, 5/14/3210, Two Sister’s Reunion]
Dear Princess Luna
I understand you must be busy, and no, this isn’t a friendship report. Although this is about a friend. Her name is Rusty Gear. She has been having night terrors recently and cannot fall asleep. I am worried about her. By the time this reaches you, she might already be asleep via sleeping spell. I would like for you to... check on her. Friend helping friend.
This situation is slightly unique, though. She (might) have childhood trauma, and she was an engineer for King Sombra. Ask Princess Celestia, she would know. I fear the things she has seen or done, but trust me, just like Discord, she has been reformed.
Your faithful student, ← sorry
Signed, Twilight Sparkle.
Ontop of a hill, just outside of Ponyville, she had been searching. Reaching out with her magic, she crept below the floorboards of sleeping ponies, looking for night terrors. She had already calmed a multitude of dreams- but she was looking for something special tonight. Twilight Sparkle, a student of her sister, had been concerned about her friend. She had owed Twilight for all the help she had received.
So, still sitting on the hill, pondering the minds of ponies, she was looking for something intense. Certain dreams had different auras to them. Some dreams were sweet, some dreams lustful. Some terror. But, if Twilight was correct in her assumption of ‘trauma,’ She was looking for a special type of aura. Something only produced by the deepest, darkest fears. A nightmare produced by memories of days gone by.
Suddenly, the dream radiated. She could feel it through her magic. The signature. It seemed to be a memory-dream. A suppressed memory turned into a haunting nightmare. Usually only fillies and colts have these signatures. But sometimes ponies involved in horrible accidents, gone to war, or simple witnesses can radiate the same energy. Like a form of PTSD.
Luna reached out. The aura coming from the Golden Oaks Library. She wrapped her magic around the aura. It was powerful, trying to fight back. But the struggles were no match for her. Slowly, she pierced the dream, materializing inside the world.
While crossing the conscious boundary, she had to keep reminding herself. Remember, Twilight said she was reformed. What happened was in the past.
Her hooves planted firmly into the gravel roads. She stood on the outskirts of The Crystal Empire… yet it was different than she remembered. The once blue skies were replaced with a pitiful gray. The shining blue castle was nothing more than black bricks. The area erupted a feeling of depression in her soul. This had to be before Twilight had used the Crystal Heart. This was when King Sombra was ruling.
The entire area seemed very militaristic, something The Crystal Empire was good at. The half-dome houses reminded her of compact housing. That, and Military Bunkers for incoming missiles. This was a memory, not something produced by her mind. Whatever they were there for, they existed at one point.
She heard hooves around the corner. Quickly, Luna disguised herself as a dark-blue unicorn stallion with the traditional silver King Sombra armor. She slinked behind an alley between two large bunkers, and watched two more earth-pony stallions march by.
“So- Heard there was gonna be a demo today?”
“Yeah. I’m starting to get depressed watching ponies-”
“Shush! You don’t know who could be listening. Sadness is weakness.”And without another word, the kept trotting. Luna silently stepped around the corner after making sure the cost was clear, and started following the two stallions, slightly changing her appearance to a more diluted dark blue to match the guards in front of her.
The small winding paths of the bunkers soon opened into a small court-yard. The grass had long since died, and due to the temperature, Luna wouldn’t be surprised if it was closer to Spring than Hearths-warming. Large chain-link fences enclosed the small area, with only a few entrances leading to more endlessly winding paths.
A gray brick wall was positioned in the center of the field, away from a line of guards, all wearing the silver uniform who were positioned twenty to twenty-five feet away. However, one pony stood out against the others. Unlike the wall of Stallions, it was a Mare. Her tan coat and ginger mane radiated a warming attitude, but the face she wore was anything but sane. Her ghastly smile unnerved Luna slightly, but far from terrify.
“There you two are! We’d been waiting for you. Now, come line up before I have you discharged, you bucking-” She stopped. Her high feminine voice was noticeably tuned down, probably on purpose to make herself more intimidating. The reason why she stopped was soon identified by Luna. “And whose this?” She said, pointing a hoof at Luna. Quickly, Luna made up a name.
“My name? Uhm-”
“That doesn’t matter.” She dismissively waves, her blue eyes still piercing her soul. “What matters is that you are here. Wanted to watch, you sick, sick stallion?” She said. Luna had temporarily forgotten she was disguised as a stallion. “Be my guest! You’ll come useful in a moment. Stay separated from the others, I can’t go about loosing you.” She said, winking at Luna.
