//------------------------------//
// Dusk 
// Story: Pony synthesis. 
// by Bronyofcuba 
//------------------------------//

Dusk engulfed the sky as Celestia’s sun retreated. Apple Bloom organized the bedrolls one by one, carefully. Sweetie Belle stored toys away with focus. Scootaloo stared at the sky through the window, her sight wandering off to where her wings could not take her. 

“It’s going to be sleep time soon girls”. Said Apple Bloom, tiredness within her voice. Only the wind whispered a reply. 

It was not long before they all finished their tasks and sat together, above each´s bedroll. They were immobile, their eyes fixed onto… something. They stared at something unusual. Not at each other, neither at the floor or the roof. They stared at something which laid outside of the eye´s reach, something that was barely more visible within their thoughts. They stared at everything, they stared at nothing.

The day had gone by incredibly slow, none were sure why. It was a usual sleepover in the clubhouse, planned casually just the day before, yet something pushed them back and stopped all movement in the world. 

They had never felt anything similar to it, not even from before they got their cutie marks. 

“Could it be a monster?” Pondered Scootaloo. The other two could not think straight.

“What now?” Said Sweetie Belle. “Do you feel like doing something?”

“I don´t know. I barely feel like sleeping,” Replied the pegasus.

Silence followed for some time, then, Bloom spoke.

“Ah´ don´t know, the day´s been really… weird.”

And silence took over again. Minutes went by as their bodies bended down thanks to gravity, and yet, none rose until half an hour passed. It was Apple Bloom who stretched her back and looked at the orange skies through the window, before gazing back at her stoned friends.

“Come on girls! What´s so sad about today? We gotta do something,”

“I don´t know,” replied Sweetie, looking back at Apple Bloom. “It´s just draining me. I think I rather sleep.”

Scootaloo didn’t raise her head, she just replied with a “yeah” and kept quiet. With such words from both of her friend´s, Bloom lost all hope and joined their silence. During the next thirty minutes she tried to puzzle out the issue, but to no avail. It was sleep time.

Stars glimmered throughout the deep blue mantle of Luna´s night as each filly laid in bed, trying to sleep. Their eyes were closed, but their minds did not stop gazing at the memories of that day. As much as they wanted to simply forget and move forward, some unusual desire, a much stronger one, dragged them back to the guilt of having lived through that day. 

However, soon enough tiredness swept their thoughts away and they were greeted once more in Luna´s realm. 



Luna was in her balcony, admiring the sleeping kingdom below her. The moonlight bathed the scenery of the city as a fresh breeze caressed her skin and mane. She closed her eyes and set her fore hooves on the banister, allowing her chest to overlook the landscape as her head reached for the sky. It was only then when she opened her wings wide and let the wind grasp every bit of her skin, accompanied with the silence of the night. She lit her horn, and thus started her task as defender of dreams and rest.

Almost no monsters that night. The princess felt relief as she noticed the environment of millions of lives finally resting. So much had changed since the dark times in which she turned to madness, that she still had not grown used to the newfound peace of the night. 

It was not long before she found the dreams of the three fillies. She was surprised once more, for they feared something much greater than themselves. Yes, Luna had feared the same in the past. Of all the things that could torment a filly´s mind, how could they suffer from such thing? Was that another example of the progress accomplished since her banishment?

It did not matter, she had a job to accomplish, and she knew how to do so. Luna approached the three but did not enter their dreams. Instead, she shaped them from outside, as if clay pottery, one step away from being cooked.