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// Cruelty of Kindness 
// Story: Dark Terrors 
// by Dragon Angel Knight 
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Cruelty of Kindness


Luna felt tired tonight. It wasn't unusual for her to feel this way when first waking to perform her duties. The always ended up being the last vestiges of sleep trying to keep hold of her mind before consciousness fully asserted itself. This, however, was as if something had left a haze on her mind. Luna was barely able to keep herself attentive enough to deal with her Night Court.

At some point, her mind finally registered that there were no more petitioners. She bade her guard to escort her to her chambers, where she would dream-walk. After arriving, she asked the guard to stay in the room with her this time, before laying herself on her bed and casting the spell, the world of dreams embracing her like a lover thought long passed.

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Luna was much more aware of her surroundings in this dream-walk for some reason. It was odd, simply because details, the Void before actually entering a dream especially, just were not as clear as one could get in the waking world when the mind was it's most active. Void, however, may not have been the best choice of name for the aether that comprised dream-stuff. The Void was, more or less, an almost literal shadow of the waking world. The places were in the same locations as the waking world, with the difference that every consciousness was represented by a light, often the same color as the coat of the pony the light belonged to. Said lights grew lighter or darker, depending on the dream being evoked by the dreamers subconscious mind. 

The darkest ones were always a top priority for Luna, as they had the ability to shock a pony so severely that they ended up comatose or worse... Though, thankfully, those were few and far between, mostly due to the more decadent lifestyle ponies of this age had. Honestly the worst Luna had encountered lately was the dream of young Spike, which in and of itself was about on par with most other dragons raised by ponies Luna had encountered before her banishment. 

With one last thought on how life had drastically improved in the time after Nightmare Moon, Luna came upon the only nightmare in sight. It was a small cottage outside the Everfree Forest, which the blue alicorn immediately thought as either brave or incredibly foolish.
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Entering the dream, the constraints on Luna's ability asserted themselves, preventing her from interfering... for the moment.
Watching intently, Luna saw the Elements of Laughter and Generocity being shouted at by Fluttershy, of all ponies, which surprised her greatly since the demure pony had always seemed the shy, quiet type.

"NOPONY PUSHES NEW FLUTTERSHY AROUND. NOPONY!!!!" the yellow pegasus bellowed at the top of her lungs. Luna couldn't hear the reactions of Rarity or Pinkie Pie, but, judging from their hung heads and the way they carried themselves, they were clearly upset.

Just when Luna was going to try and move to confront Fluttershy, the scene changed to the garden at the castle Luna called home. Animals were stampeding to get away from the butter colored mare, who had a feral, almost monstrous look to her countenance. 
"YOU'RE GOING TO LOVE ME!!!!" came the bellow from the usually demure Fluttershy, which sent the animals scurrying through out the hall they had broken into by shattering one of the windows. 

Fluttershy, appearing to finally come to her senses, backed away and broke down crying. Luna felt her restrictions lift and she went forward and embraced Kindness Incarnate, who let out an eep. Fluttershy, in an act she wouldn't have normally done, suddenly returned Luna's embrace, her sobs doubling in intensity for a while.

Before too long, however, the sobs became little more than sniffles. Luna felt that they could talk about what had happened in the memories that had played out before them.

"I... I have a bit of an anger problem..." Fluttershy said hesitantly in reply to Luna's comment that this was out of character for her, "I'm afraid it'll come up again..."

Luna smiled kindly and said, "I believe your problem stems from how you internalize everything. This isn't healthy."

"I-I know, Princess," Fluttershy said softly, "I just d-don't know what to do..."

"Talk to some one about it," Luna said softly, but firmly, "Trying to bottle all of this up is just going to make it worse than it initially was to begin with..."

"B-but I'm afraid of hurting someponies feelings and bothering them," Fluttershy replied with a hearty sniffle.

"Your friends will understand, Fluttershy," Luna said, "Talk to one of them."

"Y-yes, Princess..." Fluttershy said, hiding behind her mane.

Luna gave a sigh and said, "Such is the cruelty of kindness... Never wanting to trouble others with problems for fear of driving them away... even though help is needed. I have felt this sting before, dear Fluttershy..."

"R-really?" the other mare asked, quietly curious.

"Indeed," Luna replied, "I did not talk to my sister about my problems... Eventually, it led to Nightmare Moon."

Fluttershy's eyes widened and she asked, "W-will that happen to me?"

Luna shook her head and replied, "Not likely. No form of Nightmare could corrupt Kindness in the way it did to myself and Generosity."
Fluttershy relaxed immensely after hearing Luna say this, and it reflected in the world around her. Instead of the castle, Luna and Fluttershy were now outside of the latter's cottage, the landscape being much more welcoming now than when Luna had entered. They sat next to each other in a companionable silence, nothing more needing to be said between them. 
Eventually, Luna needed to leave. She said as much to her host, who smiled and promised to talk more about how she was feeling. The Mare of the Night smiled and took her leave.
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