While she was talking, Luna observed her surroundings. Which one of these ponies was the one causing the nightmare? Who was Rusty Gear? For some reason, none of the stallions radiated energy. Actually, they were all products of the memory.
“Bring him in!” She yelled, suddenly startling the Princess. From one of the entrances, an earth-pony with an off-white coat walked forward, flanked by two guards. He was looking down at the ground, absolutely terrified, dropping tears. Maybe this was Rusty Gear? But it was a stallion. Maybe he could identify… No. He didn’t radiate any energy. Once again, another product of the memory.
“Gentle colts, meet Mr. Grub!” She said, waving her hoof as the fatigued and starving pony walked towards the wall, being directed by the two guards. “Mr. Grub, care to explain why you’re here?”
Nothing but silence filled the dreadfully dull air as the pony kept his eyes towards the ground.
“No? Meh, death wishes and all. I guess it’s your right to keep silent.” She said, turning away and facing the line of stallions once more. “Mr. Grub here has been caught stealing bread- I know, hold your breath- He claimed he did it for his family. After his family… ‘disappeared,’ he willingly submitted himself for execution.”
Once again, Luna had to remind herself that what happened in this memory had already happened in real life. Time had moved forwards without him.
“Luckily, I have the urge to test a new long-barrel design I’ve been working on. There's always a chance something will misfire, so I’ll have somepony else do it.” The tan pony said. Luna was still searching for an energy signature. Whoever was holding this dream, there was a severe case of dissociation, which makes sense. They don’t want to relive horrible memories. But Luna had still never seen something so severe before.
“Which is why I have you out.” She turned to face Luna. “Since you wanted to watch, you get to participate. Any objections?” Luna merely stood stone-faced, looking at the pony. “Cold. I like it.” She said, licking her lips seductively. Luna had to fight against shivering down her spine.
“Alright- come stand here. You have to tuck this under your arm-pit, like this. Crank your hoof back to grab the trigger. Okay.” She explained, showing her how to use the long bronze weapon. “This is where the gunpowder goes, here is the bullet. Yes, we’re using projectiles. Magic is too unreliable. I don’t mean to offend you, mister horn.”
Suddenly, Luna caught it. The slightest whiff in the air. For a moment, she felt the energy radiate off her horn. Rusty had to be close.
“Alright- now you just-”
click
tick
“There! Should be ready to fire.” She said, stepping back. Luna had to gauge more information. Wherever this pony was, she needed her help. She looked at the rifle, accidentally making a face. There it was again. The magic scent. She higher she raised the rifle, the stronger the scent became. Where was it coming from? It was too faint to gauge the direction.
The poor off-white earth pony was in her sights. The long sleek barrel doing nothing but radiating pure evil. The pony looked shocked, his face contorted into nothing but pure sadness and fear. His coat was stained under where he was crying. Even Discord wasn’t this evil. Maybe Mr. Grub was Rusty? Who else?
“Are you… gonna fire?” The scent once again gained in strength. She could feel what it was made from. Regret. She could feel regret. Why would Mr. Grub feel regret? It couldn’t be him.
Wait.
Luna slowly turned her heat to face the tan mare. She had never gotten a name. Her eyes darted towards the Cutie mark on her flank. A pair of Rusty Gears. This mare was the one currently dreaming.
“Hello, Huston to Unicorn, anypony in there?” No. This couldn’t be the mare dreaming. She seemed so evil. But the letter did mention she was an engineer. And she was testing a new rifle.
“Listen pal, if you don’t bucking fire that weapon already, I’ll have your sorry ass on the wall instead.” The scent of Regret grew even stronger. It had to be coming from her. She was sorry. “Just fire the damn weapon!” Now, time for step two. Calming the nightmare. Luna dropped the weapon, and turned to look at the fuming pony. If Twilight trusted her, so can she.
“I have only one question.” The pony looked infuriated. She was standing on the tips of her hooves to look into her eyes.
“And what would that be, you absolute failure of a guard?” Luna waited, pausing for the appropriate amount of time, glaring down at the little pony.
“Are you okay?”
...
She could see the mind working of the pony. She dropped back onto her hooves. For a moment, she could swear she became thinner, more ghastly. But it hadn’t worked. She was merley thrown off her grind for a moment. She regained her composure a second later.
“Of course I am! Who do you think you are?” She screamed, dropping the deep voice and returning to her natural higher-pitched tone.
“No, Rusty. Are you okay?” Once again, the pony noticeably looked thinner, and older. Come on. She was so close. Luna had experience dealing with trauma like this, and could tell the poor pony was almost breaking.
