//------------------------------//
// Chapter 31 
// Story: Eclipse 
// by Hiver 
//------------------------------//

The dream realm shimmered around me and Luna eyed me suspiciously, "What are you up to?"

"You'll see," I said with a smile while strongly hoping this would work. I had never actually tried this before. 

I thought it up and I thought it would work, but I never actually tested it.

With that, I reached into the dream realm and retrieved the dream sphere. It floated it not-space before us. A smooth shimmering mirrored ball.

Luna looked at it a bit in surprise, "What's this?" she asked, "I never seen anything like it."

"This," I said, "Is... actually, I just call it Sanctuary. Think of it as a disembodied dream. A dream nopony is dreaming."

Luna looked at me dubiously, "A dream nopony is dreaming?"

I nodded, "Actually, in a way it dreams itself."

That raised an eyebrow, "Where did you find this?"

"I made it," I said with a smile, "It was blank when I created it, but... follow me," I said and walked up, touching my horn to it and stepping through into the dark forest, the two moons shining in the sky above.

Luna appeared a moment later, looking around before her eyes went wide and she turned to me, "It does not feel like a dream! It feels..."

"Real," I agreed, "I made it as realistic as possible," I said and started to walk slowly through the dew-covered grass.

I felt Luna testing her dream magic, pulling at the fabric of the dream and it responded, a cloak of dark fabric settling across her back.

"You'll find it harder the more you try to change," I warned her, "Conjuring items as such can be done easily enough if they are small, but I have enforced rules to make it feel as real as possible. Which part of which is limiting what even dream magic users can do."

Luna looked around with wide eyes, "Page, this is... I never even..."

"Page? Luna?" a voice asked from among the trees a second before a light joined it, soon followed by the alicorns whose horn was casting the light spell, "Where are we?"

Luna spun around, staring at her in shock before she looked at me, "That's impossible!"

"No," I said with a smile, "But it did take quite a bit of dream magic crafting to do. Thinking of the word 'sanctuary' while falling asleep, redirect you here instead of your normal dreams. It's not dream magic for the sleeper as such, but feels real and will allow Celestia, Sunset and Twilight to visit here safely."

Luna looked speechless as Celestia joined us. Celestia looked around, "I heard some of that," she said, "You made a shared dream you can choose to join when falling asleep?"

"Yes," I agreed with a smile, "Crafted from scratch."

"Page, this is impossible," Luna said quietly, "I never seen anything like this before."

"Well, I am an author. We do like worldbuilding."

Yep, definitely sisters. Always found it funny how their eyerolls looked identical.

"Why is it dark?" Celestia asked, "We fell asleep during the day."

I nodded, "Exactly. Day and night are opposite here compared to in reality. So you can sleep back in your bed and then spend a day exploring the forest or mountains or... wherever you like."

Luna looked around a bit uncertainly, "I can't feel the... why are there two moons!?"

"Because one moon is cool, two moons are cooler."

"Page!"

I grinned at her, "Relax. The moons and sun do not need alicorn intervention here, they just do their thing."

"...What more is in here?" Celestia asked curiously as a glowing butterfly fluttered past.

I smiled, "Nothing dangerous. No pony eating predators, no villages, no castles or towns. No roads. Just nature and landscapes. Other than alicorn specific things, magic, wings, everything like that should work exactly like in reality."

"What of the climate?" Celestia wondered as she looked around.

"There is summer and winter and such," I admitted, "And how rough it is, depends on where you are. In this specific valley, both are fairly mild. Up on the mountains you get tons of snow."

Luna still looked a bit stunned, lowering her head and nibbled at the tall green grass. Then she raised her head and smiled at me, "Page, I'm not sure what to say. I had no idea this was even possible. It appears you may have surpassed me in some parts of dream magic."

"Some very narrow parts," I said, "I bet you could do this as well now when you know it can be done. It took years and it’s not even done yet."

"Why did you make this?" Celestia asked after also sampling the grass, "A place for us all to meet?"

"...If that was all, I would just have made one room," I said before I shrugged, "Actually, I made it a place for us all to get away, I got the idea from that dream we all shared where I met your parents. I just wanted you two to get a place where you could get away from being Princesses or Lords, Ladies or Prince or what have you. If you look, you'll see it didn't even allow you to bring your normal regalia into it. I wanted this to be a place where you could be just ponies. Most plants are edible, no dangerous predators, no wars or diplomacy."

Luna walked up next to me, "What of Nightmares?" she asked seriously.

I nodded, "I spent a lot of time thinking about that," I admitted, "And that's part of why the rules of this place are so strict. If they are able to enter, which would be difficult in the first place, they would be very limited. They'd have to pick one form, no larger or stronger than a pony and stick to it. Playing by the same rules as we are. They should actually be less of a danger in here than in a normal dream."

Celestia smiled as she laid down, looking at the moons in the sky, "An entire world to explore. Can you imagine it, Luna?"

"I'm not sure I can," she admitted, looking up towards the unfamiliar stars, "This is a lot to take in right now."

I settled down in the cool soft grass next to Celestia. In here, she didn't feel as sun warm as in reality, only like a normal pony, but it was still very nice, "I can tell you exactly how I did it if you like."

"Later," Celestia said and noses at my ear, "Sister, let's just enjoy the moment for now."

Luna sank down on the soft grass by Celestia's other side and nibbled some more at the grass before her, "´...The grass is rather enjoyable," she admitted as she chewed.

"Why make bad tasting grass?"

"Do we need to eat here?" Celestia asked.

I shrugged, "Well, not needed as such, but if you don't you get hungry. Same with drinking. More enjoyable to eat if you're hungry after all."

Celestia looked amused, "What of things like tea and coffee?"

I smirked, "There is a bush for both. Well, leaves and beans. Still need drying and roasting and such. Don't want to make it too easy."

Luna looked at me in surprise, "Things we do stay behind?"

"Yep. If you build a rain shelter, it stays there until the materials decay or somepony or something removes it. Actually, same for you. If you cut your mane here, it remains like that each time you return until it grows back at a natural rate."

Luna shook her head in amazement.