“W-who are you?” She said, this time retaining the lost weight. She did look sick. Luna wondered for a moment if this was her physical appearance, or only her true mental state.
“It’s me. Princess Luna-” She dropped the disguise. “-Guardian of the night. I’ve come here to rescue you from this nightmare.”
Bingo. She had cracked her. But something less than predictable happened.
The world fell away, as expected, but instead of being left with Rusty, she was changing. For a moment, she let out a screech. Something of mere pain. Then, she collapsed on the invisible ground. In a matter of moments, she looked 30-40 pounds lighter. She had also lost her right-hoof, and her back legs atrophied.
If Luna was not used to these sights, she might have vomited at the sudden change. The pony on the ground was clasping her ears closed with her only remaining hoof. This was more than mental state, this had to be her physical appearance. Or, at least what Rusty thought herself looked like.
Luna approached the pony, shivering on the ground. Was she a monster? She looked like a small filly, cowering form the overhead beast. With one motion, Luna picked up the pony, cradling her life a filly. She sat down with her, using her wings as a blanket. The pony was crying.
They must have sat there half the night. Luna had broken other memory-dreams before, but this one was violent. She must have truly regretted her actions for something so blatantly evil. Eventually, the crying calmed down, and devolved into slight sniffling of the nose.
“Better?” Luna asked the pony.
“Better.” She responded. For a pony who was in her face a moment ago, she turned immediately docile, trying to avoid eye-contact as much as possible.
“Tell me- do you regret your actions?” Luna asked in a firm, yet soothing voice, something she had learned over many, many years.
The earth-pony nodded her head, still avoiding eye-contact. This was a broken pony. Twilight was right. This entire scenario had childhood trauma written all over it. She might’ve been slightly psychotic- but she was alone then. Now, she had friends to help her through it. Luna meekly smiled at the pony.
“I heard you have trouble falling asleep. Is this why?” Luna asked in the same voice. The earth-pony mumbled something incoherent. “Come again?”
“Y-yes.” She said.
“Mmm. Do you have parents?”
“No.”
“Siblings?”
“N-no.”
“Any living family.”
“N-not that i-i’m aware of.” The tears started flowing through her eyes again. But Luna had to keep pressing.
“Where did you grow up, then?” Suddenly, at the end of her sentence, the ground shifted yet again. She had suddenly been displaced. The area was all-too familiar, though. Obviously, they were on the streets of Manehattan. The brick roads screamed industrial, and the glowing orange buildings loomed overhead. However, the two ponies weren’t looking towards the pretty lights or the large buildings. They were pointed directly into an alley. Luna could feel herself vanish from peering eyes. This was a different type of dream-memory. Not something intractable. And it was old.
From inside the alley, a small filly popped her head out. Obviously, it was Rusty. She was looking side-to-side, shivering. Although Luna couldn’t feel it, the temperature had to be cold.
Quickly, the little filly descend back into the alley, grabbing a newspaper from a nearby trashcan. Perhaps as a blanket?
Luna looked back down at the modern Rusty, only to realize she was even lighter than before. This time, she had devolved not into a broken mare, but rather looked the same as the Filly she had just seen. She was short and stubby, not out of place for a Filly, and she had regrown her right arm. Luna took pity on the soul. Although royalty had worked for a long time in order to reduce poverty and homelessness, it was still a problem in the big cities.
“This is where you grew up?” Luna asked.
“Mhm.” Even her voice sounded younger. This mare had gone without a childhood her entire life. Maybe this experience was somewhat relieving for the filly, being cradled by a mother-figure. “Although, everything is kinda blurry.”
“Blurry? How?”
“Like, I forget a lot of things.” She said. “I don’t even remember how I got this.” She pointed to her flank. That was not a good sign. If she couldn’t remember her Cutie mark, then she must be severely mentally damaged.
“You don’t remember your Cutie mark?” Luna asked. The ground tried shifting for a moment, going into a white haze. Like she was trying to land on a specific memory, but just couldn’t realize it. The ground shifted back into the alleys of Manehattan.
“Nope.” She said.
“Well, from this trip I can deduce a few things.”
“What would that be?”
“You need to see a therapist.”
“Oh.”
“That, and listen to me.” Luna loosened her grip on the filly, looking into her blue eyes. “Don’t ever be afraid to fall asleep again. I can promise you, I will always be there to protect you. You need my help, and a friend of Twilight is a friend of mine. Got it?”
The filly nodded.
“Good. Now, let’s set you up a slightly happier dream, alright?”